In this world, some people are addicted to smoking, some people are addicted to alcohol, some people are captured by betel nut, and some people are caught in drugs... And in Yemen, people go crazy for eating a kind of leaf.
This leaf is called "Qat". In order to eat Qat, Yemen paid a huge price: the juice of Qat can release unique chemical elements, and the strong stimulation is enough to seriously affect or even manipulate people's physiology and mind, and the harm is comparable to drugs; planting this plant requires a lot of consumption of water resources, a heavy burden for arid Yemen. In addition, in this extremely poor and food-poor country, farmers, in pursuit of higher economic benefits, have planted qat in their precious farmland - although after qat is planted, this land will no longer be able to grow any crops... …
helpless choice
If you come to Yemen and enter a city, you will find such a scene:
on the street, people are standing or sitting, or busy with things in their hands, or walking around bored, but almost all Men all have one thing in common, that is, one cheek is bulging high, like a "big bag", and the mouth is constantly chewing; after a while, some men spit out a bunch of green residues from their mouths, but Soon, he took out a few leaves from his body and stuffed them into his mouth, and continued to chew on them - like a cow or sheep regurgitating the cud.
The leaves they chewed in their mouths were qat.
There are many names for Qat in the Middle East. Qat is its scientific name, and some people call it Arabian tea, Bushman tea, or transliteration as Chat grass, Carter leaf, and some people directly call it East African poppy, Yemen tea or Ethiopian tea.
As an evergreen shrub of the genus Euonymus, Qat's main feature is that its leaves have a natural bitter taste, but if chewed in the mouth, the juice will gradually become sweet, and at the same time release a special alkaloids. This alkaloid contains cathinone, which is similar to a low-toxin stimulant and can stimulate the human brain, making the consumer feel happy and excited, and it is extremely easy for people to become dependent and addicted.
So, why is Qat so popular in Yemen? This is closely related to the current situation in Yemen.
Overall, the situation in Yemen is more complicated. In the impression of many people, Yemen seems to have always been low-key, especially compared with other Middle Eastern countries that frequently "sense of presence" in international news. This is due to the fact that the country has been in conflict for many years, making it difficult for travelers to enter, so there is a lack of information about the country.
Yemen sits on the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula and is only bordered on land by Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the east. Across the Red Sea in the west, Yemen faces Djibouti and Eritrea in eastern Africa, and guards the Strait of Mandeb where the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden meet - this is the main maritime communication route connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, so the country The geographical location is very strategic.
Because of this, Yemen has been coveted by neighboring regimes since ancient times. As one of the cradles of the Arab civilized world, Yemen has a long history, but for quite a long time, it has existed as a border or subsidiary area of a powerful empire. In the more than a century since modern times, Yemen has been affected by Western colonialism and the turbulent situation in the Middle East, coupled with internal factional differences caused by religious beliefs, divisions caused by struggle for power and profits, and the forcible intervention of foreign forces (mainly Saudi Arabia, Iran, as well as some African and Western countries), the entire country was engulfed in constant war. So far, Yemen is actually still mainly divided into two parts: the Arab Republic of Yemen (North Yemen, with the ancient city of Sanaa as the capital), and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen, with the seaport city of Latin as the capital).
Trapped in this situation, Yemen has become one of the least developed countries in the world. Despite humanitarian assistance from all over the world, more than half of the country's population is still in poverty, facing the threat of starvation and death.
It is in this background and environment that Qat, like a cheap drug, can become popular. Living in an unstable social environment for a long time and seeing no hope, Yemenis chose to use Qat to paralyze themselves.
An indissoluble bond with a
country The history of Qat's introduction into Yemen can be traced back to around the 13th century.
It is generally accepted internationally that Qat first grew up in Ethiopia, East Africa, and was brought to the vast African and Eurasian continents and even further afield with the development of human civilization. Since Qat is a relatively drought-tolerant and heat-resistant plant, it is commonly grown in the Middle East. In the early Middle East literature, there are records of using Qat as a medicine.
Therefore, eating qat should be regarded as a "tradition" in the Middle East and some African countries. But since modern times, these countries have gradually got rid of colonial rule. In order to build modern countries, they have explicitly banned a series of "old and vulgar customs" through laws. Qat is addictive and produces a series of side effects. Therefore, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries that used to be flooded with Qat, and even most countries in the world, regard Qate as a low-grade stimulant with stimulant effects. Poisonous crops are legally prohibited from planting, selling, and consuming qate. Each country classifies it as a different crime level according to its own circumstances. In serious cases, it may even be sentenced to years in prison.
But in Yemen, the situation is different. In fact, after crossing the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and arriving in Yemen from Ethiopia centuries ago, Qat forged an indissoluble bond with the locals. Some historians believe that in the 13th century, Yemen suffered a severe famine that forced people to eat leaves to survive. They stumbled upon the fact that the leaves of Qat quench hunger and invigorate people, and have since become addicted to food, passed down from generation to generation.
Hundreds of years have passed, due to the "deep poisoning", the poverty and chaos caused by the endless civil war, and the extremely low management ability of the government, today, when the world generally rejects Qat, Yemen has bucked the trend and became Qat. "The Last Bastion".
