Let’s get straight to the point: What Algeria needs the most is a revolution in the minds of Algerians! What? Another one? Haven’t we heard that word enough this past year? Haven’t we already gone through that in the land of the 1.5 million martyrs?
In an amusing scene of Akli Tadjer’s “Les A.N.I. du Tassili” Omar, the hero of the story, is explaining to an older Algerian immigrant the symbolism of Maqam Eshahid (The Martyrs Memorial), the monument they can see towering over the city of Algiers from the deck of their ship as they leave for France. The three palms, explains Omar, represent the three revolutions: The industrial revolution, the agricultural revolution, and the cultural revolution. The old man listens patiently then bursts with a complaint: What happened to Our revolution? The real one, the one we fought for?
Algerian public discourse is of course saturated with tired and tiring references to revolution, so why suggest such a “stale” idea as a way forward for this DZBlogday 2012 when the theme is to “act for Algeria”? Didn’t the hundreds of riots and protests of 2011 demonstrate that Algerians, betraying their revolutionary heritage, were taking a pragmatic/materialistic approach, demanding jobs, housing, and pay raises while Tunisians, Egyptians, and Libyans were demanding the heads of their leaders?
True, but the revolution suggested here is not about violence, chaos or destruction. Whether we aim for political action to bring about regime change, or whether we prefer to improve living conditions through innovations, we need first a radical break from the many mental blocks that stand in the way of successful initiatives. We especially need to realize that whatever change we hope for has to become OUR business. That change can only come through US. We need to stop waiting for someone else to do things for us. No “providential” politician, no zaim will come to save the day. No motherly government will come to solve every little problem we face. No single group, however organized and dedicated it may be can alone improve things. Not the politicians, the bureaucrats, the youth, the elders, the intellectuals, the students, the workers, the peasants, the men, the women or the imams. Everyone needs to get involved. Trivial or highly utopian you will say. Probably. But also fundamental. Transcending our doubts or fears and helping others do the same should be our first act. Overcoming the poisonous and destructive “It will not work, don’t bother trying” is the first step in this Rev 2.0. To borrow a cliche, history is not destiny.
But it will take more than goodwill. Who is going to lead that effort? Why should THEY be trusted? After all, if we are in such a predicament it is in part because following a successful revolution 1.0 we put our faith in our leaders and hoped for the best. See where that got us. Let’s not make the same mistake twice. Centralized planning and mainframe computers are a thing of the past for a reason. Distributed computing, decentralized administrations are vastly superior. The network is today’s organizational paradigm. The same should be the case for this Rev2.0. No central vanguard revolutionary party to lead the charge. Instead, committed individuals acting in groups on the issues that matter the most to them. And a network to connect these groups. We can’t all be doing the same thing or be interested in the same things, but the synergy from all those efforts could be the key to unlocking the untapped human potential in Algeria. Luckily this is already underway. Numerous groups in and out of the country have organized themselves along those lines and are busy changing things. There is more to do so and everyone should consider joining or creating a group/association/organization. Becoming involved is the most important action a single person can take. While working, groups should also make a conscious effort to contribute to the building of this Rev2.0 network. Supporting and collaborating with other organizations, sharing, advertizing , publicizing, celebrating the work of others is what we need to build a dense and robust network. We have wonderful tools to do this today. We should take advantage of them.
We just need that first act: To break those mental shackles.
This post was written as a contribution to DZBlogday 2012. If you find it interesting and worth your vote, consider voting for it at Bloginy.com
Today, Algeria, just like the rest of the planet, observes World AIDS day. Various conferences, seminars, and shows as well as detection campaigns are organized throughout the country on this occasion. This year, Aniss, a non-governmental volunteer organization innovated by launching a blogging day. The organization, based in the coastal city of Annaba in eastern Algeria, is dedicated to the fight against sexually-transmitted diseases and HIV-AIDS. The theme of this “SIDA Blogging Day” (SIDA is AIDS in French) is to fight stigmatization and show solidarity with people living with AIDS in Algeria. The association with illicit sexual activities is still prevalent in Algerian society and AIDS is rarely spoken about openly. People affected by the disease are viewed with suspicion, carrying the double burden of sickness and social stigmatization. According toDr. Salima Bouzghoub of the Pasteur Institute there are, officially, 5381 cases of HIV-positive and 1234 cases of AIDS in Algeria, with an average of 50 new cases of AIDS and 200 new cases of HIV-positive every year. But Dr. Bouzghoub recognizes that the real numbers could be larger given the limited number of detection centers in the country and the fact that many patients prefer not to declare their disease, getting to hospitals when they are about to die. Some laboratories even neglect to declare the cases they have identified. Long considered an imported “foreign disease”, the AIDS virus has now become a local one increasingly affecting men and women equally. The dominant mode of transmission, between 80% and 90%, remains sexual mainly because of cultural resistance to the use of condoms. Chances of survival for AIDS victims in Algeria are still low in comparison to western standards due to the limited availability of medication.
