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The Current Transcript for August 20, 2018

Host: Ioanna Roumeliotis

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

[Music: Theme]

SOUNDCLIP

[Sounds of children shouting]

IOANNA ROUMELIOTIS: Yemeni schoolboys packed into a bus on an outing earlier this month. Within an hour or so of that cell phone video being taken, most of those young boys would be dead. They were the victims of a Saudi airstrike. Their deaths just the latest tragedy in the years long Yemeni civil war. But what's happening there isn't happening in a vacuum. This is a proxy war and Saudi Arabia has the backing of the United States, the United Kingdom and when it comes to sales of military equipment, Canada too. Does that make those countries and Canada complicit in war crimes in the Yemeni war? That discussion first up. And also in today's show, a very different kind of story, but also from Yemen.

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VOICE: The term I like to use myself at this early stage of my deal was naive arrogance. I barely drank coffee you know six years ago, five years ago even.

IR: But that wouldn't stop Yemeni-American, Mokhtar Alkhanshali from setting out on a quest to revitalize the coffee industry in Yemen. It was already quite an adventure into the Yemeni highlands, but then civil war broke out. The harrowing tale of getting himself and his prized coffee beans to safety. Coming up in an hour. Also today, a tale of another kind of war. This one all done in pixels.

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[Sounds of rocket launchers from Fortnite]

IR: Launching rockets inside the world of the video game, Fortnite, is becoming more than just a way to while away the time. For some young people, eSports have become a lucrative career. That story in half an hour. I'm Ioanna Roumeliotis and this is the summer edition of The Current.

Back To Top »

Cutting ties with Saudi Arabia won't stop the war in Yemen, says expert

Guests: Cesar Jaramillo, Fatima Alasrar

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound of child crying]

IR: His little face is still spattered with blood. His head wrapped with a thick white bandage. The little boy is one of the young victims of a Saudi led airstrike that hit a school bus full of children in northern Yemen on August 9th. At least 40 children and 10 adults died. Dozens more were injured. Shuaib Almosawa is a freelance journalist based in Yemen who had visited a hospital in Sana'a following the attack.

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VOICE: I saw a lot of kids rolling in pain, complaining about their injuries and some were crying. Some have lost their brothers like the one I met named Yusef and his brother Yunus was killed or rather missing. They didn't find any trace of his body. And when I was talking with him, who's a relative and I asked him what happened to Yunus, the kid intervened and said he is murdered. My brother was murdered, he's not killed. He is murdered. Just correcting what his cousin was telling me about what happened to his brother. So the families they're all blame the United States for what happened. And they said the coalition is deliberately targeting children just for the sake of killing innocent people.

IR: Lise Grande is the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen. She also visited the survivors in hospital last week.

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VOICE: What we are seeing today are the victims of the airstrike. The terrible human cost of the airstrike and of the war. The entire world condemns this. The Secretary General of the United Nations has demanded an immediate, transparent, comprehensive, independent investigation into this. This is a tragedy and there can never, never, never be justification for it.

IR: This is just the most recent horror in a civil war that has dragged on since 2015. A Saudi led coalition has been battling Houthi rebels backed by Iran. The Saudis maintain that in this strike, it did not set out to kill children. It was aiming at a legitimate target, but the incident has renewed calls for the West to reconsider its role in the Yemen conflict. The U.S. and the U.K. continue to be the biggest suppliers of weapons to the Saudi led coalition. And Canada has also played a role in approving sales of military equipment to the Kingdom. That has some critics saying that the West is now complicit in war crimes. Joining me to talk about this is Cesar Jaramillo. He's the executive director of Project Ploughshares, a non-profit organization that advocates for policies to prevent war and promote peace. We reached him today in Tokyo, Japan. Hello.

CESAR JARAMILLO: Hello Ioanna. How are you?

IR: I'm good. Thank you. Cesar that was a lot of disturbing tape that we just listened to. What did you think when you saw that an airstrike had hit a bus load of children in Yemen?

CJ: Well first of all, that it is disturbing indeed, but the first thought was that this is not surprising. And that is very sad and very unfortunate, but this is only the latest in a pattern and a consistent pattern of Saudi Arabia's utter disregard for the most basic precepts of international humanitarian law and its military intervention in Yemen. I mean there are basic concepts of distinction, precaution, proportionality are not being adhered to. And it is well known and well documented.

IR: And so what do you think Canada's response should be to an attack such as this?

CJ: Well not just Canada, the world needs to denounce Saudi Arabia and denounce it strongly. I mean the record of Saudi Arabia in the civil war in Yemen is really abysmal. There is no hyperbole that doesn't apply it, it's abysmal. A United Nations panel has denounced the widespread and systematic targeting of civilian targets. This is schools, hospitals, basic electrical grids infrastructure. They have utterly destroyed Yemen and this is widely understood to be one of the worst humanitarian crisis of our time, but what's very critical to understand is that this crisis is entirely manmade and entirely preventable. This is a direct result of the Saudi military operation there with the acquiescence and the indirect at least complicity of Western governments who continue to prop the Saudi regime.

IR: So bringing it back to Canada, what are some of the ways that Canada has been providing support to Saudi Arabia?

CJ: Well the most egregious example is this $15 billion deal that is still in the books and that will see Canada supplying Saudi Arabia with weaponized armored vehicles for the next decade or so. And I say or so because the terms of the deal itself have been shrouded in secrecy. So, but from what is known we know that there is a deal for armored vehicles. That they are not jeeps as the government once referred to them and that these are lethal machines that have already been used against civilians. Because I would add that in addition to Saudi Arabia intervention in Yemen, its treatment of its own citizens is also abysmal. I mean the recent arrests of activists over which there is still an ongoing spat with Canada, were only the latest again in a consistent pattern of human rights violations by what is undoubtedly one of the most repressive regimes on the planet.

IR: Speaking of the deal, we did reach out to global affairs to get their take on this and they did send us a statement last night. If you don't mind, I'll read an excerpt of that and I'd like you to respond to that. All applications, according to the Government of Canada, is committed to ensuring that human rights, peace and security are central to arms exports. And just I'll read out a couple of sentences. All applications for permits to export military goods are carefully reviewed to ensure they are consistent with Canada's foreign and defence policy including with respect to human rights. Should global affairs become aware of credible information that military goods exported from Canada have been diverted or misused, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has the authority to suspend or cancel the relevant export permits. What do you make of that statement?

