destroying yemen

Professor Isa Blumi joins me for part 2 of our series on Yemen. We pick up in the late 90’s after Ali Abdullah Saleh has come to power in a unified Yemen. Isa discusses Saleh’s strategy of sowing chaos all over the country in order to maintain absolute power. Isa talks about Saleh’s use of extreme violence, and his reliance on US power. We then explore how the so called Arab Spring played out in Yemen. We discuss the orchestrated nature of the movement, and how is sought to control the very real desires of the Yemeni public.

This week professor Isa Blumi joins me for an in-depth discussion of the economic and geopolitical history of Yemen. We cover the period between the mid 1800’s all the way through to the early 2000’s. Isa talks about the forgotten history of Yemen through out the conversation. We discuss Yemen’s role as a bulwark against imperialism, from its earliest days fighting against the British East India company to American oil conglomerates. Isa talks about North Yemen’s role as a progressive nation that supported everyone from the George Habash to Che Guevara.