Numbers

The Government claims that five million people attended the pro-government rally in Sana'a this past Friday, named Friday of Compromise by the government and Friday of Steadfastness by the anti-Government camp.

Five million however seems somewhat exaggerated. I admit that there was a huge crowd, but five million is something enormous. If you have ever seen the massiveness of a one million crowd, you will understand that a five million crowd is much bigger and much more beholding to the eye, actually it would be too much for the eye, so after seeing footage of the Saleh rally, I would say it would be one million tops. A source mentioned that the number this Friday was the same as last Friday, that is, 15,000 from inside Sana'a and another 70,000 trucked in from other governates. That number falls way short of the one million that I generously estimated.

The source also estimated that country wide, the president has 600 close supporters and 4 million general population support of a population of 24 million, so democratically speaking, its a landslide popular uprising.

The President after accepting GCC initiatives of mediation has slammed the door, seems GCC brothers are no longer in support of supporting him so he's taken his ball and gone home.

I found this quote describing diplomacy with President Saleh, “The brusker, the blunter, the better,” the British ambassador to Yemen said. “Saleh doesn’t understand anything if it’s framed diplomatically.”

How much more blunt can the people be demonstrating in very large numbers all over the country for his ouster?

The only people with him now are his sons, the corrupt and the ignorant, all the rest will leave him once their payments stop.