CJ: Well we have heard it before. Not just from Canada, but also from the UK, from the United States, from various countries that continue to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia. But there is a very clear gap between their rhetoric, these lofty objectives of Canadian values and strict export permit application process versus the reality on the ground, which is that no matter what these deals have continued and will likely continue. But I think it is utterly indefensible to claim on the one hand to have a strong stand on human rights and on the other to continue arming the very culprit of these human rights violations, especially when you know that that is the very culprit. But there is something else in Ottawa's statement that they repeatedly ask for credible evidence that these vehicles have been misused. But the reality is that under military export control regulations, the key criterion is not and has never been evidence of misuse. The key criterion widely accepted internationally is risk of misuse and that risk of misuse by the Saudi authorities has been clear and pressing for years now. So it is an export deal that should have never been authorized, but given that it was, we need to consider these latest developments and really consider the possibility of reassessing those export permits that have already been issued.

IR: Given that poor record on human rights, the country is also though and many acknowledge this, an important force for stability and prosperity in the Middle East. Should Canada really reconsider withdrawing from this partnership? Given the geopolitical risks.

CJ: Absolutely. But I mean this is a multi-dimensional partnership and as your listeners probably are aware, it includes Saudi students in Canada, medical exchanges, investments, oil et cetera. So we're not saying that Canada should categorically block every relationship with Saudi Arabia. I say keep the students flowing and the oil flowing and the investments flowing and the medical equipment or nurses, what have you, but arms are a special category of exports that that merits extra scrutiny and it is simply again, indefensible and very hard to understand how the government can continue to sell weapons. I would add that the Saudi Arabian record is not a matter of opinion or interpretation. Every authoritative organization in the world that tracks human rights consistently ranks Saudi Arabia at the bottom of every ranking. It is one of the worst of the worst. So it begs the question, if Saudi Arabia, if a country with a record as dire as the Saudi one, is eligible to receive Canadian-made military goods who would not be?

IR: Right. And is given that human rights record that you maintain is you know is one that every authority says is abysmal, the fight recently with Canada started with a tweet over the August long weekend, what do you make of how Canada has been managing the relationship with Saudi Arabia in recent weeks?

CJ: Well Canada first of all, said that it would stand firm on its call for the Saudi Arabian regime to respect human rights and I want to be very clear that that is a very welcome position. I mean that is something that needs to be applauded and supported, not just in Canada, but also internationally. Having said that it is not entirely clear what being firm on human rights means for the Trudeau government and for Canada in general. If being fair on human rights means you know sticking by a tweet, but continuing our transactions with the Saudi regime then that firm stand, you know it lacks a lot of credibility. It is simply you know rhetoric, it's lofty rhetoric, but the actions on the ground, the ones that are actually going to contribute to the violation of human rights, such as these arm deals are still going to continue at this point. I don't know if going forward there, they're in peril. But I think a strong stand on human rights needs to be backed up by solid actions and by the way, no one ever said that sticking to principle is necessarily a cost-free proposition. You know we're ready to admit that there may be costs, but again the cost of inaction is much worse, especially as it relates to the suffering of civilians, both in Yemen and within Saudi Arabian borders.

IR: OK. Thank you so much Cesar. We're going to have to leave it there.

CJ: OK. Thank you very much, Ioanna.

IR: Cesar Jaramillo is the executive director of Project Ploughshares, a non-profit that supports arms reduction and control and worldwide peacebuilding efforts. We reached him in Tokyo, Japan. For the West, the alliance with Saudi Arabia has long been an uneasy partnership. Controversy about the country's human rights record has dogged generations of political leaders, even as Saudi Arabia has played a crucial role in the geopolitics and economy of the Middle East. And as the war rages on in Yemen, those challenges are only intensifying. To get some insight into that, I'm joined now by Fatima Alasrar. She is a Yemeni national who lives in the United States and is a senior analyst at the Arabia Foundation, a Washington D.C. based think-tank. She's in our studio in Washington D.C. Hello.

FATIMA ALASRAR: Hi Ioanna.

IR: First of all just to clarify, what is the relationship of the Arabia Foundation to the government of Saudi Arabia?

FA: No relationship, whatsoever.

IR: So it doesn't receive any funding from the kingdom?

FA: No. I mean we receive various funding from private organizations, inter, you know U.S., the Gulf, elsewhere.

IR: OK. So let's get your initial reaction to what you just heard there from Cesar Jaramillo. Should Canada stop approving the sale of military equipment to Saudi Arabia?

FA: I think it's really interesting. I don't think we should be going to extremes. Cesar was talking about the devastating human toll that has been really evident in this war and I think that I agree with him to a large extent about the different blunders that have happened in Yemen and took a huge civilian tolls on just the lives of ordinary people and I think these should be stopped. So what I would though call for is just more scrutiny in terms of conducting the airstrikes. In terms of just trying to find ways where you can coordinate with the regional superpower in terms of just making sure that you know civilians are not in harm's way. So.

IR: When you see those images of children who have been victims of airstrikes, what goes through your mind?

FA: I mean it's catastrophic. It is devastating and that's something that shouldn't happen from you know a country that we, I mean as a Yemeni, largely respect and depend on, the issue here is that you know this is no justification and no excuse. That is one side of the conflict and there's another side that is not often reported on western media, which is the civilian deaths and you know torture that is happening at the hands of an illicit militia backed by Iran. And this for me is a major source of concern. Saudi Arabia can go away, their coalition can go away, but ultimately the conflict is going to remain in Yemen and it's brutal. It just in cities like Aden and Taiz, you know before they were, before Aden was liberated by the Arab coalition, there were 4000 deaths in less than three months. And this is as a result of fighting.

IR: Now those kind of attacks Fatima are making some people in the West wonder about the morality of continuing to support Saudi Arabia in this conflict. What do you think of that?

FA: Well Saudi Arabia has intervened based on a request from the internationally recognized government of Yemen and it's, in this instance, this is a very difficult decision to make because you know in one hand you really want to see Yemen stable and you don't want to see the type of you know attacks that are coming into Saudi Arabia like the ballistic missiles that are being launched almost daily by the Houthi militia into Saudi territory. So in some ways, Saudi Arabia is trying to guarantee its borders and its national security. It's not really, I mean for them it's both. It's primarily a defensive option and the offensive option here is to of course remove the Houthi militia from governing in Yemen, which also is having a definite catastrophic toll on civilian lives. So I think that there is some type of legitimacy for Saudi Arabia's intervention and the Arab coalition and I think that we need to band together in order to find out what is you know what we can do to help Yemenis get out of the situation. One thing I'm continuously noticing is that people are just you know, no one is really talking about the conflict in Yemen, as in how it affects civilians lives. What's going on a daily basis. We just talk about superpowers in this conflict, but the life of the Yemeni citizen is often just a data point in terms of like you know this is what we need to do in order to stop the war, but I'm sorry, if Saudi Arabia is going to go the war is not going to stop. It's even going to be you know scarier in some parts for a lot of people. So I think you know, one thing that for me I see as devastating and I've been you know trying to call for an end for it is the airstrikes in civilian areas. I mean even if there is a legitimate target in civilian areas I don't think that that should be pursued. Honestly, I mean Saudi Arabia should not be taking the bait. But I also would like to I feel like unfortunately Yemen is lost in this vilification of Saudi Arabia and I just wish that Yemen as a country is really like the conflict in the country is acknowledged for what it is, which is you know a coup, an overthrow of a legitimate government by this militia.

