Sunday, October 2, 2011

A glimpse at Sanaa, Yemen

Tony Horwitz's 1991 Baghdad Without A Map is not just about Iraq.*  It covers his travels to Egypt, Yemen, Libya, etc.  It's amazing how miserable those places were when he was there and how the people there continued to live miserably for another two decades until, poof, their despots were almost simultaneously ousted.

The second chapter is about Yemen.  There, every man carries a dagger and chews qat.  Unfortunately, there is not a lot of video footage of the country, pre-Arab Spring, on Youtube.  I did find this piece, which was produced last year.  The residential towers are really cool.


*I just started Baghdad and it's engrossing.  I also enjoyed his One for the Road (hitchhiking in Australia) and Blue Latitudes (tracing voyages of Captain Cook).

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