So much has happened, and is still happening, in Yemen since I last blogged. Yemen is in the midst of a revolution, an uprising. I can't say I'm surprised: Yemen has been poor and stuck in time for ages. Plus most of the citizens are un/undereducated and/or unemployed. This describes almost all of my husband's family. Poor Qat farmers, raising kids, eating Aseed, marrying off their kids and the cycle repeats.
I met my husband over 20 years ago, and hardly anyone has advanced their situation since that day.
So, I can understand if many Yemenis, especially younger ones, educated ones, feel disenchanted and frustrated. Plus, seeing the recent successes in Tunisia and Egypt, I'm sure they only want to be free and successful like their brethren.
As I type this, Yemen is still in a state of unrest. Protests, hints of civil war, casualties... I have a dedicated Twitter account solely for all things Yemen and in the past few months, my timeline has been little else but revolution tweets. If one was to judge from Twitter, it would seem that most Yemenis are against President Saleh and demand he step down.
My in-laws, as mentioned before, aren't in the educated, informed crowd. They are poor, simple farmers. They have only known Saleh as their president all or most of their lives and many of them regard themselves as loyal to him; they don't know any other way. If they were asked on the spot, I'm sure they would pledge their love and support for President Saleh. They have no reason to believe otherwise.
My husband lives with me, here in the United States. He has access to Twitter and the rest of the internet. He's a lot more informed than his relatives back home. However, he often feels the same sense of loyalty they do. He worries, as they do, that kicking the president out will lead to civil war, between the North and South.
But then, there are other days, when he feels disenchanted with the state of affairs in Yemen, namely the rampant corruption and lack of forward progress. On these days, he seems to empathize with the protestors and shakes his fist at President Saleh's stubbornness. It's a gray area sometimes.
I will hopefully post more often. Until then, my prayers go out to Yemen.
