Today in Algeria we often say that we are enjoying very favourable conditions to resolve our economic and social problems, for fastening our economy onto the world economy and, understandably, for protecting ourselves from the negative effects of globalisation. After almost seven years of financial gains, a wind of optimism blows through the country as they increase further, essentially due to the hike in oil prices which are close to $130 a barrel, and the near-complete obliteration of terrorism. However, we often forget to ask at what point can we compare our country to the global phenomenon? Will Algeria be able to jump on the moving bandwagon of globalisation? Are we victims or beneficiaries of the dynamic process unleashed by this worldwide phenomenon?

If we first of all look at it methodically, it is difficult to find a way of precisely measuring the effects of globalisation, whether positive or negative. This difficulty mainly comes from the absence of reliable and trustworthy national institutions producing statistics and forecasts. However, we can obtain an idea based on our role within this environment of exchange in each sector, which affects the entire planet. What small space do we have within this gigantic movement of consumer goods, services, technology, cultures, etc? In my opinion, the results are frightening! We currently work within a system which finds it hard to hold on to the world around us and to live with it in harmony, precisely because it cannot integrate into something such as globalisation on a worldwide level.

Of course one can observe how many things have changed with regards to political discussion. We managed to disengage our country from Stalinist thought during the Soviet years which demonised every opening to the outside world, especially to the west, and painted a blurry picture of the international scene and its values of privatisation, a free economy, flow of capital, free trade of services, industrial goods and consumables, even cultural products. Against our will we have today realised that ‘the global village’, if I may use the definition of the famous MacLuhan, is out of reach, and we need to find paths and suitable means to gain a position in a continuously changing world. But between theory and practice there is a giant abyss.For us the paradox is that, as often seems to be the case, “you chose the same people and start over again”, since these same zealous defenders of socialism have ironically become the celebrators of liberalism and free economy.

And yet we have already entered fully into globalisation, or rather, we suffer its effects as passive subjects rather than as players. Consumable products and equipment are disembarked in our ports; foreign manpower, mainly Chinese, fills up our building sites; capital and foreign investment come into our country (although in limited amounts compared to our Tunisian and Moroccan neighbours) and standardised cultural products are consumed by us as well. And since Algeria’s de facto participation in the ‘global war on terror’ of the United States and its allies after the events of September 11, even terrorism is no longer a local phenomenon. Thus after being accused of ‘third-worldism’ during the seventies, Algeria seems to have become the Mecca of ‘anti-terrorism’, and it does not hide the small piece of satisfaction it relishes from its own unenviable victory, after no-one paid any attention during the ‘black’ decade of the nineties.

There is nothing typically Algerian in the unprecedented economic prosperity which the country savours, with more than $110 billion of foreign exchange reserves, revenue obtained from hydrocarbon exports which will amount to $80 billion by the end of 2008, and a reduced foreign debt due to an early repayment equal to 5% of the GDP. It’s the story of all countries with oil. Algeria’s particular case derives from the contrast between these resources, the country’s history of inequality and the persistence of an unsettling social situation, primarily linked to the unfair distribution of wealth and the slow implementation of economic reforms. In fact Algeria has become a rich country with a poor population. We have simply become exporters of wealth and capital, while in 2007 we imported skills from abroad totalling $27 billion.

We have made ourselves at home in a consumerist and open model of society, even after our industrial production apparatus came to a halt following the abandonment of production policies. We are a country which exclusively exports hydrocarbons which make up 97% of our annual revenue from foreign currency. Nevertheless, the rate of unemployment flourishes: according to official figures of 2007 it was at 13%, and according to UNDP the number of people living below the poverty line was estimated to be around 10 million (in a population of 35 million) in 2007. Algeria’s challenge lies in making the most of the financial boon generated from oil sales, a reliable production machine of long-lasting wealth, provided that there is development in the services, tourist and agriculture sectors. In other words, it would need to learn to work again instead of remaining slaves to the sale of oil.

After Libya, Algeria is the only country in OPEC which is not a member of WTO. For more than 10 years it has repeatedly negotiated its entry, but it does not seem ready to conform due to accumulated delays in legislative and regulatory reforms which control economic activity, still far from worldwide standards. Its negotiations with WTO, which are on the 11th attempt, trip up over the thorny issue of internal energy prices, ten times lower than those on the world market. Again, Algeria prefers to operate with an economy outside of the norm; you just need to take a look at our bank system to observe the severe dilapidation.

Of course we have profited from the technological evolution, especially through the democratic affects of mobile phones and internet usage, along with access to programmes on foreign satellite networks. Algerians are much more receptive to the information spread throughout foreign satellite networks than they are towards official propaganda orchestrated by the single Algerian television network with its three channels. This phenomenon has contributed to the cultural and social development of the population, allowing it to ‘travel without a visa’ to different parts of the world, imparting much knowledge on different cultures, lifestyles, political and economic systems as well as models of social management. New information technologies have caused a true turn in our society and have led to a consciousness-raising in the need to change the current state of affairs.

On one hand this opening to the world outside by means of new information technology represents undeniable negative factors, such as the loss of traditional values and morals among young people who are often up-to-date with news on foreign satellite channels without taking into account our religious and cultural individuality. Rather there is fear of seeing cultures and local traditions disappear in favour of western cultural models. In the absence of a local cultural production able to face up to the huge influx, or the ‘cultural invasion’ of the west, we continue to be consumers thirsty for foreign cultural products. The repercussions are visible on other levels: just take a look at the everyday language used by young Algerians, which is one language made up of a simultaneous mix of Arabic, French, some Berber and also some English. The reform of the role of the State in the economy, the re-evaluation of Algerian skills and knowledge, the diversification of the Algerian economy and the fair distribution of wealth are, in my opinion, the main tools for enabling the process of Algeria’s integration onto the global stage, and the means which will grant it a respectable position on the international scene.

Since June 2002 Mahmoud Belhimer has been Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Algerian newspaper Elkhabar “the first Arabic newspaper in Algeria with a circulation of more than 500,000 copies a day”. He helps to manage the paper’s editorial team, and he writes the Moudjeradrai column on the back page. In June 1991 Belhimer graduated in political science and international relations from the University of Algiers, and later went on to take a Masters in political science in July 1992. He is currently writing his Ph.D. at the University of Algiers, entitled Democratic transition in Algeria.

Translation by Helen Waghorn