COMMON SENSE
By Hassan Al-Haifi
Much has been said about reforms that this country needs in order to be able to keep pace with the developments of the world and keep up with improvements in the standard of living. In fact the word reform has taken the shape of a movement or coup, which inspired the coup d'etat against the late Qadhi Abdul-Rahman Al-Iriani, may God have mercy on his soul, in 1973.
However, most Yemenis are ready to tell you that the word reform never seems to find its way to the nitty gritty world we live in and accordingly things carry on as usual or get worse. What seems to be the problem? No one seems to be able to answer this question and it seems that the word reform is no more than a play on semantics, to infer that the government understands what is eating at the people's mind, but has no place for them in the government's priorities now.
The truth of the matter is that there just has to be a place in the government's list of priorities of must do items, if the government is going to prove to the world that it is really adamant in wanting to live by its commitments to the donors and more important, to fulfill the aspirations of the Yemeni people.
Weak political will
The basic problem with the reform agenda in Yemen apparently seems to be a weakness in the political will and determination to confront some of the basic fundamentals of any reform package: accountability, corruption and standards and norms, etc. For all intents and purposes, this political will and determination seems to be absent from overall government functioning and needs to be addressed very soon. Otherwise, we will just continue to be writing about reforms and making speeches about it, not to mention the volumes of studies that continuously pour out and the workshops, etc. One realizes that all that all this talk about reforms ends up being no more than redundant ideas and agendas that never get a chance to get off the ground for some reason or another.
One hears the murmurs of many people here and there, every time the word reform is uttered on the various government media channels, as if to underline the feeling that we are sick and tired of hearing this word over and over again, while the situation on the ground seems to get worse and worse every day. Some people are even thoroughly convinced that the government is really not inclined towards activating any real effective reform mechanisms, for the simple reason that government officials are either unable to, or have a vested interested in not to implement any real effective reforms whatsoever.
Clean up needed
Thus, we are not in a position to state that the government is truly interested in living up to its important responsibilities of cleaning up itself from all the corruption that has plagued it for decades, nor is it looking with favor in achieving any of the aspirations of the Yemeni people, which can never be realized without any effective anti-corruption drive that will clean up the accumulated garbage and reduce some of the impotence that government has become characterized by.
If I am not mistaken, the World Bank has also taken a very strong position vis a vis corruption in the developing world. I am not sure how this position is translated in the policies pursued by the World Bank in deciding its development assistance to these countries, but it would probably be difficult for such a position to be translated into effective measures. This is partly due to the political considerations that are involved in determining how much assistance to grant any country, especially in the wake of the confused state of international developments that arose after September 11, 2001. In addition there is the lack of coherence in the positions of the international community as to the directions that the international arena should pursue.
But more significant is the fact that it is difficult to define the overall foundations of corruption in the Third World, because it has become so widespread and so enmeshed in the daily workings of government that no one really knows just where to start. Perhaps the World Bank is looking into this problem, as this is a personal issue with the Chairman of the World Bank himself, who has raised the issue of corruption as the major drawback to development. We agree with him on this matter, because we really see it on the ground, the roofs and the alleyways of all our government offices. If the reforms do not start with this issue, with diligence and perseverance, then one might as well throw all the other reform agendas out the window.

BY DR. ABDULRAHAMAN AL MURADI AL BAIDANI
The world has suddenly been struck by a wind called terrorism fighting, but up to now there is no international agreement over the definition of 'terrorism.' Just what is it?
Consequently, the terrorism fighters have not started by trying to look at the reasons behind terrorism. Terrorists are criminals and condemned by all the religious and moral values. But fighting terrorism without knowing its reasons are leading the whole world around a circle of violence and counter-violence.
This is one of the reasons terrorism is incurable, and why violence will continue and thousands of innocent people will be victims.
In my opinion, terrorism has two main causes: a lack of social justice and lack of international justice.
As for the despair due to the lack of social justice, no one can deny that high unemployment increases poverty and illness and widens the gap between social classes. Thus, there will be no middle class and with corruption spreading, rich classes which feed on poor people will be hated by the society.
As a result, they transfer their money outside the country, away from the public eyes. Then the national economy declines and there are no more chances for employment. Further, unemployment rates will rise more, and poverty and despair will follow.
