I heard a clip of this speech the other day on the radio and I realized that I had never heard the entire thing. I made the effort and I'm glad I did. It's quite the history lesson. It's also good to hear the man himself instead of relying on fuzzy memories and modern critics. Listen to it here:



The first 30 seconds or so is a blurb about who is hosting the file, the speech begins after that. This wasn't that long ago, a little over 20 years, but my how things have changed! Some of the more interesting bits IMO:

1) "The Soviet Union is pointing nuclear weapons at all of the capitals of Europe..." Wow, doesn't that take you back? We were worried about nuclear war, and for good reason. Reagan has the reputation of being a war monger, but listen and you'll hear a man that felt that he was doing what had to be done. he certainly didn't seem to relish the arms race...

2) SDI. Yes, I can hear all of you groan from here. The "Star Wars" project was an infamous government waste of money. It was a waste insofar as it didn't actually produce any sort of defense anything and cost an amazing amount of money. Believe it or not, there are more than a few historians that credit the SDI with the beginning of the end of the arms race. How? As early as 1968, Reagan had written that the best way to make the Soviet Union collapse was to make them spend a lot of money. His reading of Hayek made him realize that the Soviet system was inherently inefficient (despite all sorts of people, including a fair number of economists thinking otherwise). The American system could absorb many more losses and still function fairly well. History has born out both Hayek's and Regan's vision. SDI didn't have to work, in fact I'm sure that Regan knew it wouldn't work. All he had to do was convince the Soviets that there was a way to make it work given enough money. The Soviets couldn't start that kind of research and keep up the ongoing arms race. It was the first crack in their armor, SDI is what made it clear that the US could afford much more than the Soviets, and they started to change...

3) Freedom. I know that use of "freedom" in a political speech is out of favor these days due to dub-ya's mistakes in the name of it. But really, what Reagan said and what W has promised isn't all that different, so why is Reagn's speech moving and W sounds like a buffoon? I think that it was primarily what was causing the lack of freedom. Socialism was an organized, powerful, directed movement against liberty. The USSR was an easy target, and they were genuinely repressing people that wanted things to be different. Today is much different. Except for a few sad holdouts (N. Korea, Cuba), socialism is dead. There are still governments that repress their citizens of course, but none of them are large enough to pose a world-wide threat. They are also not large enough, or powerful enough to consistently fire up Americans... The freedom that W talked about was freedom at the point of a gun. Yes, Saddam was a monster, but that entire area seems to be disposed to autocratic rulers. My time in Yemen made it clear to me that they were not convinced a democracy like the US's was in their best interests. Most of them preferred having a king...

In other words, the lack of freedom in the middle east was not so much dependent on governments (although there are more than a few repressive ones over there) as it was ingrained in their culture. If you ask them, they will of course claim to desire freedom, but that word has very different connotations to them than to people in the US usually. So the thing that limits freedom is not a monolithic, militarily powerful entity in that part of the world. It is instead diffuse, ingrained, and largely beneath the surface. How do you fight that? Trick question, you can't "fight" that, you have to cultivate freedom.

So in short, I think that a lot of what caused W problems was the fact that there wasn't a single thing that he could fight and "win" against. Today's problems with freedom are quite a bit more complex than in years past. This last administration has been an absolute disaster in that regard. I really hope that Obama can get a feel for the real obstacles to freedom and act accordingly.

There's a real push to close down the prison at Gitmo. Most of the people still there are from Yemen, and that's proving to be an issue for this and the next administration. The US is willing to repatriate the prisoners, but there is the requirement that the home country will continue to keep them in confinement. There are a couple of problems with this:

1) The Yemen government cannot (legally) hold anyone without formal charges being pressed. Of course that supposedly is the law in the US as well...

2) The government of Yemen claims not to have the resources to take the 100 or so prisoners into its prison system. I'm of two minds on that. I mean, c'mon, what's another 100 people into their prison system? On the other hand, Yemen is poor and there are already many stories of how crowed the prisons are. Of course the reflexive action from the Yemeni government is to ask for money to build a new prison for them. I'm not sure how amenable the US government is to giving more money to Yemen, too much of it disappears....

Talks were ongoing, and there was even the semblance of progress according to some reports. Then the embassy got bombed and things ground to a halt. My own personal opinion is that the Bush administration has to put up or shut up. Either announce to the world what the charges against thee men are and the evidence, or admit that there isn't enough evidence to hold them. Since we are a country of laws, this shouldn't be too big an issue....

