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 almost unheard of use of it in violence.

Moreover, Kevin quotes a Yemeni who lived in Scarborough during the 1980s :

I did visit England! I went in the late 1980s and stayed for
three months – one in Manchester, the rest in Scarborough. I did like the
countryside a lot, but … ” he shakes his head. “In the towns, with so much
drinking of alcohol, I think it is very dangerous – fighting and
everything.

As i have written in previous posts, Yemen has problems and indeed, violence can be of a different nature and is even hidden away in the tribal culture prevalent outside the main cities.

Head over here and read Kevin’s article, then book your tickets!

Here’s some links to the story:

BBC – Tourists Die In Explosion

Reuters – Qaeda Bomber Behind Yemen Attack Trained In Somalia

CNN – Al Qaeda Blamed

In the last 2 years there has been some high profile terrorist attacks in Yemen. In the summer of 2007 a group of Spanish tourists were targeted at the ‘Sheba’ temple complex in Marib. Following that in January 2008, a tourist convoy of Belgians were attacked on the road to Hajarain in Wadi Doan – an area in Hadramout. There is now the latest incident involving tourists.

It is somewhat harshly ironic that Hadramout means ‘Death Comes’. It was so named hundreds of years ago as the region is hot, dusty, dry and tribal. The name seems sadly more than apt in the 21st Century.

My last visit to Hadramout was in October 2008. It was very different than previous trips. More security, some restrictions on movement and when visiting Shibam i was asked for my details by an elder of the town.  As always i moved using local transport.  Using high profile tourist 4 X 4’s has never been my preferred mode of transport and for sure it wont be now.  Are some of the Yemeni tour companies compromised by Al Qaeda sympathisers or operatives? You can’t help but wonder, and i genuinely hate to as that question has serious implications for the Yemen tourism industry.

If you are looking for advice on business or travel through Yemen, of course you should contact your government, and feel free to drop me a line.

The back story to Somali piracy is pretty much as follows: the narrow waters between Yemen and Northern Somalia – The Gulf of Aden – have been the location of numerous piracy incidents – more than anywhere else in the world. Yemeni fishing boats, international cargo ships etc taking the route across the Gulf of Aden to the port of Dubai and all passages south, are easy targets, especially for returning bored Somali seamen who have just dropped off their human cargo somewhere on the Yemen shoreline. Private yachts have been targeted as well as larger vessels such as cruise liners and oil tankers. The story goes even further back to the Arab Israeli war. The Bab Al Mandab – the southern entrance to the Red Sea was managed by the Yemenis to prevent any assistance getting to Israel. It is clear that Yemen and other Arab states, are still sensitive to any Israeli influence in the waters around the Gulf of Aden. How this all connects is revealed later in this blog entry.

People wonder how such large vessels such as the Sirius Star can be hijacked. It’s quite simple. The pirates approach in fast speedboats, armed with RPGS that they threaten to fire into the ship’s bridge or bow. The pirates are allowed to board – the ships crew aren’t paid to put up a fight – and they are then in control. The pirates have been known to claim to be environmental activists

Let’s take a look at the region and see what else has been going on:

1. Pollution and over fishing. It is known that the area of the Somali coast has been used as toxic dumping ground since the 1990s and some of the waste was washed up ashore as a result of the Asian Tsunami in 2004 more here

2. Undoubtedly the Gulf of Aden is a highly strategic area. Navies from the UK, Canada, France, Russia and the USA all have a presence in and around the waters between Yemen and Somalia. more here

3. There is the ongoing crisis of human trafficking between Somalia and Yemen. Around 100 Somalis a day arrive on the Yemen coast between Mukallah and Aden having been ferried across by Somali gangs. more here

4. The area has always had strategic importance. The British occupied Aden in the middle of the 19th century and the entrance to the Red Sea was of importance in the 1973 war with Israel.

Intrigue and Conspiracy:

Back in September the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship bearing the Belize flag, was hijacked off the coast of Somalia. Recently, this hijacking had gone off the mainstream media’s radar, even before the latest hijacking of the Sirius Star. No other hijacking has triggered more conspiracy theories that the MV Faina.

