English Essay

... Queen of Sheba It is five in the morning in the Ramlat al Sabatein desert - an expanse of sand that stretches between Marib and Shabwa in Yemen - and we have stopped for a spot of shooting practice. My driver, Abdel Qawi - translated as "slave of the strong" - passes me his Kalashnikov. I aim the rifle at the top of a sand dune and fire, sending a cloud of dust dancing like a genie into the pink-streaked sky, shattering the eerie silence of the desert dawn. In a country with 50 million guns - and a population of only 20 million people - Yemen may strike you, initially, as a somewhat lawless place. With recent reports of kidnapping and, post-September 11, the rumoured presence of al-Qaida cells hiding in the mountains, the country has developed a reputation for danger. However, despite its image as the wild west of

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