By: Ahmed Al-Aghbari – Sana\u2019a – The Yemeni American News<\/p>\n
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His friends\u2019 pleading on behalf of his daughter did not have any effect on him and did not move any of Abdu Ghalib\u2019s (57 years old) expected emotions.\u00a0 The unemployment caused by the war for two years perhaps were enough to kill any sentiments in him, making him even devoid of parental emotions.<\/p>\n
A Victim of War Madness<\/strong><\/p>\n This life and Abdu Ghalib\u2019s decision cannot be explained by the logical rationalizations of normal life.\u00a0 The situation here is quite different.\u00a0 Life can sometimes reach levels of unexplainable irrationality that we simply have to submit to.\u00a0 One does not wish to declare that a madness has touched Abdu Ghalib per se.\u00a0 Abdu Ghalib is a wise man and still lives, eats, and coexist with people, holding on to what strength and mentality is still left in him.\u00a0 Yet, it is inescapable to see that he is overcome and defeated and perhaps hit with what we might call \u201cwar madness\u201d.\u00a0 There are many such victims of \u201cwar madness\u201d, but they are hidden and not to be found in the forefront, where the physical victims of this dreaded war are easily visible. The situation of these people is noticeably saddening, especially of those victims, who have reached seniority in age, which does not allow for a move to, or for learning a new vocation.<\/p>\n Abdu Ghalib didn\u2019t care much for such talk.\u00a0 He now just passes the days now with the cats he has come to love \u2013 and which have come to love him.\u00a0 It is a life with only the details of daily existence the only concern of many people these days, because no one really what the next day of war and air, sea and land blockade will bring.\u00a0 All this destruction and wreckage, death and illness, starvation and absence of the most basic of amenities are enough to render many sane people to the pitfalls of madness and irrationality of behavior.\u00a0\u00a0 This war has destroyed the geographical wholeness of the country dividing the Republic of Yemen into cantons and more importantly alienating the once solid social fabric of the society.<\/p>\n The Strains of A Mind<\/strong><\/p>\n Many of the people in this neighborhood of North Sana\u2019a recognize his face.\u00a0 His facial expressions have been engrained by ups and downs throughout his life.\u00a0 People in the neighborhood have known him for over twenty years as a skilled air conditioning and refrigeration technician\/repairman and repaired other household appliances as well.\u00a0 His workshop has moved all over the Sana\u2019a neighborhoods until he settled down to a workshop near the largest apartment building in Sana\u2019a.\u00a0 He became familiar to many in the neighborhood as a doctor is known to a family.\u00a0 He was a skilled man in his trade and was able to fix any faults in refrigerators, air conditioners and washers.\u00a0 On a normal day he used to net at least YR 5,000 to 7,500 per day.\u00a0 He was able to live on that income and send support to his children (3 daughters and a son).\u00a0 This was how it was until the War broke out in March 2015.\u00a0 The war meant the total interruption of public electricity service.<\/p>\n Forced Accommodation<\/strong><\/p>\n Many business sectors were adversely affected by the War.\u00a0 But there were some sectors that were devastated such as the refrigeration and air conditioning repairs, because this vocation is tied completely to the availability of continuous electric power.\u00a0 Without electricity most of the families in Sana\u2019a no longer used such basic amenities as refrigerators and air\u00a0 conditioning, as they needed strong electric power, which alternative solar power purchased by fixed income families could not operate.\u00a0 Thus most air conditioning and refrigeration repair shop businesses ceased operating.\u00a0 Some of the technicians were able to move on to other trades and adapt somewhat , but some unfortunately some\u00a0 could not leave a vocation they have been tied to for decades.\u00a0 Thus they were unable to change their vocational course, as was the case with Abdu Ghalib:\u00a0 \u201cI am an old man, where can I go at this age?\u201d\u00a0 With this question, in his colloquial speech expressed the dilemma and sadness which he has embedded in his chest.\u00a0 For over two years, Abdu Ghalib has lived a life of squander accommodating forcefully with life holding on to whatever he can of his mental serenity, which has been compromised by the depression brought on by the passage of time.\u00a0 Every day he dreams that the following sunrise will bring with it an end to the War, so he resume his life and continue whatever remains of his age carrying on with an occupation that never failed him since he engaged in it from his childhood.<\/p>\n Peace and Electricity<\/strong><\/p>\n He speaks of his family with hemorrhaging words; his daughters live with his divorcee in the village.\u00a0 However, this father doesn\u2019t have the faintest idea where his son is or where he is working.<\/p>\n \u201cThey say he is working in an area between Sa\u2019ada and Hodeida \u2026 I just don\u2019t know!\u201d<\/p>\n When he talks of his life he lowers his head staring at his feet, perhaps escaping from any expression of parental sentiment towards his only son and his daughters, after all, despite expressions to the contrary, he is still a father and for sure he must feel the stabs in his heart that his seemingly heartless words about his offspring may cause, that is why he would often look down low when talking about his family.<\/p>\n He says, of his family, \u201cI would like to travel and leave Sana\u2019a by any means, and would like to attend the marriage of his daughter, but his situation is quite difficult and complicated.\u00a0 I once had income and stature.\u00a0 Today, I can barely pass the day with a cat or surviving by working with a auto body shop or a beverage\/sandwich store to be able to eat and drink.\u00a0 Sleeping? I sleep here\u201d, pointing to an iron clad room as a makeshift dwelling made from remnants of car body parts, in a car repair yard, where there are other similar dwellings housing similar folks like Abdu Ghalib.