So what's going on in Yemen?

I was on my way home from work a few weeks ago, around 5:45 am, when I stopped into my local/favourite deli on the corner. I love this deli and I love the guys who work in it. They are all from the same big Yemeni family and always remember me, remember what I like to eat, ask me how I am and how my day is going and all of that nice stuff. And I always return the favour. I stop by to say hello, chat with the guys about where they are from as well as random everyday stuff, kind of just make the place into my local corner shop that I stop into every day. The reason I stopped by after work the other night was because I saw some sketchy looking guys hanging out on my street corner, and I just didn't feel comfortable walking past them - so I went to hang out at the deli for a bit, until they left. The guys who were working the night shift were watching something on TV behind the counter, and I joined them... They were watching reports on the ongoing protests and governmental/police violence in Yemen, protests that have been going on for months.

Yet again another country that the media doesn't really care about. I posted about Bahrain a while ago, and we all know what happened there (or you do if you either read my post and watched the AJE documentary I posted). So what's been happening in Yemen? The country has been rising against the existing governmental body, requesting the resignation of president Ali Abdullah Saleh since last January. That means nearly a whole YEAR. A whole year of protests and crackdowns on protests and police and the army shooting into the crowds and killing people. A year of negotiations and agreements and backing out of agreements and confusion and lies and more marches and demonstrations. The murder of innocent people by the government is not calming the crowds down - it's making them even more intent on fighting for change.

Saleh has been in power since 1978. That is the year I was born, and this means that the same man has been governing Yemen for the past 33 years. I honestly doubt that he has been democratically elected as president for the past 33 years, so it's only natural that the people want to see something different, especially with the other uprisings and fall of dictatorships in other Arab countries this year. Apparently the elections in Yemen have been set for next February, but with the recent shootings who knows? Protesters marched miles for 4 days from the city of Taiz to the capital to demonstrate their unhappiness and discontent with the way things are moving, and were attacked with tear gas and sniper shots; men throwing stones at the crowds and attacking women. How much longer does this need to go on for until someone decides that it's enough? Is this another Bahrain, or maybe another Egypt? There has been internal fighting in Yemen for years now, and different political factions clashing... Including Al-Qaeda. So with Saleh on his way out, does this mean a different type of worry for the West?

Do you even really care? I know I do. And I know my friends from the deli on the corner are worried about their country and their family. I know revolution is not usually non-violent, but it doesn't always need to come at such a price.

More information:
Yemen Live Blog on AJE
BBC Q&A
Yemeni Uprising on Wikipedia (remember that not everything is always 100% accurate)

Occupy Wall Street - some more opinions

I was chatting to a friend about the whole Occupy Wall Street movement last night and he said the following to me: "I will go there tomorrow, when all of the non-professional protesters have gone home.". Professional VS non-professional protesters? The whole point of a social uprising is that a large portion of the population is complaining that it is unhappy and that people want change, no matter where you come from, what colour your skin is, what you earn and where you earn it. It's about coming together as a group with one message.
Elitist protesting? That's about as hypocritical as it gets, no?
Yes, there are people who started the movement, and who have been there since Day 1. These people may or may not make political actions and protesting part of their daily life. There are also people who have joined halfway and are getting involved and helping. But there are also people who are hanging out on the fringes, trying to understand what is going on, interested but a little scared. This is NORMAL. There is always going to be a mix of people with different attitudes, characters, goals and faces, but in the end, the more people who come, the more people who join and the more people who state their interest make for a larger and more popular movement. The more people, the louder the voice.

Last night I was reading this blog post HERE. There is only one point that I slightly agree with (the need for a goal), but I completely disagree with the rest of the points. I know that I am further left than most people I know, but I really wouldn't consider demonstrations without permits, occupying a space to protest, not resisting arrest and being non-violent "anarchist". Far from it, it's actually organised and super smart! And... Democratic. I feel that people tend to label others as anarchists or communists way too easily in this country. That said, I do not want to bash the person who wrote the blog I mentioned - she has her ideas and is very eloquent in providing her opinions and thoughts. It was good to read something that helped me confirm my own opinions even more.

