Dying children in Yemen

The BBC Arabic visited a hospital in Yemen full of dying children.

The hospital has very little equipment, as there's been a lot of bombing in Yemen over the last few years. This doctor, for example, is explaining that conditions are much worse than just a year ago - and they weren't good a year ago to start with.

Here is one of the dying children:

He is three years old, and I think he was starving to death. The hospital doesn't have anything that can help. His own family tries to take care of hm.

And this is all happening at the last functioning hospital in this particular city. It's called Hudaida, and it's on Yemen's coast. The streets of this city are filled with displaced people.

The streaming got blurry, unfortunately, but in the back of this scene you can just see a kid about 10 years old bouncing a baby on his knee:

This city is important for Yemen, because it is the main port where ships come in, bringing food and medicine. But there is nothing coming in now, because Saudi Arabia has laid siege to it. Saudi Arabia is also the country - with the help of weapons from the United States and the UK - bombing Yemen.

Here is the stock-still port:

And a worker from the World Food Programme explaining about the siege, and how so many are hungry:

In the meantime, cholera has also broken out. This boy, Yahya, is 13, and is struck down with cholera, I think they said along with 18 of his family members.

They were still at the hospital when the three-year-old child died. Here, his father is carrying the body away. They said they wanted the cameras there to show the world what was happening. 

The UN and Yemen

About a month ago, the BBC Arabic was giving a lot of attention to Yemen. A lot of bombing was happening, and the UN was trying to stop it. Here is a press conference where they explain the situation.

The man in the picture is Ahmed Fawzi. He's been a UN spokesperson for a long time. He was talking about the Yemen peace talks that the UN was holding.

Then, the BBC Arabic went out and asked people in Yemen what they thought.

This lady said: We encourage the peace talks, but we don't see encouraging signs.

This was a meeting with the press on June 17:

Ahmed Fawzi is standing next to the UN envoy to Yemen. His name is Mr. Ismaeel.

And then they showed all these nice people sitting in a room. They are in Geneva for the talks. That's Ahmed Fawzi waving his hand in the background:

Then, on June 19, they had a really grand press conference in Geneva, and the BBC Arabic carried it live.

Here is Ahmed Fawzi and Mr. Ismaeel, and a bored man in the background:

Here, Ahmed Fawzi is calling on which journalist to speak next. "Tom, did you have your hand up?" he asked in English. And the trusty BBC Arabic interpreter even translated that!

Well, clearly, the BBC Arabic interpreter did a great job, so much so that at the end of the conference, Ahmed Fawzi thanked all the translators. And you can bet that the BBC Arabic interpreter definitely translated that part!

As everyone was leaving, the BBC Arabic started doing their analysis:

There were handshakes:

And it ended with smiles and everyone being best friends:

The Arabic News From Al Akayshi

We found a restaurant that had good, cheap Iraqi food, so we had to go there at every possible chance.

All this cost $25:

And all this cost $50 (and some of that included food we got later):

This restaurant was playing a TV news channel called something like Al Maydaan. Here's what they were reporting about.

First, here is the lady who was giving the news:

This man was reporting from Yemen:

A lot of bombs have exploded in Yemen:

They showed a clip of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon because they are trying to put together a conference to stop the violence. But I think at this stage, there was no agreement, so they had postponed everything.

Then, we got news from Saudi Arabia. This was the day after, or two days after, a bomb exploded in a Shia mosque in Saudi, and killed dozens of people. Here is the funeral and the protest:

Then, we took a commercial break to see a random animation of birds and sad-looking people sitting in barren places:

Then, it was time to move on to Iraq. This time, we followed the Iraqi army as they try to bomb Daa-esh:

The Iraqi army on the prowl:

Lest we forget, there is still a war in Syria, which was next on the agenda.

This Syrian in Palmyra was describing conditions, now that the city has fallen to Daa-esh:

The caption is mentioning the 400 people who Daa-esh are suspected of massacring when they entered the city.

This lady looks like she's packed up. But where can she go?

Talking about the ancient ruins of Palmyra:

Meanwhile, the Syrian city of Halab was also enduring military operatons:

I think this channel was pro-Syrian president. They didn't talk at all about the atrocities he has committed. They just talked about the atrocities that Daa-esh has committed, and how the Syrian army, led by the president, are the heroes who are going to fix everything.

More news from Syria: apparently, a Ukrainian airlines has decided to start airplane trips to Syria. The trips are weekly between Kiev and Latakiya. Sounds like a great vacation to me!

Here's a lady from the airlines explaining the reasoning behind their business model:

And finally, something is happening in Sudan, but I'm not sure what:

If you want to check out this place, look for it. It's on Warren Street, I think.

Saudi man on the BBC Arabic: "Have you at all noticed, my dear man, that you give yourself more time to ask the question than you give me to answer it?"

Yemen has seen a lot of fighting lately. This is a small Middle-Eastern country. It is very poor.

Some rebels over-ran the capital, so Saudi Arabia waged a bombing campaign. Many deaths and a lot of hunger has resulted. 

So the BBC Arabic interviewed a Saudi man called Mr. Ibrahim. He is an expert on military and strategic policies. He's honestly also kind of stupid and full of himself, as I think his interview makes abundantly clear. 

Thus begins Mr. Ibrahim:

I was watching the program, and I see that you interviewed six Yemenis, and three of them said our bombing campaign had worked, and three said that it had not. I would just like to say: there is no doubt at all that our bombing campaign worked, and anyone who says otherwise has a lack of understanding in strategic planning. Let me try to explain things so that the dear audience will properly understand. Our bombing campaign was a strategic military action, and it was just one part of a broader strategy that includes: Diplomacy, Information, Military, Economy...

Just as Mr. Ibrahim was getting his full bluster on, the BBC Arabic moderator stopped him:

BBC Arabic moderator: Please sir, we don't need to lose the audience with a long-winded explanation of your policies and strategies. Let's keep it simple. What I asked you was that the aims that Saudi Arabia claimed as their end-goal in this bombing campaign have not materialized. When the bombing campaign finished, the stated goals had been left behind entirely. How? And be concise in your answer, if you please. 

Mr. Ibrahim: You are not giving me a chance to finish what I was trying to say ...

BBC Arabic Moderator: I'm afraid that your responses to my questions will have to be concise so that I can give a chance to other people to respond to what you say... and there are many others waiting. We don't have time for background information.

Mr. Ibrahim starts getting out of joint:

Mr. Ibrahim: I am not giving you background information. I am getting to the heart of the matter. You, my dear man, and others like you, don't understand how military campaigns work and that is why they say that the bombing campaign did not reach its goals. But I am here to say, that this is how we do things in strategy. So the bombing campaign is just one element. Our bombing campaign was meant to destroy the rockets and weapons of the Houthi rebels that might have threatened all of us neighboring countries. We needed to destroy all their heavy weapons. So yes, the Houthi rebels are still in control of large parts of Yemen, but they can no longer continue with their aggression. 

So now the next steps are to return the Yemeni president to his rightful post, and to get the Houthi rebels out of control, and to make sure only the state has weapons, and to release political prisoners, and to ...

BBC Arabic moderator: Ok, but how are you going to do all this? Through military means, political means, or what?

Mr. Ibrahim: My dear brother! Sometimes, when you have a goal, you use military means. Then, three days ago, we decided that the military means had done their job, and we needed to use diplomacy. So people who say that we failed just don't understand how you approach things strategically!

BBC Arabic moderator: Alright, Mr. Ibrahim, but one problem is that the day after you announced the end of your bombing campaign, or actually, on the same day of the announcement, the bombing campaign actually continued. So why was there an announcement that the bombing campaign was finished at a time when you still had rockets blasting, and at a time that we heard the Houthi rebels were consolidating and actually expanding their positions? We hear that they are now in some parts of Taiz.

Mr. Ibrahim: (takes a deep breath) my dear man, the report that the Houthi rebels have taken over some parts of Taiz is a faulty report. What actually happened was that the military personnel in Taiz had left their headquarters to go out on the streets. While they were doing that, the Houthi rebels took advantage of the situation and took over the headquarters. So the military bombed the Houthis at the headquarters; and in retaliation, the Houthis bombed the town itself, people and rooms and such. So the facts really need to be kept accurate.