This article talks about how southern Yemen has now formed a "provisional government." It should of course say something closer to "Powerful people in Southern Yemen form own government in opposition to Northern Yemen." I can guarantee that the average Mohammed in the street is not involved in this at all. It does show how far the movers and shakers in the south are willing to go. The primary agitator has already been jailed for treason, he's really going out on a limb now...

People in the south have been feeling trampled on ever since the "reunification" back in 1990. There have been all sorts of demonstrations and instances of civil disobedience since then. Through all of that, the northern tribes have never seemed to take the problems very seriously. I can tell you that the people I met in the capital by and large didn't spend any time worrying about the people in the south.

Trouble is brewing. I hope that it doesn't take a civil war to sort this out, but I'm having difficulties seeing any alternative at this point. The best case scenario that I can imagine is that the government (dominated by northern tribes) manages to keep control of things in the south by force. That's the best case scenario. The worst case scenario involves not only a north/south war, but a total collapse of the agreements and truces between many different tribes. Yemen could be carved up into even more insular, lawless areas. I hope that the people do not suffer too much in the years to come...

I caught a bit of an interview on NPR today. Terri Gross was interviewing a former Episcopal minister (also a woman) and the ex-minister was talking about how she noticed "compassion fatigue" when she got out of the ministering business. It was a huge load off of her, and she didn't even realize that she had it!

I identified with that. Not so much with compassion, but with some other things while I was in Yemen. It occurs to me that while I was there, I was always trying to be the model American and the model Christian. For many of the locals, I was the only one of either that they had ever met, and I might be the only one they ever meet. I was always conscious of having to set an example. I felt that if I did something to upset them or offend them they would most likely generalize that experience to include all Americans and Christians.

After a while, it became routine for me, but it was always there. When I got back, I knew I had to recuperate, but I couldn't really put my finger on what I was recuperating from. I think a big part of it was getting used to not sticking out anymore. I'm just another guy here, I'm not the Christian, the American, I'm just another person... The anonymity is really nice, all the pressure is gone. I don't think I realized what kind of strain that put on me until I got used to the idea that I wouldn't have to be an example any more. It was a huge weight off of me, and I feel much better because of it.

Why does the AP constantly refer to Yemen as the "Ancestral home" of Osama Bin Laeden? Osama was born in Saudi. Why don't we ever hear, "Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Osama Bin Laeden?" Osama's father was born in Yemen, Osama was not. To my knowledge, Osama has never been implicated in any act of terrorism in Yemen. To my knowledge, Osama has never even been mentioned as being responsible for any attacks in Yemen. Yemen has enough problems, why are you trying to saddle them with Osama too?

Isaac Crawford

Technorati Tags:
al-queda, cole, Saudi arabia, terrorism, violence, whahabi, yemen

This is a weird thing. When I left, I was worried about political unrest, I never really worried about anti-American violence. Since I left, the government has started to crack down on a group that supposedly has ties to Queda. I figured that there would be retaliation against the government, after all, that's what you get for shaking the hornet's nest.

But they went and bombed the American embassy. 16 people have died. All but two of them were Yemeni. There was an Indian nurse and an American newlywed (she was trying to get some paperwork for her husband to come to the US) killed in the atack. The American embassy is probably 100 yards from the wall, so a car bomb will never have any effect on it. I'm not sure how close the car could have come to the wall even, there is a large perimeter set up outside. All of the people working the gate and the all of the security people on the outside of the embassy are all Yemenis. It seems strange to me that someone would try this kind of attack when the victims are going to overwhelmingly be locals. On the other hand, maybe the bombing types hate Yemenis that work with Americans more than the Americans...

I dunno, like all of the other attacks on the embassies there, it seems more symbolic than anything else. The chances of them doing anything to the embassy without an airplane being involved is zero. There seems to be general outrage in Yemen over this attack. Both because most people don't think it's a good thing and also because this happened during Ramadan.

The "terrorist" element in Yemen continues to show signs of incompetence and impotence. The good news is if they keep trying things like this, they'll all be dead pretty soon. I don't understand their tactics. They are pursuing things that do no damage to the target and kill Yemenis. All they seem to be doing is making everyone angry, so what's the point? Maybe they really do just have death wishes, that seems to be the only thing that is regularly accomplished by these sorts of things.

