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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Algeria: When Hope Turns into a NightmareThe modern history of Algeria is a story of faded hopes and broken promises turning into nightmares. Being on the top of Arab modernization projects some 40 years ago, this country today needs strong support by its wealthy sponsors in order to avoid sinking again into chaos and civil war of larger scale. The high oil prices for a moment have reduced the threat of the radical Islamic groups but the high dependency on oil and gas as main export commodities and confused national identities of the population reserve many unpleasant surprises for those who plan to live their lives in this country. When Algeria won its independence from France in early 1960's it seemed that all the roads for modernization are widely opened. It had highly educated French-speaking upper and middle class among the local population. The former colonial masters, planning to rule the country as if it was their own department, have build some modern infrastructures and have maintained irrigation and agriculture projects far south in the desert. To be clear, this wasn't made in order to make the indigenous population richer. The reason behind this zeal of modernization was to have a strong logistical support in case of another war with Germany. As the history shows, in both World Wars (especially the WWI) France has been heavily relying on industrial and agricultural supplies from its colonies and the main route for these supplies went through Algeria before reaching Europe. In early 1960's the closer political and economic ties between Paris and Bonn made this logistical support unnecessary so after almost crashing the independence movement the eccentric French leader Charles de Gaulle unexpectedly decided to give Algeria a free choice to leave. Thus rather bizarre began the history of independent Algeria, a country that never existed in the past except as part of huge multiethnic regional or global empires. Long before the country declared war on Israel in 1967 and broke its ties with the United States it was clear that the international choice of Algeria would be the socialist camp, which supplied the independence movement with hardware for so many years. But opting for socialism meant being ready to accept the whole cultural package coming from the USSR and the state antireligious propaganda was an essential part of it. Banning the religion from the official state policy didn't mean putting a veto on traditional popular culture, showing hostility toward modernization projects. The government considered the population as if they were kids, without proper understanding of their own interests, so it decided to keep a firm grasp on the power. The task to keep the population away from the decision-making was facilitated by the oil revolution of 1970's. Looking back it's easy to find the reason for the major breakthrough by the radical Islamic political groups in early 1990's. The oil prices went down. The socialist ideology was discredited. The Iranian revolution has revived the Pan-Islamic ideas. The modernization among large social groups was rejected as a western crusade against Islam. The strong demographic upturn has stretched the financial resources of the state to their limits. The government, perceived as corrupt and inefficient, was seen as easy prey by militant groups. The government instinct for self-preservation produced the military regime, far away from the enlightener's image of the state. Anything was made to protect the oil and gas routes going to Western Europe, the only source for regime's survival. The government turned itself into watchdog of the foreign economic interests. By lacking sufficient military personnel it abandoned the general population to its fate and as a result more than 150,000 were savagely massacred since 1991, including more than 100 foreigners. The differences between Algeria and neighboring Morocco are striking. Where as the Web resources on Morocco are countless, these on Algeria look like brief military bulletins, more warning the travelers than inviting to come and stay. Of course Algeria isn't a hell on earth but compared to some of its neighbors and given the fact that the expatriates need security first and foremost, Algeria today is situated on the bottom of the wish list. The country now is far from normalization even if the government's paid propagandists try to convince us to the contrary. Right now the oil and gas prices are up, which allows the government to consolidate its grasp on power, to redistribute more money among the population, to pay better the police service and to make more international energy projects. This however doesn't solve any longstanding social problem. It doesn't by itself promote responsible government, it doesn't allow accelerated modernization beyond the energy sector, and it doesn't make possible more unifying national identity. All these major problems won't be faced when the financial environment is appropriate, as they weren't faced during the "golden" 1970's. The oil prices will go down sooner or later and then the country perhaps will have to face another round of a bloody civil war.
Algeria profile: --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Algeria.
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