the yemeni crisis in cartoons

It's early 2010 after sunset. Another power cut. In the gloom of the old city of Sana'a, a Yemeni man strolls up to the corner shop. "Two of that nuclear power of Ali Abdallah Saleh's, please!" he says. The shopkeeper promptly hands him two white candles.

Power cuts have long been the subject of Yemeni jokes, but perhaps today more than ever. Here are only some of the cartoons by Rashad Assamiee, a young Yemeni cartoonist from Taiz regularly published in al-Jumhuriyya.

A colourful take on the current power, fuel, cooking gas, food, and water crises.

"That's it, I'm handing in my resignation! This is no life, working 24 hours a day..."

"No, that's it. We're going back to Somalia. Everything is in crisis with you! Electricity, water, diesel, petrol... There's even more fighting than in Somalia!"

(From right to left)

"Lunch, qat, mattress... Are you going on a trip?

- No Uncle Abdu, we're going to get cooking gas..."

"There's electricity! Hurry up before it cuts..."

"I have a lecture on Modern Mechanics in the afternoon and tomorrow one on Progress and Technology..."

Electricity cut: "Alright children, no one moves from their place! Let's not knock the water pipe over..."

(From right to left)

"The only thing is that before using it, you have to charge it for a full eight hours...

- What a nightmare! We don't even get eight hours of electricity a day!"

(From right to left)

"Humadi dear, wake up! The cooking gas just finished...

- Argh! The cooking gas man was in the middle of filling up three cylinders for me, and then you came and woke me up..."

"I'm guarding the car, uncle, so that they don't steal our petrol. We barely filled it up to half."

"Don't worry about the girl's mahr [gift from the groom to the bride usually including material, perfume, and gold], my son. Just bring me two gas cylinders, two canisters of petrol, two canisters of diesel and half a box of candles..."