Poor governance, or rather the capture of the state by elite criminal gangs, is an internally generated configuration. Yemen was cut off from Western aid during the 1990’s and it is only since 9/11 that the US took a renewed interest in Yemen’s development. In fact, poverty in Yemen began to spiral after Yemen’s 1990 UN vote against Gulf One when Saudi Arabia expelled nearly a million foreign workers in retaliation, drying up an important source of funds in Yemen- expatriate remittances. So while donor policies (like the World Bank’s insistance on reducing oil subsidies) does have a negative impact on the poor, the prevelence of child hunger in Yemen is largely due to unfettered executive authority and the criminalization of the state. In my view anyway…

I disagree that “the major contributing factor to Yemen’s persistent and worsening poverty is rampant corruption.” Undoubtedly, there is corruption in Yemen and surely it has contributed to poverty, but there is also a whole network of development agencies and foreign companies that have deepened this type of poverty. Believe it or not, “donors” who give money to Yemen do not always have alleviating poverty as their primary goal, in fact, one of the central goals of “poverty alleviation” projects is actually to incorporate “rural, underdeveloped” groups of people into a market economy.

About 3/4 of Yemenis live in rural areas which are sorely lacking basic services including health care, educational facilities, water and electricity. But even a major city like Taiz only gets public water once every 40 days. About 30% of the country has any sort of sewage system. Kudos to the AP for highlighting the miserable condition that most Yemenis live in.

The major contributing factor to Yemen’s persistent and worsening poverty is the rampant corruption of the dictatorial regime led by Ali Abdullah Saleh and his family and tribesmen. Unfortunately corruption is so bad that reform minded ministers are thwarted at every turn and the contributions of donors are squandered, misspent or in some cases, unspent. Really, millions and billions in donor funds are a total waste, subject to elite capture and rarely benefit their intended recipients. The 4.6 billion pledged at the Novemeber 2006 donors conference has had little positive impact.

With 70% of Yemen’s national budget derived from oil revenue, the oil is expected to run dry within a decade. Economic diversification has not progressed and most of the agricultural land is used to grow the semi-narcotic shrub, qat, the business of which only further transfers funds from the poor to the rich.

So no, its not all about bad western labels stero-typing misunderstood Arab countries, sometimes its about millions of starving children subjected to an brutal and uncaring government, and by any human standard, they are poverty stricken.

But I do agree that terrorism and poverty have little correlation.