Discuss. Or just go down to Wall Street to see what is happening.

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall St , a set on Flickr.

I grew up in a country where protests are the norm: you aren't happy with the the amount of hours you are working? Get out into the streets and protest! The government is too right-wing? Set up a demonstration down the main streets of the city. You aren't getting paid enough? Go on strike! I, for one, completely agree with popular uprising. If your voice is too quiet to be heard, then group together and shout louder together. I've always been lucky enough to live in countries where I am allowed to voice my opinion and go out onto the streets and demonstrate if I want to. And if I don't feel like demonstrating outside on the streets, there are other ways to do it nowadays: blogging, Facebook, Twitter... We don't need to wait for the main media sources to come in and start talking about it.
But (and there is always a but), in France, strikes, protests and demonstrations had become the norm so much, that they started to become a running joke in other countries. It was as if no one took popular uprisings seriously anymore. And then they started to become violent. Demonstrations became coupled with burning cars and police using tear gas, peaceful protests became riots and so forth, bringing up a multitude of questions on why there was such underlying anger and violence in today's youth, why the need to destroy and hurt, rather than build and grow? Look at what started in London and spread to other places in England just this last August. Once the riots were over, the kids were jailed and something more important happened in the world (maybe George W Bush choked on a pretzel again or something), the story disappeared. So what happens next? We just clamp it down to a few shitty days in England, and continue to move forward in the same way that we were before the riots happened? I cannot stand violence, and do not think it is in any way or form a way to make anything better, but come on, it happened for a reason, and if the root cause isn't dug up, analyzed and then destroyed, how can we stop it happening again in the future? No wonder the kids of today are disgruntled: nobody cares about what they have to say!
Violence is definitely not the answer, so this is why I am becoming more and more interested in the Occupy Wall Street movement that started about 3 weeks ago, and is growing rapidly (not just in NYC, but all around the country). For a few weeks there was no media coverage on the movement, only Twitter and Facebook posts from different people involved and bystanders. Without smart phones and portable video cameras we would not have seen the images of the women being fenced in by the police and maced for no reason apart from the fact that they were part of a demonstration. Peaceful demonstration may I add. Or how about the 700 or so people who were arrested walking over the Brooklyn Bridge last week. What did they do wrong? There has still not been ONE incident of violence or intent to riot, the only violence that seems to have happened comes from the police trying to police the demonstrations. I am not going to bash the police on the streets right now, they are obviously following orders from above, but come on, spraying mace on a group of screaming girls?!
In any case, the movement is growing, and doesn't seem ready to disappear just yet. I finally made it to a gathering yesterday, and am glad I did. The General Assembly was held in Washington Square Park at 3pm. People gathered there, and others marched up from Zuccotti Park (renamed Liberty Park). The park was full of people, groups sitting down in front of the speakers and everyone else standing behind them. The speakers are not allowed to use microphones, so the crowd repeats each sentence in waves so that everyone can hear what each speaker has to say. Different groups introduced themselves, and explained what their role was and where to find them, and then a speaker called Mohamed from Egypt said a few words. He actually brought tears to my eyes, just because he was passionate and inspirational. I know that the movement here is not the same as the Arab Spring uprisings, but in the end the message is the same: WE WANT CHANGE.
So this brings me to my only real concern: we know what the message is, and it's coming across loud and clear. But without a concrete list of what needs to change I worry that the message will get lost in the melee and people will lose interest. A revolution needs to start small, gain momentum and bring actual change. What do you want from this? The same as what I do: to live in a world that is a better place for all of us. How can WE make that change? This is the message that we need to get across to the government and anyone in charge. The voices are finally being shown by the media, so now is the time to get the real points across to those who aren't listening.
And this is exactly why I will be going back again. Because I HAVE a list of things that I KNOW need to change, and I want to talk about them to a group of like-minded people.

For more information please grab an Occupy newspaper at one of the gatherings (available in English and Spanish) or visit the following websites:
www.nycga.net
www.occupywallst.org
www.takethesquare.net
wwwoccupytogether.org
wearethe99percent.tumblr.com

This is not the last post I will be writing on this subject. I need to limit myself otherwise I will literally write all day.