The blogging day campaign has been joined by various active youth-oriented organizations such as Le Souk, Jam mag, Kherdja and Denia Bkhir. This should hopefully contribute to a greater awareness of the disease and its ramifications, given that,according to UNICEF, 67 % of contamination cases concern the 15 to 24 years old age group and 9 out of 10 young Algerians don’t have a correct understanding of the disease. In a poll at the University of Tizi Ouzou only about 3% of the 1800 students polled knew the modes of transmission of AIDS.
“L’esprit de novembre” “روح نوفمبر ” (The spirit of November) is an often repeated phrase in the Algerian political discourse. It is equivalent to the invocation of “The founding fathers” in American politics, and carries the weight of the ultimate reference in Algerian politics.
It is, of course, a reference to the call issued by the National Liberation Front (FLN) on November 1, 1954. This declaration, which marks the start of the Algerian war of independence, came as a decisive move that cut through years of indecision and internal disagreements within the Algerian national movement. Disagreements that reached a climax during the summer of 1954, when sharp divisions emerged and militants saw their faith in the Algerian cause seriously shattered. With its clearly stated goal, independence, and its broad program of restoring the sovereign democratic and social Algerian state, based on Islamic principles, this appeal fired up the imagination of Algerians and renewed their hope in a bright and prosperous future. Just like the modern “Yes We Can,” the FLN call was an incredibly ambitious, some would say utopian, project. It displayed a “can do” spirit that galvanized young Algerians of the period and gave them a sense of direction that would last a lifetime as they headed for the mountains with nothing more than a few old rifles to confront a mighty army.
At its best, a reference to the Spirit of November is an attempt to stir up passions and a sense of personal duty in trying to restore the determination and the solidarity needed, in the face of adversity, to reach noble goals. Unfortunately, today, after much abuse, this phrase has been hollowed of its most positive meaning. The Algerian regime has endlessly been mining the Spirit of November to display it as a badge of the legitimacy it has been unable to earn through elections or the consent of its people. Politicians of all stripes have been invoking its magic power to close any debate or to justify any position. This has turned the Spirit of November into one of those vacuous expressions everyone feels obligated to use on solemn occasions without attaching too much meaning to it. Yet, it is a this precise moment, when the country seems to be paralyzed and stuck in neutral, unable to shift gears to face the future like most other countries in the region, that Algeria could use a serious dose of that spirit. Much has changed over the past fifty-seven years and today’s conditions are different, but the need for that sense of determination to face challenges remains the same. If the youth of 1954 could do it, the youth of 2011 can certainly do it too. All that is needed is a little spark.
Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, May 1960. Simeon Brown has just arrived from Philadelphia. The amateur painter in him scrutinizes the passing faces, trying to discover the characters they revealed, when he notices these men with baggy pants, worn shoes, and shabby shirts. Their eyes are unhappy and angry, reminding Simeon of the eyes he knew from the streets of Harlem. Their hair is crinkly and their skin while not quite white is surely not black either. When they glance at Simeon, unsmiling, a strange unspoken recognition passes between him and them. Simeon has just had his first encounter with Algerians who will progressively play a central role in the life of this African-American journalist, who left the United States because “I wanted to prevent myself from killing a man.”
Written by William Gardner Smith, a native Philadelphian himself, The Stone Face carries us through a dual discovery experience. All his life Simeon Brown had to struggle against the racism and prejudice so prevalent in the 50′s in the United Sates. It cost him an eye when, as a teenager, he was attacked by a Polish gang while going to the Italian store on Reed street to get spaghetti sauce for his grandmother. The cold face of his tormentor, devoid of feeling, with its blue sadistic eyes, betrayed a soul of stone. It would forever come back and haunt Simeon whenever he encountered prejudice. Painting the stone face would also become his obsession. Years later Simeon comes close to killing a man out of rage when he encounters another manifestation of the stone face. Frightened, he decides to escape to Europe.
