Happy Patriots Day

Well, my blog seems to be getting quite the following as of late, with people all over the globe sending me messages. I guess that this means that I need to start writing more about Yemen and less about the infantile humour that resolves around the sexual things that my students inadvertently say.

So the elections are coming up. The date, I believe is September 20th, although I could be wrong. The hype surrounding the elections is quite impressive. My friend the Protest Mobile has been running around the city blasting Arabic music and pimping it's candidate... kids run around the streets waving flags and singing. Three-four story posters are erected (he he) on the sides of walls that show pictures of the desired candidate. Nothing like anything I have seen in America, although I missed the 2004 elections. This is all a bit much considering that the winner has already been all but pre-determined. The current incumbent, President Salah, has been in power for twenty-plus years now (yes, I know that I should know more about the history of my adopted country) and neither him nor the voters of Yemen are making any big plans to change things around now.

This election was supposed to be a touch more exciting because the President swore that he would step down after this term, leaving a nice big vacuum for all of Yemen to fight over. However, all my Yemenese friends grumbled that this would not be the case. There would be a couple of planned rallies and marches, I was told, during which the President would swear to uphold his promise to step down. Finally the pressure would be too much for him to take and he would reluctantly run again due to the fact that the people has insisted. And that's pretty much exactly what happened. It would be impossible to change the President anyway. There are pictures of him in practically every building in Yemen. Just replacing those framed posters would be enough to put this country way in the red.

We did comparatives today in my Level 1 and I taught my students to say "I am smarter than Bush" and "Bush is dumber than me", with "My President is more intelligent than yours" for the more advanced students. So maybe I am a traitor to my nation but at least my students managed to nail that particular grammar point. Oh yeah, happy Patriots day, everyone. Yet another holiday that for some strange reason isn't celebrated here.