UPDATE:

As usual, there is a bit of a disagreement over what happened between the Arab press and the western press. Well, they're all reporting the same events, but they are using very different headlines. Every single western news outlet is reporting that the embassy was carbombed. Flip over to an Arab news agency and what do you see? "Embassy attack foiled!" I think this is closer to the truth, the attackers didn't get close to the embassy and the (Yemeni) security forces prevented the attackers from getting into and past the outer wall. What a difference a few words makes...

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al-queda, cole, middle east, terrorism, violence, yemen

I have been complaining for a long time about people complaining about food prices in Yemen. Most of the time, the only solution that people come up with is that the government should do something. It turns out that the government had done something, it had fixed the number of importers of food into the country. This is what allowed weird pricing to go on in the country.

According to this article, it sounds like the Yemeni government wasn't the only one to blame. The way the article is written, it sounds as though Australia had only "licensed" one company to import wheat into Yemen. Now they are opening it up to other companies. When are countries going to stop meddling where they are not needed? Why does one need to be licensed to sell wheat to people in Yemen? With any luck, competition will be allowed to do its work and help people out there...

Technorati Tags:
libertarian, yemen, free trade, food

There is a man from Philadelphia being held in Yemen. Read about it here. Everyone claims to have no idea as to why he is being held, but there are clues in the article. He had just come back from Sa'ada, the area up north (by the Saudi border) where there had up until recently been lots of fighting. That is supposedly over now, but the government is no fan of some of the Imams up there. Why was he up there? He had come to Yemen to lean Arabic, and the learn about Islam. I can tell you from experience that there's no problem going there to learn Arabic. And learning about Islam isn't necessarily a big deal either. But if you go to Imams that the government doesn't like, they will be all over you. Ever since John Lindh got his training in Yemen, the Yemeni government has been uptight about foreigners coming there to study Islam.

I knew a couple from South Africa that had a terrible time getting through immigration in Yemen. They were dressed in their usual garb. The muslim population in South Africa tends to be pretty conservative, and both of them were obviously muslims. The government had multiple people question them about where they were going, what they would be studying, etc. They were only there to study Arabic, and he thought the only reason they let them in was because he was going to a state run Arabic school. On the other hand, I knew an Australian muslim that came to Yemen to learn the language. She dressed like any other Aussie, no problems. I also knew an Italian who cam there to learn Arabic, but he went to a mosque in the old city to learn about Islam. No problems.

So here's my advice. If you want to learn about Islam in Yemen, don't tell anyone you're going to do that when you get to the country. And then, stay in the larger cities, there are plenty of Imams of all different viewpoints in the cities. If you go to hadramont, Sa'ada, Marib, etc. and it's known that you are hanging out with the more radical types, the government will harass you.

I'm pretty sure the government has recently rescinded the do not travel warning, and there are lots of reasons to go to Yemen (unlike the ignorance shown in the article), but you have to be smart about going there. Don't do stupid things and you'll be fine...

Technorati Tags:
religion, terrorism, travel, yemen, islam

There have been several articles about Yemen dealing with other religions recently. They have arrested 9 Christians in Hodedia and now are talking about deporting 3 Ba'hais back to Iran where they will undoubtedly face some serious problems. All of these people have been arrested for proselytizing. What, exactly, is the big deal?

Yes, I understand that many muslims see people that try to convert people to other faiths as undermining the social fabric of Yemen. But come on... If people are strong in their faith, there's no problem. If they aren't... well, let me put it this way.. What's worse, a bad muslim or a good Ba'hai or Christian?

On a more serious note, their desire to remove any competition from their culture is what makes it so weak, and so venerable to outside influence. It's a bit of a catch 22, one that the powers that be don't seem to get. They need to understand that no one can "force" someone to convert, that person has to decide. If they are on the brink, they are not going to be a good muslim, and they certainly are not going to be happy. Why is it so difficult for Yemenis (and muslims in Arab countries in general) to allow people to do what they like when it comes to religion? It smacks of desperation and fear, not things I would associate with people with a lot of faith...

Technorati Tags:
Christianity, libertarian, middle east, religion, religious freedom, Saudi arabia, yemen

This one is from Saudi. Apparently, a 16 year old girl drank bleach in order to kill herself so that she wouldn't be forced to marry a 75 year old guy. The father of the 16 year old was doing it so that the 75 year old would let him marry the 75 year old's 13 year old daughter. You can read about it here.

There are several things wrong with this picture. Forcing girls to marry, the huge age discrepancies in age, and of course the desire to marry a 13 year old. I think it's safe to assume that we're dealing with a couple of first class creeps...