IR: Fatima what impact do you think, Canada is already in a diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia, what impact would taking an even tougher stance have?

FA: I don't think this would be useful. I mean we have seen Saudi Arabia go to you know I think it was it was somewhat of a disproportionate response to the tweet. And you know at the same time I feel like this you know as a Canadian government perhaps there was no other way to conduct you know or to send these messages and not necessarily via a tweet but like this is what diplomacy is for. So in some way I think that we have to focus on dialogue on reaching out and on still really considering Saudi Arabia as an ally. I mean what would stop Saudi Arabia from partnering with other countries that don't necessarily care about human rights? What would stop it from partnering with China or Russia or you know just other countries where it could readily get these arms from? And I think that in some ways, perhaps you know to some extent more scrutiny and more guarantees that civilian lives are not going to be harmed. More focus on a peace process is also very important, but just focusing on really sort of like just shortening the distance between Saudi Arabia. Having that dialogue with Saudi Arabia as opposed to saying OK, no we're going to stop talking to them. We're going to just you know it's all going to be sticks, sticks, sticks and no carrots.

IR: Gotcha. OK.

CJ: Yeah. I think that's the thing that I feel would be you know the purpose of diplomacy.

IR: OK. We're going to have to leave it there. Thank you so much for your time.

CJ: Thank you, Ioanna.

IR: Fatima Alasrar is a senior analyst with the Arabia Foundation. She was in our Washington studio. The CBC News is next. Then, are you still an athlete if you play your sport while sitting on a couch? The rise of eSports is challenging a number of conventions and making it possible for young people to make an impressive income, while playing video games. We're plugging into the world of Fortnite after the news. I'm Ioanna Roumeliotis and you're listening to the summer edition of The Current.

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Do your kids play Fortnite? Here's how it could win them a college scholarship

Guest: Joshua Buchanan, Tim Commandeur

IR: Hello. I'm Ioanna Roumeliotis and you're listening to the summer edition of The Current.

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IR: Still to come, how far would you go to find the perfect cup of coffee? Mokhtar Alkhanshali's quest took him to the highlands of Yemen and before he could leave, civil war broke out. His fascinating and highly caffeinated tale in half an hour. But first, get ready for a battle royale.

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VOICE 1: Come here quick. Oh man, you had. Holy Sh-t! Nevermind. [Laughs]

[gunshot]

VOICE 2: I'm right here, I was just on the..

[gunshot]

VOICE 2: You have people pushing?

[gunshot]

VOICE 1: Yeah I see one. Dude save me. Seriously kill this guy.

[gunshot]

VOICE 1: We're all alive. Let's go.

IR: You may have grown up thinking of videogames as something to play in the rec room, but today they're also a spectator sport. And what we just heard was a celebrity matchup. In March, Canadian hip hop star Drake teamed up with a star from the eSports world, who goes by the name of Ninja. They were playing Fortnite and millions of people watched. Their outing set records on YouTube and the game streaming site Twitch. At any given moment, there are at least 200,000 people watching Fortnite online. And Epic Games has announced it will provide $100 million to fund prize pools for Fortnite tournaments, making Fortnite the biggest eSport in the world. That celebrity gamer, Ninja, who was born Tyler Blevins makes a nice living playing Fortnite, as in $500,000 U.S. a month.

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE: A lot of the income is definitely coming from the Amazon and like Twitch Prime subscribers. I think that I offer a combination of high gameplay like high tier gameplay that they really can't get with a lot of other content creators and I also think I offer, I mean I'm very goofy. If you've ever watched any of my streams or my YouTube videos, I do impressions and stuff like that all the time and just crazy shenanigans and I think the combination of that it's like a hybrid and it's just really fun to watch and a pretty positive environment as well.

IR: In Fornite a hundred online players are marooned on an island. The goal is to be the last one standing. And if you play or there's a young person in your life who spends all their time playing the game, then it turns out it could be good for their education because Ashland University in Ohio is now offering a Fortnite scholarship. Joshua Buchanan coaches the school's eSports team and Anna Maria Tremonti spoke with him in May. She began the conversation by asking why the university is offering a scholarship for Fortnite players.

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: We thought Fortnite was one of the biggest upcoming games. We thought it had a lot of potential and we believe a lot of the best e-sports are created out of a grassroots scene where people wanted the scene and then the company decided to provide it and that's what Ithaca has done. So we're really excited to have a league for it.

AMT: Why is it so popular?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: I Think there's a couple of reasons. I think the first reason was the creativity with the game it's much like Minecraft where you can kind of make your own designs and play with your friends and just get creative. But also you know a hundred people dropped down on this island and only one person or one team gets to win. You go into a game not expecting to win and when you do, which almost everyone has at some point, feels amazing. You feel on top of the world. And if you don't win then you know you still feel pretty good if you gave a good performance and then you just move right into the next game. So you get a lot of immediate gratification through the game. .

AMT: Can you help me with a Fortnite explainer? If you had to tell somebody's grandmother, who'd never heard of it, how would you describe it?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: So Tonight is a game where people play either, on the computer, on a gaming console like the Xbox or the PlayStation, or on their phone. They joined in a group with their friends and then they go into a game with you know ninety nine other people from across the world. They all drop under this virtual island and then have to collect resources that they find on the ground then they get equipment and weapons, and whoever he can be the smartest or the most enginuitive and survive the longest wins the game.

AMT: And they can change skins. Can they?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: Oh Absolutely. Yes. So Forte offers cosmetic skins that you can purchase in the game. You can make your character look anything from a spaceman to a dinosaur to a graffiti artist. You know they have tons of different designs for your character and it doesn't affect the gameplay at all other than just what you look like and how much fun you're having.

AMT: And so how much money would the average teenager spend playing if they're changing skins or doing stuff? Does it get expensive or can they do it relatively cheaply?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: So they have a couple of different options. So every day a new store is released, every 24 hours and then they have skins that cost about ten dollars apiece. But then they also release this thing called the battle path where you pay ten dollars for a battle pass and then you get new skins every time you level up. And the way you level up in the game is by playing more.

AMT: So let’s talk about your scholarship. How much is it?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: I am to be offered scholarships up to 4000 dollars per year, tuition of 21000 but total cost if you were to live on campus is 31,000 dollars. So it adds up to be about 13 percent of tuition.

