Chewed some extraordinary Qat last week, freshly plucked from the fields of Wadi Dhar. Was promised the best sleep of my life. Indeed, i was out for about 13 hours.
Subject of the chew was mainly to do with Iran elections and the Saa’da kidnapping.
The latest theories on the kidnapping – in which actually only 3 bodies have been discovered not known publically what has happened to the other people – are as follows:
1. Jihadist freelancers funded by Saudis popped over the border from a camp in Saudi and did it
2. …

Update 1845 Sana’a. It is increasingly likely that a group aligned to Al Qaeda and based in northern Yemen has committed this atrocity. Whether all 9 have been killed or whether 7 have been killed with 2 of the children being found alive, is not confirmed.
At some point between Friday 12th June and Monday 15th June,  a picnic arranged by a group of 9 foreigners in the Saa’da region in north Yemen, turned into a horror story. We know that at least 7 bodies have been found, 3 German women …

In late May, The Guardian had an excellent report on a group of tourists visiting Yemen from the UK.
As with everything we are told, taught or preached to about, context is everything. Kevin Rushby’s article is one of the best i have read in that it sets western life – notably British life – in context with how many people miss-perceive countries such as Yemen. In particular i like the juxtaposition between knife crime in Britain, the Yemeni jambiya worn by most Yemenis in the north of Yemen, and the …