39 - September 23 thru September 29,
2002, Vol XI
Electronic
payment online
Within the framework of the strategic vision of the 2001-20025 development
plans of Yemen Post in enhancing postal services in Yemen, it has launched
the new electronic payment services on the Internet (e-rial, e-post).
The project links all postal offices in one network and provides technologically
advanced services including the electronic rial, accounts, plus a variety
of services offered to private and public sectors and to the whole society.
The total cost of the project was USD 244,000 used to set up eight
Internet Protocol (IP) addresses including a website for the electronic
rial (www.e-rial.post.ye), a website for electronic stamps (www.e-stamps.post.ye),
a site for payment of electricity, water, and telephone bills (www.e-stamps.post.ye),
and one for postal money transfers through the Internet (www.e-rial.post.ye/moneyorder)
The e-rial service is considered a step towards establishing the e-city
and e-government. It resulted from the government's realization of the
need to cope with the information revolution taking place all over the
world. The Ministry of Communications has started implementing the National
Program for Information Technology as a step towards achieving a complete
IT infrastructure for all vital sectors. The e-rial service used for payment
of electricity, water, communication, and private companies' bills will
result in savings expenses spent on labor and will provide a more efficient,
convenient, and reliable payment method.
The e-rial service is an intermediate system between the user and the
service-oriented establishments, enabling the user to use the service with
ease and comfort of his home.
The service has the advantage of secure transactions that enable the
use of credit for payment of different services through answering specific
questions that ensure the use by privileged persons only.
The convenience of this service lies in its ability to have customers
pay any time of the day and any day of the week as it enables the use of
YR 2,000, 5,000, and 15,000 pre-defined electronic bills in the form of
cards to be used by the customer. Those cards can be purchased easily and
used at the website through an assigned password.
This service is currently being used by a number of establishments
that prefer the usage of technologically advanced payment methods online.
Contracts have been signed between those establishments and Yemen Post.
Equal treatment of children
Written by Abdulrahman Mutahhar
Translated by Janet Watson
Ma - Oh Mus'id, if you want to do good in God's eyes and win favor
from my family, please go round to my brother's after the mosque this evening,
then have supper there and spend the evening.
M - If you're sure your family are going to sell the house and the
buyer'll be there, I'll go even if it is after the evening prayer. I reckon
my commission will be around 150,000 riyals!
Ma - They're not about to sell the house, so you can get that idea
out of your head. The thing is my nephew from my brother's first wife came
over last night, and he was really upset about his father.
M - What's that got to do with me? He and his father should make up
on their own.
Ma - Yes, I know that, but my nephew was complaining that his father
doesn't treat him and his half-brother fairly. He wants you to go over
and talk to his father, perhaps he'll come to his senses and realize he
should treat his children equally, as we've been told to do by God and
His Prophet (PBUH).
M - Peace be upon him and his family and companions. That would be
a good thing to do. Between me and you though, Mus'ida, your brother isn't
the brightest one of the family. When his new wife came along, she exploited
the fact that he's not very clever, and got him to neglect his duties towards
his first wife and her son and forget all the time they'd spent together.
This is one of the troubles of having more than one wife.
Ma - You're right there, but when the first wife realized that her
husband wasn't treating her properly because of the stupidity and selfishness
of her co-wife, she kicked the tenant out of her own house and set up home
there. She wasn't going to make trouble for herself.
M - The fact is, Mus'ida, that your brother's first wife is a true
gem, but unfortunately he wasn't able to look after his gem properly.
Ma - Exactly. These days no one seems able to tell the difference between
a pearl and its shell. As the Yemeni saying goes, 'Mix it# together, Fagih,
it's all ours anyway!'* Then that upstart went and ousted the one who belonged,
and all the problems have been dumped on that poor son of the first wife.
M - Go on!
Ma - What I mean is that the son of the first wife simply wants his
father to treat him and his brother equally. It's not right that he should
favor one son over another.
M - You're quite right. You have to treat your children equally in
all ways, and that's one of the things our religion teaches us in no uncertain
terms. Fathers who aren't fair and who don't follow what their religion
teaches them are quite out of order.
Ma - Absolutely! Now go over and talk to my brother. Tell him that
he's opened his pocket and his heart to his son from his second wife at
the expense of the son from the first wife.
M - What do you mean?
Ma - My brother favors his son from the last wife; he sends him to
school, and helps him get his school certificates through bribery.
M - He may as well feed him knowledge with a wooden spoon, like my
grandmother used to spoon-feed children local ghee. He doesn't want to
learn, and he doesn't deserve to be educated. It's like sowing seeds in
a desert!
Ma - Exactly! But the son from the first wife, who does want to learn,
and cries because he wants to go to school, has been forced out of school
by his father. The father then went and bought him a battered old dabbab,
and told him to go and fend for himself and his mother. He told him not
to show his face again, and to get it out of his head that he still had
a father.
M - That's wicked, Mus'ida. Islamic scholars tell us that fathers who
don't treat their children fairly will have to account for it before God.
Also don't forget that treating children unfairly is bound to build up
resentment and jealousy between them, and if siblings resent each other
you can't expect to have a cohesive society based on trust and love. Anyway,
after evening prayer I'll come and pick you up, then we can both go over
and give your brother a piece of our mind. And we'll stay put until he
sees sense and agrees to treat his children fairly, exactly as we've been
taught to do by Islam. Fair treatment of our children is the basis of love
and respect within the family, and love and respect within the family is
the basis for love and respect within society as a whole. This is something
that not only your brother, but all fathers, must get into their heads!
# •Reference to different types of grain.
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