<\/p>\n War\u2019s Exchange<\/strong><\/p>\n Abdu Ghalib goes daily to Al-Sami\u2019y Refreshment Stand in Cairo Street to drink tea with milk at night.\u00a0 There he recalls the ups and downs of a life of forty years he has lived well and which all of a sudden came to an end, and all of a sudden failure hits him at a senior age.\u00a0 This is an age he had expected to live\u00a0 the rest of his life with a secure pocket.\u00a0 Thus this irrational talk no longer applies as the War has killed irrationality and sanity.<\/p>\n He sits at the cafeteria at his seat overlooking the sidewalk drinking his coffee with his head turning and following the people going hither and thither raising his hand to greet some of the familiar people who greet him from a microbus, while at the same time turning to someone calling him from the other end of the cafeteria, asking jokingly what the price of cats is in the cat exchange market yesterday.\u00a0 However, Abdu Ghalib looks smilingly at the questioner, as though saying, don\u2019t ask me about the price of cats, ask me about the price of humans.\u00a0 War has rendered human beings not worth any price.\u00a0 As for cats, it is apparent that their lives have become better than ours.<\/p>\n Cats<\/strong><\/p>\n Abdu Ghalib has a strange tale of his own with cats, and a sad one at that. \u00a0\u00a0After losing his work and entering the unemployed market, he lived very poor circumstances, especially after many of the people of Sana\u2019a left the City of Sana\u2019a, while he remained in this place which witnessed various kinds of air bombardment from the air and sea by the Coalition led by Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 Where he lived,\u00a0 some of the cats would run away from the vacated houses and come to the yard of the workshop where Ghalib had his makeshift shelter.\u00a0 He was kind to the cats and fed them whatever he could from the food he ate.\u00a0 At first, they did not like it, but as they got used to it they began to accept it.\u00a0 The cats increased and became associated with him.\u00a0 As some stability reigned in on Sana\u2019a and some people began coming back, he was surprised to find someone asking him to sell a cat.\u00a0 Some of the cats he sold did not like their new dwellings and returned to Ghalib.\u00a0 This happened more than once, but he eventually earned the title:\u00a0 \u201cCat Salesman\u201d.\u00a0 He recalls:\u00a0 \u201cI learned a lot from cats. I no longer felt lonesome and actually enjoyed having someone actually looking for me\u201d.<\/p>\n Abdu Ghalib no longer cared about his appearance as poverty overcame him and started to live a simple life without leaving much for him to carry.\u00a0 It was a carefree existence without any heavy commitments or responsibilities.\u00a0 This may have been one of the positive outcomes of the war for those whose lives were severely affected by the War.<\/p>\n Belated Return to Ghalib\u2019s Background<\/strong><\/p>\n When recalling some of his past history, Abdu Ghalib would cause asphalt on the road to shed tears.\u00a0 He recalls:\u00a0 \u201cI am one of those born after the September 26, 1962, which opened Yemen to the world..\u00a0 After entering school, I learned refrigeration and air conditioning repairs at the Workshop of Mohammed Al-Ariqy in Ta\u2019ez and I became a skilled engineer, while still young.\u00a0 I then left to Saudi Arabia and worked many years there.\u00a0 I returned to Yemen when many Yemenis returned in the Nineties because of the Gulf War.\u00a0 I came to Sana\u2019a and opened a workshop near the Headquarters of the Permanent Committee in Al-Hasaba North of Sana\u2019a and kept relocating until I settled here in Cairo Street.\u00a0 When this War started I became retired with an advanced death certificate.<\/p>\n With the late Ibrahim Al-Hamidy<\/strong><\/p>\n Before going to Saudi Arabia, he worked in Sana\u2019a helping the owner of a workshop during the Seventies.\u00a0 He mentioned a story that occurred to him with the late President Ibrahim Al-Hamidy.\u00a0 \u201cI was still young then and I did not know what Hamidy looked like.\u00a0 I was in the workshop and a Volkswagen stopped in front of the workshop.\u00a0 The guy in the car asked:\u00a0 \u2018where is the Engineer?\u2019; I said, \u2018he is here, what can I do for you?\u00a0 He replied:\u00a0 \u2018I want you to come with me and fix the water heater in the house.\u00a0 I said:\u00a0 \u2018Okay; he then said: \u2018close the shop and come with me\u2019.\u00a0 I went with him to his house checked the heater and told him, I need to go to the shop to get a spare part.\u00a0 He instructed his driver to take me to the shop and the shop owner was awaiting me.\u00a0 When he saw the car, he asked me, \u2018where did you come from?\u2019 I answered: \u2018I went with the owner of this car to fix his water heater at his house; the water heater needed a part.\u00a0 The shop owner took the part himself and went with the driver alone.\u00a0 When he returned, he told me:\u00a0 \u2018Do you know who the man that took you to his was?\u2019\u00a0 I said, \u2018No\u2019.\u00a0 He said, you ass, that was President Ibrahim Al-Hamidy.<\/p>\n \u201cEver since then I remember this story\u201d, said Abdu Ghalib.\u00a0 He continued:\u00a0 \u201cWhen I tell it to people no one believes me.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what to say, because I know they are right, even I do not believe that Yemen was like that and that was indeed the President of Yemen.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally:<\/strong><\/p>\n Abdu Ghalib\u2019s story is just one line of a chapter of several chapters of a long Yemeni tale of mystery.<\/p>\n
\nWar madness victims have their tragic tales to tell, but news broadcasts turn the other way from such tales.\u00a0 War has a severe effect on skilled personnel of technical capacity, who heretofore were able to make substantial earnings for many years.\u00a0 All of a sudden, they are confronted by a situation they are unable to accommodate and are then hit with poverty and deprivation beyond their own belief.<\/p>\n