[b]Yemen: The most fucked country of them all[/b]
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Flag_of_Yemen.svg/800px-Flag_of_Yemen.svg.png[/img]
According to Wikipedia, the red on the flag of Yemen signifies the bloodshed of martyrs, the black signifies Yemen's dark past. White supposedly shows the "bright future" of Yemen, but you'll quite rapidly come to see that the flag should just be black and red.
[b]What is Yemen like?[/b]
Some parts of Yemen are beautiful.
[img]http://liestravels.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/yemen_mountains.jpg[/img]
The rest isn't.
Yemen overlaps with one of the largest expanses of sand anywhere in the world. There's a reason it's called [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_Quarter]the empty quarter[/url].
Yemen has no rivers. It has a few trickles here and there, but it's so sunny and hot that [i]they all dry up before the sea[/i]. There's a bunch of places called "wadis" that are all river-y during the winter months but they're desert during summer. The shortage of water is so bad that Yemen shall be the first Arabian country to use up all its groundwater. Let me say that again: [b]Yemen will use up all its groundwater[/b]. It does actually rain in parts of Yemen, but generally it happens all in one go which tends to cause flooding, so it's pretty much all over in one go. The water situation has gotten to the point that Yemen's government is now running a campaign featuring Rowyan and Rowyana, the husband and wife water droplets, explaining basically how they're all fucked.
[img]http://pulitzercenter.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/10/rr.jpg[/img]
They've had to monitor drilling to stop people tapping into the water, which is also now getting salty, just to make matters worse. The water table is dropping by two meters a year. Oh, and in the areas with water there's lots of mosquitos carrying malaria. Fun, eh?
Because there's so much sand, sandstorms are quite common. They tend to destroy crops (more on that later).
[b]How does Yemen make its money?[/b]
Well, since it's an Arabian country you won't be surprised to find out that it makes its money through oil. However, unlike countries such as Saudi Arabia which is so crazily rich it can build islands, it doesn't have all that much oil (it isn't even allowed into OPEC, which is basically a club for countries that export oil). Nevertheless, 75% of Government revenue comes from oil, and oil accounts for 90% of exports. This is bad, as the oil in Yemen will run out by about 2017.
Another large chunk of Yemen's economy comes from farming. About 3% of Yemen is arable land. This is equivalent to Arizona, and just Arizona, housing all of the US's farming production.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/Map_of_USA_AZ.svg/286px-Map_of_USA_AZ.svg.png[/img]
(Imagine the rest is just desert)
To make matters worse, people don't generally farm cereals or fruits in Yemen. No, they farm something called "Khat". What's Khat? It's basically an amphetamine bush. People in Yemen like to chew on it.
Great, Yemen. You've got 3% of your land for food, and you grow drugs. Ok, that's not quite fair - other crops are grown - but there's a lot of Khat grown, and as a result Yemen imports three quarters of its food.
Oh, and to make matters worse, Khat is pretty much the driving force behind the internal economy (everyone in Yemen loves their Khat) and Khat needs a fair bit of water to grow. 40% of the country's water goes towards growing the damn thing. This isn't good, since as you've seen they're running out of water.
[b]How about Tourism?[/b]
Yemen has an amazing history, mainly to do with Bedouins and whatnot. It's home to four UNESCO heritage sites:
Shibam - The "Manhattan of the Desert"
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Shibam_Wadi_Hadhramaut_Yemen.jpg/800px-Shibam_Wadi_Hadhramaut_Yemen.jpg[/img]
Most of those buildings date from about the 16th century.
Sanaa - The nation's capital
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Bab_Al_Yemen_Sanaa_Yemen.jpg/800px-Bab_Al_Yemen_Sanaa_Yemen.jpg[/img]
Again, ancient beautiful buildings.
Zabid
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Mosque_in_Zabid.jpg/300px-Mosque_in_Zabid.jpg[/img]
Fantastically beautiful old mosque, and some very historic buildings (although a lot of them have been made all concrete-y).
Yemen also controls the Socotra Archipelago, which is fantastically beautiful as well.
Oh, and in addition there are many impressive ruins including this temple dedicated to the Queen of Sheba (yes, that Queen of Sheba)
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Sun_temple.jpg[/img]
Don't forget that Yemen has beautiful beaches:
[img]http://girlsoloinarabia.typepad.com/photos/12_yemen/qalansiyabeach.jpg[/img]
So, people should be flocking here, right? Maybe Yemen can support itself on tourism?
You'd really think so. But no, there's a civil war rampaging in the north between two Islamic sects (Sunnis and Shi'ites, although interestingly these sects are different to all the other Sunnis and Shi'ites) and in the "South" (the country is sort of divided diagonally from where it was two separate countries) there's a communist insurgency. Add on to that the fact that tourists keep getting kidnapped, held for ransom and then eventually killed when the ransom isn't paid, you might see why people aren't flocking there. Oh, and that Queen of Sheba shrine got bombed recently by terrorists, which killed some tourists too.