What we know: the vessel had on board a quantity of Russian tanks and artillery. Who it is for is anybody’s guess:

Weapons for Kenya ? more here

Weapons for Southern Sudan ? more here

Weapons for Yemen ? more here

Ownership of the MV Faina: one intriguing twist in the MV Faina story is the case of who owns the vessel. This report points to an Israeli with links to the Israeli government and intelligence services, as having the vessel registered in his own name.

Control and financing of the Somali pirates. Number of twists here: the BBC included in a report that the Somalians were receiving financing from Dubai based businessmen. The Yemeni President has also claimed that the Somalians were under the instruction of the Israelis as part of a strategy to have Israeli influence in the Bab Al Mandab.

Will all these individual narratives join together? Are the Somalis getting money from Dubai and being helped by the Israelis? Is the EU wanting to have greater control of the Arabian Sea and exert greater influence in the Gulf of Aden with perhaps direct control of the Aden port itself? Is Yemen supplying the Somalians with arms and were the Russian tanks heading to Yemen? Is Somalia inadvertently encouraging a trojan horse in the form of a western, multinational maritime force that will invade and occupy Somalia? a country of significant strategic importance.

What is for certain is that it will take sometime for the threads of the Somali piracy story to weave themselves into a tapestry of foreign affairs we can understand.

Technorati Tags: Somalia piracy, Mv faina, Sirius star, Ship hijacking

Hot and Heavy?

So as being reported here and here its worth considering some cultural sensitivities before getting down to some heavy petting in Petra, having a jump in Jumeirah, or orgasming in Oman. Such activity may be happily entertained or even encouraged in certain places in the Med but you dont need to have a phd in middle eastern studies to know that any open sexual activity may not go down too well in arab islamic countries. Especially if you are caught.

Some basics for amorous couples in public:

• Dont snog
• Dont get into heavy amorous embraces
• Holding hands is ok in some countries

Also, it is slowly being accepted that men and women can greet each other with a European style ’mwah’ even if they aren’t married to each other, often to the surprise of arab men who saved this custom exclusively for each other.

The couple in the Dubai case have been hit with alcohol charges, public indecency charges and charged with having unmarried sex. They deny the last 2 but admit the first. They were subjected to some seemingly embarrassing DNA tests and the woman has been sacked from her job in Dubai. Not only that but they have had the embarrassing SKY News expose treatment.

They are facing a 6 year sentence but the Dubai authorities are saying it is likely to be a 6 month sentence with a fine. As their case has been delayed, it wouldn’t surprise me if there are some negotiations going on in the background to see them spared the jail bit. However anyone familiar with the BBC Grooverider case will know how hard the Dubai people are.

Yes people do bonk in the arab world. In fact anyone who has strolled through the old city of Sanaa late at night will be aware of the bonkfest that takes place, especially after the guys return home after a qat chew. It is a cacophony of pleasure that contributes to Yemen being one of the most child productive nations on Earth.

Know before you go people and if public bonking is your thing, go to Ibiza.

Technorati Tags: Advice, United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Sex couple, Caught having sex

A look back in the Yemeni media over the last 2 months shows a ’war’ between 2 vitality important issues for Yemen:

1. Security

2. Investment

The war is not an asymmetric confrontation between these 2 issues, though i guess ultimately it is, but a war being simultaneously played out in the Yemeni media. So what has been happening?