The comments on that article are pretty interesting as well. There are a ton of people that basically say, "See, Islam is a barbaric religion," despite the fact that one of the first things said in the article is that forced marriages are haraam. So these guys are operating outside of accepted religious guidelines.

"But what about the marrying of a 13 year old? Isn't that nasty? Shouldn't Islam ban that?" Oh come on, like there has never been a 13 year old bride in the US. And please point out to me where in the Bible it says what a good age is to be married... Religion isn't a cut and dried affair, and it always bows down to cultural norms in the mainstream.

To me, that is a more damning aspect of this. Many places in the middle east (and especially Saudi) are stuck in the 5th century when it comes to things like this. I can sort of, kind of understand the importance of marrying off a girl at 9 back then. Life was pretty different, and much harder in 500AD. Things are much different now, and so people that want to marry young girls really strike everyone as people trying to take advantage of "the law" for their own, creepy agenda.

So I'm not laying this at the feet of Islam, but I do wish that more Imams would take on some leadership roles when it comes to things like this. I wish they would say, "Yes, the prophet (PBUH) did marry a 9 year old, and yes, he waited until she was 12 before consummating the marriage HOWEVER, you are not him and there really isn't a good reason to marry a girl that young any more." Would that be so difficult?

Technorati Tags:
middle east, pedophile, religion, Saudi arabia, whahabi, child bride

I've changed my website again. The home page is still at isaharr.com, but now it's just a navigation page to the other blogs. You can get to the Blogging in Yemen page directly by going to http://www.isaharr.com/blog/page27.php.

I have decided to separate out my Blogging in Yemen from my general ramblings. I'm going to strip out the general stuff and put it in the new one that will now be found at www.isaharr.com. I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen with the RSS feeds, so those of you using those, you might want to go to the new home page (which will be up soonish) and redo the rss settings in your readers... We'll see how this goes.

Hmm, talking about sitar music and Mozart operas in a blog entitled "Blogging in Yemen" is a little silly. I have lots of other things I'd like to blog about music, so I've started a new one just for my music ramblings. I've started it out with an ABBA clip that is, well, interesting... You can see the new blog here.

I was chatting with someone I had met online (a brother of a friend from college) and he asked a question that has made my head spin. He has taught English in a variety of places so I was picking his brain about that. Out of the blue, he asked me if i had ever considered the Peace Corps. I admitted that I hadn't, and we went on...

Afterwards, I couldn't shake the implicit question about joining. It has some appeal, but there are some things that don't. If I joined it, it would be another opportunity to live in a different culture, and everyone says that it is a great experience. On the other hand, it would be another 2 years of being poor...

They have positions in Morocco and Jordan. Those are the only places they work in where my language could possibly be of any use. It probably wouldn't help much in Morocco though... If I went to either, I could continue my Arabic studies with no problem (which I could see being attractive again in the future). On the other hand, it might be a good thing to go someplace totally different. I dunno...

There's always the option of just getting some certification and teaching for pay of course, but with the Peace Corp there is always the potential to do more.

At this point, I have a lot I want to accomplish (like being able to walk a couple of miles again) before I even consider anything like that. Still, I'll be wondering about it...

I haven't written much of the book I'm supposedly working on. I knew that was going to be a problem, and here it is. It's mostly an issue of finding the right way to present the information, nothing seems quite right... I'm not sure if I should write a narrative or simply present situations. I'm also not so sure about first or third person... Anyway, I'll figure it out and things will go more smoothly Inshalla...

I am making some progress on the physical front. As you may or may not know, I came back here a physical mess. I could hardly walk 100 yards without weaving all over the place. I still don't know what lead to my rapid deterioration in that regard, but I think I'm getting better. My muscles were just weak in general. That's all getting better with some targeted exercises. I bought one of those wheels for doing core exercises. Gawd, that thing is brutal. My shoulders, abs, chest, and back are feeling it right about now.

I've also managed to get my digestive things under control as well... I think. I'm now taking some probiotics and they seems to have taken care of the GI issues. It's nice to be able to eat again and not worry about the results...

So things are improving, slowly... I even have a job! It's a short term thing, but it should be good. I am scanning about 2500 old negatives, hopefully it'll go quicker than I think it will... Things are looking up!

The president of Yemen has announced that the long standing fighting in the north has ended. Woo hoo! Now I can go back! Just kidding of course. I was talking with a friend of mine that I met in Yemen last night. I asked Dana if she missed Yemen. She said, "I did for a little while, but then I got over it. No really, I'm really over it..." I don't think I'm there yet, but I can see that day approaching.