Travel to Europe, with possibly an extended stay in its cosmopolitan capitals has long been a rite of passage for American artists and intellectuals since the end of the nineteenth century. The names of some members of the “Lost generation” such as Ernest Hemingway or Gertrude Stein are familiar to many, but beyond the phenomenal success of Josephine Baker and the popularity of jazz among European audiences, what is less known is that African-Americans artists and intellectuals had their own group of famous expatriates. “From Harlem to Paris: Black American Writers in France, 1840-1980″ by Michel Fabre recounts this history quite well. While he did not achieve the notoriety of Richard Wright, James Baldwin, or Chester Himes, William Gardner Smith is probably the one member of that generation who paid the most attention to the plight of Algerians in France during the Algerian revolution.
As a journalist working for Agence France Presse, Smith was well acquainted with events taking place in Algeria, but as a foreigner in France, he could not openly express his solidarity for the Algerian cause (something that Simeon Brown was reminded of multiple times in the novel) and chose instead to express his views through a work of fiction.
W.G. Smith Top row second from right. 1954 Paris Review Photo from the Wall Street Journal (obtained from the Morgan Library) and Entree To Black Paris http://goo.gl/OGC6D
Post-War France had earned a mythical status among African-Americans as a ‘land of liberty’. Soon after arriving in Paris, Simeon meets Babe Carter, the massive, gregarious bookshop owner who introduces him to the local community of African-Americans. Babe has been in Paris for ten years. He came to “get out from under” and he wishes he “could move the whole black population out of the states.” While enjoying the freedom to “go anyplace, do anything” Simeon progressively discovers another reality as he observes the way Algerians are treated by the French police. His fellow expatriates dismiss his inquiries about Algerians. When he asks Raoul and Henri, two French students he meets at the Café Tournon, “Is there racism in France?” they tell him “Of course not. The French don’t believe in racist theories; everybody knows that. Africans feel perfectly at home here. The French don’t understand racism. Why do you ask?” When he persists and asks “What about Arabs?” he is told “That’s different. The French don’t like the Arabs, but it’s not racism. The Arabs don’t like us either. We’re different.” He will soon get a first-hand experience of this difference. Leaving a bar one night, he gets into a fight trying to rescue a woman he believes is being attacked by a man who turns out to be Algerian. Other Algerians come out of the bar to help their compatriot but when the police arrives a French waiter testifies that “These Arabs attacked the American.”At the police station Simeon is treated with respect by the police who call him “Monsieur”. Nothing like what happened to him in Philadelphia when he was beaten up by the police after he responded to offensive remarks by one of the officers. But he quickly discovers the Algerian is not so fortunate. In fact the man was trying to recover some of the money that the woman had stolen from him. Money that was to be sent back to Algeria to support his family. He gets locked up nonetheless. Feeling embarrassed and remorseful, Simeon tries to intervene and says it was all his fault. He is quickly rebuked and told “You don’t understand. You don’t know who they are, les Arabs. Always stealing, fighting, cutting people, killing. A night in jail is letting them off easy.” A few days later Simeon will meet again the same group of Algerians who ask him “Hey! How does it feel to be a white man?” Sitting at a table at Odéon Café he gets an earful: “We’re the niggers here! Know what the French call us-bicot, melon, raton, nor’af. That means nigger in French. Ain’t you scared we might rob you? Ain’t you appalled by our unpressed clothes, our body odor? No, but seriously, I want to ask you a serious question-would you let your daughter marry one of us?”
The experience triggers Simeon’s interest in these people who live on the periphery of Parisian life. Who remind him of what life was like back in Philadelphia. He thought he had escaped racism only to discover that it still existed here in the land of ‘liberté, égalité, fraternite’, even if it now affected someone else.