Security

• In Sana’a there have been bombs and explosions almost regularly since mid-March. First a mortar fired at a school / US Embassy – yes it isnt clear as to which was the target, 2 bombs in the compound of Canadian Nexen, 1 mortar fired in the Haddah area that landed in the Kuwaiti Oil Residential Compound, and just yesterday (30th April 2008) 1 or more mortar shells fired at either the Italian Embassy or a Yemen Customs Authority Building – another one where the target isnt clear.
• In Seiyun, there were 3 explosions at the police station in late April. These were probably hand grenades.
• In Marib, a landmine was planted that killed 3 policemen.
• In Saa’da, violence seems to continue, with the assassination of an MP, his son and bodyguard. 15 people have been arrested as part of the investigation into this. Also in Saa’da a delegation from Qatar have been attempting to broker a deal between the Al-Houtis and the Yemen Government. The Qataris returned to Sana’a empty handed last week. This is a conflict that is deep routed in tribal, historic and sectarian strife.
• 110,000 weapons have been confiscated since the issuing of ban on all firearms within the walls of the major cities in August 2007.
• The south hasn’t been peaceful either. The Sana’a- Aden road was blocked by security forces in a bid to quell protests in a number of the southern towns. At least the motives for this seems to be clear – tensions between the north and south over perceived bias in Government favouring the north.

Investment

• In March a tourism and real estate conference was held in Al-Mukallah to promote the Hadramout region – ancestral homeland to many Saudis.
• There has also been a lot of talk of allowing Yemen into the GCC. GCC Secretary General Abdul Rahman Al Attiyah was in Sana in February to discuss the strategy for this merger.
• Overtures are being made that there will be a warming of diplomatic relations between the Yemenis and Kuwaitis. (the chill here goes back to the 1991 Gulf War, when Yemen backed Saddam)
• Yemen and Qatar are getting friendlier. The Qataris have been in Yemen to announce a ’$500 Million Yemeni Project’ to build the ’Al Rayyan Hills’ development in the south of Yemen. This is a Dubai-esque uber development. Also the Qataris have got involved in the Yemen banking industry through a JV with CAC Bank in Yemen. Among other things this JV will promote insurance products to the Yemen market.

In 2005 the GCC voted to start the process of Yemen’s integration into the GCC. There are very clear and accepted reasons for this. Yemen is geographically and demographically complimentary – 23 million, young, working class citizens; there is an ancestral heritage between the people of other Gulf states and Yemen; Yemen occupies a strategic location on the Red Sea and Arabian Sea. Lastly, membership of the GCC would see Yemen as a contributor and not a ’charity-case’ taking the periodic hand me downs from its richer neighbours.

Resistance to the inclusion of Yemen comes from the Kuwaitis and Saudis. The Kuwaitis fear Yemen’s inclusion could open the doors to other countries requesting inclusion, Saudi Arabia in a somewhat related argument, say Yemen simply cannot join because it isn’t located on the Gulf. More moderate arguments point to concerns about the opening of the Yemen market to other Gulf investors and the lack of infrastructure and a flaky business environment. Concerns address the poor standards of education in Yemen and the the results achieved by Yemeni Universities. The cancerous ’corruption’ word is never far from the lips of GCC experts either.

Ultimately it is the issues that everyone likes to talk about, which are holding Yemen back: Religious extremism; tribal conflicts; possession of firearms and the social implications of the Qat chewing habit.

Hence we are back to the ’warfare’ between investment and security being played out for all to see in the media. Whilst Yemen tries to attract investment, it cannot help but reveal the barriers to investment.

In another post i will reveal how Yemen is heading towards a new challenge: not to be the a victim on the first front of a new war, one which effects everyone regardless of wealth, religion or creed – the battle for a safe, drinkable water supply.

The passive income strategies that i know deliver results, involve some work and strategic thinking on your part but in a very short time…e.g. weeks, can actually begin generating cash. Here’s an insight into how to create your own little collection of ‘oil wells’ pumping cash on a regular basis and some free pdfs to get you started:

A Bullshit Free Explanation

So, this is how it works:

The Revenue Streams:

1. Google Adsense: you create websites, you place Google Adsense code onto them, you get visitors, they click the ads, you get some money. Very easy this one.
2. Affiliate Sales: you create a website or build an email list. You find products that are relevant to your website or that your email list have a propensity to buy, you get an affiliate link, you promote it on the website or to your email list. They click the link and buy the product, you make money. Also quite easy to do.
3. Your own digital product: bit trickier this, but very doable. You create a digital product – usually some software or an ebook – you list it on one of the many sites that will promote it to their base of affiliates (see 2 above). They sell it for you, you make money.