AMT: And how much interest have you had in the scholarship?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: Now we've had interest from across the world, across the country, Canada, United States, Mexico, pretty much everywhere. We've had about 1500 people applied to be on the Fortnite team. .

AMT: Oh what do you say to a potential recruit who can say I can make that much playing on Twitch?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: I say absolutely. If you can do that playing on Twitch go for it. Playing the Twitch game is a risky business. For every [unintelligible] there are you know 10,000 other people who aren't making any money.

AMT: And Of course offering a scholarship for this actually is your stamp of approval that it does belong in university sports.

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: Oh Absolutely. There's a lot of debate about whether e-sports or Fortnite whether they constitute sports, whether they have that level of physicality. And I think for all intents and purposes it doesn't matter all that much. It's competitive. People want to watch it. People can form communities. And if it's something you know like basketball or football where they have all these traits I think why not include it in athletics and offer a scholarship for it.

AMT: So what makes a good fort night player? What are you looking for when you recruit for your collegiate team?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: And A lot of these games or other sports in general it's a lot about how quick you are or you know how good your aim is or how good you are clicking. I think in Fortnite they make it much more about how creative you are and really how much you can think critically and kind of outsmart your opponent.

AMT: What do you see as the benefits of playing Fortnite and other e-sports games?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: I Think oddly enough it's the biggest benefit I think is the social aspect which I think a lot of people don't fully understand and was very different back you know even just 10 years ago. People who play videogames are often considered to be you know kind of alone in their basement or in their room playing by themselves. But nowadays almost any someone is playing a game, they're likely talking to their friends, forming relationships, meeting new people. So I think it's an excellent way to be social.

AMT: And how many U.S. colleges and universities have e-sports teams?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: I Think there's about 75 colleges and universities offering scholarships but well over 500 schools compete in the e-sports. .

AMT: It's Interesting because the job you have didn't exist several years ago.

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: Yes Absolutely. I did not enter my undergraduate career expecting to be an e-sports coach at the end of it. Certainly not.

AMT: What Is your background in gaming?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: So I competed in professional Starcraft 2 Starcraft 2 was the first big game to get popular on Twitch.TV, the streaming platform. I was ranked top 25 in the United States in that game and then I started to coach some better professional players for the number 3 Starcraft Team in North America. I did that for several years while I got my background in economics and philosophy and then just brought me here to Ashland. .

AMT: Gaming Has traditionally been a male dominated culture. What are you doing to attract female gamers?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: I'm Just trying to create an environment that's as accepting as possible. You'll notice a lot of the time like if I'm playing in a DotA game or StarCraft game or anything like that and there's a girl in the game a lot of the guys will change how they act. Whether they become more aggressive towards the girl gamer or they try to impress her. One of those things tends to happen and we're trying to create an environment where everyone is equal, everyone has the same opportunities, no one is treated differently.

AMT: What would you say to a parent concerned that their tween or their teen is spending too much time playing video games?

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: I would say that that is absolutely a reasonable concern all the time. To be the absolute best in the world. Maybe you have to spend many hours playing the game but I think there's checks and balances and it's important to have a balanced lifestyle. And they can definitely be success when sports and their academics and their social life all at the same time.

AMT: Okay Thanks for talking with me today.

JOSHUA BUCHANAN: No Problem I appreciate the time.

AMT: Joshua Buchannan coach of the Ashland University EA Sports team. We reached him in Ashland, Ohio. Well as Fortnite's popularity has ballooned, so have stories of parents fighting with their kids trying to pry them away from the game. Our producer Willow Smith went to check in with one family trying to figure out just how much Fortnite is too much for that night. Cindy Graham and her 13 year old son Iain live in Toronto.

SOUNDCLIP

IAIN: I Probably from about from when school ends. I usually start around 4:00 and maybe end at 6:00. Most of my friends play Fortnite. A couple months ago in school. I recently learned about dova mean and how does that mean gets released in your brain when you think you've accomplished things and it's a great feeling to accomplish things in front of your friends. [To co-players] I am worried about you, you'll end out sick of it. .

CINDY: I do try to figure out if it's going to be super graphic or gory in that kind of thing and I don't agree with games like Call of Duty and those types.

IAIN: Super bloody violent games are probably not good for younger kids. But another thing is Fortnite is sort of cartoony. So the art style isn't meant to be bloody it's just meant to 'Oh I'm dead'. .

CINDY: We would prefer that he is spending more time outside playing with his friends instead of up here talking to them via headset. But we try to balance it. [Son playing in the background] We are also still texting them from the dinner table and saying Can you please come down right now. So that can get frustrating.

IAIN: It's quite social because I'm constantly talking to my friends. Often adults will think oh no I'm killing some - [laughs] somebody had a rocket launcher - like I'm going you're killing people but at the same time you're just trying to win. You don't really focus on the fact that you're murdering somebody.

CINDY: For Iain. I think there are some benefits to playing video games. He gets a lot out of it and it builds his confidence.

IAIN: Since ever since I was 11 and played it quite a bit of Minecraft. It's been a quite a bit of a debate. .

CINDY: We Try to limit it as much as we can. Balance is still a struggle.

[Iain Talking to co-players]

AMT: Okay there we go. He just got eliminated. Whether it is Fortnite or League of Legends or Call of Duty e-sports is big business and it has opened a new career path for some young gamers. Tim Commandeur is a professional gamer. He goes by the name HoneyBee. He plays a popular fighting game called Injustice 2. He's with me in our Toronto studio. Hello.

TIM COMMANDEUR: Hi. Thanks so much for having me. .

AMT: You Were laughing as you were listening to the two of them. What were you thinking?

TIM COMMANDEUR: I think it's interesting because it does kind of somewhat bring back memories of when I was younger and I would play games myself and I'd have my parents telling me that kind of similar things you need to go outside.

AMT: So how did you become a professional gamer?

TIM COMMANDEUR: I Just had a passion for the game and it just kind of turned into something of a career for me. I was actually competing in the first iteration of the game Injustice 1. And it just I started competing at tournaments and local stuff in Toronto for the first year that it was out in 2013 because I just really wanted to get good at it. And I would go with my brother and we'd play tournament once a month or something like that. Before a year into the game we decided we want to really see how good we are, at which point we decided to take like 14 hour bus ride to the United States and compete in some larger tournaments over there. .

AMT: And so what's the what's the objective in injustice too?

TIM COMMANDEUR: It's a fighting game. So essentially it's a one player versus one player where both players have a life bar and you essentially have to hit each other enough times to deplete those life bars until it's down to zero. .

AMT: At what point did you realize this could be a career for you?

TIM COMMANDEUR: I think the point when I realized that this is something I could really do is when I got picked up by my team Beast Coast because before that point I was still working nine to five regular job. I was working at an insurance brokerage and I would just play on my free time, whenever I could. At that point I didn't think I could actually do this full time because there just wasn't enough money in it for me like to sustain myself. But when I got picked up by East Coast it made it so that I can actually do this full time.

