A Civilizational Regression

Yemenat

Ahmed Saif Hashed

From north to south, from one end to the other, Yemen now stands besieged. Its unity, sovereignty, independence, history, and culture are all under attack; every detail of its being is targeted and defiled. Yemen today is witnessing a civilizational regression by every measure, on all fronts and at every level. The modern observer can only say, “Speak of it, and you will never run out of lament.”

Who could have imagined a day when we would see Aden without a port, or almost without one? When its ship maintenance dock would be sold off by the kilo, as if it were nothing more than scrap metal? When looting, chaos, and lawlessness would spread to the very landmarks that define its history, beauty, and cultural soul?

Who could have foreseen that the salt flats of Aden, Al“Memlah,” would fall prey to plunder? That gangs and land mafias would seize both public and private properties, even tourist resorts and public streets, with no restraint or shame?

Who would have believed that the Military Museum in Aden, once the proud guardian of Yemen’s glorious martial history and home to over five thousand priceless relics and artifacts, would now stand empty and stripped bare, pillaged of its legacy and dignity alike?

And more shocking still, who could have imagined that the National Museum in Aden would be looted, that the Queen’s Crown itself would be sold at an auction in Aden, while relics that once graced its halls are now traded in the auctions of London, Paris, and Washington?

In the South, who would have thought that illiteracy, once completely eradicated in the 1980s, would return in our own time with such ferocity and darkness, haunting a generation born on the very threshold of the third millennium?

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