Some of the tourists probably wouldn't have died if they'd got adequate medical treatment but, you've guessed it, Yemen's hospitals are awful. There are about 6 hospital beds per 1,000 people and the hospitals aren't the most sanitary places. The life expectancy in Yemen is in the low 60s.
[b]Well maybe Yemen isn't completely fucked! What did they used to do?[/b]
Yemen used to handle shipping on the Suez canal through its ports.
Then the Suez canal closed and the British pulled out of there.
[b]Could Yemen perhaps go back to subsistence farming?[/b]
Well, they could try.
However, despite the fact that around 4,000 Yemenites leave the country each year (according to Saudi Arabia - who knows how many die in the deserts?) the country's population is going to double within the next 20 years, in part due to the fact that Somalian refugees keep fleeing there (the reasons behind this are beyond me, since by all accounts Yemen is actually worse off than Somalia in many ways).
So yeah, what with the encroaching deserts - oh did I not mention that? Yeah, the fertile part of Yemen is getting smaller each year - and the dropping water table, subsistence farming does not look like an option for the projected 46 million people.
[b]Could Yemen switch to a service based economy?[/b]
No. There's one teacher to every 80 pupils, and the average time spent in school is 5 years. You need education to have a service based economy.
[b]Maybe Yemen could do manufacturing for other countries?[/b]
Well, some manufacturing does happen in Yemen. For example, India exports ore there to be refined into steel. It's cheaper to make steel in Yemen than in India, which says a lot about Yemen. However you need a fed and watered workforce to do manufacturing.
Oh also you need an infrastructure which is something lacking from pretty much all of Yemen.
[b]Mining! Yemen could mine things![/b]
No, no they couldn't.
Yemen has minor deposits of coal, gold, lead, nickel, and copper - but not really that much. Yemen does have a modest amount of natural gas but the government's policy seems to operate on a "you bribe us, we'll let you pump all the resources and profits out of our country" scheme.
So, to surmise: Yemen's population is probably going to either die or evacuate come 2017. A bright future indeed!
What a nice country.
Interesting read, buy why did you make the thread? Did you do this for a research project?
Boxes if Yemen sucks.
Them beaches look nice
At least it will last longer than Australia.
Are you going to do other fucked up countries? It was very good.
Title makes you think of something other then a country.
Is their situation with being a hellpit at all similar to their neighbors in Oman, or did they just get the shit end of the Arabian peninsula.
I think you should do one on Somalia.
Semen
Pretty pictures, I APPROVE!
[QUOTE=Emperorconor;20960479]At least it will last longer than Australia.[/QUOTE]
No it wont
Yeah man
Enemy
[QUOTE=BlazeFresh;20960546]No it wont[/QUOTE]
I'm giving it till 2015, by then Australia would of banned itself.
[QUOTE=Tyler_Durden;20960403]Interesting read, buy why did you make the thread? Did you do this for a research project?[/QUOTE]
Oh, my friend mentioned how messed up it was to me today because he's part of the model United Nations, so I decided to Google it up. After a while of Googling I figured I might as well make a thread.
Oh, and thanks for all the positive feedback. I was just bored, ha-ha.
A well presented and thoroughly miserable read. Bravo!
Their coffee is fucking delicious.
I'll never stop associating Yemen with Chandler Bing :(
Remember when people thought the US Army might be deployed there
Eddie Izzard was born in Yemen. And that concludes my knowledge about Yemen before reading this thread.
Oman that's a big OP.
[editline]02:14PM[/editline]
Do one on the US :v:
A month back there was a thread about a city in Yemen that basically dominates the world's weapons dealing business. There wasn't any police or military within the perimeter of the city. Because they're too afraid to enter...
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention one reason to visit Yemen: it has 60 million guns!
Terrorists are eagerly anticipating 2017, as this means everyone will up sticks and leave, meaning nobody can stop them setting up (externally financed) terrorist camps.
Looks nice. I dont see much "fucked up" though.
[QUOTE=Splungey;20961829]Looks nice. I dont see much "fucked up" though.[/QUOTE]
Just fucked. In the traditional sense. Meaning it's about to kark it.
To be honest, I can't wait to watch Dubai's (I know it's not Yemen, Yemen is alright in my books) oil deposits dry up.
Tears of joy will be shed.
I can't wait to see their economy crash and have them realize nobody will want to go there.
[QUOTE=Tyler_Durden;20962083]I can't wait to see their economy crash and have them realize nobody will want to go there.[/QUOTE]
There's something oddly enjoyable in watching a nation that, after living large (and not modestly, disgustingly opulent), crash and become what they used to be pre-oil rush.
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