AMT: And can I ask what you make?

TIM COMMANDEUR: I make roughly 5000 a month.

AMT: 5000 Dollars a month. .

TIM COMMANDEUR: Yes.

AMT: And so you quit the day job you went to university. .

TIM COMMANDEUR: Yes I graduated a couple of years ago. .

AMT: And what were you studying?

TIM COMMANDEUR: I was studying business finance at Ryerson University.

AMT: Oh OK. And then you got that job and then you quit because you could make a living at this. But it's the sponsorships as well, huh? In the end the prize money is on top of what you make a month?

TIM COMMANDEUR: So for someone like myself the prize money is always there and it's always nice to win extra money. But I would never think of like whether I can do this full time based solely on how much prize money there is. You have to think about it more so what is reliable? What can you think is going to come every single month? So for me that's my sponsorship with East Coast, that's my payments I get from YouTube and that's my patreon payments that I get as well. .

AMT: So how old are you?

TIM COMMANDEUR: I'm Twenty five.

AMT: And how long have you been professional?

TIM COMMANDEUR: Well professionally doing this full time it's been maybe seven months or so, competing in tournaments I've been doing for about four years.

AMT: And what has the income allowed you to do?

TIM COMMANDEUR: Well it’s allowed me to have a lot more time to actually practice the game. It's also allowed me to offer lessons and stuff through my patron. So when I would when I decided to quit my job that's when I opened up my patreon which gives people the ability to do private sessions with me and join like a community that I've created, and by pledging monthly amounts of money anywhere from five dollars maybe 30 dollars something like that.

AMT: And You and your own condo, don't you?

TIM COMMANDEUR: I do yes.

AMT: So you're managing to live your life and have the job you want.

TIM COMMANDEUR: Exactly like I'm essentially living "the dream" which is being able to do exactly what I love to do and being independent.

AMT: It's so interesting because it wasn't that long ago that the job you have didn't exist.

TIM COMMANDEUR: Exactly. Exactly.

AMT: It's a new economy. What does it tell you about the economic shift happening around sports and gaming.

TIM COMMANDEUR: If you look at my category of e-sports which is the fighting game nishe it's not as big as stuff like League of Legends or Starcraft or even Fortnite. It's not that big but it has been growing substantially every year. So if you compare what it is now in fighting games to what it was maybe four years ago, it's night and day. Like four years ago no one that plays the games that I play could ever be doing this full time.

TIM COMMANDEUR: So what advice do you have for young people who want to become pro gamers to be a professional gamer. It's really a passion of yours. It has to be something that you really really love. So that's always something that you can always find the time to do after you do the stuff you should be doing like going to school.

AMT: And what does the odds like to go pro is that like people who skate and want to join the NHL.

TIM COMMANDEUR: It is probably some somewhat comparable, I would say, to like people that are like pro athletes or anything like that. Not everyone can be the cream of the crop. You have to put a lot of dedication and hard work to getting there. .

AMT: What's a typical day like for you? How much time do you spend on the job?

TIM COMMANDEUR: Around 8 hours a day playing games, whether that's training for a particular match ups that I'm going to see in tournaments, whether that's playing with my patreons, whether that's just streaming. It comes a lot of different things and sometimes I also play other games more so for fun.

AMT: So you spend as much time in this as you did at the other job you had. .

TIM COMMANDEUR: For me it's hard for me to calculate exactly how much time I'm spending working because I don't really see this as working. It's really just me doing what I love to do.

AMT: And where do you see professional gaming taking you in years to come?

TIM COMMANDEUR: Well for me it's hard to say because you don't know how long you're gonna be on top, right. Because everyone's always wants to be the best. Everyone wants to get better. For me I always try to train myself to still be at the top and try to still be super competitive when it comes to tournaments I want people to be scared if they have me in their path. I want to perform really well but at the same time I'm also building up my YouTube channel. I have about 50,000 subscribers and I would love to continue building that up and get that to a point where maybe YouTube could be a source of revenue that is really stable for me, and I could just continue making games on there while also competing at tournaments.

AMT: Creating your own business. .

TIM COMMANDEUR: Yes exactly. .

AMT: The Other thing that's really interesting in how things have changed is the spectators. What do you think people get from watching?

TIM COMMANDEUR: Well I would compare it to like maybe any traditional sport you get the enjoyment of seeing something at possibly a level a lot higher than what you yourself can accomplish. Right. People watch basketball because they like to watch the pros play basketball oin the NBA. People watch the tournament because they want to see the best players play each other.

AMT: It's not the job you thought you'd have when you were growing up when you were smaller, huh?

TIM COMMANDEUR: Definitely not. Definitely not. When I was smaller this was I couldn't even imagine this would be a thing. .

AMT: It is how much the economy is changing. Thanks for coming in. .

TIM COMMANDEUR: Yes. Thanks so much for having me.

IR: Tim Commandeur, AKA HoneyBee, is a professional gamer here in Canada. He spoke with Anna Maria Tremonti in May. And just a little update to this story. Maybe it's the lure of college scholarships or a professional career, but ABC TV recently reported on families taking their kids game play to another level.

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VOICE 1: Big wins on Fortnite equals big bragging rights amongst friends.

VOICE 2: And remember you gotta listen for people here too. OK?

VOICE 1: Just ask 7-year-old Mason Rakovich and his nine-year-old brother Carson who can't get enough of the online action.

VOICE 3: And it's fun when you're good at it.

VOICE 1: But they're desperate to up their game so dad, Paul, has enlisted the help of a virtual tutor.

VOICE 4: I think our time with them is super limited, especially with work and I was kind of watching them play and I thought like I should check us out.

VOICE 1: He's paying upwards of $25 a pop to help all three of them improve their play.

IR: According to a Wall Street Journal, sorry according to The Wall Street Journal, $25 is a bargain with some coaches charging $45 an hour to teach kids how to win at Fortnite. Now off the top of this conversation, we mentioned one of Canada's most famous Fortnite players and fans. To wrap it all up, here's Canada's own, Drake, with the video version of "God's Plan" from his newest album, Scorpion.

[Song: "God's Plan" by Drake]

IR: Coming up in our next half hour, the Monk of Mokha. One man's quest to revitalize Yemen's coffee culture, despite a raging civil war. I'm Ioanna Roumeliotis and you're listening to the summer edition of The Current.

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How a search for the world's best coffee led to Yemen in the midst of civil war

Guests: Mokhtar Alkhanshali

IR: Hello. I'm Ioanna Roumeliotis and you're listening to the summer edition of The Current.

