Armies of Liberation

UN:

Yemen must address a dire shortage of both schools and professional teachers, according to a recent report from UN Children’s Fund UNICEF.

“The lack of teachers is one of the main challenges facing education, mainly among rural women,” said Naseem Ur-Rehman, communications coordinator at the fund’s Sana’a office. “There’s also a lack of schools – students in some areas have to walk long distances to get to school.”

A UNICEF statement issued on Wednesday noted that a whopping 46 percent of eligible school children “are not given basic education”, with primary school enrolment for boys and girls countrywide standing at about 65 percent and 41 percent respectively. “The task before the educationists is formidable,” the statement noted, “and makes it obligatory on the national leadership to mobilise the support of all partners for realising the child’s right to education.”

The situation is far worse in rural areas, where only 30 percent of girls are enrolled in school, the statement noted. Moreover, a full half of the Yemeni girls who begin primary school drop out before they reach the sixth grade.

The lack of education is reflected in national illiteracy rates. Almost half of the Yemeni population, of 19.7 million people, between the ages of 10 and 45 is illiterate, according to government statistics. While the figure hovers at about 30 percent for men, it exceeds 67 percent for women.

In 2001, Yemen developed the Basic Education Development Strategy (BEDS) project with the help of the World Bank and donor countries and agencies. “Yemen prepared a suitable education strategy which has been reviewed and endorsed by the international community,” said BEDS Director Dr Abdulateef al-Munaifi. “BEDS is targeting education quality, building schools and encouraging child enrolment.”

Al-Munaifi said that the problem wasn’t necessarily with the numbers of available teachers, but with how they were distributed throughout the country. “We have around 170,000 teachers, but they aren’t well-distributed,” he said. “They’re focused mainly in the cities.” He added that there were currently around 14,000 schools countrywide, accommodating five million students at the basic and secondary levels.

The education problem is not unique to Yemen. UNESCO estimates that Arab states in general will need to create 450,000 new teaching posts to cope with incoming students, particularly in Egypt, Iraq, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

The UNICEF statement was issued on the occasion of the international “Education for All” week, celebrated annually to promote the UN millennium development goal of putting every child in school by 2015.

IMF: Yemen

Projected % Change 2006 2007
Real GDP……………….. 3.9….. 3.0
Consumer Prices……..15.5….12.0

Source: World Economic Outlook (April 2006)
Please refer to more recent PIN/Staff reports on this country for possible revisions.

I dont think this report factors in the population growth.

hmmmm, from the YO:

The Executive Manager of the Tourism Promotion Board (TPB) has been referred by Ministry of Tourism to the Prosecutor of Public Money charged with fraud.

The executive manager was charged with transferring YR15 million to a false account for the purpose of taking part in an exhibition in the British city of Manchester, but that the organization never took part.

The minister, Nabil Al-Faqih said that it was a ‘precautionary procedure’, and that they would wait for prosecution team to complete their investigation.

A letter was sent to the finance ministry requesting changing the executive and financial managers of the TPB, but the ministry turned the request down, insisting they stay in their position.

However, Al-Faqih added that he would be forced to suspend then if they Ministry of Finance did not respond to his demand.

In a meeting on Sunday in the TPB, Al-Faqih confirmed that the organization would b restructured based on legal measures.

A vice-chairman of the board was elected from the private sector for the first time. The board of the fund was also elected in a secret vote.

He said it was agreed to establish a tourism investment company to encourage investment in important tourist sites that are currently rarely visited.

Earlier, the Ministries of Media, Culture and Tourism had promised before Parliament to refer all those suspected of corruption to the prosecution of public money.

This came in discussions of the report presented by the Media, Culture and Tourism committee in their study of the reports of Central Organization of Control and Audit (COCA).

The COCA reports showed that total violations in the Ministry of Media and other institutions under its umbrella reached YR 2.64 billion until 2003, while in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism it reached YR 733 million.

The two ministers of Media and Tourism Hassan Al-Lowzi and Nabil Al-Faqih, demanded specific names of those accused of corruption so that they could be questioned.

They repeated their desire to stand beside Parliament in the fight against corruption.

The Deputy Minister of Culture stressed the necessity to tackle violations starting from as far back as 1990.

Parliament demanded additional recommendations to the Media Committee to inform Parliament of the names and positions of those involved in corruption, estimated to be as high as YR3billion.

This recommendation was proposed by MP Sakhr Al-Wajeeh from the ruling PGC party. This procedure must be done within a week to refer them all to prosecution of public money for investigation, and then for trial at a specialized court.

MP Sakhr Al-Wajeeh and MP Abdul-Karim Shaiban asked why the report had been delayed for more than a year before it reached the agenda of Parliament.

Abdul-Razaq Al-Hajari said that the most widely read newspapers in Yemen and liked by many people were the most corrupted, according to the COCA report.

Starting the New Year off with a bang:

(YT) Opposition MPs released a statement accusing government of playing with public spending and recording large sums of money, included in 2006 budget items, amounting to 320 billion Yemeni Riyals that went to the unknown. The statement also blamed government for the spread of corruption, lack of human development and failure to improve citizens’ living standards….

The committee’s remarks exposed that spending on some services like education and health is not encouraging, emphasizing that education expenditures decreased from 21.2 percent in the 2005 budget to 15.5 percent in the 2006 budget.

How do you decrease educational spending in a country with an illiteracy rate of over 50% and over a million kids not in school, while increasing the military budget? Easily if the parliament is packed with GCP party members. I read a book that called the GPC “the party of government employees.” And that’s a fair assessment, because if you want a government job in Yemen, its best to belong to the GPC. And if you want to keep that job, its best not to make waves.

Some quotes from the Yemeni papers with links

Buying good media coverage, not an unusual occurance:

As for chairman of the board of directors of the Watani Bank Dr Ahmed Al-Hamdani, and according to media sources, has allocated around YR one million for journalists who would stand by him against dealing with the attack on him, saying it was targeted against him from among the other banks operating in the country.

Why the Houthis?

Politicians differed in their explanations of the reasons that led the authorities to uproot the activities of Al-Houthi followers. Some say that the reasons are political; others describe them as ethnical while the third group relates the authorities’ attempt to exterminate Al-Houthi as a response to U.S. and Israeli demands. Majority of politicians, however, believe that Saudis, through their strong influence in Yemen, have a hand in plans for eliminating the Shiite movement of Al-Houthi, which according to their belief, limits the expansion of the Wahabi movement in Yemeni territory.

Why the kidnapping?

The kidnappers told the mediators that ‘they resorted to kidnapping because they failed to convince the security authorities to release their relatives and refer them to judiciary”….Security authorities claim the three detainees have been accused of fighting the US-led coalition in the Iraqi territories. They also accuse them of having connection with one of the organizations facilitating the transportation of Yemeni fighters to Iraq.

Agriculture:, a main stay of the economy.

They said they aimed at achieving a high rate of productivity this season but insecticides spread in their farms destroyed the crops. A vast area was destroyed because of these bad insecticides making the 2005 product less than the planed rate by far….Consequent to their deteriorating conditions, many farmers were compelled to abandon their farms.

Women agricultrual workers:

The study, published by the Labor Market Information System (LMIS) program, added that the majority of working women are concentrated in the agricultural sector as unpaid family workers. It is estimated that approximately 61.9% of women workers in Yemen are unpaid.

Business:

The report pointed out that Yemen had captured the highest figure in the cost of building a legal entity for businesses. While in Kuwait it is 24% of the average income of the individual, it reaches at 269.2% of the average of income of the individual in Yemen.

Criminal enterprises: of the powerful negatively impact society.

Considering the strategic location of Yemen, drugs are usually shipped from Southeast Asia through the Gulf of Aden and other coasts around the country. From there, it is shipped to numerous gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and other countries in the region. Not surprisingly, many of these illegal drugs are left behind and used in Yemen. New markets for these drugs have been created in places like Aden, Hodieda, and other cities across the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf shores.

Traffic police:

Traffic police only get paid the equivalent of $5 for a day’s work, which is the reason for this widespread problem….A traffic police officer who preferred to remain anonymous said, “People don’t understand that we are living through this dark age as well. With salaries like the equivalent of $150 monthly, we can’t even guarantee ourselves a future.” It is hard to imagine who is right when you hear the story from both sides. Citizens complain of traffic police oppression, while traffic police complain of government oppression.

Yet Another Journalist Targeted:

“They called me an al-Houthi associate and accused me of acting against the regime and the state, which is the same accusation used by security officials in the area against any citizen rejecting their brutal and illegal actions,” he said. He added, “other calls were made by those officials to my relatives asking about my home in Sanaa and where I go.”

He said he fears retaliation by the police, who could attack his family living in the Al-Shahil district because of what he has written in the report.

The cultural heritage:

I think the governmental sector failed in protecting antiquities. It is very difficult to convince the authorities with the importance of antiquities and to make them realize what antiquities are….Confronted with a question about the security of archeological sites many of which are believed to have been left to looters and robbers, Prof. Yosuf replied that this is the duty of the locals themselves and the local government.

GCC:

Other political analysts described the summit results as below expectations, some going so far as to say that even the pro-Yemen GCC attitudes were below what the people of the Gulf states aspire to. Other analysts believe that any steps taken by the GCC countries are useful to Yemen and should be welcomed. Nasserite leader Mohammed Al-Sabri believed Yemen required further reforms in all sectors to avoid lagging behind the Gulf states.

On the other hand, theres a few saved posts and links lists I can throw together:

Transparency Yemen offices corrupted per this oped:

People start working and then receive their payment, not to exceed 50,000 Yemeni Riyals. The receiver is to sign the receipt, leaving the rest for the organization’s official who enters the date, spending purpose and beneficiary’s name. However, the corrupt official then writes the sum as $900 (180,000YR). Invoices and purchase receipts often are handled this way. Finally, the donor receives a file with all documentation proving funds were spent on the project. Of course, also included are published news items about the project.

A good report from the YO on corruption in the embassies:

In Yemeni Embassy of the United Kingdom it has been found that Yemeni nationals and foreigners are asked to pay one hundred pounds sterling for approval of a single document, whether personal or commercial. “You have to deposit the total amount for the number of documents you need approved in a private company account,” a Yemeni-British businessman told the Yemen Observer. “I discovered from the bank receipt that the account is under the name of the financial officer of the embassy.”

The article details also the practices in the Yemeni embassies in Saudi Arabia and Beruit.

An analysis of the very high rates of female mortality, also from the YO:

A recent study found that for every 100,000 baby delivered, an estimated 366 women die due to birth-related complications…The corresponding number of these maternal deaths in neighboring countries is just 10.

While 51% of women in the developing countries deliver babies with the aid of one skilled attendant, then in Yemen, a very broad section of women have no access to any obstetric medicine at all.

Lack of access to obstetric services remains a pivotal reason behind high maternal mortality rates.”

whew, now this guy really didn’t like Finkel’s articles: The problem, for those who think reality is worth knowing, is with the distorted vision of a hotel-based journalist on a limited assignment published via dismissive rhetoric and translated quotes scattered about in tepid newspaperspeak like shrapnel after a cluster bomb explodes. And some more: Yemen is more than an embryonic democracy. Unlike Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, where most of the perpetrators of the September 11 bombing came from, Yemen is already a democracy with several successful elections as supporting evidence. I guess that depends on your definition of success and democracy. Its a long analysis, with some valid points, that I have to read again. But I heard positive reaction from Yemenis about Finkles articles. I think Finkle did a good job, considering the country is so unknown, playing out the relation between Saleh and the tribes was a major accomplishment. Describing the administration as a kleptocracy is spot on.

Now this is odd. An article in the Arab News notes a Swiss court’s decision to acquit Yassin Abdullah Al-Qadia (also Kadi Qadi Quadi), a Saudi national who donated to Zindani’s al-Iman university. The article says, “The charges alleged that Al-Qadi gave money in 1998 ostensibly to construct student housing at Al-Iman University in Yemen while knowing that the funds may have ended up supporting Al-Qaeda’s plan to attack New York City.” The suit was brought by 9/11 families, not the USG.

The odd thing is that The 9/11 Report and other analysis ties all the financing directly to bin Laden. The article states, “And on Dec. 12 the Swiss concurred, stating that no evidence ever linked Al-Qadi to any knowledge of the possibility that his money could have ended up in the hands of a known terrorist organization.” So did the Swiss court find that this guy just didnt know? Or that the money that went to al-Iman did not end up in the hands of a terrorist organization?

The US Treasury Dept classified Zindani as a “major terrorist” in 2004 as a contact and I think also a financier. But this is the first time I ever saw anything published that linked Zindani to 9/11, other then the fact that he was bin Laden’s mentor and spiritual advisor.

Analysis of the GPC conference from the Daily Star:

Yemen’s ruling party on Friday re-elected the country’s long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh as its head, in a move widely interpreted to mean that he was likely to seek a new term. President Saleh has served his country honorably, and long – but perhaps long enough, because he embodies two of the chronic, structural problems in Arab political governance systems during the past 40 years.

One problem is that too many Arab heads of state have been former armed forces commanders who have tended to run their countries in the same top-down way they used to run their militaries….The second problem that plagues much of this region is that of presidents-for-life. Saleh has run the former North Yemen and then the united Yemen for a total of 27 years – a full generation. Rulers who stay in power for so long tend to rule badly after the first 25 years, because they allow systems to develop around them that slowly atrophy and succumb to mismanagement, insularity, corruption and general mediocrity.

And the presidential term is seven years, that’s a long time.

This is also strange for several reasons: Al-Sahwa.net – (12/20)

Yemeni official sources revealed that
the United States of America asked Yemen to open US
prisons in Yemen.

Chairman of the Political Circle of the Nasserite
Unionist party Mohammad al-Sabri said that US
requested Yemen to open special American prisons
during the latest visit of president Ali Abdullah
Saleh to the United States last November.

Al-Sabri confirmed the US request in a paper offered
in a debate session held by the Yemeni Center for
Strategic Studies on Tuesday on the reforms initiative
of the Joint Meeting Parties.

Saleh told al-Sabri this?
And an official denial via 26 Sept.

more links
(Read on …)

ADNKI: Yemen pushes for entry into the GCC.

At the Gulf summit in Muscat, Oman, in 2001, Yemen was admitted to the council of ministers of education, health and social affairs and to the Gulf Football Cup. Yemen now hopes to join the economic groups and other institutions of the GCC, and offers its recent World Bank-backed economic reforms as proof that it deserves to get full membership, the Yemen Observer reports.

Was this the same soccer league that recently suspended the team because of governmental interference? Economic reforms, where-decreasing the oil subsidies while increasing military spending 50%?

World Bank statistics put Yemen’s Gross National Income (GNI) at 570 US dollars per capita. The GNI of the other GCC members ranges from Oman at 7,890 dollars to Kuwait at 17,970 dollars and the United Arab Emirates at around 20,000 dollars. Life expectancy in Yemen is also significantly lower than that of the Gulf countries.

Child mortality is significantly higher.