The second discovery The Stone Face takes us trough is more personal and more subtle. It revolves around two fateful encounters. At the Café Tournon, Simeon falls in love with Maria, a beautiful aspiring actress. Soon they end up spending most of their time in night-clubs, café terraces or having dinners with friends. Simeon writes articles for an American magazine while Maria goes to acting school and rehearsals. A Jew who has survived a concentration camp as a child in her native Poland, she wants to live in the present and enjoy life to the fullest. She is also worried by her medical condition. Doctors have told her she might go blind, and she came to Paris to get the surgery that could save her. Simeon finds Maria’s energy exhilarating and enjoys every moment he spends with her. Life is good. Until Simeon has a chance encounter with Ahmed, one of the Algerians he had met at the Odéon Café. Ahmed studies medicine but dreams of becoming a writer. He wants to apologize for Hossein who had lectured Simeon too harshly. They talk at length and Ahmed shares with Simeon his feelings about violence. He hates it, but knows it has to be used sometimes. His brother has been fighting for four years in the mountains of Kabylia in Algeria, and Ahmed would love to join him , but he is told by the National Liberation Front, the FLN, to focus on his studies. Algeria will need trained men when independence comes. Simeon and Ahmed agree to meet again to share a couscous. As the bus takes him progressively away from the white Paris into the Arab neighborhoods in the North of Paris, where he is to meet Ahmed, Simeon feels like he is traveling towards Harlem. Everything reminds of that. The drab buildings, the cheap stores, the people on the street, men out of work with nothing to do, Arab music blaring from the cafés or the windows of bleak hotels. But then there was police everywhere “stalking the streets, eyes moving insolently from face to face, submachine guns strung from their shoulders. It was like Harlem, Simeon thought, except that there were fewer cops in Harlem, but maybe that too would come one day.” Simeon becomes fascinated by the conditions of Algerians. He meets Ahmed frequently, and even gets caught when a police raid hits the hotel where he had gone to see Hossein who is an active member of the FLN. Luckily he had his US passport with him. The sense of purpose, the cause that Ahmed and Hossein embody make Simeon reconsider his life in Paris. Maria, who had a successful surgery, is more than ever determined to have an acting career. She goes to parties to meet directors and travels to Italy for a small role in a movie. Their lives are now on separate tracks. An article in the Herald Tribune about black children having to go to school accompanied by soldiers in a small town in the south of the US, the news of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, and a meeting with Ahmed, who had just returned from a trip to Algeria, push him further in his determination. Ahmed advises him not to let himself rot away: “You know, ‘Drifting from cafe to café’. ” Ahmed tells him how he felt when he was in the mountain of Kabylia with a group of guerrillas while French helicopters came at them. “I was happy for the first time in my life.” With Ahmed, Simeon meets Latifa and Djamila. The first Algerian women he meets in Paris. He learns all about the torture they have been subjected to, and insists until the women demonstrate for him the you-you he keeps reading about in newspapers. He finds it “bloodcurdling.” Although he struggles at first through this gradual awakening, Simeon Brown eventually reaches a state of serenity that allows him to finally see clearly the direction that his life must take. He had felt helpless in the face of racism in Philadelphia, and when he arrived in Paris to escape from it he was impressed by Babe Carter’s vow to never go back to the States. Now he was reconsidering that option. The Algerians had shown him a different way of reacting. A different response. While he obviously could not consider and armed struggle, he realized the futility of running away from the problem. The stone face must be confronted.
The climax of The Stone Face and perhaps its most important historical contribution comes near the end of the novel. It is October 1961. The French authorities have decreed a curfew for Algerians and the FLN has responded with a call for a peaceful demonstration. On October 17, 1961, 30,000 people marched. The head of police Maurice Papon ordered his troops to attack the marchers. For years the French government downplayed the event and would not acknowledge more than 2 deaths on that day. Historian Jean-Luc Einaudi, who has been instrumental in raising awareness of the event in France, has maintained that over 200 people were killed on that day with some of the bodies thrown in the river Seine. A plaque commemorating the event was finally put in place in 2001, although mention of the precise number of victims was avoided.
The Stone Face is generally considered the first fictional account of this event. William Gardner Smith puts the figure at more than 200: “The corpse of more than two hundred Algerians, Ahmed’s among them were to be fished out of the Seine the next day and for days afterward.” Smith puts his hero Simeon in the middle of the massacre. Having ignored the advice of his fellow expatriates he goes to the march and is horrified by what he sees. “Simeon saw old men clubbed after they had fallen to the ground, sometimes by five or six policemen at a time, their bodies beaten after the men were dead. In scenes of terrible sadism, Simeon saw pregnant women clubbed in the abdomen, infants snatched from their mothers and hurled to the ground. Along the Seine, police lifted unconscious Algerians from the ground and tossed them into the river.” In a last scene of violence, Simeon punches a policeman who is clubbing a woman holding a baby. He had seen the stone face in the face of the policeman and this time he was not running away. He ends up in a police van and is taken to a stadium with hundreds of other Algerians who had been arrested. One more time, his American status comes to rescue Simeon. A condescending officer makes him promise that he would not get involved again in another demonstration and lets him go with these parting words: “You understand, I know something about your problems. I’ve been reading the newspapers about the troubles in the schools. You understand, we like Negroes here, we don’t practice racism in France, it’s not like the United States. We can understand why you prefer to live here. We wouldn’t like to have to expel you.”
