A Yemen road trip

Written on August 15th, 2015 in politics Comments Off

Published on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Hossam Radman, Aug 13, 2015: about an overland journey from Sanaa to Aden in Yemen through areas held by Houthi and anti-Houthi forces.

… Today, Aden is free. But half its buildings are gone, having been razed to the ground in recent battles. The young men who had crowded the streets to demand secession are nowhere to be seen. They are fighters now, or they are dead.

I went to Aden again to see what was happening, together with two other journalists, all working in Sanaa. I was the only one from Aden and the other two were from Taiz, a detail that turned out to be significant.

My two colleagues, Assem Al-Sabri and Dalil Al-Memari, knew the risks involved. Not only would we have to cross Houthi lines on our way to Aden, but we might also run into Al-Qaeda operatives, or worse.

The road from Sanaa to Aden is usually nine hours, but we would have to travel for 18 hours or so along a circuitous route to reach the south. We braced ourselves, and made up our story.

“If we’re asked, and we will be, the reason for our travels, this is what we’ll say,” I said. “I will say that I am visiting a sick aunt in Aden and that my friends are accompanying me to help transport her back to Sanaa for treatment.”

We had our press cards, and we had made calls to Aden to ensure safe passage. But while in Houthi land, our profession would have to remain a secret.

If our identity was discovered by the Houthis or supporters of former president Ali Abdallah Saleh fighting on their side, we could end up taken to army camps and used as human shields against the coalition raids currently striking Yemen. This had already happened to two colleagues … //

… THROUGH HOUTHI LAND: … //

… ARRIVING IN ADEN: On our first night in Boreiqa, Sheikh Omar arranged a dinner of rice and tuna fish for us. We didn’t know how special that was until we entered Aden itself, where you can spend hours searching for a few biscuits or some canned food.

We spent hours in the back streets of Sheikh Osman’s neighbourhood looking for a grocery store. Most of them had run out of supplies and couldn’t restock because of the fighting, so they had closed down instead.

Restaurants, having no gas to cook with, had also closed down. Telephones were erratic, forcing us to watch our telephone screens for the right moment to make a call. The electricity was rationed: three hours on and three hours off … //

… Rivalries are already in evidence between the Southern Harak, Islamists of every ilk, the leftists and the army loyal to the exiled President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

I talked to Alaa, a young man from the resistance who had recently fought on the Moallah Front, by telephone. I asked him about the fighting, but he declined to talk about the specifics.

Before I hung up, I asked about his grandmother Hajja Hajer. “She’s in a better place now, God bless her soul,” he said. But Aden, everyone tells me, is on its way to a glorious victory.

(full long text).

Links:

Migrant Misery: Greek Island of Kos Makes Refugees Fend for Themselves, on Spiegel Online International, by Raniah Salloum in Kos/Greece, Aug 14, 2015 (Photo Gallery): Up to 600 people arrive each night on the Greek island of Kos, fleeing wars, oppression and hunger. When they arrive, they are often made to sleep outside with not sanitation facilities available. Greek authorities seem uninterested in improving the situation;

Kick Capitalism Out of the Serenity Prayer and Save a Livable Planet, on ZNet, by Paul Street, Aug 13, 2015;

World without Water, the Dangerous Misuse of Our Most Valuable Resource, on Spiegel Online International, by Nicola Abé, Jens Glüsing, Felix Lill, Michaela Schiessl, Samiha Shafy and Helene Zuber, Aug 13, 2015 (Photo Gallery – translated from the German by Christopher Sultan): amid climate change, drought and mismanagement, our world’s most valuable resource is becoming scarce. Much of the crisis is man-made — and even water-rich countries like Germany are to blame;

Trump Says Out Loud What GOP Believes, But Won’t Say Publicly, on teleSUR, by Sonali Kolhatkar, Aug 12, 2015;

Provoking a split with the working class, on Socialist Worker.org, an Interview with PANAGIOTIS LAFAZANIS, Aug 12, 2015;

Medienmanipulation im 21. Jahrhundert, 23.49 min, von Stein-Zeit.TV am 11. August 2015 hochgeladen … mit Oliver Janich, Heiko Schrang, Robert Stein, André Zalbertus, Mara Podolski/Christian Beat Stoll, Annette Bokpe … moderiert von Robert Stein & Stefan Hief;

Days of Revolt, the Betrayal by the Black Elite, on teleSUR videos, by Chris Hedges, Aug 10, 2015;

Emission Ce soir ou jamais: le capitalisme est il l’état naturel des choses, 88.19 min, mise en ligne par Jeunes MCR, le 18 avril 2015 … sur France 2;

Was brachte GermanWings Flug 9525 wirklich zum Absturz? Ein Faktencheck, 9.29 min, von NuoViso.TV am 2. April 2015 hochgeladen … (mein Kommentar: ich vermute, die Russen, deren Armee bei uns sicher alles beobachtet, wissen die genaue Antwort – geschrieben wurde von einem Waffen-Experiment der Amerikaner über Europa, das hier in die Hosen ging … diese Story wäre ein ungewollter, vertuschter Kollateralschaden);

les origines du capitalisme, mise en ligne par Sylvain Le Mien, décembre 2014 … sur arte: tome 1, 53.20 min; tome 2, 53.20 min; tome 3, 53.20 min; tome 4, 53.22 min.

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