Qat, a money maker

Filed under: Yemen — by Jane Novak at 7:34 am on Wednesday, November 30, 2005

But many complain that Yemeni authorities are not committed to combatting qat because the crop is such a moneymaker for senior officials and influential tribal leaders.

“Yemenis always avoid talking about it, because behind it is a big group of people running qat businesses and making millions,” said Dr. Hashim el-Zain, country director for the U.N.’s World Health Organization.

So far, there is little progress….

The plant is grown and used legally in Yemen, where its production is a major source of employment and income - particularly for powerful tribes with vast tracts of land.

6 Comments »

Comment by Jon

11/30/2005 @ 4:27 pm

Not much more needs to be said, some men spend as much as 75% of their salary on qat leaving very little to feed and support their families. Never ending cycle, as more chew qat to ease the burden of their situation the more disposable money is taken from the economy and the purchasing power of the average Yemeni diminishes cause they buy more qat to escape a worsening situation.

Comment by jeff

11/30/2005 @ 7:27 pm

But sometimes the war on drugs conflicts with the war on terror. It wasn’t very smart of the Afghan govt to go after poppy farmers right away. Don’t some company somewhere use opium medicinally? It’s the Kathie Lee Gifford approach to diplomacy: I’ll shut down this Third World factory because it doesn’t pay American wages, so I feel better, & meanwhile they’re now out of work

Comment by Jon

11/30/2005 @ 11:20 pm

It isn’t your basic war on drugs. It is a mild stimulant at best. I have ridden many miles through the mountains of Yemen with a driver with a mouthful of qat. It is the effect it has on the per capita and the effect on the environment. It is the reason for the rapid depletion of water aquafers in the country. A majority of the plantations are controled by powerful sheiks. In the area I was in , the military controled the qat trade

Comment by Jane

11/30/2005 @ 11:51 pm

The ownership of the land of the major qat plantations is an important issue, leading back to the ruling cabal and their main supporters. This is harder to document but its my impressin that, as the article says, the elite is making millions, again off the backs of the poor.

I dont like the implication of the article that qat is causing the poverty. In terms of causal factors, I think the lack of an educational system, the corruption which diminishes foreign investment, and the distortion of the public economy through oil, deisel, and gun smuggling is a bigger factor. Qat is an important issue but not the causation of povery. It annoys me that the author is to some degree inpuning a character flaw on the Yemeni people when in fact its just the opposite: its only the national character that has prevented a failed state up to this point because the people are filling in where the government should be: in terms of teaching, medical services, security, ect. A robust economy and opportunities for economic mobility would provide a great incentive that curently doesnt exist. Also the qat sessions are a cultural phenominon that increase dialog, consensus, and interaction. Am I being overly defensive? I found the article somewhat insulting at points. But maybe Im mixing it up with the article on the jihaddis, I have to read them both again.

Comment by Jon

12/1/2005 @ 1:28 am

Yes, the qat sessions do increase dialog and interaction. Once a qat session begins, it lasts for hours and the conversation never ends. And many of the decisions that effect the country are made during qat sessions. The downside is that I have know guys who spent nearly their whole monthly salary on qat and when payday came, they had to fork the money over to the military, cause if they didn’t they went to jail. It does create a large gap between the rich and the poor and has taken over the arable land to the decline of exportable crops.

On a robust economy, Yemen is a country of vast natural resources beyond oil and gas. The govt tied itside too close to the oil and never developed or allowed to develope the other mineral resources such as gold and silver and zinc. As the oil production declines, the govt will have to face the fact of developing other avenues of exportable goods. The WB has been trying to get them to see this fact for years. Corruption has become so rampant that outside investment is very low.

Comment by man of aden

12/17/2005 @ 6:05 pm

before the bad unification of the two part of yemen there was a law in the south which not allowed people to shewing qat but now because of the fuckhng uonion and the uneducated political leader of nourth they encourage people to go to qat and that gives those leades a chance to take every thing from these poor people

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI