not an admissions essay

So I’ve registered to take the GRE, and I’ve been studying for them, which is... soporific, and... exegent? And I hate it; I’ve forgotten how to do long division (Einstein complex?). This is a really nice activity though, for Yemen. It makes a good use of all my solitary hours, and AMIDEAST happened to have three current GRE study books in the library. Scores are good for five years, and I assume that within the next five years I will want to attend grad school.
My interest is to study Conflict Resolution. Which we all knew was coming because a) I’m a squishy hippie and b) if you remember the story, my very birth was an act of peace. My older brother and sister claim that the last time they fought was before I was born, arguing if I were to be a brother or a sister.
At my university most people were overly idealistic bleeding hearts, and I really prided myself on my common-sense agrarian background, on having being rooted in reality and not some utopian dreamscape. One of the things university espoused was that militarism exists as one of the greatest causes of environmental destruction throughout the globe, a fact to which I totally agree. After spending time here, I realize that this axiom means American militarism exactly.
America was birthed out of violence. From the advent of European settlement, practically every step of our history as a nation is hinged upon violence: The slaughtering of the natives; the war for independence (whereas Canada achieved independence comparatively peacefully); the virulent and obscenely racist, classist, heterosexist, etc. prison-industrial complex within our borders; to our imperialist military expansions outside of our borders.
Not just our collective history, but our personal histories also are overflowed with violence. We are inoculated to violence in our so-called children’s television programming like Tom & Jerry. When my students learn that in high school I had a gun and would go hunting, they are totally bewildered, they think I’m part of some fascist militia. The sad thing is that it's partly true, in elementary school I was in the paramilitary organization Cub Scouts of America before my folks got better sense and yanked me out. Our textbooks project this violence onto everywhere else too, like when describing tribal warfare in Afrika; reading a high school history text you would think that wars are the only events in human history. Violence resonates in nearly every aspect of American society, extending especially to our military and its expensive weaponry.
However, the entire concept of military and weaponry between America and the rest of the world are distinctly different. The military here performs a different function, a more practical role as a peacekeeping organization. Here, there are many different political factions (as opposed to the US's blighted bipartisanship), each with their own agenda and often with their own small militia. The state’s military allows the different groups to have there disputes, which are admittedly frequently bloody. However, the military does not step in until the warfare extends to unwilling participants, or the public. It is used to maintain a sense of order, used to preserve the social contract, uphold the theory that government makes everyone’s lives better. The military bests us when we resort to our brutishness. There is even a reverence among the people for the soldiers, an admiration that does not stretch to include government groups or the police, both of which are egregiously corrupt.
What’s strange to me is when the Yemeni people (well, and anybody else really) explain to me and warn me about the dangers within their country. The risk of kidnapping (which I hear is almost always given as a choice) is minute compared to the eighteen people kidnapped every day in Mexico. The threat of random violence or even typical tourist annoyances like being pick-pocketed is extremely minimal compared to Detroit or even Portland. As a foreigner generally and a white American male specifically, I am acutely aware of myself here anyways, but most prominently I recognize my inbred malice. Comparing myself to the ordinary Yemeni, I am Pol Pot. I see red in my worldview and it is more than a little disconcerting.
My current question though, is whether studying Conflict Resolution in America is a good choice. The programs are not very renowned or reputable outside of the states, and rightfully so. They were spawned from within a violent system and can deal only within it. International programs are head and shoulders better than American. Would it be more prudent to study outside of America to get a better education or would it be foolhardy since I’m going to be working within the American framework? I don’t know yet. I still have five years.
Quoting addendum: I couldn't really find a good spot to fit this quote into the text, but I really really like it so here goes: "'Give me liberty.' There really shouldn't be another choice here."

may be better than quail

Woa. Today, 16 May, I recieved my first batch of mail which included a package from Aunt Carol sent 20 March, and two postcards from my sweet friend Athena in the Eugene sent 6 May. So that's how long it takes. Write me letters. If you send packages, I hear DHL is the cheapest and quickest to get here. There's a rumor that I may be able to transfer to a different city for the next session, starting mid-June, but as far as mail and stuff, we can worry about that later.
The political situation is hairy right now. Next weekend on 22 May is the national holiday celebrating the anniversary of unification between North and South Yemen. In the past weeks the North-slanted government has been cracking down on separatist movement in the South. Separatist rallies have turned into riots then quashed by the military and resulting in some deaths. Seven newspapers have been effectively shut down for promoting disunity. They're still printing issues because the legal process to shut them down takes too much time or money, but the military has been collecting the printings before they ever reach their audience. The editor of one of these papers, al-Ayyam, centered here in Aden, has been wanted for a year in connection of a murder (the details on this, as always, are fuzzy) and the military on Wednesday sought him ought. They stormed the office in Crater, Aden which was protected by the paper's own guards/militia and resulted in three deaths and the arrest of the editor. Taryn's friend who works/ed for Ayyam is fine. I'm not sure what the coming week has in store, but I imagine that if nothing epic is triggered by the 22nd, everything will be alright after that... for a time.
PS: OMGZ MAIL IS AWESOME!