It is time to leave Paris. Simeon meets one last time Maria who tells him that she is going to Hollywood with an American director. He then books a return passage to the United States. The day of his departure as he shaves, he decides to use his razor to slash the canvas on which he had been trying to paint the stone face for over a year.
It is unfortunate that The Stone Face did not enjoy a better reception when it was first published in 1963. The Algerian revolution has certainly had a lasting impact worldwide but the novel came out at a time when the Algerian conflict was no longer in the headlines, and the Civil Rights movement became the central topic of interest for African-American authors. Smith himself became a prominent US expert in the French media. Nonetheless, his novel remains a rare testimony by an outsider observer of an important chapter in the history of Algeria (and of France ) and deserves to be better known by the Algerian public.
I am not sure math whizzes will be able to figure out the connections between them, but Algeria made the headlines, in a way, with these three numbers over the past few days.
1: With the official announcement of South-Sudan’s independence, Algeria becomes the largest country, by area, in Africa. This little factoid was mostly noticed by Algerian media, and probably the writers at Jeopardy! As could be expected, Wikipedia folks have already updated the relevant page.
125: The INSEAD ranked Algeria dead last (out of 125 countries) in its latest “Global Innovation Index“. While Algeria’s numbers were low in most of the categories making up this index, it is in the science and creative outputs that it scored the lowest.
One could probably quibble over the true significance of these numbers, but taken together they encapsulate quite well the tragedy Algeria is going through today. A vast country that squanders its enormous resources in the pursuit of dubious goals neglecting the things that matter the most. Probably most telling is this partial ranking of countries of the Middle-East & North Africa region in terms of Research & Development.
“If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants.” On this 5th of July, independence day in Algeria, I would like to borrow Isaac Newton’s famous quote to say that if we have been able live as free Algerians in an independent Algeria for the past forty-nine years, it is because we have benefited from the sacrifice of millions of heroes. Those are our giants. Millions of people, young and old, men and women, Algerians and non-Algerians who did not hesitate to give up their lives for over a century to prevent the programmed annihilation of a whole nation. Yes, much can be said about the sorry state of affairs in Algeria today. No Algerian would disagree with that. But today is not the day to recount one more time our misfortunes. Today is a day to salute and commemorate the courage and martyrdom of those who came before us. Those who afforded us the luxury of having such a celebration today. Today is a day to honor their memory by committing ourselves to try, in whatever capacity we can, with whatever means we have, to carry on their mission and make Algeria the beautiful and prosperous country she deserves to be.
Algiers, revolutionary Algiers, capital of the third-world revolutions in the sixties and the seventies, was a sure bet as the next stop in the unfolding drama of the Arab spring. The stage was set, the actors identified, and the script rehearsed in Tunis and Cairo. Anxious observers scrutinized every bit of news coming out of Alger-la-Blanche trying to anticipate events, ready to connect the dots with the rest of the grand narrative that was being constructed to explain the political awakening of the region. But nothing happened. Sure, there were calls for marches and public demonstrations, online declarations, op-ed pieces and a heavy police presence in the streets of Algiers. But nothing that could match the mesmerizing spectacle of the massive gatherings in Tunis or Tahrir square. And the world’s attention was quickly redirected to Bahrein, Yemen, and finally Libya and Syria where things did happen.
Those still paying attention to Algeria were left with the task of explaining why nothing happened. The exercise is still in progress and more will be said about that in future posts here, but an emerging consensus argument runs something like this: Algeria has already gone through this phase back in October 1988, when massive riots left over 500 dead, led to an opening of the political landscape and the emergence of an independent press. This was followed by the cancelation of the 1992 legislative elections, won in the first round by the Islamists, by the military and ten years of a bloody civil war during which an estimated 200,00 people died. Traumatized by these events, Algerians were not too keen for a repeat performance. They have lost trust in the political process, and are today more interested in social and economical reforms to improve their constantly deteriorating situation. This explains why communal guards and students succeeded where political organizations failed. They were able to organize public demonstrations because they focused on meaningful and concrete social demands, not on political demands such as bringing down the system.