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VOICE: If you look over here, these are the terraces that have coffee. As you can see, they’re high, high up the mountain. And unfortunately, cars can’t come over here, so the only way to go up is to hike with all our luggage bags and use a few donkeys. Otherwise, you can’t go up. In search for the best coffee, sometimes you have to sacrifice some things. Here we are. Hopefully see you guys on the top, if you make it.

IR: That is Mokhtar Alkhansali hiking through the highlands of Yemen. He's on the hunt for coffee beans, but as we've already talked about in today's show, Yemen has been beset by a vicious civil war for years. The fighting in Yemen actually broke out while Mokhtar Alkhanshali was in the country looking for those elusive coffee beans. But he wasn't about to let armed militias and bombing by the Saudi air force keep him from finding the holy grail of coffee. Mokhtar Alkhanshali's incredible story of war and coffee is told in author Dave Eggers' new book, The Monk of Mokha. Anna Maria Tremonti spoke with Mokhtar Alkanshali in May and she began by asking what was at the top of that mountain he was climbing.

MA: That was, it seemed only like yesterday, that was actually an area called Bura, in the far western region of Yemen, close to the Red Sea and that was one of the hardest hikes of my life. It's on the top, on top of the mountain, you see a village perched way up near the clouds. And these people live, it's almost like the Hobbit, the Shire. It's just an incredible way of life that's been really untouched by time and space and these people who live in a beauty, really wonderful balanced way of life and it's something that I was really fortunate to see.

AMT: Your family had left Yemen before you were born and you grew up in the U.S., what was it like being back in your ancestral home country of Yemen?

MA: The idea of actually going back and starting a career in my family's homeland was something that you know my family didn't really understand, for me, even myself to a certain degree. Actually, when I was a kid, my parents used to threaten me and tell me if I didn't do good in school, they would send me back home to work on the farm.

AMT: And you actually went back when you were a kid because you were a bit troubled and they wanted you to be there for a while and see another world, right?

MA: Yeah you know, we're all a product of our environments and growing up in the inner cities, it was really rough. I grew up in a neighborhood in San Francisco called the Tenderloin and as comedian Dave Chappelle once said, "Ain't nothing tender about that place." It was really a difficult reality, a lot of drug and violence and it's hard for a kid to see themselves outside of that circumstance. And so, at some point my parents really couldn't handle me and I went back to Yemen when I was almost 13 as sort of a boot camp. And that's where my grandfather and that's where you know, I saw people who were so less fortunate and didn't have much and it made me feel guilty of the privilege I had and so it had a huge impact on me when I was a kid. But I also I got to learn Arabic and learned how to you know walk the walk and talk the talk and that was tremendous in helping me do the work I do now.

AMT: So tell us about the moment, when it came to you, that your future lay in coffee.

MA: That was on October 1st, 2013 at 12:02 p.m. You know, people have their like what moments in life, you know define you and sometimes it could be as simple as a text message. And so that, at that moment, a friend of mine she texted me about a weird Yemeni statue in front of the work, my job. At that time I was doing a lot of civil rights work with groups like the ACLU and my goal was to become a lawyer. That's what I wanted to do and my parents loved that idea. And around that time I was also working as a doorman in this like tall high-rise in downtown S.F. to make extra money, to support my family. Well they didn't cause doormen, they called us lobby ambassadors to make us feel better. And so my friend told me about this statue of a weird Yemeni man next to my job, drinking coffee. And so I went across and you know, for those listening out there, especially the older generation, there's an old coffee company called, "The Hills Brothers," and their logo was an Arab man, who held a cup of coffee to the sky. And so I went to this courtyard across where I worked, there's this epic statue of this man, arab man, with this long robe and this turban and holding a cup of coffee to the sky. And so that led me on this long journey of understanding the history of coffee and you know learning about, you know for those who don't know, there's actually a port city called Mocha, in Yemen and that's where the name comes from. And just a disclaimer, I am not the "Monk of Mocha," that actually belongs to a man who lived in the 14th century, a title that was his and he was the first person to write about coffee as a drink. And I just learned about the incredible history of coffee and how when coffee entered Europe and these major cities like Vienna and London and Paris, in coffeehouses people had amazing ideas and social movements. And I just fell in love with the history of coffee and I felt that for the first time, I found something that could connect you know my Yemeni heritage with my American side and I felt coffee could be this bridge.

AMT: And so you decide to get into the coffee industry. What did your family think when you told them you were going to try to resurrect the coffee industry in Yemen?

MA: I think, the term I liked to use for myself at this early stage of my idea, was naive arrogance. I didn't know anything about coffee or I barely drank coffee, you know six years ago, five years ago even. And so when I told my family, I remember like I had this little red popcorn maker and I used to roast coffee beans on it. And I remember roasting coffee beans with my family, showing them and I had my Chemex and my hand grinder and you know, at the end, they were like, well, so how's school going? At that point, I had dropped out of college, they didn't know that. So I think in the beginning they were just skeptical, then they became worried because at first they thought it was maybe a phase and then when I actually went to Yemen this summer, then they were really concerned.

AMT: What was the coffee industry like in Yemen, when you got there?

MA: So to give you an idea, in the 1800's, Yemen was shipping out close to 60,000 tons of coffee out of the port of Mocha and now it's less than 15,000 tons, a huge, huge decline. And so it was really just a shell of its former self. They were all along the value chain. I like to use the word value chain and not supply chain because I believe everyone brings value to his product as it comes to us. One of the things that this book talks a lot about is the idea of the journey something takes to come to us and how as consumers, through the power of direct trade, we have so much more power to impact people's lives. But when I went to Yemen, every way along the chain, along every point of coffee, from the moment it was picked, there were things happening along that chain to really ruin the quality and the main reason why was there was no price incentives for high quality. You know, coffees are, for those who don't know, they're cherries. It's actually a fruit and the seed, the pit, this is a seed, that is the coffee bean that we roast and we grind and we brew this incredible drink that will change your life. And so, it starts off kind of green, the colour of this cherry and as it ripens, it becomes yellow and then orange and then when it's fully ripe, it's this really beautiful, ruby red and it's so much more sweet. And so to selectively pick just the ripe red cherries, it takes much more labour and so farmers weren't being paid more for that. And they were being taken advantage of by loan sharks, head of harvest and they were mixing different coffee varietals in different areas and regions and years. All these things were along the chain so I noticed there were a lot of issues, a lot of problems and I felt like maybe I could be that bridge and I can fix these issues.

AMT: Are you drinking coffee right now?

MA: I actually am.

AMT: I thought so.

MA: And that's how I am, that's how I'm so excited right now.

AMT: There are Ethiopians who are going to say, you are full of beans. Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. What is so special about coffee in Yemen?

