Yemen consumes the largest amount of sexual inducement drugs per capita in the Arab world. A large collection of Viagra, Fiagra, Zwagra, Suhail and other such drugs have spread all over pharmacies backed by popular demand to fit every budget, competing with the natural line of such drugs imported from Asia and Africa with the slogan, “have a fulfilling sexual life.” All this, of course, is in addition to the extra related perks of chewing Qat.No wonder Yemen has the highest population growth in the world. We, Yemenis, reproduce like there is no tomorrow –eight kids per woman on average makes me wonder, what's the record for the highest number of kids born to a Yemeni woman, forty, perhaps?
What is Yemen going to do with all these kids? By 2040 there will be 40 million Yemenis, by 2050, there will be 50 million Yemenis, and by 2080, there will be around 100 million Yemenis!
What frightens me the most is not the mere number, it is the “quality” of these people. During the 1930s and 40s, when India's population was less than half a billion, British Social Scientists and economist said that India, with its population growth problem, will have a gloomy future with too many mouths to feed. However, India has transformed its people from liabilities and too many mouths to feed to a population of active workers. Workers who engage in value-addition activities and surplus their own consumption to build their nation. Today, India stands as a giant international power.
Can Yemen do the same? Can we shift our focus from "making babies" to "making quality babies", can we help our people help themselves and become an asset to the country instead of a liability? Especially since Yemen is running out of oil, water, and other natural resources. The only thing we’ll be left with is people, people, and only people –it is simple math! If 22 million share the resources of today, tomorrow 30 million will share the resources of tomorrow; resources that will be far less than today's.
Unless tomorrow's resources would include human resources that can be valued much more than today's human resources, it's doom for Yemen.
China suffered from a deadly famine in the early 1970s. Apparently that’s what it took for the Chinese to seriously reform their understanding of what people should be doing. Research points out that the current transformation in the Chinese economy was the direct result of a fundamental change in mentality. There was a shift from the classical reliance on current resources to creating more resources and engaging in more value-addition work, thereby, securing their economic future. Within a few years, agricultural output of the same landmass tripled because more attention was given to value-addition processes. Evidently, this mentality had a domino affect on other industries across the spectrum, allowing china to have the world's largest reserves of foreign exchange and gold. Thanks to China’s active population –its true primary asset.