The Day of Rage
March 2, 2011
Like Tunisia and Egypt, Yemen has also its days of rage. Friday is usually the opportunity for those against the regime to mobilize people. All they need is to make the call and all it takes is for people to leave the mosques to the gathering points. After Friday prayer people feel some strength and they are usually more ready for sacrifice. Egypt has shown amazing response to the calls for the days of rage. The revolution in Egypt was exemplary and historical in many ways.
Since the fall of Mubarak Yemenis have tried to copy what happened in Egypt. Every Friday is becoming the gathering time for Yemenis calling for “change”. In the past couple of weeks things have accelerated as many things happen, and waiting for a whole week is becoming a long time. The killing of a number of people in Aden last week required a quick response from the change supporters. There was a call for a day of rage on Tuesday in many places including Sana’a.
It is Tuesday morning March 1. It is unusually quiet in Sana’a. There are no children on the streets. There are only a few cars running in Zubiery Street, the busiest street in the city. Most businesses remain closed. A few banks are opening their gates but there are no clients…. It is 9, it is 10, 11… the streets are still empty and most businesses are closed. Children who went to school are returning home early simply because there were only a few of them that showed up.
Tahrir Square if full of people. The whole area is closed. These are the regime supporters. Thousands of them are gathering. Their call: “yes for stability, security, and order”.
On the other side of the city, in what’s now called Tagheer Square, pro-change supporters are gathering, with their call for change and the departure of President Saleh.
The government pushed its supporters to Tahrir in response to the pro-change group call for a day of rage. It is the regime’s way of keeping the streets under control. Was it successful?, amazingly, Yes!.
Between the Tahrir and Tagheer groups, around 40,000 to 50,000 people were sort of having “fun” shouting and dancing. Where are the other people of Sana’a?
Most people decided to stay home. Many businesses were closed big companies and smaller ones. It was an enjoyable experience to take a drive around the City. Most people prepared themselves for the worst. People are not (yet) used to demonstrations and they fear that things could go out of control.
Will Yemenis learn to live with these fears?, How soon de we expect this situation to last? Big questions in the minds of many, but the answer is unfortunately unknown!....
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