Tunisia

Politics

Nowadays, I think that Tunisia is best known as the country where the Arab spring began.

On 17 December 2010 Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26 years old street vendor, set himself afire in protest of the confiscation of his goods and the humiliation by a female police officer. What followed were massive protests and the well-known Tunisian revolution which led to the resignation of the long time leading president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. After democratic elections  Ennahda gained political power. As Ennahda is an Islamic group the main fear of the secular parties was that Ennahda would include the Sharia in the constitution but they maintained the secular nature of the state and no Islamic laws were introduced.

Economy

The main challenge for the new president is the high unemployment rate, especially among the young.  Tunisia has a very diversified economy ranging from agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and petroleum products, to tourism. In the last decade it managed to establish a growth of 5% but this growing economy also suffered from corruption during that decade. Despite of this corruption Tunsia has managed to attract plenty of foreign companies such as Hewley-Packart.

Language

Arabic is the official language and Tunsian Arabic is the local language. While travelling through Tunisia you won’t have any language difficulties.  Like Algeria, Tunisia was also occupied by the French and the French language is still very important in Tunisian education. From the age  of 8 children are taught French and from the age of 12 they are taught English.Since 1991 a basic education for children between 6 and 16 is obliged.

Tourism

Tourism plays a huge role in today’s Tunisian economy. Tunisia has plenty to offer. It has a rich history, beautiful beaches and a magnificent dessert . Tunisia is a very modern Arab country due to the occupation of the French and  the adoption of a gender equality law in the constitution by the former president Ben Ali.(perhaps one of the few things the former president Ben Ali has done good for his country) 

Sources:
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/27/203529.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisiahttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ts.htmlhttp://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-tunisia

Algeria

As my father was born in Algeria and I never had the opportunity to visit this country, this journey was very interesting for me. My father left Algeria in the late seventies. He grew up in a military school in Laghouat, 400 km south of the Algerian capital Algiers. My father always loved being artistic, he made paintings and sculptures but after Algeria gained independence from France( Algeria was colonized by France from 1830 to 1962) Islamic groups such as the Front Islamique du Salut gained power. Therefor my father felt Algeria was no longer safe for open minded people and he came to Belgium. First he went to school in Belgium during which he met my mother. They married and my sister and I were born so my father kept living in Belgium.

Algeria’s black decade

When I was a young child my mother wouldn’t let us visit Algeria and starting 1992 there was a civil war in Algeria so we couldn’t go even if we wanted to. The Algerian government and various Islamic armed groups( such as the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) clashed. when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) party gained popularity amongst the Algerian people the military took over control of the government. The Islamic groups first targeted the army and the police but soon they started targeting civilians such as journalists and other high educated people. During this period entire villages were attacked and butchered (List of masacres in Algeria). In some cases government involvement was suspected as there were military posts nearby who didn’t intervene during these actions. Legitimate self-defense groups arose and the government gained the upper hand by the late 1990’s.
The AIS (Islamic Salvation Army), under attack from both sides, opted for a ceasefire with the government in 1997 while the GIA was torn apart by internal splits leading to a victory for the government. In 2007 a splinter group of the GIA made a union with Al-Qaeda and changed their name into ‘Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’ they dissociated themselves from the previous killings of civilians and only targeted military forces.
In response to the Arab spring the government introduced some political reforms in 2011, such as lifting the 19-year-old state of emergency restrictions and increasing women’s quotas.
Nowadays Algeria economy is dominated by the state. Its main challenge is to reduce the high youth unemployment rates by encouraging the private sector, attracting foreign investment, and providing adequate jobs for younger Algerians.
Unlike other Arab countries the tempers in Algeria remained quite calm during the Arab spring. The government immediately promised political reforms and in my opinion after years of war with the French and afterwards the civil war, the Algerian people are not interested in new conflicts.

Sources:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ag.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeria
http://wikitravel.org/en/Algeria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_Civil_War
http://mondediplo.com/1997/10/alger1
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135376589/algerias-black-decade-still-weighs-heavily