Shahara bridge in northern Yemen
Poverty and famine are old comrades in much of the world. Add to this drastically declining water tables and economic stagnation and you have a sense of Yemen today. But a recent World Bank project makes a virtue out of the rocky road by literally providing jobs for skilled Yemeni stone cutters to build roads. Check out the video on the website by clicking here.
Say what you will about colonial empires, but at least they generate reports. I recently came across a British report to Parliament in 1939 entitled “Summary of Information Regarding Nutrition in the Colonial Empire.” Four pages are devoted to Aden Colony, which is said to have an area of 75 square miles, a population in 1931 of 45,992, a birthrate in 1937 of 32.07 per 1,000, an infant mortality rate in 1937 of 196.61 per 1,000, and a death rate in 1937 of 31.72 per 1,000. I attach excerpts below:
“1. General. – …This survey deals primarily with the 75 square miles of volcanic rock and sand which constitute the Colony of Aden; a detailed review of the nutritional affairs of the Protectorate has been postponed until a later date. The Colony is almost entirely urban and so cosmopolitan in make-up as to complicate the task of reviewing the nutritional conditions as a whole. Arabs, Jews, Somalis and Indians of various races predominate, and a preponderance of males is occasioned by the fact that those who come to Aden for varying periods of time to seek livelihood as coolies or tradesmen leave their womenfolk behind in the interior or in India. The natural division is to classify Arabs, Jews and the poorer classes of Indian Mohammedans as the indigenous population and it is to these, particularly the middle and lower classes, that the present nutritional considerations apply.
2. Composition and Nutritive Value of Dietary. – All the chief articles of diet are, with the exception of fish, imported from overseas or from Arabia. They are: rice, flour, sugar,; fish, mutton, beef, goat’s milk, eggs, ghee; fruits, vegetables, dates, lentils, simsim oil, tea, coffee and spices. Continue reading Nutrition in Colonial Aden, #1
Area: 63,800 sq. mi
Population: 4,490,000
Government: Absolute Despotism
Scenes: Merchants Buying Carpets
previous post I began a series on coffee advertising cards with Middle Eastern themes. One of the most colorful collections is that provided by the Arbuckle Coffee Company. In my great, great aunt’s album there were several Middle Eastern and North African nations represented, but from a different series than in the Arbuckle’s 1889 series. The 1889 version of Turkey is shown above, but my aunt’s version of Turkey is decidedly more imaginative:
Continue reading Mocha Musings #3: Turkey and Persia
In the 1889 series depicting the nations of the world, Egypt also appears:
Area: 11,000 sq. mi
Population: 6,806,381
Government: Turkish Vice Royalty
Scenes: Date Palm; The Obelisk of Luxor; Cotton Barges on the Nile
Arbuckles’ Ariosa (air-ee-o-sa) Coffee packages bore a yellow label with the name ARBUCKLES’ in large red letters across the front, beneath which flew a Flying Angel trademark over the words ARIOSA COFFEE in black letters. Shipped all over the country in sturdy wooden crates, one hundred packages to a crate, ARBUCKLES’ ARIOSA COFFEE became so dominant, particularly in the west, that many Cowboys were not aware there was any other kind. Keen marketing minds, the Arbuckle Brothers printed signature coupons on the bags of coffee redeemable for all manner of notions including handkerchiefs, razors, scissors, and wedding rings. To sweeten the deal, each package of ARBUCKLES’ contained a stick of peppermint candy. Due to the demands on chuck wagon cooks to keep a ready supply of hot ARBUCKLES’ on hand around the campfire, the peppermint stick became a means by which the steady coffee supply was ground. Upon hearing the cook’s call, “Who wants the candy?” some of the toughest Cowboys on the trail were known to vie for the opportunity of manning the coffee grinder in exchange for satisfying a sweet tooth.
While sorting through a bevy of late 19th century advertising cards and magazine illustrations collected by my great, great aunt in several yellowing albums, I came across several for the Middle East that were published for Arbuckle’s coffee. Continue reading Mocha Musings #1: Mecca and Arabia
A disappointed salesman of Coca Cola returns from his Middle East assignment. A friend asks him: “Why weren’t you successful in Saudi Arabia? The salesman explained, with a sigh: “When I got posted in the Middle East, I was very confident that I would make a good sales pitch as our cola is virtually unknown there. But, I had a problem. I didn’t know how to speak Arabic. So, I planned to convey the message through three posters, like this:
Wilfrid Scawn Blunt, left; Mark Twain, right
There is a curious annual custom inherited in many of our families, but one I am resolved not to take too seriously this year. I refer to the half-drunk notion of making resolutions for the new year (which I see no sound reason to capitalize, as my German blood is very far removed), as though the arbitrary turning of the calendar is a time to reflect on what went wrong over the last 365 days and pretend that things should go better in the next eighteen and a quarter score days. I have heard the rural urban tale that the pin-up 19th century cowgirl sharpshooter Annie Oakley started the custom of sending out Christmas Cards, but I am not sure which genius came up with penning new year’s resolutions, unless it was Johnny Walker in one of his more sober moments. Most people, and I surely fall into this anomalous category, do not remember the resolutions made a year ago. But then most godfearing redneck Americans could not repeat the 10 Commandments in order to save their souls, unless perhaps they were dead drunk. So my re-solution, since it is the defacto one I have been following for quite a few years, is to resolve to forget any resolution before I even make one. This saves me from having to make up a resolution, which is the same as making as silly a resolution as I can imagine.
I am not the first person to take aim at this impotent cultural pastime which has long since ceased to have any influence on what people really do. Mark Twain said it well over a century and a half ago:
New Year’s Day–Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Continue reading Resolving the New Year