On a shaky wooden chair, Uncle Saeed, a civil servant retired many years ago, sits in a popular café in Al-Salam neighborhood, in the city of Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout Governorate (southern Yemen). His looks are drained and it bears a lot of nostalgia and hijacked joy. Four decades have passed since his retirement, full of obsessions and isolation, except for the hours he spends in this popular place.
Most of the café’s patrons are retired and elderly, and the atmosphere of the place, the chairs, tables, and cups of tea dotted with a blue mark at the bottom, take you back to half a century ago, as if they grabbed the years of that time after they were exhausted by running behind the pace of the days, and got lost between neglect and lack of appreciation.
Uncle Saeed used to be a teacher of mathematics during the Qu'aiti sultanate in the school (Al-Bilad Al-Jadida), and he worked in several jobs after graduating from the well-known middle school - which moved from Mukalla to Al-Ghail in the forties of the last century. It was famous school of which a group of politicians, economists, religious scholars and others graduated from it. - And he ended up retired after the National Front took control in 1967 AD, and the fall of the sultanates in the southern governorates, and since then he has become, like thousands of employees, in the circle of exclusion and deprivation.
Unparalleled experiences
The post-retirement years have become like a cave devouring capabilities and competencies, their horrific absence from the scene, and mines of expertise and experience, overwhelmed by neglect and aversion.
After talking with a group of retirees, it became clear that their biggest challenges are unfulfilled financial dues, as the war greatly increased their suffering. Before the war, the employee’s salary was equivalent to approximately $550 in 2014, today, after the deterioration of the currency and the decline in the price of the Yemeni riyal, it is now equal to $160.
The journalist, Mohammad Abdullah Al-Haddad, confirmed to "Khuyut" that there is a need to benefit from the cadres of retirees and their educational experiences in particular, in light of the educational and ethical challenges that the reality of education is going through today. He said that: "Supplying schools with one or two people with experienced retirees, will constitute an administrative difference." Certainly knowledgeable, especially since they are still capable of giving, with this volume of experience and maturity.”
In the same context, Abdullah Al-Muflihi – a former official in a government bank, expresses his surprise at neglecting the experiences of retirees as consultants for small projects and various programs, whether governmental or private. He further hopes that a club or association that reunites retirees will be established so that panel discussions as well as various useful activities from which community will be benefiting can be organized.
In fact, some associations and unions for retirees were established, and the demands for their financial rights were the most prominent of their tasks. However, these associations did not succeed in fulfilling their mandate.
Abdu Al Ellah Hashem, an educational figure who held many positions, most notably the head of the Education Division at the Ministry of Education office in the coast of Hadramout, believes that most of the entities established for retirees were not up to the aspirations of this veteran category, as many of them fell victim to political tensions, and did not stand up to serve the main goals that they have been created for.
Regarding the reality of retirees in light of this dispersion and the absence of real entities for them, Hashem added to "Khuyut", that "the retirees have broken wings, and their status and influence in society has unfortunately declined. The teacher, for example, has a completely different image than it was yesterday, and the reasons are social, cultural, and political as well."
Going through the lists of retirees, you may find the scientific expert who has been staying at home without anyone knocking on him for advice or consultation. Additionally, you may also find the military man and security commander with expertise and proficiency, whose struggle has reached years of serving the nation, was rewarded with the phrase "Thank you for your efforts, and stay at home", and the economist who knew the merits of the financial and banking equation after years of experience and maturity in analysis and decision-making, but he is after all sits still on the bench of his house after his retirement. At a time when the country is immersed in suffocating complex economic and security crises, without involving these obstructed cadres who could have help in finding solutions for the current crisis.
Awful living conditions
After discussing the issue with a group of retirees, it became clear that their biggest challenges are unfulfilled financial dues, as the war greatly increased their suffering. After the employee’s salary was equivalent to approximately $550 in 2014, today, after the deterioration of the currency and the decline in the price of the Yemeni riyal, it is now equal to $160, according to the statement of. Al-Muflihi.
According to the General Authority for Insurance and Pensions in the coast of Hadramout, a total of (4,784) living retirees receive monthly wages that reach a minimum of (25-30 thousand Yemeni riyals); The equivalent of approximately $26 per month, or less than one dollar per day, and it is one of the most difficult economic conditions that the country has gone through in many years. This while we are talking here about contracted employees of the state, whose wages are regular from the, not to mention those whose pensions are interrupted, fragmented and deferred.
Within the same context, the retired employee (S.H.), in his seventies, added by saying that: he has four married daughters, and currently lives with his wife in a rented house. “My salary is 45,000 Yemeni riyals. I don’t know how to manage my life’s affairs with it at the minimum level between paying the rent or paying for our food amid this crazy rise in food commodities, or buying the medicine we need.” ?!”. Then he looked down with his eyes drowned in tears and brokenness, and muttered, and added painfully: "Sometimes we have to beg from people, and good people often help."
Between the hammer of need and the anvil of neglect, most retirees spend the remaining autumn of their lives, after the spring has passed, serving the country and its people.
Uncle Saeed returned to the queue to receive his pension salary, and his tongue prayed that the post gate would not be crowded and people would not rush. He was hit once in the head due to crowding and blood flowed from his wound, and he had to spend half of his salary to treat that injury.
