Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
By Peer Gatter, ForeignPolicy.com, Feb. 18, 2013 (with Slideshow)
For Imam Yahya, one of the last kings of Yemen, qat was a delight, something to be praised in his poems. For his adversary, the revolutionary Mohammed al-Zubayri, the plant was "the devil in the shape of a tree."
That hardy tree -- famed among farmers for its drought resistance and whose leaves, when chewed, act as a psychoactive stimulant -- is today an integral part of Yemeni life. On average, 72 percent of Yemeni men chew the bitter leaves of the qat plant. The qat sector provides employment for one in every seven working Yemenis. The income qat provides allows many to remain in their rural hometowns instead of drifting into the cities to seek work. In some highland districts, over 90 percent of farmers are involved in qat agriculture.
Social life in Yemen revolves around qat. It is an accepted habit across all strata of society [....]
Author bio.:
Peer Gatter is a political scientist and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies scholar who served as an advisor to Yemen's Ministry of Planning and Water during the 2000s for the U.N. Development Program and the World Bank. In 2002, he organized Yemen's "First National Conference on Qat." He is the author of Politics of Qat -- The Role of a Drug in Ruling Yemen.
Comments
From the caption to Slide #15:
The photos, taken by the author, and their captions. are all very interesting.
by artappraiser on Tue, 02/19/2013 - 1:26am
The referenced "bitter taste" is, of course, the tell tale signature of the presence of an alkaloid...cf. the coca leaf chewing culture in the Andean countries. I'm not clear on why this practice is considered a problem, exactly, but then, I would say that...(it all goes back to the Chinese herbalists and their *Ma Huang based tea, in search of which I mastered enough Mandarin to buy the plant in Chinatown (which you could do, back in the day, provided you didn't ask in english).
That bitter taste surfaces anytime a psychoactive alkaloid with stimulant characteristics is present.
*One concerned herbalist looked at me sincerely and unburdened himself "Don't use Ma Huang, don't do it" which I took to be the Chinatown version of "speed kills"...
by jollyroger on Tue, 02/19/2013 - 10:42am
I'm not clear on why this practice is considered a problem
I thought he made a pretty strong case in the extensive captions in the slideshow; I don't even need to read his book-length version to be convinced. I am also convinced he's overplaying it. That doesn't mean it's not a major, major problem, economically, sociologically, politically, and in many other ways.
I'll grant you that if you are the kind of person that thinks the society described in Brave New World wasn't all that bad, your mileage may differ.
by artappraiser on Wed, 02/20/2013 - 12:42am
a gram is better than a damn...
by jollyroger on Wed, 02/20/2013 - 2:39am
your mileage may differ
Perhaps you didn't notice: I'm a hippy. I'm not likely to be found clutching my pearls because people are getting high...I believe that drugs should be cheap, plentiful, and ubiquitous.
by jollyroger on Wed, 02/20/2013 - 2:56am