The BBC Arabic moderator then said he was going to hear responses from other guests, but Mr. Ibrahim begged him and begged him for ten more seconds to say one last thing.

Mr. Ibrahim: Just ten seconds! Our bombing campaign has been completely for the sake of protecting civilians and to deny the Houthi rebels the chance of carrying out their plans. These are the aims that we have. And what the Yemeni people understand is that we Saudis are not going to forsake our responsibility to them. And what the Houthi rebels don't understand is that we will not allow them to continue controlling the country, nor to expand their control, over our neighbors in Yemen.

So it was then finally time to talk to some other people. A Yemeni man called Hameed, living now in Britain, was on the phone.

Hameed: Let me just say: Mr. Ibrahim says he is helping the Yemeni people get rid of the Houthis. My dear man, the Houthis are 70% of the Yemeni people. And at the same time ...

BBC Arabic moderator: Please don't get into percents, because we have no one of knowing what is accurate and which side has the majority backing it.

Then Hameed talked some more. He wasn't happy with the Saudis, but I didn't really understand all that he was saying. So I skipped the phone callers, all of whom were on the side of the Houthi rebels, and we went back to Mr. Ibrahim.

Mr. Ibrahim: Your callers Hameed and Ahmed speak for the Houthis.

BBC Arabic moderator: Yes, and this is a voice that is present on the streets of Yemen.

Mr. Ibrahim: Sure, their voice is present. But, my brother, if the Houthis were just acting on their own, then we would call them a political movement in Yemen. But the truth is that they are taking orders and help from Iran. The Houthi strategy was written in Iran and studied in Iran and then carried out in Yemen.

BBC Arabic moderator: Yes, but the leader of the Houthis (the old Yemeni dictator called Ali Abdullah Saleh) is Yemeni. They are being led by a Yemeni. Why is that forgotten and we always say that they get instructions from Tehran. You have Ali Abdullah Saleh on the ground and he is Yemeni.

Mr. Ibrahim: My dear man, there is outside support from Iran; and there's traitors inside the Yemeni military ...

BBC Arabic moderator: Please, without such slanders, without slandering anyone like that.

Mr. Ibrahim: No! I'm not slandering, these are facts!

BBC Arabic moderator: You might think they are facts but I cannot allow anyone to be described as a traitor.

Mr. Ibrahim: No, no, Ali Abdullah Saleh is a traitor.

BBC Arabic moderator: in your opinion.

Mr. Ibrahim: And when he has stolen from the Yemeni people and stolen $60 billion dollars, he is not just a traitor but a thief, too. And by the way, this applies to his family, too! And of the Yemeni people, 95% of them are good pure sorts of people. And -

BBC Arabic moderator: Okay, I'm not sure where you're getting these percentages from ... are they from you, or from others? Where did you get the percent that 95% of the Yemeni people are against the Houthis? If it was only 5% of the population supporting the Houthis, we wouldn't have seen everything we've been seeing on TV.

Mr. Ibrahim: Have you at all noticed, my dear man, that you give yourself more time to ask the question than you give me to answer it?

BBC Arabic moderator (losing his patience): yes, really, because you're giving answers that are totally unrelated to what I'm asking. From what source are your percents coming? That was my question. Where did you get 95% from?

Mr. Ibrahim: that percent came from one of the leaders of the Yemeni government. And, the BBC invited me here. Do you want to hear from me or should I leave?

BBC Arabic moderator: No, of course we want to hear from you, go on.

Mr. Ibrahim: Great. Then you ask me questions and give me time to answer.

BBC Arabic moderator: Well, Mr. Ibrahim, we only have a limited amount of time. I'll give you all the time you want, but in context of the time we have for the program.

Mr. Ibrahim: And I, too, I also have limited time! So please don't (something something) with everything that I say.

BBC Arabic moderator: Not at all!

Mr. Ibrahim: So what I was saying was: 95% of the Yemeni people, a figure given by a high official in the Yemeni government, are with the legitimate government, and are with our campaign. The Yemeni people reject the Iranian meddling, and the traitors. This is clear. And this is reflected in the figures!

