Life among high-lifes
August 31st, 2007 by Torstein Schiøtz Worren
Yemen, like all countries except North Korea, has an expat community. In Yemen, though, this community is very small since Yemen is no place to be and nothing much happens here. Apart from the students who are here only short-term, there are a number of people working in the development/NGO-sector in addition to oil and gas.
Although Yemen is not as conservative and strict as Saudi Arabia, social gatherings happen under the horizon. This is especially the case at this time, not long after the attack on the convoy of Spanish tourists and with new threats to attack banks, which might be a diversion. The parties, where everything is available obviously, takes place behind high walls and with guards hired to protect the premises and the Westerners getting drunk inside. Alcohol is widely available here, either from “dealers”, or from a number of “distribution centres” not to be named here as many people have an interest in them staying open. Not that they would be closed anyway, though. My guess is that they pay off the officials or the police, or maybe cut them in, which would explain the prices.
Interestingly enough, only three brands of liquor is available in Yemen, namely London Dry Gin, Teacher’s Whisky, and Smirnoff Vodka. I guess this is all that is brought in in dhows from Djibouti. Yet it is enough to turn a fair number of Westerners into alcholics as there is very little to do in Yemen. They either drink on their own or with friends in someone’s house. If not, there’s always The Russian Club, where there’s always a crowd, usually a mix of students, non-Yemeni Arabs, American marines, UN employees with 17-year-old Ethiopian girlfriends, and unidentifiable rabble.
Most foreigners in Sanaa are somehow all connected to one another through one or two links. Therefore, there are usually the same faces to be seen in all the parties, to the great chagrin of all the single men trying to get laid with the handful or so girls available, most of which are already in relationships. As in so many other countries, the expats of Yemen is mainly of the single male variety.
In these parties one also meets the sons of the most powerful men in the country. Unlike most of their countrymen, they have all lived abroad, they all work out (remember the Officers’ Club post?), and all get drunk and high as often as they can. Why do they not bring their sisters to the parties, I wonder? Judging from the number of expensive cars on the street outside, it can’t be a surprise to anyone what is going on behind the walls.
The party I was in yesterday had only one guard, unlike another party I was in a while back that had three. This guard is permanent, though, as the owner of the house suddenly felt very insecure without one after having to hunker down in his own home for 45 minutes while someone was settling a land dispute in the street outside with kalashnikovs. He later had to pick the bullets out of his walls and he decided to employ a kalashnikov of his own, which only sets him back 150 dollars a month.
Not that the guards are the only armed ones in these parties. Many people working in the embassies carry arms at all times. It is certainly weird being in a party with people with handguns.
At least they are lucky. A number of people employed in certain sectors such as oil, are hardly allowed to move at all. They have curfews, are not allowed to have guests, are not allowed to visit other people privately unless it is very important (and that means having an armed guard in the street outside the whole time), and are definitively not allowed to go to parties where there will be “targets,” more specifically Brits and Americans.
This is worlds apart from the Yemen I know and makes my flatmate curse the strange upper class Yemenis who can’t possibly be Yemeni with that kind of lifestyle.