The validity of this argument will undoubtedly be tested in the coming weeks as the reforms announced by president Bouteflika in his April 15 speech are implemented.
In this context it was interesting to follow what may seem like a totally unrelated event: The TEDxAlger conference. Organized on April 09 by the ETIC club , run by students of Algeria’s top school in computer science (Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Informatique) , this first independent TED event in Algeria focused on the spirit of entrepreneurship. A number of reactions by those who attended the event can be found here, here,here, and here. Videos of the talks can be viewed here. A comprehensive collection of links about the event can be found here.
To organize such an event, focused on business and entrepreneurship, when the whole region is swept by a revolutionary mood focused on freedom and regime change could be interpreted as a lack of consciousness, a form of indifference or even as reactionary. Businessmen and entrepreneurs cannot possible compete as role models when compared with those who are heroically bringing down autocratic regimes. Yet, the significance of this conference can be found elsewhere, beyond its theme and content. What should draw our attention is the fact that this was a large scale international event organized entirely by students in a country notorious for the extent of governmental control on all public activities. One of the most powerful ideas underlying the Arab spring is the desire of the youth to have a say in the conduct of the affairs of their societies and countries. No longer satisfied with the status quo, they are yearning for freedom. The freedom to dream, to build, to act and to fail. They want to be in charge of their destiny. And that is exactly what the members of ETIC have done. They did not wait to be told what to do. They had an idea, they organized themselves, worked hard, overcame all local obstacles and accomplished something significant. How much impact this particular event will have in the future is hard to gauge, and this may not qualify as a revolutionary act as usually understood, but, keeping in mind the context discussed above, this could serve as an example of the kind of actions Algerian youth could undertake to progressively build their own civil society. Rather than directly and violently confronting the regime, it might prove to be smarter and more productive to simply make it obsolete. In that sense TEDxAlger could be a truly subversive act.
The CNCD (National Coordination for Change and Democracy) announced today in Algiers they will organized another rally this Saturday, February 19, and every Saturday after that. More on that later.
Singer Amazigh Kateb, former leader of Gnawa Diffusion and son of famed Algerian writer Kateb Yacine leads the chant during the February 12 anti-government rally in Algiers.
Coming on the heels of “Liberation Friday” in Cairo, yesterday’s events in Algiers may come as a disappointment to observers, especially those who are not too familiar with the Algerian context.
But this should not distract us from the fact that Algerians did come out to the streets. The riots of late December and early January were dismissed as incoherent outbursts from desolate youth who were even suspected of being manipulated by shadowy business interests. In late January, the march attempted by the RCD (Rally for Culture and Democracy) was viewed as a publicity stunt pulled by a political party losing its popularity (the coziness between its leader and the military suggested by Wikileaks did not help.) The laborious preparation of this march was marred by contradictions among its originators, with a few defections along the way. Yet, thousands of Algerians, undeterred by the overwhelming display of force by the police, took to the streets. They were not allowed to march as planned, so they simply rallied in a few public squares in Algiers, Constantine, Oran, and a few other cities, including foreign cities with a high concentration of Algerians, such as Paris, Montreal and Marseilles. Hundreds of protesters were arrested, including Fodil Boumala, founder of Res Publica II , and blogger Amine Menadi who launched the facebook site “Algerie Pacifique.” The police also roughed up 90-year old Ali-Yahia Abdenour, the honorary leader of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH). Later in the day the minister of interior, Daho Ould Kablia, announced that all those arrested had been released. It should be noted that when Ali Belhadj, a former leader of the now-banned FIS, showed up at the rally he was booed by the crowd and asked to leave. The fear of 1988, when popular protests were quickly overtaken by Islamists, followed by 10 bloody years of civil war, has been on the mind of many Algerians in the lead up to yesterday’s march. While not happy with the current regime, the idea of an Iran-style Islamist republic acts as a frightening prospect that blocks many in their desire to dissent or protest. The reaction to Belhadj’s presence is symptomatic of those fears. The Islamist factor is probably the one aspect of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions that many Algerians are likely to monitor closely.