MA: There is a difference of opinion, where coffee begins, right. Does it begin in Ethiopia or does it begin in Yemen? And depending on which side of the Red Sea you're in, you'll have a different answer, but I think I'm probably the only Yemeni who believes coffee begins in Ethiopia. As an indigenous plant that grows wildly there and the first consumption of coffee was people would chew on the coffee cherries, sometimes with animal fat, but the first people to actually, you know, harvest it intentionally and cultivate it into roast and make this beautiful drink, were Yemeni Sufi monks in Yemen. The first cup of coffee was poured in Yemen. And for a Sufi, at that time they believed that God had brought down this plant to help us reach higher states of consciousness. And so it was like a spiritual stimulant and it was a very powerful way to build community and have social gatherings, which I think coffee was intentionally used for and especially when it went to Europe. You had certain coffee houses that were known for philosophers and some for musicians and so on. And so it then began being produced in Yemen exclusively. It was illegal to sell seedlings to foreigners and if you did, you'd be executed by Yemeni authorities. So for almost 200 years Yemen had a monopoly in the world of coffee. And so that's kind of my way of making peace between Ethiopia and Yemen and it's been working so far.

AMT: OK well we'll see how our listeners feel. So at the beginning of you deciding that you're going to do this, you go on this trek around Yemen looking for coffee farms, what was that like?

MA: That was one of the most interesting parts of my life. I just had these old Arabic books and coffee in Yemen and I had these USAID and UN reports on coffee production. And so I went to the port of Mocha and I zigzagged across the country. I went to over 32 different regions that grew coffee and it was incredible like some places we would hike for days to get to and you know others we would get to and we would realize there's no coffee and we'd ask the farmers, you know, do you guys have coffee here. They're like, yeah, you know we used to have coffee, 50 or 80 or 100 years ago. You're a little late.

AMT: And you did find a place where the best beans were growing, tell us about that and the farmer who grew them.

MA: After the first summer, almost four months, I had lost almost 40 pounds. You know, I had contracted malaria and tapeworms and had a gull bladder swollen, but that's a different story. But I brought back six luggage bags full of coffee samples from these areas. They had about 21 samples. And when we analyzed these coffee samples of 21, 19 failed basic standards. You know, I mean they had horrible scores because of the way it was picked and processed and sorted, but two of the coffees had a 90 plus rating, which is the highest you can give and it's extremely rare and so from those coffee samples, one of them was this incredible village area in the province of Sana'a, there are Al-Jabal coffees and there was a farmer named Malik and his wife, Wardah. And their coffees were just, some of the highest scores in the world, according to these experts that tasted it with me. And so it just had this incredible tropical flavor of like papaya, with mangosteen and it had this sweet lingering aftertaste, silky smooth, it was just something you wouldn't taste in coffee. You know, I mean we're describing it this way because we're used to drinking you know, coffee that tastes like burnt popcorn, where you have to put loads of cream and sugar just to make it drinkable. And so it was just a very unique coffee.

AMT: And that was the coffee that you would go back to Yemen for and really start a business. But you go back to Yemen and right around the time when you're there, with all these big plans, the Houthi uprising begins.

MA: Yeah. So this was, Yemen was going through a very difficult political situation and it just got worse and worse, as days went by and the months went by. I was scheduled to leave to attend a coffee conference, a huge event in Seattle and over 100 countries in attendance, the biggest coffee conference in the world. And so a few days before I was supposed to leave, I woke up at around 2:00 a.m. and I heard really loud explosions around me and so I went outside and I saw it just, it looked like laser beams in the skies and those were anti-aircraft machine guns being shot at Saudi fighter jets. And I found that overnight the country had went into an all-out war, a regional conflict and Saudi Arabia had started the coalition with around ten countries with the U.S. backing, to take out this militia and just began bombing around us. They actually bombed both the civilian airports and it was just a very scary, scary night. I had to, you know, send messages to my mom and dad, not knowing if I would live to see the morning, to really feel a certainty around death. All I knew of war is what I saw in movies right, I never thought I'd be in that situation. So that first night was very difficult.

AMT: And as difficult as it was, you were pretty single-minded. As you point out, there's a coffee conference, you need to be there to sell this stuff and you need to get out of the country.

MA: You know for me, I think I had promised these farmers something. These are real people that I knew and we were friends and you know I looked in their eyes and I told them I could do something for them. And that was a huge burden and maybe at a deeper level with all that happened and this was the only thing that I could hold onto, to help me continue that I had this mission. However crazy it seemed like that within five or six days, I was supposed to somehow make it to a conference across the world, to just showcase coffees and wouldn't even know if I would find people who would pay these price points for this coffee and how it would taste with them, but that was the game plan.

AMT: So you have a couple of suitcases with your samples of beans and was it two suitcases or more?

MA: Two suitcases.

AMT: Ok. But you have to get them and yourself out of the country. Yet as you just pointed out, they've bombed the airports, so you think, you can get in a truck, drive down the road. How'd that work for you?

MA: A friend of mine in the southern part of the country, in the city of Aden, told me that there was a Greek ship taking foreigners out. But it would leave in the morning and I was, if I had left at that exact moment, I might just make it because it was a nine and a half hour, it was a ten hour drive. And so I just decided to go and you know I went through a lot of difficulties when I got there. The people in the south were fighting the Houthi invasion, this militia invasion. So every time I got to a Houthi checkpoint, they would just look at the front of the car, kind of smile and just kind of like wave at us and let us come through. You know, checkpoint after checkpoint, I had just OK whatever. It wasn't until I got to the city of Aden, where you know the Houthi resistors, like the people of Aden who were fighting the Houthis, at this point they looked in the front of this truck I was in and their face changed colours. And I was like what's going on. It was just this giant sticker that was like the chant of the Houthis. It was like their chant there and it was on the front of it. So it was like, it's like Houthi like, it looked like I was doing like a Houthi propaganda vehicle. And someone at some point that night, while we were leaving the capital, had just like put it on the front of the car. We didn't notice it, we were in such a rush. So that was one of the things that unfortunately made the situation much worse.

AMT: And yeah, at some point you get into the other side, eventually you and your driver wind up in jail. What was that experience like?

MA: Well we got jailed twice in that city. The first time, you know, as soon as they saw that sticker they like pulled us out and the two people with me, one of them had a very thick northern accent. And so, I looked around and I see him being blindfolded and being pushed around, someone hitting him with a rifle and so I tried to explain to them what was going on. Like listen, you know if you're American, you have a passport, you can leave, but these guys can't. These people, they were friends of friends of mine, I had never met them before. I couldn't just leave them. I just, I knew that whatever happened it wouldn't be good. So I stayed with them, eventually we were able to leave the first. They put us in a makeshift prison, it was actually kids elementary school and for whatever reason I was able to talk myself out of that situation by saying my friend, someone who is from New York, she was there in the city and I told them that she was my fiancé and it was a long story, but I was able to leave that, you know, after a couple of hours. The second time, that was the more difficult one and that was where, you know, I was blindfolded and tied up and thrown behind a truck and you know I went through a lot of difficulties in that moment. Which I really, it's hard for me to go through, but you can read about that part.

