Old man Saleh

OLD MAN SALEH FROM UNITED YEMEN
He gets his coffee and Danish as he pays I thank him guessing his accent is Arabic by saying shokran. His face glows with a genuine smile that I’ve not seen in years. With my broken rather shattered Arabic I try to understand his kind gestures and words. Mixing English with shattered Arabic I ask him where is he from, he tells me he is from the united Yemen. Instantly I’m reminded of certain calmness that is so rare in a big city with sky scrapers and rude selfish individualized brainwashed populace that looks at another human being only in terms of the extra space they occupy. He calmly sits and drinks from his coffee looking at me as if I’ve known him for years. I ask him how is Yemen now, he takes a bite off his Danish and quickly drinks the hot coffee raises his hand to the air and says Al hamd o Allah ( with the help of Allah!) things are much better now everything is Islamic and we don’t fight our brothers in the North. He makes gestures to the big skyscrapers and greed probably trying to tell me he rejects all of the big city glamour. Then he points to his Islamic Green hat and says when we go and we all go in the eyes of god poor or rich are the same. He asks me where I’m from as soon as I answer he tells me how strong Iran is and how U.S is trying to over throw the Islamic regime. He says now that the Islamist won the civil war in Yemen every thing is Islamic and thus better. I think how things got better for us how the rich and poor gap deepened, due to Islamist economics. I express my concern and he answers I’m the government and I’m the people. I think of my government and the thought that I would have anything to do with those butchers, murderers and fanatics in power fills me with disgust. The fact of the matter is that me and my government are two complete separate entities. The one’s in power, the ones who are ruling my people with the force of bayonet, rape intimidation and torture at best are only remnants of Mongol invaders who burned and raped, pillaged and destroyed. I’m trying not to argue with him he tells me that he doesn’t care about politics that much and the secret to his long life has been just that. He shows me pictures of his big family 21 grand children from 4 sons and 2 daughter. I disagree with him but I’m grateful to Saleh for his calmness and simplicity, his modesty and humble manners. For a few moments I thought I’m not in this big city with skyscrapers and harsh life, I imagined having this discussion by still, calm water reservoir in a green and healthy Yemeni village.