It is hard for the outside world to imagine how crazy the country's citizens are about eating leaves. According to relevant statistics, the demand for qat in Yemen has been increasing, and it has gradually developed to be consumed by both men and women, and the minimum age of eaters has been declining, which means that all Yemeni people eat it together. Ghat is in full swing.
As mentioned earlier, a Yemeni day basically starts with a qat and ends with a qat. Every morning, farmers who grow qat go to the qat forest to find the freshest qat leaves, and then pluck them together with the pointed branches. After that, they would hand over the qat to their family and quickly take it to the street to sell. Generally speaking, fresh leaves are the most in demand, and the price is more expensive. The price of a bundle is equivalent to more than 200 yuan; the freshness is slightly lower, and the price is correspondingly much cheaper. Usually, a large bundle of qat wrapped in cloth is actually enough for a man to eat for a day. In Yemen, almost every household will set aside a room to chew qat, and due to the extremely low employment rate, people have a lot of time to chew qat, and some people even chew it from the afternoon until midnight.
Yemenis have also developed qat chewing as a social behavior. Whether it is to visit relatives or friends, or to have guests, whether to talk about business or private affairs, Yemenis will bring Qat and chat while chewing. When the host offers a bundle of qat, it is an expression of hospitality, and refusing it is considered rude. On this basis, the "Qat Party" came into being.
In fact, Qat party is a kind of tea party, people can participate freely and come and go freely. Gatherings are usually held in the afternoon, usually in public areas of the community, where people gather casually, munching on qat and chatting. It is said that many important decisions were initially brewed at the Qat party, and then officially perfected and proposed. Therefore, many foreign journalists like to attend Qat gatherings to get a lot of information.
An unbreakable vicious circle
For Yemenis, qat’s influence is growing, and the series of harms it brings are getting heavier.
Chewing Qat for a long time will first bring negative effects on people's mouth and body, causing oral cancer, intestinal and stomach cancer, etc. The damage caused by Qat to the mouth can be seen from the way people chew leaves: they first fold a few leaves into a small square, then put them in their mouths and chew them repeatedly like chewing gum, during which the juice is absorbed by the mouth, The residue is rolled to the side of the mouth, and then the next batch of leaves is put in, until the side of the cheek bulges high and the mouth can no longer hold it, and all the residue is spit out together. Over time, many people's faces and mouths have been distorted, looking extremely terrifying. Of course, compared with oral problems, some hidden chronic diseases such as hypertension, myocardial infarction, gastritis and enteritis are undoubtedly more threatening to the body.
For poor Yemenis, chewing qat can boost their spirits and relieve physical exhaustion and hunger; once the leaves in their mouths are dry, people will immediately fall into a state of depression, numbness, emptiness and depression. , I have no interest in anything, only chewing the leaves again to stimulate the already weakened nerves... If things go on like this, it will have a great impact on the spirit, causing the eaters to suffer from mania, insomnia, depression, hallucinations and other symptoms, mental illness. The incidence has greatly increased.
Throughout Yemen, from government officials to civilians, almost all of them put their minds and attention on chewing qat, and there is very little real time for work. This is for an already impoverished country. , is undoubtedly a huge waste of manpower. Many people earn only a few dollars a day, and some even rely entirely on receiving relief subsidies, but they still have to spend money to buy qat... The poorer they are, the more they buy, and the more they buy, the poorer they are, forming a vicious circle that is difficult to get rid of.
In addition, the cultivation of qat has caused a heavy burden on the environment.
Although Qat is a relatively drought-tolerant and heat-tolerant plant, it needs water for irrigation if it is to grow well and provide enough leaves for human consumption. Yemen is an arid country with a territory of nearly 530,000 square kilometers. Most of the areas are deserts, and there is not even a regular river. Water resources are extremely scarce. The per capita water consumption is less than 1/50 of the world's average water consumption. , people live almost entirely on groundwater. It is in such a country that even domestic water is scarce, in order to make the leaves of Qat soft and moist, people do not hesitate to use a large amount of water for irrigation!
In addition, due to the excessive distribution of desert land, less than 3% of Yemen's land can be used for farming, and the soil is relatively poor and the crop yield is low, which means that it is basically impossible to grow enough crops for national consumption. possible. With little land, Yemen's population has been increasing. According to United Nations statistics, before 1950, Yemen's population was only 4.3 million. Although the war continued, but with the living materials provided by international aid, Yemen ushered in the fate of almost all third world countries - the level of development did not catch up The population has exploded. By 2016, Yemen's population had exploded to 28 million! In just over 60 years, the population has grown nearly 7 times! The population has grown, but Yemen's industrial and agricultural production capacity, as well as the country's rate of development, has remained stagnant. Therefore, the scarcity of basic living materials, including food, has risen sharply.
What is worrying is that in this situation, Yemenis did not cherish the precious arable land. In order to pursue higher economic benefits, farmers have abandoned crops and planted qat in pieces. This is undoubtedly true. Exacerbated the food crisis in Yemen. What is even more frightening is that the land after qat can no longer grow any crops, which means that the cultivated land will disappear.
In recent years, many international organizations that have been assisting Yemen for a long time seem to have lost their patience and confidence. Coupled with the endless civil war, Yemen has indeed become a bottomless pit that no one can fill.
What will be the fate of Yemenis and what is the future? Nobody knows.
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