marginals

Unity between North and South Yemen was made in 1990 and there was a civil war in 1994 to little effect but the repeated marginalization of the south. Civil war in Yemen is going to happen again but nobody really knows for sure when. There has been some civil unrest here in the south which has prompted reactions from the governing north. Seven have died in Mukalla (where I'm trying to get transferred) during rallies held by secessionists that have turned into riots by the pro-government militia Guards of Unity. The newspaper al-Ayyam, the employer of a friend of Taryn, has been shut down along with six others for allegdly promoting a "harmed national unity." Revoking freedom of press and speech will undoubtedly fan the fire.
Yemen still has no cases of swine flu, or H1N1. Similar to in Israel, under sharia, referring to pigs is Haram. Unlike Israel though, we're not stupidly calling it the Mexican flu.

mayday

One session down. Matt's moved to Sana'a so I have a room to myself (with no view) now. Taryn went with him over the break and got her life stolen from her. Over lunch she told me the tale today -which is our first day back- and it sounds pretty horrific.
I on the other hand, spent a bunch of my time off nerdily reading about grammar and punctuation and usage (turns out the Guide to American Usage by Bryan Garner which I picked up in a thrift store in Bend of all places is the new Bible, or Linguinomicon rather, having pretty much ended the usage wars haughtily faught in the imaginations of dictionary and grammar editors). Not that that's going to do any good for my writing but it just means I'll have more self-confidence when I correct your terrible grammar. Which reminds me, this site is all around fantastic and you should check it out.
Anyways, Taryn got her passport stolen along with all of her banking information and any other personal information. And this happened in Sana'a, not Aden where she lives and works. Fortunately the American Embassy is in Sana'a, right? Physically, yes; effectively, it doesn't exist. How do you prove your citizenship without a passport, and how do you get anywhere in a beauracracy quagmired by bribery after you've lost all access to your money? Her situation right now is the nightmare of any foreigner; I'm feeling homesick, vicariously exposed, and am not taking this incident lightly. Her first vacation was ruined, decimated really, and basically invalidated her first three months of work here or at least that's how I would feel. After two months she should be able to get a new passport so that she can then reapply for all of the visas and not be living and working in Yemen illegally. It's a crappy situation for her right now that makes us all feel slightly unsettled until it gets sorted out.

amriikii francophilia

Aden is sometimes described by expats as a place that takes a lot of initiative. There's no safety seal on anything here. You can do pretty much anything you want, but it takes creativity and direction. Indecision just doesn't work. Most social activities here do not revolve around food, which is a novelty I'm still appreciate of, and tend to last three hours longer than I'm comfortable with. That said, I've been a little bored. My home-life is annoying, and there just aren't places to go that I'm used to, such as coffee shops, community centers, libraries, or bars. There's no place to escape in solitude. But, I've been making do. My colleage and friend Catherine, who is from South Africa and is generally awesome, and I have been talking about making a zine to cover the cultural and social events that do occur. It would, of course, be done tongue-in-cheek, because really, these happenings are laughable.
On Wednesday, which is the last day of my working week, Catherine and I went to the French cultural center a few blocks from AMIDEAST. After getting through security, we met a woman and man who worked there, were given a tour consisting of their classrooms and library, which is larger than the one at AMIDEAST, but all in French (or Arabic). The French center shares a shaded courtyard with the German cultural center, which we were also toured around. The Germans also have classrooms, a small German library, and a kitchen complete with espresso machine. Catherine and I were able to sit with the German cultural representative Christian in the courtyard and drink espresso and talk for almost an hour. Both centers hold events such as movie nights and dinners to spread cultural awareness, and do so in their compound to allow the removal of the veil and a less Islamic atmosphere. Because of this, it does however, exist as a target.
The nieghborhood where I work includes a couple English schools which allow coed classrooms, a couple foreign embassies, the UN, and a couple foreign consulates. Local threats (as opposed to specific) are made to the area continually. The UN has been running at half staff for a few weeks now, and just this week AMIDEAST installed a female security officer, as well as starting mandatory bag and ID checks, which is annoying.
So the French cultural center was a welcome discovery, providing me with the possibility of a place to forget and also to refresh.

blast kills four

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/16/yemen.blast/index.html#cnnSTCText

This was about a twelve hour drive from Aden, so I'm safe. The article doesn't say this but I guess a lot of Koreans here are missionaries. Hadramawt is a notoriously fundamentalist region.