UPDATE

There is now a new press release (here) that says a couple of hours after the president made his declaration, the rebels seized a village where there has been sporadic fighting. I doubt that there will ever be a "neat" victory on either side, that part of the world doesn't lend itself to that...

Technorati Tags:
middle east, Saudi arabia, terrorism, violence, yemen

I'm going to write a book about my time in Yemen. I've been thinking about this for a while, hell, I think that every westerner that goes there thinks about it. With a few encouraging words from members of my family I've decided to give it a go.

Now's a good time to do this since there's not really anything else to take up my time. The thing that has been holding me back is myself of course. Writing something as long as a book is an intimidating prospect. I've never tried anything this long before, of course I had never been that far out of the US before I went to Yemen, so what the hell. The only way I'll know if I can do it is to start writing. Who knows what will become of this project. If nothing else, I hope that this will help me sort out what I learned over there. I've often approached creative works in the context of puzzle solving. I've found that taking pictures, sketching, and writing have helped me understand things better. Here's hoping that this will do that as well.

Hey, it'll keep me off the streets for a while:-)

Technorati Tags:
middle east, yemen, writing, creativity, art

I just finished reading a book called "Three Cups of Tea." It's about an American man named Greg Mortenson and his mission to build schools in impoverished Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has quite a story to tell and his accomplishments are really something. I never encountered danger like he did, of course he jumped right into that trouble with both feet while I have been more circumspect. Mortenson sounds like the guy we wish we all were, helping other people, facing insurmountable odds and making things happen in places that really need help. His Central Asia Institute (click here to go to the site) is one of the best charities I can think of. They do things the right way. Instead of swooping in and handing things out like so many charities do, he goes in, asks if they want a school, makes the village contribute to it, and also makes them provide sweat equity. That way the locals are invested in the project and he can be sure that everyone is on board with the goals.

The book isn't great literature or anything, but it is a great story. I really identified with the urge to teach people in places like that a little about the world. He was dealing with much worse situations than I did, but the thought is the same... I also liked to see one of my theories in action, that is what we do makes a very large impression on people. Being in Yemen taught me a lot of things and I will always remember how grateful people were for me just being there. Having someone from the US actually come there and talk with them meant a lot to them and I like to think that their ideas about Americans moved in a more positive direction. They understood that Yemen was more than a little out of the way for us and they were very happy to share their culture with me.

It's a good read, you should pick it up!

Technorati Tags:
middle east, terrorism, travel, violence, yemen, Three cups of tea

I was sitting in the reception of my cousin's wedding thinking to myself that I need to buy a suit. The last suit I got was for my mother's second wedding, and that was a while ago. I have no idea if it fits, but I do know that I don't like it. I also know that I need one for job interviews, etc.

My mind then drifted back to my last weeks in Sana'a. I remember hearing the shelling in the distance and wondering what would happen to that place. The bombardment had calmed down tremendously, but it was still ongoing... With all of the troubles the government has, with all of the problems the Yemenis have, I laid awake and listened and wondered.

Then my mind came back to the reception and I realized that I didn't give a damn about the suit...

Technorati Tags:
middle east, violence, yemen

This article scares me a little. They have closed down what we have always called "the sketchy Chinese restaurant." This is the place over by Shamalia Hari. I have never heard of anyone eating there, but it was well known that you could buy alcohol there. I always figured that they had to be pissing off a certain segment by doing that, but you know that they were making quite a bit of money doing it.

As usual, that article leaves me with quite a few questions. The headline says Chinese restaurants, but it only talks about one. It also says that it is illegal to sell alcohol in Yemen, but I don't believe that is the case. I believe that it is illegal to sell alcohol to Yemenis, but not illegal to sell to foreigners. There are other restaurants there that serve beer and other types of alcohol, but there are also bars like the Sheraton, the Movenipick, and the Russian club. I don't know about the hotels, but the Russian club will not allow ay Yemenis in at all. They do a pretty brisk business, but if someone is looking for a lucrative business venture there, it would be very tempting to sell to the general public.

I have seen Yemenis drinking in a restaurant and I have seen them coming out of the one that was just closed. If this restaurant was closed for selling to locals and/or underaged folks then I can sort of, kind of understand the police closing it down. The worrying thing is that it seems to be widely believed that the new religious police were instrumental in closing this place down even before they are officially formed. It is a strong signal that the more conservative elements in Yemeni society are gaining strength.

Technorati Tags:
middle east, movenpick, Saudi arabia, whahabi, yemen, alcohol