tell em honestly plz what do uthink about my country what u saw in tv or internet about it what impression u got about it if u have known any algerian what u say about him/her
tell me all what's in ur mind about ALGERIA
and u're welcome any thing u say plz feel free and honest
check these answers read about it and comment ok
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;... By reading all these answers and looking to all the links which you gave me in my question, i see that it's a country that worth to visit .
I want to learn more things about Algeria, and i think that it's on my list for future travel destinations ! Have been to your country but quite a long time ago (in 1985).
I liked it very much especially the friendlyness and hopitality of the people.
I loved the beauty of the Saharadesert which I traveled alone with a guide from the Touareg people.
Loved the food also very much :-) For me it is a learning process Cleo...you have painted a picture with your answers that makes me want to visit & see for myself.
I am fascinated by the history , racial groups , geography & cultural differences.......I live in a young country with a modern , western culture & mindset so I find the contrast really interesting.
Thank you.. i have never been to Ur country but i have read much about it on wikipedia and other sites just to give answers in this section
on the basis of my reading i have a cUriosity of visiting ur place definately sometime in the future I've never been to your country, but would love to visit it one day. It's strange with the amount of traveling I've done and never been to Algeria. I'm sure it's an amazing place with an intriguing culture. Algeria, Arab. Al Djazair, Fr. Algerie, officially Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, republic (1995 est. pop. 28,539,000), 919,590 sq mi (2,381,741 sq km), NW Africa, bordered by Mauritania, Morocco, and Western Sahara (W), the Mediterranean Sea (N), Tunisia and Libya (E), and Niger and Mali (S). The principal cities are Algiers (the capital) and Oran. The Atlas Mountains divide northern Algeria into a coastal lowland strip (the Tell) and a semiarid plateau. In the south is the much larger, but arid and sparsely populated, Saharan region; Algeria's highest point, Mt. Tahat (9,541 ft/2,908 m), in the Ahaggar Mts., is located here. About a quarter of Algeria's workforce are farmers, producing cereals, wine, citrus fruits, and cork. Mining and manufacturing, developed since the 1960s, contribute the bulk of the national income. Petroleum is the leading export, and much natural gas is produced, with proven reserves that are among the world's largest. The state plays a leading role in planning the economy and owns many important industrial concerns, but a 1994 law permitted privatization of some state firms.
Algeria is divided into 48 wilayas, or provinces. In addition to the capital, major cities include Annaba, Blida, Constantine, Mostaganem, Oran, S茅tif, Sidi-bel-Abb猫s, Skikda, and Tlemcen. The great majority of Algeria鈥檚 inhabitants are of Arab-Berber descent; the Berbers, beginning in the late 7th cent. A.D., adopted the Arabic language and Islam from the small number of Arabs who settled in the country. Relations between Arabic-speaking and Berber-speaking Algerians have been marked by tension since Arabic was made the sole national language (1980); that policy was reversed in 2002, when Tamazight, a Berber tongue, was also recognized as a national language. Also French is widely spoken..
History
The earliest known inhabitants of the region that is now Algeria were Berber-speaking nomads who were settled there by the 2d millennium BC As Numidia, it became (9th cent. BC) a province of Carthage and then (106 BC) of Rome; during the Christian era, St. was bishop at Hippo (now Annaba). With Rome's decline in the 5th cent. AD, Algeria was conquered by the Vandals (430鈥?1), the Byzantine Empire (6th cent.), and finally, in the late 7th and early 8th cent., by the Arabs, whose introduction of Islam profoundly altered the character of the area.
Spain captured the coastal cities in the 15th cent. but was expelled (mid-16th cent.) with the help of the Ottoman Turks, who assumed control. During this period the Algerian coast was a stronghold of pirates and a center of the slave trade. France invaded Algeria in 1830 and declared it a colony in 1848. Europeans began to arrive in large numbers, dominating the government and the economy, and leaving the native Muslim population with scant political or economic power.
A nationalist movement began to develop after World War I, and a war for independence, led by the National Liberation Front (FLN), broke out in 1954. After more than seven years of bitter fighting, in which at least 100,000 Muslim and 10,000 French soldiers were killed, Algeria became independent on July 3, 1962.
Since independence, Algeria has been a prominent nonaligned state and a champion of the movements against white minority rule in Africa. It also has supported the protracted struggle of the Polisario Front for the independence of Western Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara) from Morocco. Ahmed Ben Bella, prime minister and then president of Algeria after independence, was deposed by Houari Boumedienne in 1965. After Boumedienne's death (1978), Chadli Benjedid succeeded (1979) him as president. Riots in 1988 led Pres. Benjedid to reduce the role of the state economically and of the FLN politically.
After Islamic fundamentalists won 42% of the seats in the first round of parliamentary elections in Dec. 1991, the army forced Benjedid to resign (1992) and canceled the election. A civilian-led state council was installed, but real power resided with the army. The fundamentalist party was banned and its leaders arrested. Fundamentalists launched a guerrilla insurrection, and Algeria was torn by violence from both sides.
In 1994 Gen. Liamine Zeroual, the defense minister, was appointed president, replacing the state council; he won a presidential election the following year. Zeroual resigned early in 1999 and presidential elections held in Apr., 1999, were won by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the candidate of the military oligarchy; the opposition candidates had withdrawn before the vote. One of the main guerrilla groups renounced its struggle against the government in June 1999; however, other groups continued to wage war. By mid-1999, 100,000 people had been killed in the violence and repression that began in 1992. Under an amnesty approved in Sept. 1999, 80% of the Islamic guerrillas surrendered to the government by the mid-Jan. 2000 deadline, and the violence has since greatly diminished. The easing of the fighting has brought such issues as government corruption and widespread poverty and unemployment (estimated at 30%) to the fore. In addition, in 2001 there were large demonstrations and clashes with police by Berbers, who remained deeply unhappy about Arabic鈥檚 status as the sole national language, a policy that was reversed the following year. Berber protests also sparked demonstrations against the country鈥檚 stagnant economy by non-Berber Algerians. Parliamentary elections in May, 2002, were boycotted by a number of major opposition parties and many voters, and the FLN won more than half the seats.
French president Jacques Chirac made a state visit to Algeria in Mar., 2003; it was the first such visit since Algerian independence. Two months later a strong earthquake devastated many towns east of the capital, killing more than 2,200 people. The ineffective official response to the disaster led to public outrage and widespread criticism of the government. Late in 2003, tensions between the president and Ali Benflis, the FLN party leader and a former prime minister, led to a split in the government and within the party. Bouteflika was returned to office in Apr., 2004, in an election that observers called Algeria鈥檚 fairest to date, but the vote for Bouteflika (83%) led Benflis, his main opponent, to accuse the government of massive fraud.
... |
