Yemen: My Friends In War
This morning was the same as any. The family woke up by the alarm and as usual it took us almost an hour to do breakfast, get the girls ready and wake up. Then we set off to school through a quite peaceful city. Once at school I heard the other parents talk about their problems of life. Basically finding the time to have more recreation and time off from work andbeing together with their families. Some, as usual, complained in a more bitter tone about the injustices of their lifes. Like not finding parking space, a spouse who doesn´t help out or the state of the weather. Once outside I heard birds singing, trumpeting out the arrival of spring. People were hurrying to get to work. Nobody smiled. Yet none of them were living in a war. Like my friends in Sanaa.
Yesterday I read this on Facebook, a message from a very good friend of mine:
“God! l got enough suffring please help me or take me to you. Its the best. l got enough suffer in this life”
For one whole year, he and other Sanaanis have suffered Saudi bomb raids and American drones. Once he wrote:
“I hate this drones. I hate the sound of them and the fear waiting to see where they will strike! Will it be me this time?”
It is impossible for me to understand how they can have any positive spirit. But they do, most of my Yemeni friends. A few days ago I read this note from the same friend:
“Sanaa Today : Millions march for peace in Yemen one year after deadly Saudi led war that killed nearly 9,000 civilians.
victory to yemen
silent world this is yemen people after one year war
we will not forget saudi crims
and all countries support saudi
#one year of the war”
I try to slap myself for not being able to hardly do anything to help, to encourage or assisst. I feel completely useless. It is very hard to understand why the US, UK and other Western countries help Saudi in all this. Impossible to understand. Sadly enough it seems to be basically based on the money thing again. Oil and the sale of weapons. Amazing, but most likely true. And the established Western media doesn´t care too much about Yemen and reality. People do try to raise concern and awarness, like last week a group of well known scholars who wrote an open letter to the foreign ministers in the Uk, US and France condemning their actions, especially these three:
a) drafting the one-sided UN Security Council Resolution 2216 used to legitimize war; b) attempting to protect Saudi Arabia and the other Coalition countries against condemnation by the UN Human Rights Council, leaving the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights alone to issue a condemnation of war crimes; c) continuing massive arms sales in the face of documented war crimes by the Coalition; and d) participating in refueling warplanes, identifying targets, and facilitating the blockade of vital imports of food and fuel to Yemen.
I get emails quite often from friends who need help economically and I try to help, but it is very difficult since I don´t have much of it. And all these emails are harrowing. One friend wrote this email:
