Finger Pointing

Some southern Yemenis nowadays are talking about the Yemeni freedom revolution against the tyranny of Ali Abdullah Saleh being a little bit too late.  They feel as if the north has usurped the southern land and have left the south crippled economically.  The fact that the majority of the oil is in the southern lands and the south never reaps any of the benefits is a major contributing factor.  To be a major oil exporting country and to have the majority of the citizens be under the poverty line takes a lot of stealing.

In 2005, Ali Abdullah Saleh landed a critical blow in damaging the economic stance of Aden.  The leasing of the port of Aden to its number one competitor, Dubai Ports International for $83 million for 30 years was a stab at the economic opportunity that lies in the strategic positioning of the port city of Aden, which for hundreds of years was one of the most important ports and gateways of the shipping world.  The port of Aden was second in importance to Boston harbor for most of the 20^th century.  And as Jane Novak excellently put it, it is a “blatant act of economic malfeasance.” 

  (http://www.worldpress.org/print_article.cfm?article_id=2282&dont=yes)

Anyone willing to invest in companies in Yemen, specifically the south cannot open a major business or enterprise without the exclusive inclusion of Ali Abdullah Saleh or his family members.  Just ask all of the prominent Yemeni business men that are living abroad in Saudi Arabia that wish to invest in their homeland of Yemen.  Ali Abdullah Saleh will not allow any business to run without him getting a cut of the business or profits.

The cotton gin in Abyen in the middle of the city of Ga’ar has been emitting toxic fumes that has caused many people who live around there to get sick for years.  Had this factory been in any other place in the world it would have been shut down due to the health hazards and risks it poses to its neighbors.  However it remains open even after all of these years only because the president’s nephew owns the company and could care less of the health of the residents of the city.

These are just some of the sources of income that Ali Abdullah Saleh has stolen.  The South has survived for generations on its oil and its port and now, no one is surviving because everything is being taken away.  However, after all of these years of theft, who are the ones that are seeing the money?  Is it the poor people of the north?  No.  Granted they might have had the benefits reinvested (and I use that term VERY loosely) into their cities, but they are not the ones that stole it.  They are not the ones that are keeping the billions of dollars from oil revenues.  They are not the ones that sold out their country for a profit.  It was Ali Abdullah Saleh and his mafia crime family that did it for his own personal benefit.  

So to the common southerner that believes that the unification can’t exist because the south has been sold out, I say, yes the south has been sold out.  But the south was not sold out by the north.  It was sold out by Ali Abdullah Saleh.  The unification can exist in harmony.  Many people have pointed to a government like that of the United States of America or the United Arab Emirates.  Each province would be its own state and would be under one federal rule and would be responsible for its own economic growth.  But that’s for another blog for another day.