Babylon Revisited

Dinner, Soirees, Poets, erratic millionaires, painters, translations, lobsters, absinthe, music, promenades, oysters, sherry, aspirin, pictures, Saphhic heiresses, editors, books sailors. And How!

— Hart Crane

 

HAJ

 

WAR, WATER, & SNAPSHOTS

What the president said:

“My government is ready to battle the al Houthi rebels in the north part of the country for years if need be.”

“Our blood is being shed every day in Harf Sufyan and Sa’ada. We will not draw back even if the battle continues for five or six years, we will not backtrack or stop,” Mr Saleh ( the president of The Yemen) said during a celebration to mark the 47th anniversary of the 1962 revolution that toppled the Zaidi Shiite imamate and established the republic.

What the Rebel Leader said:

“We are ready to face the aggression through generations … we do not care about his [Saleh] warning speech … which demonstrates they want the war and their announced truce offers do not match with the reality on the ground “

Also, there is no water left in the country:

Water scarcity is reaching emergency levels across Yemen and the problem is particularly acute in Sana’a and the province of Taiz, 260km north of Sana’a.

Only 60 per cent of Yemenis who live in urban areas are connected to public water services. Others depend on private water tankers or vendors. In rural areas, only 45 per cent get their water from the state, while the rest get it the old-fashioned way: fetching it from rainwater harvesting systems, springs and wells.

Some people in Taiz city and Sana’a buy their water from private lorry providers, but people like Mrs Haza’a cannot afford to pay US$10 (Dh36) for the standard 3,000-litre truckload of water which people store in tanks and which usually last between two weeks and a month, depending on the size of a family.

 

Shotgun Fashion

 

Joe’s House

 

Compressed Earth — NO CONCRETE

We could get along …

 

 

SKI LEBANON

Hindustan Times — 

 

Bonjour

 

SpaceShips

 

Morning, July 7th

 

Dubbo