Attempts to stop social suffering will lead to violence and people will join violence movements as a type of profession.
There is no doubt that the some of these people may work for their own interest, like spying for other countries. So, people who suffer from the social aggression have no stability and they don't want to do. They are already their own victims.
Unemployment, poverty, hunger, refusal and so on are the main causes for despair which leads some people to kill, kidnap, set blasts, and seek revenge in any way possible.
The treatment of this phenomenon cannot be obtained through counter violence under the name of terrorism fighting, because it appears due to the bad economic system which lead to a rejected social system.
The logical cure is to eradicate its causes and have a political will for economic development designed by qualified experts, not by agreeable employees.
Economic prosperity is subject to a government's willingness, as shown by the international economist Arthur Lewis, who notes in his book Economic Greatness that:
"The behavior of the governments plays an important role in stimulating or discouraging economic activities. No country has made economic progress without positive stimulus from intelligent governments, least of all England, the foundation of whose greatness as an industrial power were laid by a series of intelligent rulers from Edward III onwards."
So when a country suffers from terrorism, it should reshape the political wills to start reforming its economic conditions, reject corruption and accept the right view and adapt it.
Therefore, to conduct such reform, the government of that country should adopt a series of political, administrative, educational, informative and judicial reforms to achieve the economic prosperity needed to increase low incomes which will result in narrowing the gap between classes.
This government may ask for economists and experts in all the above-mentioned fields to reform the conditions of its country.
Assistance for the less-developed countries should not be limited to weapons and training for fighting terrorism. It is an assistance to increase more the reasons of terrorism, like economic depression and financial administrative corruption.
In addition, there is a lack of proper investment of loans in specific fields, so coming generations will be charged debts and get inherited benefits from it.
These are the duties of a country which looks for stability, and fights terrorism.
In brief, Yemen's local terrorism is a result of economic problems and social aggression. To fight it, we need to know the reasons behind it, and to have the will to cure these reasons.
The next part of the solution will be discussed in later articles.

Paula Coviello
paula1029@juno.com
Regarding "Has America learned a lesson" I would like to say that, other than President George Bush, I have never heard one American ask "Why do they hate us?"Muslim extremists have been killing and kidnapping our civilians for 30 years, so no one here was surprised on September 11 that Muslims were behind it. Europeans have been trying to put together a rival superpower for some time so again, no surprises there that we have received almost total opposition from them.
I will shed some light on the way most Americans I know are feeling right now: Our government gives more humanitarian aid to developing countries than any other in the world: $10.9 billion dollars, $1.3 billion of which goes to the Middle East.
Americans contribute roughly $34 billion of their own money to foreign charities each year and perform an average of six hours per week in unpaid, charitable service.
We are constantly being called upon by the world to send our sons and daughters to die in UN mandated "peace-keeping" missions and often have to pay the bill.
We are then expected to spend more of our money to help re-build the nation we have defeated. In addition, the US provides 27 per cent of the UN budget. All for the privilege of seeing Egyptians and Palestinians dance in the streets when the World Trade Center came down on US citizens.
Our tax dollars supply $800 million a year to feed Egypt's poor.
The question has never been "Why do they hate us" the question is "Why do we keep sending them money?"
The Bush administration is submitting a budget for Fiscal 2003 which drastically reduces the amount of humanitarian aid to developing countries in order to fund Homeland Defense. It has received overwhelming popular support.
Yes, I would say the Americans have learned many valuable lessons. We have learned that some people will never be your friends no matter what you do.
We have learned that we are the only people that no one is obliged to respect or understand, but we are expected to bow always to the feelings of others. We have learned that we are the only nation that is not allowed to act in its own self-interest without being criticized, insulted, robbed and even killed.
We have learned that whenever we make any move that is critical of any Muslim group or nation the so-called "Arab street" can simply fall back on its fabled "Muslim rage" as its knee-jerk reaction.
Muslims are not the only ones who feel rage, Americans feel it too. It is a quiet, simmering rage that has been building for years and is expressing itself in burgeoning support for Israel, for war in Iraq, for stricter immigration laws, for decreased humanitarian aid in favor of military spending.
American rage is real and it is growing and it is no less lethal for its restrained nature.