COMMON SENSE
By Hassan Al-Haifi
In the space of a month, Yemen has lost two great national heroes, leaving a great void in the hopes of many Yemenis yearning for a change for the better, Yemenis saw in these two men, first Jarullah Omer and now the incomparable Yahya Al-Mutawakkil, their work in government for justice and fair play.
Though Yahya Al-Mutawakkil was one of those political and military personalities that never sought the limelight, his deeds are written all over the faces of the hundreds of thousands who gathered on Zubeiri Road to get a last glimpse of the man, who was to them the true symbol of heroism and chivalry and humility that they wished to see in every political figure of stature. Amidst all the corruption and injustice that has fallen on Yemen all these sad years of oppression and foreign intervention in the affairs of Yemen, Yahya Al-Mutawakkil stood out among all the great national leaders for his uncompromising patriotism and defense of civil liberties and human rights. He promoted equitable enforcement of the law when all the others shied away from standing up for the rights of the people out of fear for their safety, or out of fear of loosing their place among the elite. Yahya Al-Mutawakkil was not only a member of the elite, but in fact was the elite, as it should be in all its manifestations.
What can one recall about this phenomenal personality in the Yemeni political environment? The truth of the matter is that no one can come up with enough words to pay tribute to such an outstanding character, of impeccable cleanliness. He was courageous. But then this courage takes its significance not just on the battlefields of the struggle for national liberation and freedom from the oppressive regimes that prevailed in this homeland of ours, but in the political arena as a minister of many portfolios that involved the security and well-being of the people of Yemen. Time and again did Yahya speak out against all the officials who exceeded the limits of their authorities at the expense of public interest. Time and again did Yahya Al-Mutawakkil insist that the law should first be enforced against all those people in the political and social elite who roamed around the country with armed guards protecting them left and right against enemies they themselves created by their own selfish ambitions and greed. Yet, even those devious elite could not help but remember that to them Yahya Al-Mutawakkil was a man they should listen to and understand, because he was a man who spoke with reasonable justifications for all his wisdom. Furthermore, his behavior and conduct was a full reflection of the principles he lived by and advocated for with all his military and later political might.
He was a man of war and a man of peace. In fact Mr. Muhsin Al-Ainy could find no other person in Yemen to go with him to Saudi Arabia in 1970 and work out a settlement of the civil war that broke the back of Yemen for eight years prior to that, except the late Yahya Al-Mutawakkil, who revealed his astute political and diplomatic at that early period of his diplomatic career, after having proven himself a legendary hero in the battlefield for safeguarding Yemen.
But then, despite all this glorious military and diplomatic record, Yahya Al-Mutawakkil will always be remembered for his mild manners and humility where he could be seen talking with people at every level of society with the same tone and modesty. He never tried to offend anyone. Even when the political and sometimes military atmosphere was tense and shaky, Yahya Al-Mutawakkil was able to soften the climate and bring feuding factions closer to compromise, even if it meant that he would have to end up forfeiting some of his own personal stature.
For Yahya Al-Mutawakkil, Yemen stood above all personal ambitions. For Yahya Al-Mutawakkil, the people of Yemen always deserved more than all the misery and plight that they have been subjected to. Yahya Al-Mutawakkil was sought after by all the regimes that prevailed in Yemen, because he provided that cushion of safety, these regimes needed, especially when the odds began to turn against them. President Ali Abdullah Saleh was the first to realize the grave tragedy that befell Yemen at the untimely loss of this great hero of the Yemeni nationalist movement, when he ordered that Yemen's grief should be a reflection of his own personal sadness at the loss of such a great man. In fact to all Yemenis, the loss of Yahya Al-Mutawakkil could never be compensated for. The grief will hang all over Yemen for years to come.

BY DR. ABDULLAH AL-ZALAB
Dean of Mass Media Training and Qualifying Institute

The so-called US-led war on terror has affected media all over the world and Yemen's media - both official and non-official, has not been an exception.
Rather, it has been used as a tool for an emotional mobilization against US policies towards Arabs. This has nothing to do with press professionalism.
Material of the radio and TV stations as well as the printed press have played the same role as that of the mosque preachers in mobilizing public antagonism against the US and its policies. They do not differentiate between the government and the people. They all wish an end to the US people despite their religion and political stands.
This irrational, biased and opportunist speech has raised hostility and antagonized the Yemeni public opinion against US policy in the region. As a result, it has produced some Yemeni extremists and fanatics who are hostile to anything related to the US.
The outcome is Jibla's heinous crime against the US aid workers as well as the assassination of Jarallah Omar, one of the most outstanding and liberal politicians in the country. What a pity.
If we look at the target of such terrorist operations, we will be able to recognize we are facing an organized crime that wants to target the whole society and its interests and stability. Regardless of the real motives of the perpetrators, we can not escape blaming media and its operators who should be held accountable for this mistaken mobilization of youngsters.
Why target a prominent leader in the socialist party while opening the Islah's conference despite the close contact of the two parties? And why only Jarallah, who fought during his life for tolerance, anti-terrorism, and dialogue between all people of different thoughts and ideas?
Why the US doctors? Is it because of being Americans? Or is it because they have taken the trouble of coming to Yemen to help its impoverished and needy people? Is this the way we pay them back? How shall we meet the world with such a disgusting behavior?
How should we ask the US people to stand by us and pressure their government to stop siding with Israel and supporting it? The first loser in such a battle is Yemen and Islam as a religion.
Yemen which is the country of wisdom and faith will shown in the international media and in this critical time in particular as a heaven for terrorism and fanaticism. The anti-Islam forces will use such incidents to continue tarnishing the image of Islam which is actually a religion of peace, tolerance and balance. Islam abhors and denounces killing, considering it a great sin.
Like all other Arab countries, Yemen is passing through a very critical situation, necessitating that all media people, mosque preachers, politicians, and opinion makers should be cautious and rational in addressing the public. They should prioritize the interests of the country and its future, leaving behind their own interests.
They should understand well that a word said in any occasion can be of very devastating consequences to all. It is very influential.
In such exceptional period of time, we should all join hands to fight against terrorism. This responsibility is not restricted to security men or government officials, but it is the business of all of us. Therefore, we must not deal with it indifferently or keep watching only. Rather, we should all denounce terrorism and declare that it has no place in our country.