BBC Arabic moderator: Alright, then, how do you explain the fact, if what you say is true about 95% being against the Houthis, that the Houthis are still out in the streets? Isn't that strange if they only comprise 5% of the population?

Mr. Ibrahim: Beautiful. That is a beautiful question. The aim of our bombing campaign is not the genocide of the Houthis. [!] Instead, we want to make their political voice to reflect their actual numbers, and we don't want them to have weapons with which they threaten all the other political parties. And if they want to be part of political dialogue, then they can come and do that without weapons. My dear man, they've occupied all these cities in Yemen. They want to enforce their political will on the Yemeni people through their weapons. And what the united bombing campaign aims for is not the genocide of the Houthis, for they are of the Yemeni people; but we want them to have a political party that comes to sit at the political table. That's all we want.

Well, this is so far only half the interview. The rest had a lot of people speaking out against Mr. Ibrahim; and some in support of Mr. Ibrahim; and a lot of very emotional voices, but I don't have time to translate it all right now. I just really got a kick out of Mr. Ibrahim.

Oh, and you'll want to know the story behind this sleazy, evil smile:

That was Mr. Ibrahim's grin as an Arab caller living in Britain tells him: your bombs are ruining the country, and you didn't even give the Yemenis a chance to flee to the borders before you started your military campaign.

If you want to watch the full interview, you can do so here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlOUyq1On00

Just as a parting note, I'd like to include the full picture of the moderator:

He looks way better with a beard than he did without!

A Yemeni rebel and a Saudi man debate who treats women better

There is a severe crisis in Yemen right now. First, rebels took over the national capital. In response, a bunch of Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, started bombing Yemen. Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world.

The BBC Arabic had a debate about it three days ago. First, the man speaking for the rebels explained himself. He said: yes, it is true that Yemen had held big talks aimed at compromise; but no, the rebels had never felt truly included in those talks, and that was why they had to take guns to their aims. So, he continued, how can you expect us to sit down for talks now, just at the moment when we are being bombed by foreigners??

Then, the person speaking against the rebels, and in favor of the Saudi-led military intervention, said: we are not foreigners! We are fellow Arabs. How can you call us foreigners? We only want the best for Yemen. We are totally opposed to these rebels who have come out of the nowhere and destabilized the entire country.

Then I think the BBC Arabic moderator asked: so your way of "wanting the best for Yemen" is to bomb the country to smithereens? And to bomb refugees and civilians?

Then the pro-Saudi man answered: No! We do not bomb civilians! We do not bomb refugees!

[I don't know if this is true, because though I was not paying close attention, there was something on the news about refugees having been killed by these Saudi bombs. But the pro-Saudi man continued nevertheless:]

Pro-Saudi man: We would never harm anyone in Yemen! In fact, it's the rebels who are harming people. Have you heard about how they've killed people, and have you heard about how they've arrested women? Yemeni women!! The rebels are arresting Yemeni women! Have you heard the like? Yemeni women in jail, jailed at the hands of the rebels! How dare they! How can they claim they are good for the country when they are dishonoring Yemeni women by putting them in jail!

Well, the pro-rebel guy actually had a zinger to that:

Pro-rebel guy: Listen to the Saudi man talk of the dishonor of putting women in jail - the Saudis who jail women for driving cars.

It must be owned that the pro-Saudi guy had not thought that far ahead and had no answer.

Here's the pro-rebel guy:

I was busy working and did not dare take screenshots, but when this man said the thing about arresting women for driving, I just had to capture him. 

Al Arabiya reports on Iraq and Syria

I am not watching the BBC Arabic while in Jordan, but I am seeing a lot of Al Arabiya's special in-depth news channel called 'Al Hadeth'. That means, 'the events.'

I've never really watched Al Arabiya before. But someone told me that during the coup in Egypt last year, Al Arabiya took the side of the Egyptian army. On the other hand, Al Jazeera took the side of the deposed president Mursi.

Al Arabiya is owned by a rich Saudi guy - but not by the Saudi government. And it is headquartered out of Dubai.

