Algeria: Empty Victory

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June 6, 2007: Security forces killed 17 Islamic terrorists last month, but about 30 people have died from terrorist related violence in that period. The courts are currently trying 35 people for various terrorist related offences. There are still several dozen small groups (a dozen or more men each) of terrorists in operation. Many are in the mountain forests east of the capital. A few are far to the south, in the desert. The terrorists still have some support among the people, but many other Algerians are quick to turn in any Islamic terrorist they come across.

May 24, 2007: Less than a third of the eligible voters turned out for recent elections, because most Algerians have no faith in the military dictatorship that has run the country for nearly two decades, or any voting that is allowed. Since the 1960s, the leaders of the revolution against France monopolized power, "in the name of the people." Most of the people are screwed, and they know it. Algeria is yet another Arab tyranny, where the few live it up at the expense of the many, and any attempts at change are bought off or beaten down. The official unemployment rate of 16 percent hides a lot of underemployment and low paid jobs with no future. Migration, legal or otherwise, is the goal of most of the under 30s (70 percent of the population.) It's mainly men who are trying to get out. The only positive sign is a falling birthrate, as more women take jobs men are unwilling to do, or are unqualified for (60 percent of college students are women). The men ran the country into the ground, and the women are making the best of it.

 

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