The First in the Batch

Yemeni mp 

Ahmed Saif Hashed

The patience, effort, perseverance, and accumulation of knowledge I invested were bound to meet their reward. Hard work must yield its fruits. I took advantage of every break, every moment I had. I would start with my assignments before anything else. I never missed several issues of the Soviet military magazine, reading the most significant topics that I found useful for my studies or that added to my military knowledge.

I read everything that caught my eye in related books, without neglecting other areas of general culture. I remember reading the epic of “Gilgamesh” during my brief breaks while at the military academy; it is a legendary tale rich with thrill and imagination, and it’s said to be the oldest literary work known to humanity.

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You may make mistakes, but do not repeat them. Put forth your utmost effort, and you will reap the rewards proportional to what you have sown. Raise the bar of your aspirations and match that level of effort that those dreams deserve, and you will achieve what your heart desires. Do not let your weaknesses rob you of your excellence in other areas.

Instead, preserve your strengths and bolster your areas of capability to compensate for any time lost due to weakness. Strive for the highest degree of excellence, and you shall achieve it. Fortune will not let you down. Aim higher, and you will find yourself at the forefront.

I was captivated by subjects such as psychology, engineering, weapons of mass destruction, tactics, and live-fire training, among others, while my shooting skills ranged from good to very good. At the end of the two-year examination, I felt anxious and uncertain about my ability to hit the target precisely enough to achieve a top score. 

Luck can be unpredictable, and it is not always on your side. A slight breath or a tremor of your hand or shoulder can spoil your joy. Your finger may betray you if the trigger isn’t pressed just right at the moment of aim. Your eye, which directs your shot, might deviate by a hair’s breadth from the target, leading to an unexpected miss. Even your nervous system could complicate everything. Yet, I knew I had to continue what I started, and the result in shooting was very good—4 out of 5—while my scores in the other subjects were excellent, leading to a ranking where I emerged first.

* * *

I achieved the top rank in my class, and the phrase “He who strives shall find, and he who sows shall reap” echoed in my mind. This was something I learned while practicing my handwriting, often repeating it during my early education. At the military academy, I reaped what I had desired after two arduous years of hard work.

The taste of excellence is exquisite, especially when it comes after toil, effort, and hardship. It’s a treasure discovered in the depths of a place or at the end of a tunnel you have carved with your nails, overcoming your despair. It was the moment of reaping the harvest, and my joy was overwhelming as they announced my name and my first place ranking.

It was the first time in my life that I truly savored success in such a manner. Only those who have toiled and struggled to the brink of exhaustion can appreciate the sweetness of achievement.

The graduation ceremony for my class, marking our promotion to second lieutenant, was attended by President Ali Nasser Muhammad on September 1, 1983. My name was called along with my first place ranking, and I was presented with a prize—a large Toshiba radio cassette player that astonished me with its size and design. I was also honored with a ten-day visit to the Soviet Union, alongside the other top nine students in my class, each of us receiving $300 as pocket money for the trip.

* * *

For the first time, my name appeared on the honor roll at the entrance of the military academy after I secured the top rank in my class. It was the first time I received a prize from a Yemeni president, traveled abroad, boarded a plane, and viewed the world from a great height.

It was my first encounter with the metro, navigating through long underground tunnels in a grand capital. I witnessed men kissing their sweethearts and wives in public for the first time. I entered a circus for the first time and saw with my own eyes a different civilization and a world unlike anything I had known or grown accustomed to.

* * *

Today, the top achievers and skilled individuals are at home, silently suffering amidst the clamor of a war that refuses to relent, and I cannot fathom how long its repercussions will last. When they venture out in search of belonging, they find nothing but a royal elite more powerful than the king, whose role amounts to that of guard dogs—servile and lacking loyalty and conscience. They possess no shame or embarrassment, no stance, no will, and no life.

In this cursed war, many are in search of a homeland, yet they find only a despicable elite, more fallen and base than ever—lacking belonging, values, and chivalry. They are devoid of feelings and emotions. It is both humiliating and catastrophic to seek a homeland from the traders of nations, the purveyors of peoples, and the professionals of depravity.

This elite knows no role but to serve as mere gloves for the greedy and conspirators plotting against the wealth of nations and peoples. They are agents who excel only in killing, destruction, and the most ignoble loyalty. They are small-minded, driven by tribal affiliations that are even smaller—narrow-minded and foul, supported by a vast lobby of corruption that is more rancid and catastrophic.

Today, we see the achievers and top performers being deprived of their fundamental rights, foremost among them the right to citizenship, which is usurped by power and dominance, with brazen ease, reducing it to a tool of small tribal affiliations, be they regional, tribal, factional, or ethnic, and even smaller issues like nepotism and inheritance.

Here and there, we find those who have merged with these loyalties—mostly failures, opportunists, and ignoramuses—ruling over us, managing our affairs, and seizing our rights, including our right to life, by taking control of teachers’ salaries, public employees, years of service, and humanitarian aid meant for the hungry among us, not to mention the many other rights that have been stripped away.

Today, many positions in the administrative and functional hierarchy are occupied by the ignorant and the inept, alongside those who are the most base and despicable. The concept of homeland has disintegrated, and citizenship has vanished, replaced by considerations and criteria that are entirely alien to the notions of homeland and citizenship, having no connection to justice, equality, or equal opportunity.

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