The number of protesters may not impress those still mesmerized by the images of Tahrir square, but the fact that so many did come out, in so many different cities, should be viewed as the stirrings of somethings that has yet to come. The impressive police display is another indication that the regime is seriously concerned by this. The measures announced a couple of weeks ago, the lifting of the state of emergency and the opening of state television to the opposition, have yet to materialize and it will be interesting to see if the government decides to speed up the process to try and prevent a repeat of yesterday’s rally.
For the organizers the rally was a great success. They consider that the “wall of fear” has been broken and that this is only a beginning. They are scheduled to meet today to discuss their plans for further actions. For Mustapha Bouchachi, president of the LADDH and spokesperson for the National Coordination for Change and Democracy(CNCD in French), organizer of the event, 2011 will be the year of democratic changes in Algeria, but he added that this would not necessarily be through the form of marches and rallies. It is clear that a simple “cut and paste” from the Tunisian or Egyptian playbooks won’t do and Algerians will have to find their way to this elusive democracy they are all longing for. It will also be important for the CNCD to broaden its base by convincing the parties that abstained from this march to join future initiatives.
Whatever the path may be, these protesters in Constantine had it just about right when they borrowed 2Pac’s lyrics “It’s time for us as a people to start making some changes.”
Eshahid (The Martyrs Memorial), the monument they can see towering over the city of Algiers from the deck of their ship as they leave for France. The three palms, explains Omar, represent the three revolutions: The industrial revolution, the agricultural revolution, and the cultural revolution. The old man listens patiently then bursts with a complaint: What happened to Our revolution? The real one, the one we fought for?
following a successful revolution 1.0 we put our faith in our leaders and hoped for the best. See where that got us. Let’s not make the same mistake twice. Centralized planning and mainframe computers are a thing of the past for a reason. Distributed computing, decentralized administrations are vastly superior. The network is today’s organizational paradigm. The same should be the case for this Rev2.0. No central vanguard revolutionary party to lead the charge. Instead, committed individuals acting in groups on the issues that matter the most to them. And a network to connect these groups. We can’t all be doing the same thing or be interested in the same things, but the synergy from all those efforts could be the key to unlocking the untapped human potential in Algeria. Luckily this is already underway. Numerous groups in and out of the country have organized themselves along those lines and are busy changing things. There is more to do so and everyone should consider joining or creating a group/association/organization. Becoming involved is the most important action a single person can take. While working, groups should also make a conscious effort to contribute to the building of this Rev2.0 network. Supporting and collaborating with other organizations, sharing, advertizing , publicizing, celebrating the work of others is what we need to build a dense and robust network. We have wonderful tools to do this today. We should take advantage of them.
He will soon get a first-hand experience of this difference. Leaving a bar one night, he gets into a fight trying to rescue a woman he believes is being attacked by a man who turns out to be Algerian. Other Algerians come out of the bar to help their compatriot but when the police arrives a French waiter testifies that “These Arabs attacked the American.”At the police station Simeon is treated with respect by the police who call him “Monsieur”. Nothing like what happened to him in Philadelphia when he was beaten up by the police after he responded to offensive remarks by one of the officers. But he quickly discovers the Algerian is not so fortunate. In fact the man was trying to recover some of the money that the woman had stolen from him. Money that was to be sent back to Algeria to support his family. He gets locked up nonetheless. Feeling embarrassed and remorseful, Simeon tries to intervene and says it was all his fault. He is quickly rebuked and told “You don’t understand. You don’t know who they are, les Arabs. Always stealing, fighting, cutting people, killing. A night in jail is letting them off easy.” A few days later Simeon will meet again the same group of Algerians who ask him “Hey! How does it feel to be a white man?” Sitting at a table at Odéon Café he gets an earful: “We’re the niggers here! Know what the French call us-bicot, melon, raton, nor’af. That means nigger in French. Ain’t you scared we might rob you? Ain’t you appalled by our unpressed clothes, our body odor? No, but seriously, I want to ask you a serious question-would you let your daughter marry one of us?”
The climax of The Stone Face and perhaps its most important historical contribution comes near the end of the novel. It is October 1961. The French authorities have decreed a curfew for Algerians and the FLN has responded with a call for a peaceful demonstration. 
who has been instrumental in raising awareness of the event in France, has maintained that over 200 people were killed on that day with some of the bodies thrown in the river Seine. A plaque commemorating the event was finally put in place in 2001, although mention of the precise number of victims was avoided.