Getting Started:

For any business getting going is the hardest, but once you understand the key techniques it is quite simple.

1. Keywords. This is where you begin to find out the markets that will make you the most money. You build websites around a particular theme, for example, weight loss. You find all related terms that people look for within the weight loss category e.g. weight loss pills. You can then expand the weight loss pills search term into other related terms eg. cheap weight loss pills, weight loss pills online etc etc.
2. Content. Once you have the keywords you then need content for a website. The easiest way to get content is to go to a free article directory and get everything from there related to keywords. You will want to rewrite it or pay someone to rewrite it for you.
3. The website. You need to register a domain name that has at least 2 of the main keywords in it. Find a host for the website. You then need to build the website around all the juicy content you got in step 2. You can use software for this or outsource it to someone who will do it for about $50. You will make this money back very quickly.
4. Promotion. Content is king, promotion is everything. Without people knowing about your site you wont make money, simple. Promotion of your website involves 2 techniques that the pros call ’onsite’ and ’offsite’ optimisation. Onsite means you have written your content with good use of keywords and meta tags, meta descriptions, meta titles and page naming. Offsite refers to building links in the appropriate way so that ’search engine spiders’ from Google, AOL, Yahoo, MSN etc can find your site and list it in their search results for your search terms e.g. weight loss pills
5. Monetisation. The revenues streams (adsense, affiliate sales, digital product) all need steps 1 through 4 carried out. Adsense is the simplest and if your site has visitors, you will make money straightaway. A pretty basic website done well will bring you in $10 a day. Affiliate sales make more money but less often. Some products will pay you well over $50 a sale. Again a pretty basic website could make you 1 sale every couple of days. Selling your own digital product on a regular basis is where the big money is in the ’passive internet income’ space. To have your $100 product being promoted by 10,000s affiliates everyday without any further input from you could bring in revenues in excess of $20,000 a month.

Objectives:

Most of the ’guru’s in this industry stress the setting of goals before you begin. As this is simply a ’numbers game’, it isn’t hard to do, it just requires some leg work or a small amount of investment in outsourcing the laborious elements such as website creation and promotion. Set yourself a start-up budget of just $50 per site and you should make approx $2000 a year from it. If you have the financial leverage to outsource to a remote worker and pay them $750 a month to build and promote 15 sites for you each month, at the end of year 1 you will have 180 units of ’virtual real estate’ that could generate for you in year 2 over $360,000 (180 x $2000). That is around $350,000 net profit.

Strategies:

The heavy hitters in this industry tell me that they are making over $1million a year in automated earnings using the monetisation techniques above. Due to the nature of this business, there is a very nice multiplier effect that increases earnings year on year. Here’s what they do:

1. They find multiple niches based on keyword research. They put their content together and surround it with Google Ads. They then build loads of sites like this.

2. They will also build a single page niche or product specific site that uses a ’squeeze page’. This will make visitors ’opt in’ to providing their email address. This then enables the visitor to receive promotional email offers through what the gurus call a ’backend affiliate sales strategy’. If you do this, each email you send out will promote an offer that features your affiliate link…..to make sales like this each product has to be relevant to the website they originally visited

3. If the site is promoting a product or an offer, they will use an ’exit page’ one time offer. This may or may not be related to the original offer, but usually involves a bonus or freebie of some kind.

Further Reading:

Two of my friends have done very well in this business and have given me the right to give you 2 of their ebooks that talk in depth about the passive income techniques i mention above, free of charge.

Brad Callen has written an excellent book called Adwords Made Easy Understanding Keyword Strategies (downloadable pdf by clicking the link). This book is packed with lots of info on how to use keywords to build sites and generate traffic.

Michael Cheney is a heavy hitter at making websites that bring him in $10000s a month in Adsense earnings. Michael Cheneys Adsense Videos Free Ebook (downloadable pdf by clicking the link) will help you understand how generate traffic and revenues.

Download the books, print them out, read them on a plane or in your hotel room. Good luck!