AMT: And all the while you still got these suitcases with your beans and you still have to get out of the country. You finally get released and you get help and you get to the port. But how do you actually, what do you leave Yemen in. How do you do it?

MA: So while I was in prison, the second time, I overheard one of the guards and I think he have Djiboutian and half Yemeni, talk about there was some activity between Yemen and East Africa, pirates and some like cattle shipments and stuff like that. So I had this idea, well it's faraway fantasy that if I ever left this situation, I would go to the port of Mocha and try to escape through there. So after the next day, I was able through a longer series of events, I left, I was able to be freed and I made it back to the capital and then I drove seven hours to the other side of the country, to the port of Mocha. And I got there and we were supposed to take a mid-sized ship with about 160 passengers from Somalia and I think 11 or 12 tonnes of onions and I'm like OK, whatever. We get there and the ship wasn't working, there was no diesel and I was afraid that they would begin doing airstrikes cause there were threats of that and they would closed that port and that was the only way I could leave. So someone said to me, well instead of a three day journey on this mid-sized ship, we can take you on a on a one-day journey across the Red Sea on a smaller boat called a Viper. When I heard that, I thought he meant viper like like Dodge Viper, some kind of speedboat. He meant fibre, as in fiberglass. And it was this little, 18, 20 foot dinghy with a small single motor, Yamaha 40 horsepower, on the back of it. You know and so I jumped on that and you know, we hear stories of people from East Africa or from Syria who take these ocean voyages, refugees and the horrific scenes of bodies washed up ashore in places like Greece or Italy. And so I took my samples, I went on that ship, I made a prayer to God, I asked God, you know, just as you allowed Moses and his people to cross the sea, help me cross it. You know in the opposite direction, but still, I got on there and I took that boat ride and you know that was the biggest leap of faith in my life, to just go and just have no, I mean looking back it was really stupid. The idea on this small dinghy, if you get, if for whatever reason the engine stops, you're stuck in the middle of the ocean. If you get robbed, it's one of the most pirated waters in the world and so forth. But eventually, after a day, we crossed it. We made it to Djibouti, got there, then they thought I was a smuggler, I had to show my passport. I spent a night, you know, detained there and then finally like this governor of this small port called Obock, freed me and then we contacted the embassy and we got to go to the capital. It was a long drive and made it there, then from there flew to Kenya, from Kenya to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam I called my mother and I told her the story of the boat, everything. I didn't tell anyone this whole, what I was doing. And my mom was so emotional. She was just like, whoa, whoa, did you make it. I'm like, no ma, I died. I'm talking to you on the phone like I made it, of course I made it. And so she's just really emotional.

AMT: It's like a mother question. Did you actually get to the conference on time?

MA: I made it there. I made it across, made it to Amsterdam. I flew to the airport and then in the airport there was this giant press conference for me at the airport in San Francisco and so I got interviewed by a bunch of different news outlets. And so the next day, I flew to Seattle and I made it to the conference and on the Uber ride, you know, from the airport to the conference, I hear myself on BBC radio. This interview that I had done the day before and it was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I remember the Uber driver at the end of the interview, saying this guy what he's doing with farmers is really incredible helping them, but he's crazy. And I was like yeah, he's nuts.

AMT: How has your coffee venture and adventure changed your life?

MA: And that's a, that's a really wonderful question and I wish I had three days to answer that, but to try to summarize it, I feel thankful, I thank God every day that I found something that I can do that gives me meaning. I feel like I'm helping people, connecting people and trying to like bring positivity to this world, that I found something useful in. And so for me that's been really wonderful. There are things I wish I didn't have to experience, but there's always a lesson in something, right. These are things I have to internalize and try to process, but it's been wonderful, to be honest, to be able to travel the world, to be able to talk to people like you, you know and reach people, millions of people who I never thought ever. I'm a kid who grew up in the Tenderloin and I grew up in a one bedroom apartment, with six siblings, there's nine of us. My dad as a bus driver. I didn't have, you know, many options in my life. Most of my friends you know, didn't make it to college. And so I'm very thankful for, I am and I hope that anyone, young person, you know reading this book can find themselves in these pages and try to find what they want to be happy for. No matter how difficult things are in life, as long as your passion is there, as long as your passion outweighs your fear, you'll always make it and do something that you will be proud of.

AMT: Well yours is an incredible story. Thank you for sharing it. Bye-bye.

MA: Bye-bye.

IR: Mokhtar Alkhanshali is the founder and chief executive officer of Port of Mokha Coffee. The story of his search for the best coffee in Yemen is the subject of Dave Eggers' new book, The Monk of Mokha. Anna Maria Tremonti spoke with Mokhta Alkhanshali in May.

[Song: "Cissy Strut" by The Meters]

IR: That's our program for today. Stay tuned to Radio One for Q. Salman Rushdie is on the show to talk about his new novel, The Golden House. And remember, you can always take The Current with you to go on the CBC Radio app. It lets you browse through past episodes of our show and start listening in just a few seconds. You can search for stories you missed or want to hear again or listen live to your local CBC station right from your smartphone or tablet. Hear the day's top stories, even make your own playlist of your favorite stuff to listen to later. It's free from the App Store or Google Play. Finally today, we opened today's show with a look at the ongoing civil war in Yemen and we closed it with a conversation about one man's quest to revive Yemen's coffee industry. Let's end things off with the voice of Ibrahim Alhasbani. He's one of the many Yemeni people who have made their way to the Detroit, Michigan area, fleeing the civil war and building a new life and community in the area. Earlier this year, the Associated Press visited his coffee shop in Dearborn, Michigan, where he talked about the toll the conflict is having on people's lives. I'm Ioanna Roumeliotis. Thanks for listening to the summer edition of The Current.

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VOICE: This is where the coffee starts from. So I want to show the people how the [inaudible] will be. Also to give the people education about Yemen because a lot people they don't know about Yemen. They don't know what's happened in Yemen. They don't know what the situation in Yemen. They don't know how many you know kids dying every day from hunger over there. That's why I want to just send a message for everyone and to be like a messenger for my country to give the you know right picture about people over there. They don't know what's going on. It's just crazy. You just you feel sad and you're crying for the people that dying everyday from hunger, from bombing from you know they kill people for you don't know who killed and who get killed for why, for what reason. They just get killed. And this is, I mean I feel happy for, I feel proud. I feel, I mean I did something different. That's why the people come here, they want to, they are not Yemeni but they want to come to see your place. They want to know more about Yemen.

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Aug. 20, 2018 episode transcript

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