Even more sentences to ponder
The average Yemeni spends one quarter to one third of his income on qat. Three quarters of the population devote four to six hours daily to buying and chewing the leaves, consumed in the later afternoon after the day’s main meal. Although qat has no nutritional value, a third of Yemen’s agricultural land — double the acreage of a decade ago — is devoted to it.That's from Le Monde.
posted by John B. Chilton at 12/09/2009 11:51:00 PM
2 Comments:
I was surprised by how everyone in Yemen was chewing qat. When I was there in February, it was everywhere and almost every person I saw in Sana'a had a cheek full of it.
It almost always starts after lunch, but you see some people enjoying it in the morning.
What's even more distressing is that qat cultivation requires a lot of water - far more than most food crops.
And Yemen's water resources are being depleted.
Not only that but apparently the Government exercises little control over water drilling. Entrepeneurs are importing "oil rig" style drilling equipment.
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