Anyone know anything about Algeria? i am representing them in a model United Nations, i have to research the country, i am in the Economic, Technological, Environmental and Health committee....
Economic: Once one of the richer places in the Arab world, it was pretty much stripped clean by the French and the remainder was ruined by a number of civil wars. (The one for independence, the one right after, the one in the nineties...)
I hear Algerian immigrants in Europe, unlike Moroccans, tend not to send any money back, which is a very bad sign because it basically menas they' re just glad to have gotten out and have no intention ever to return (There's no regrets, no tears goodbye, I don't want you back...)
Environmental: Well, there's a coastal plain, and mountains, and a large desert. No oil, though.
Health: Just like almost everywhere across the Muslim world, AIDS isn't a problem yet.
Oh, and on those terrorists. In 1991, the army stepped down from power and allowed free elections on the French model (one member seats with runoffs). When the results of the first round had the Islamists almost certain to win, they stepped right in. That triggered the civil war.
The "Islamists who slaughter whole villages" are, or at least were in the beginning, the country's own secret service trying to wreck the Islamists' popular support and also to scatter their unity (by setting up their own, more radical groups). It worked, except that they were soon out of control...A number of these radical Islamist groupings now have ties to Al-Qaeda.
An uneasy peace has now returned to most of the country, and the army is back in the driving seat. They were trying to hold a free election for president some while back (two years maybe?) but the three official opposition candidates all withdrew days before the election to protest against the rigged election rolls and widespread intimidation. So it ended up a yes-no vote.