These days, the only thing Al Arabiya's special 'Al Hadeth' channel ever talks about is what is happening in Iraq. Well, every once in a while they'll sneak in something about Syria, too.

Al Arabiya takes the side of the Sunni revolutionaries in Iraq, and is very clearly against the current Iraqi president, Al Maliki.

In fact, they don't really fully recognize his claim as head of state. Instead of talking about the 'Iraqi army', they'll just talk about 'Al Maliki's army'.

I don't think, however, that they are on the side of 'Daa-ish'/ISIS/ISIL, or whatever they are supposed to be called. But they probably put the blame for their appearance squarely on the head of Al Maliki.

Moving on from all the Al Maliki's, Al Jazeera's, and Al Arabiya's, I would like to tell you that Al Arabiya does also highlight the UN's role in what is happening.

For example, I think two days ago Syria's last stockpiles of chemical weapons were shipped out. So Al Hadeth did very long interview with Sigrid Kaag. I saw her last year on the BBC Arabic. She is the lady in charge of the UN mission to remove all of Syria's chemical weapons.

The Al Arabiya moderator asked something like: how does it feel to be leaving Syria while it is in such a shambles?

Sigrid Kaag: I came to do a job for the UN, and beyond that, I can't comment.

The Al Arabiya moderator: what do you make of reports that you are being considered as the successor to Lakhdar Brahimi as the special envoy trying to bring peace to Syria?

Sigrid Kaag: I don't know anything about that.

The Al Arabiya moderator: you don't know anything about it? I'm not asking you that, I'm asking how you feel about that.

Sigrid Kaag: I have nothing to say about that.

Yesterday, all the Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan were back in the news, and Al Arabiya showed a clip of Valerie Amos speaking about the terrible situation. Valerie Amos is something like chief of humanitarian operations at the UN.

Then Al Arabiya showed a UN spokesperson, who said: we know that Lebanon and Jordan are overwhelmed, and we are doing everything we can to support them (or something like that.)


And then, Al Arabiya even showed a clip of the current president of the World Bank speaking about Syrian refugees. The current president of the World Bank is an American with roots I think in South Korea. Any case, he was talking about how the World Bank is doing everything it can to support Jordan and Lebanon.

This morning, Al Arabiya aired a commercial from Unicef, trying to get people to donate to the Syrian refugees. It was full of crying, miserable-looking kids. I'd heard before that Unicef does not show crying kids in its commercials, but maybe that is a policy just in place for western audiences.

Any case, at least Al Arabiya audiences don't have to suffer through that actress who does a Unicef commercial every Christmas in the US, with a really cheesy trembling voice. I guess Unicef must have monitored the results of that Christmas commercial and found it successful, because I see it year after year.

Climate Change awareness in the Arab World

Twice during the months of March and April, 2014, the BBC Arabic had reports about climate change, and how it is expected to affect Arab countries.

First, they showed footage of the coral reefs in danger. 

And of the droughts we can expect:

 

As well as floods:

The BBC Arabic coverage coincided with a global report released by the IPCC, which is a UN-sponsored panel monitoring climate change. Here is the report's chairman presenting the urgent matter. 

The coverage was led by Fida Bassil. She interviewed an Arab climate change expert, so she could get the Arab side of the story. Fida asked why, if the UN is using strong language in its reports, have there not been steps taken to dampen climate change, and why are there no tangible results?

She also asked him, why has the world failed in this? But the Arab expert said the world hasn't completely failed.

The name of this Arab expert is Azzat Abd Al Hameed.

Then, a few weeks later they did more climate change reporting, this time about efforts Saudi Arabia is making in the field of solar energy. According to the BBC Arabic, Saudi would like to transform from being an oil-exporting country to a country that exports sustainable energy. Not bad!

This man was explaining all about solar energy:

This is a plant I think that produces solar panels in Saudi. 

And I think these are fields of solar panels soaking up the sunlight.

I think they said: Saudi Arabia would like to keep their oil underground, and just export solar energy and stuff. 

 And I think they said further that Saudi Arabia will soon get 30% of its energy from solar energy.