The presenter said to him, “I did not ask you what your rights are, I asked about your dreams!”

Shocking as it may seem, it is true that as Arabs our ambitions and aspirations have been reduced to basic rights. 

We polled Yemeni youth in our weekly Youth Talk column and asked them what their aspirations for 2012 were. Some said they want to complete their education, some said they want better roads, and better phone services. One answered that he wishes for the bus fare to return to the pre-fuel crisis cost.

To have our youth’s dreams reduced to bus fares and electricity is beyond sad. If we are always engaged in perusing our daily needs; food on the table and a good education for our kids, when we will ever get time to dream and plan for larger things such as new inventions or make luxury plans?

I remember reading a novel by Richard Bach called illusions. I must have been 18 and it was an amazing eye opener on how you need to let your mind imagine and think beyond the box. 

Imagine an ant trapped in a box. The ant goes sideways and every time it hits a dead end. If only the ant could lift its head up and see that there is a third dimension and that it could scale the box and find freedom. This is us as humans; we only know of three dimensions while there could be a fourth one if we only raised our heads to see it – and who knows what we would be capable of?

The point is that there are so many potentials and possibilities for us as human beings that we could explore if we had the time and the right attitude. But if our daily lives are taken up with concerns about having enough food, or when the electricity will come on, or of having better roads or reducing the bus fare, when will we ever discover the new dimensions that could make so much of a difference to our lives?