TEWFICK AABDULAH ALI MOHADI
Email:tomyunion@yahoo.com

Long a go, our grandfathers and grandmothers traveled thousands of miles away from their villages and bore our fathers in the societies where they settled.
At those times there were no political boundaries between nations as the situation is nowadays, no strict immigration policy, and no need to pass through the sophisticated asylum status procedures. Our fathers brought us to life through our indigenous mothers who are totally foreigners. Both societies, the one to which our fathers belong and the one our mothers do, called us later, "half-breeds" (Muwallad). I don't know if it is a biological name.
Left alone
Today, in the time of globalization, when the whole world is considered as one village, we the half-cast community, are facing a lot of problems to have an ID card, passport, and a peaceful environment in our job areas. Just because we are born of two different societies, we are left alone to face a helpless long bureaucracy. I only believe, Allah is too right, when He creates us that way. He has always the best reasons before He does something comes to being.
We, the people who travel from mother's country to father's country, we know in heart, the breathless process to have a lesypassé (Murruor) in the embassy of Yemen accredited in any foreign countries.
After we arrived here, the second long bureaucracy procedure will start all over again. We are questioned a lot of things, which is totally beyond our power. Sometimes, they need us to deliver the former old passport, which the Yemen Embassy in mother's country retained in return of the lesypassé. Here at the immigration authority, the staff and the supervisors precisely know that, Arabic is not our mother tongue, but they need us to learn it and speak it over night.
In the Immigration Authority, most are good, flexible, experienced, understanding and tolerant people. But some are still untouchable. The only word they know is the word " No!"
They are all checking exhaustively and repetitively the documents provided by the half-breed applicants before they issue the passport. Literally they check our papers several times again and again and even again. They are even hesitating their own handwriting and may cancel all of a sudden what they did minutes ago. Nothing is believed till you have your passport in your hand and walk away from the yard. While you are walking to the gateway, a policeman may call you from behind and say to you " return the passport your document is unfit! "We know the bottom line of all this is, about surveillance, the security concern. The government may plan to identify and filter those, who are seeking for getting a passport while they are not Yemenis. It is something good to brush our foreign policies in this regard. I appreciate the Ali Abdulah administration that he is working hard on blocking the access to the wrong people to possess a Yemeni passport.
To keep the image of Yemen in the outside world, this is a conditional policy undertaken by the president currently.
Where do we belong?
The policy is good, as long as we are all working for prosperous Yemen. But, in the name of security concern, the fate of the half-breed community may be marginalized whenever bad situations after bad situations occur.
I would like to say something important to the Yemen congress: " if we, the Yemeni half-breed community, are not given a citizenship in the countries of our mother's, and if we are still feeling small in our father's country to apply for passport, do you mean that, we are the people, who are born without a country?"
We are hearing from the public rumors that, it is still the president who is fighting for our right. Leave alone our bloodlines, we are contributing a lot to the Yemen economy. Today, even the EU- member states are giving international protection, work permits, residency permits and then an international passport to emigrants who are flowing like a river in to their countries in a dynamic basis.
We are not emigrants. It is your own people who migrated and brought us to life in the courses of their travels. We are rather re-settlers. Yemen is your country and our country.
We need to develop the nature of globalization with other societies for our own economic benefit. And we need to accept the nature of resettlement to our own blood. The Jewish people are collecting individuals from the entire world whenever they get a sort of legend history related with them. Americans give citizenship in a Diversity Visa.
Speaking about the president
Yemen is an Arab and a Muslim nation. Under Ali Abdullah leadership, we respect our neighbors, we work with the international community and we develop the trend of the import / export, to possess the benefit of positive trade balance.
The president's economic reform is motivating privatization and investment and that has been showing a good result bit by bit. He believes in free economy and he complies with the culture of globalization, he is holding and caring the entire society according to its culture and needs. He is a popular leader due to this very nature of his. Without any exaggeration, we are proud of his leadership! He is both modern and traditionalist! And that, it has to be.
We hope, the Yemen half-caste society will be getting a better treatment in any governmental institutions and will have a chance to contribute to the country's economy flexibly.
A man without a country is bad, but it is worse when a country is left out without its own people.