Question:
Based on your research, identify, explain, and defend what you believe to be the greatest challenge facing your country in the 21st Century
Answer:
Since 1962, when ten years of fighting resulted in Algeria gaining independence from French imperialism, Algeria and its people have ascended steadily toward stability, peace, and economic prosperity. Climbing the ladder of world power with a slow but steady upward trend, I feel that it is only a matter of time before Algeria begins to receive recognition among the world’s industrialized nations. Health does not pose a major threat to the population, and infectious diseases are only at an intermediate risk level. The main problem that holds Algeria back from flowering into a great nation is the constant dissention between secular factions, primarily the Berbers and the Islamic extremists, both of which are in constant opposition to the central government. Their constant struggle for representation, autonomy, and national recognition impose a heavy burden on the Algerian government. This burden has been the cause of many violent fights, such as various violent demonstrations as well as the six-year-long civil war that ended in 1998 between the radical Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and the Algerian government. When the fighting finally ceased, approximately 100,000 Algerian lives had been lost. Numerous other violent protests have claimed large chunks of the population, not just by Islamic extremists, but also between the government and Berber protestors, speaking out against unfair representation in the legislatures and not teaching Berber culture and linguistics in the schools.
Because of the constant dissention that is often executed with violence, the Algerian government has been set back many times by its internal opposition. Many experts agree that Algeria would take its place among the greater world powers if the weight of intra-national disputes and secular opposition of the federal system would not prevent its people from making greater strides toward political stability and industrialization. As U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said, “The profitability of foreign investments in Africa is one of the best kept secrets in today's world economy.” Being rich in natural resources, especially oil, Algeria has the potential to achieve economic opulence. But the constant roadblocks put in place by political activist groups, such as Berber movement representatives and the FIS, make it extremely difficult for Algeria to succeed. Furthermore, the constant fighting and killing have discouraged foreign investment. There is no sense in funding a mine that could be destroyed by radicals, or erecting a factory in which the workers are constantly being killed by collateral damage from guerilla attacks in public places. “The greatest impediment to foreign investment in Algeria has, of course, been its intensely violent civil strife and the resultant political instability,” said a commercial law report in 2000 by Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, a firm keeping a close eye of the instability of Algeria’s political predicament. If the government could strengthen its control over its citizens to reduce rebellion and violent demonstration, then I believe Algeria would be able to use foreign investment to increase production of export goods and realize the growth that other newly-industrialized nations are reaching, as well as the increased standards of living and an overall positive feeling about Algerian nationalism.