In Mareb, amidst a war that might have let go of the harshest moments but is still too alien from anything resembling peace.
In the Middle East, considered a cauldron of people who the West claims are ‘used to war’ (seriously?), in one of the most dramatic deserts where a powerful queen ruled over people, and maybe even the sun and the moon.
A queen so loved that her origins are claimed both in Africa and today’s Yemen and whose life you encounter in holy texts sacred to the Jews, Christians and Muslims.
To these two children who have witnessed much in such a brief time, I say: Your grandfather, when I moved to Ethiopia told me to be kind and respectful, always, but to never forget that Queen Sheba was Yemeni. ”You,”, he said: ”be polite, always say yes. But deep in your heart, you know that the Queen was Yemeni”.
I remember a writer once told me that in the eyes of Yemeni children he could see Queen Sheba and in Ethiopia I swore I saw the same.
In the meantime, if the war in Yemen has been silenced, the one in Ethiopia has been canceled from the news line.
I wonder what Queen Sheba thinks of how we treat her Ethiopian and Yemeni children (they are our children).
Save the Children recently found that some 85,000 children under 5 in Yemen may have died because of extreme hunger since the war began.
In Ethiopia, the war in Tigray and severe drought are putting at risk the lives of – at least – 3 million children.
But these figures stay there: in a press conference, on a press release, in an article. They never move on as numbers and statistics never halted wars, sieges, occupations and disputes.
Two years ago, the two children in the photo lost their father on a battlefield not far from home.
I remember the words of Polish poet Wisława Szymborska
Perhaps all fields are battlefields
those we remember
and those that are forgotten
The two boys were born and now live close to Mahram Bilqis” (“Sanctuary of the Queen of Sheba). Their life has been a battlefield.
the talking of the soul 
The words of Yemeni people, children, men, women, the endless suffering, the graveyards vanishing beyond the horizon. Voices across the vast deserts, voices from the rubble that once were cities, towns, villages; the sound carried by the silent winds to reach a billion ears that are shielded for fear of confrontation with the inescapable truth, the reality of people living, dying and rendered invalid by weapons that cannot feel the pain, yet, operated by men too remote to witness the suffering while somewhere in their conscience a voice tells of the horror and devastation indiscriminately imposed on a country and its people. But they push the deadly buttons, from where ever, relentless, no emotions enter their consciousness.
That silent voice is loud and clear…. wars are a crime against human beings with consequences reaching to wildlife, ecosystem and Planet. This, has as much to do with ruthless mass murder as it has to do with the ages old pursuit of religion VS unbelievers, one religion VS another, one political agenda VS another, one crime VS another, ongoing, finite only when people learn to face the truth about institutional conditioning since the first foundations to control humanity were established and slave labor began the industrial revolution, the horrific legacy clearly visible in the mirrors of the 21st century AD robots, IT, algorithm and military mass destructive weapons technology.
The war mongers aren’t going to listen, they are too absorbed in their deadly games to relate to anything remotely resembling human beings. War is a game for the mentally insane, everyone else holds their breath, stressed out, anticipating the greatest catastrophe ever in the entire history of civilization. Gaza, Yemen, Ethiopia, Kashmir, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Ukraine, Africa, South America, and too many more places to mention, the world’s graveyards, for people and war arsenal alike.
Who cares? Anyone? Those caught inside the hell that is war care. Everyone else is too busy trying to survive while believing that the establishment will one day end the insanity. But the establishment is what it is, a political, war lords institution, and the masses are but obedient slaves to that corrupted system. Yemen is the saddest place on Earth, not merely since 2014, but since time immemorial, a political strategic war mongers playground. But the war on Yemen is part of the same war taking place everywhere on Earth. For Yemen, and every other place on Earth to find Peace, the entire world has to come to its senses.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You always write beautifully, though the topics are heavy and horrific
On one point I have doubts: ‘Those caught inside the hell that is war care.’ Most of the times people get absorbed and care only for themselves, turning into executioners, violence enforcers.
We know it: violence breeds violence
LikeLike
‘Those caught inside the hell that is war care.’
It refers to those who are not of their own choosing facing the guns, the bombs and the missiles, the people who never asked for those preposterous wars, the injured, the sick, the dying, the orphans, and the dead who collectively speak their words for sanity, Peace and Justice. There is a voice, the voice of a trillion dead from the course of historic warfare since time immemorial, loud and clear, but to be heard, it takes 8 billion people to take the earmuffs, plugs and headphones off their ears.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Whether from Earth or from the Universe – there will always be someone’s “agenda”
Do we need anyone’s “agenda” ??? No we don’t. We, or some of us at least, have a gut full of agendas, any agenda telling us how to live our lives according to…. who or what? Books written by man? Who else writes books, elephants, dogs, cats, ducks, alligators, snakes, or that almighty mysteriously elusive creator of this dysfunctional Planet with its dysfunctional human or animal species where warfare dominates the every day struggle to survive on whatever lot handed down since birth?
The human race is a story creating, story telling race, anything goes, lies, truth, sensation, presumption, fairy tales, name it and you’ll find it in the books all mashed up together and regurgitated in the ghettos of daily life. How long do we have to live to wake up to what we’re doing to every living thing on Earth including ourselves, 10 more years, 100 more years, another 2,000 years, or shall we look at billions of years which is the more likely scenario given the stupidity that has possessed us since the age of the cave man.
The great divide has been none more prominent than at this day and age on Planet Earth, 2023 AD now called CE but should you care either way? The time of day is what it is, the videos above (on the web site page) tip of the iceberg, wars, crime, corruption, lives cut short by physical and mental violence, my, oh, my, how is all that possible, yes, how, and why. There are no answers, aren’t there?
This society has been too far conditioned and corrupted over untold millennia to recognize truth over fiction. But fiction is what humanity is made of, whether by some boogie man in the skies, some alien race from either this Planet of outer space, or by its own ignorance and fear of what stories have told and what zealous writers have deadlocked in the brains of the gullible, vulnerable masses.
So let’s just carry on as we have carried on since day one in human history, to join as a united force for peace, justice and harmony is too much of a sacrifice for most of us who prefer living in the global supermarkets comfort zone under the boots of the criminal authoritarian institutions and the auspices of idolized people in the circus of Life who have no notion of who anyone is, nor care who anyone is.
Peace is Better than War
https://www.peaceisbetterthanwar.com/crime-unlimited.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know exactly my feelings on life and humans and I am always extremely grateful to you, what you stand for, the things we did together and your vision.
Fundamentally, you always make me feel I am not alone
Peace is the way. Always x
LikeLike
Yes, I know exactly how you feel, I have known you since 2011, one of a handful of people who knew what I tried to do for world peace and you stuck with me all this time. We’ve lived half a world apart, but you have always been no further than an inch away. You are Yemen, you’ve done all you could to stop the insane war, for the love of the Yemeni people. May Justice prevail and restore Yemen to the place you loved so much.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So touched by your words
They mean the world. ‘Thank you’ will never be enough. xx
LikeLike