On A Dagger's Edge
Yemen has become America's surprise ally in fighting terrorism. But can the Muslim nation survive its own struggle with endemic poverty and extremism?
Over the past few years, Yemen has embarked on an ambitious effort to reform the nation's outdated public-school curriculum. The aim was to move away from the old system of rote memorization to a more interactive and participative system. And while the curriculum itself gets high marks from many experts, the reform has been handicapped. "The curriculum provides more questions than answers, so you have to go to the library, the Internet, or the teachers," says Arhabi. "But there usually is no library, no Internet, and the teachers don't know the answers."
And then there is the corruption. Rana Ghanem, who trains science teachers for the Education Ministry, describes how corruption is rooted in the system at all levels. After the ministry revamped the science curriculum, she traveled to various school districts to present a two-week training course. But she says that every time she arrived for a new session, none of the teachers had been notified, and she would lose the first day. Then, only a quarter of the 20 or so teachers expected would show up for training. The reason was simple, she says: The districts were allotted a transportation allowance for each teacher who was trained. If only a few turned up, the director could keep the balance. "If you are a person who tries to be straight and do the job the way it is supposed to be done, you will be fought," she says. Indeed, people scoffed when she tried to give the unused transportation allowance back to the ministry, pointing out that someone at the ministry would take it for private use instead. Abdusalam al-Joufi, the minister of education, largely dismisses her concerns, noting that teachers are not well paid: "I can understand why [corruption] happens. I am sure it is limited."
Even worse, some corruption is officially sanctioned. As many as 60,000 people are receiving at least two government salaries, often doled out officially to buy their loyalty. "Many of the double dippers are tribal sheiks or military people," says Yahya al-Mutawakel, the vice minister of planning. "So the government thinks the best way to change this is voluntarily, not compulsorily." Officials have asked these "double dippers" to choose one salary. But few people expect this to have much effect. "If you find corruption everywhere," Mutawakel says, "you're not sure where to start."
There have been a few unambiguous bright spots in the reform effort. Perhaps the brightest is the Social Fund for Development, an independent government agency that helps build schools, clinics, roads, and water wells funded mostly by foreign nations. With only 150 full-time employees, the fund managed some 1,000 projects last year with an $80 million budget. The fund--and Arhabi, its director--win nearly universal praise from foreign donors for their integrity and exhaustive accounting system. The secret: highly paid employees and the ability to fire staff at will.
This kind of progress, however, is limited. The deprivation remains particularly acute in the tribal regions of Yemen. Alawa-al Basha is a tribal sheik near the fiercely independent city of Marib, near the bulk of Yemen's oil reserves. His home village of 2,500 people is lucky to have a functioning school. But there is no road, and even though the government built a health clinic last year, it is not functioning, or even furnished. "The problem is not in the construction but in the operation," says Basha. The nearest open clinic is a few miles away, but it is staffed by only one nurse and stocks limited medicine. To reach a full health center, villagers must cross through the villages of several tribes, a dangerous proposition given the violent history of vendetta killings between rival clans. Basha recalls one recent dispute that began when one tribesman was killed. In the resulting battles between two tribes, some 36 people were killed or injured in just one hour. "How can you talk about development in this atmosphere?" he asks. "It is a reflection of the complete absence of authority and law."
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