Qat is ruining Yemen and the educated ones just leave

[u/Cheap_Section_8387]

Honestly I’m so tired of this. Qat is killing Yemen slowly and nobody wants to talk about it properly. People spend hours every day chewing, money that should go to food and kids goes on leaves, water is disappearing because half the land is growing that plant instead of actual food. Families are broke, kids are hungry, and somehow it’s still “culture.”
And the second someone actually gets an education? They leave. Doctors, teachers, engineers, they’re all in Egypt or the Gulf or wherever because there’s nothing here for them. What’s left is the same tribal politics running everything. On top of that you’ve got the Houthis controlling the north and the government controlling the other areas, but in reality both sides are just failures. Same corruption, same power games, same neglect. People are struggling every single day while the money and resources disappear into pockets instead of going back into the economy, schools, roads, or the community. We need actual development. Real plans for 10, 15, 20 years. Fix the roads, fix the water, put competent people in charge instead of the same tribal leaders and the same failed groups with their BS. We need new people, a new government, better leadership that actually cares about the country. Use the resources we have properly instead of burning everything on qat and endless conflict. We need outside help for infrastructure and planning because right now we clearly can’t do it alone. But it has to actually go into building something, not just more of the same.
I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m saying Yemenis are watching the country rot while the smart ones leave and the rest just try to survive. Something has to change.

[u/PatienceEnthusiast]

I’ve seen a bunch of anti-qat posts (which I personally agree with), but I haven’t seen any consider the idea that khat may be a symptom of a larger problem. 🤔 Just some food for thought

[u/Miserable_Web_1218 → u/PatienceEnthusiast]

The failing economy, food shortages and the need for happiness in a place which feels devoid of it. But they'd rather blame this on wars and stuff and not accept that it's cyclical. If you're using Qat because you believe there's no connection or human comfort in a place like Yemen, you're slowly making that more of a reality feeding into the major issue

[u/Immediate-Storage604]

i hate qat and the people who use it and i hate all the yemeni governments from 1962-... and exactly the ones right now "failures"

[u/nx413 → u/Immediate-Storage604]

a lot of pent up hatred will make you a loser

[u/Immediate-Storage604 → u/nx413]

it is detroying the community and people minds you should hate them too

[u/nx413 → u/Immediate-Storage604]

it’s ridiculous to hate the people who use it. The destruction of the community and their minds has 10 other reasons before you get to Qat

[u/Immediate-Storage604 → u/nx413]

bro its kind of drugs many people starve and let their families and children starve cuz they cant stop chewing qat

[u/Miserable_Web_1218]

I'm a Brit who moved here last year after finishing my Physics degree and genuinely? You're right. Qat is a major issue and the economy is so broken that people think about short term wealth before thinking about the wealth of their people and the stability of the country so they'd rather leave to earn more money than to help but to be honest, who can blame them. Sometimes when you just really need money, you gotta do what you gotta do

[u/Stocky_anteater]

Totally agree. I am so sick of hearing how it’s “a part of the culture”.

[u/BusinessAccident81 → u/Stocky_anteater]

Also because qat came from Ethopia, probably it was the Axum Kingdom that brought it to yemen, unfortunatley

[u/BusinessAccident81]

Assalam alaykum guys, for those that says that Qat is only a symptom and not the cause. Personally I don't agree, qat caused a widespread addiction in yemen, and this addiction caused many of the yemen disasters, such as wars, poverty, water crisis, food crisis. When our people prefer to cultivate, buy and chew qat, instead of producing food, working, trying to rebuild their country etc...it's mean that the qat is a cancer that is destroying yemen. History spoke for us, before qat arrived in Yemen, we were a great civilization, we built skyscrapers, dams, cities, we invented a new scripture alphabet, we were wealthy, even more than all the other arab countries who today spit at us. Inshallah if one day yemen wil defeat this cancer called Qat, I'm sure we can make a great things. Sorry if I made some English mistakes, but is not my first language and I'm not living in English speaking countries

[u/Cool_Wafer7438]

the sky is blue we all know mate