Merry Christmas
Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men
Joy to the World
I have lots o’ links but I had no time to post them with all the Christmas preparations, but I have to mention these now that dinner is in the oven and we are home from church.
My Present From Saleh: Hope
In an interview with Ahmed Jaralleh (who BTW is an editor for whom I have great respect,) President Saleh said:
Q: You have said you won’t compete for the presidency of Yemen again. Is this to measure your popularity or are you really tired and want to bow out?A: Some politicians may think I am using this issue to measure my popularity and find out whether people still want my leadership. However, I assure you there is no need for such speculations because Yemen is full of intellectuals, smart politicians and highly educated people. I have taken this decision because I want to encourage my citizens to prepare themselves to replace Ali Abdullah Saleh. Although I am not old and still capable of handling this huge responsibility, I want to see my people take over the authority in a democratic manner.
Is he really this smart? I know Saleh is smart but is he smart enough to see that he will be world renowned and acclaimed if he really does step down?
Also on such a holy day, I hate to argue with the Pope but…
He singled out the Darfur conflict in Africa in urging strength for all those who are working for peace, development and the prevention of conflicts. He urged protection “of the most elementary rights of those experiencing tragic humanitarian crises, such as those in Darfur and in other regions of central Africa.”
And thats very good, and some of the older readers will remember when I asked everybody to email Kofi Annan before the Darfur situation hit the media. Come to think of it, that was the first blogger alliance I made, way before Yemen, and all the bloggers were very good then to post about Darfur when I asked them. And Darfur is truely a tragic humanitarian crisis, and there are others in Africa. But lets note that the bottom three most malnourished children in the world are Sudanese, Yemeni and Malawi in that order.
