I had no idea that my idiosyncratic “career” had any common denominator beyond - well idiosyncratic. Until Neil Clark unknowingly sorted that out in an article in the Guardian. On Eastern Europe, the Arab Spring, Burma, and the Western neo-liberal elite.

While I am being driven from Algiers International Airport to my hotel I realise I have been wrong. It is the first time I come to Algeria and unlike what I had anticipated its capital strikes me as more Mediterranean than Arabic, developed rather than backwards. It is an image the regime likes to project to the outside world – that of a thriving democracy, a beacon of stability in an otherwise chaotic region. Still, Algeria harbours all that has developed in other countries into an Arab Spring - “de l’autoritarisme et de l’arbitraire, de l’injustice sociale et du délaissement d’une jeunesse dont une partie importante ne rêve que d’émigrer”. No oil that can hide that.

Yet it is seemingly peaceful in Algeria – and the upcoming parliamentary elections will not change that. Turnout will be traditionally low and the result will be a splintered parliament without a real say in the constitutional reform process president Bouteflika has announced. Call it apathy, call it paralysis. The fact remains that the catastrophic consequences of Algeria’s first free elections in 1991 are engraved in everyone’s memory here. To many in Algeria, the violence of the Arab Spring and the Islamist popular take-over is the triumph of the Algeria model. But the political elite (the opposition included) are all children of a “black decade”. A decade the country has desperately been trying to shake off but has never been able to politically.

For now, the regime sleeps quietly at night. But the thunder has started rumbling in Algeria and lightening will strike. Elections do not make a country a democracy. It can change a country into a democracy. But opposition parties, against all odds, are counting on the wisdom of age of “le pouvoir”. That real constitutional reforms will save the country from a (bloody) revolution. But the real wisdom is that dictators will never be democrats. The democratic show case the regime has so carefully built will be wrecked sooner or later.

When I arrive at the hotel I suddenly think of the movie “The Matrix”. About a world in which reality is simulated by computers in order to control and subdue man kind. I have only been in Algeria for a few hours and already I see remarkable resemblances. I just dearly hope its citizens will not have to be woken up as roughly.

Egypt’s ruling generals have agreed to sign a deal with the IMF for a loan worth $3.2bn to alleviate the country’s financial crisis. The series of measures required by the deal, though, may at best do little to help the country’s development challenges and simply restore macro-economic stability. At worst, they will be counter-productive.

As the clouds of revolutionary dust seem to settle and democratic transition is nearing its electoral end, the country is reawakening — to a financial crisis. In the last two years, the Egyptian pound has lost nearly 10% of its value and the country’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen by more than half. The fiscal deficit this year will likely widen to 11.7%, according to Egypt’s Ministry of Finance, which could result in a downgrade of Egypt’s credit rating.

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“De Egyptische revolutie is in gevaar.” Ik lees de woorden van de leiders van de Moslimbroederschap in de krant bij de kandidaatstelling van Moslimbroeder Khairat El-Shater voor het presidentschap en luister stil naar de geluiden van buiten. Het is rustig in Caïro. Maar schijn bedriegt. De politieke spanningen in Egypte lopen op nu het land het einde van de officiële transitieperiode nadert.  Read More

Securing an overwhelming victory in Egypt’s parliamentary elections the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party will with a doubt play a strong role in charting the course of Egypt’s future. But despite its strong mandate, and its traditional religious orientation, Egypt’s new power-broker will find that political moderation may be the lesser of two evils.

Securing an overwhelming victory in Egypt’s recent parliamentary elections, the first genuine elections since 1952, the Muslim Brotherhoodhas attested to its long-standing reputationas the largest, best-organized, and most disciplined movement in Egypt. With a clear mandate from voters, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) will without a doubt seek a strong role in Egypt’s legislative bodies. What is less clear is what the consequences of this new political reality will be. The Muslim Brotherhood has never held political power in its long history. Moreover, being banned under the former regime, the organisation has spent most of the last decades underground. To what end will and can the Muslim Brotherhood use its newly gained political power? Read More

One year on from the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak Egypt is still facing a fragile transition to democracy. While all eyes are on Tahrir Square the struggles of the common Egyptian person remain largely inconspicuous. Still, tackling their economic woes remains critical in order to secure a truetransition to democracy.

It has been a year since the people of Egypt rose up and put an end to the 29-year rule of “their” president, Hosni Mubarak, following weeks of determined popular protest. To many, the ouster of Mubarak came to represent the vindication of the rights of the people and their desire for “bread, freedom, and dignity”.

Over the past year the media has rallied around the prolific events commanding the trajectory of Egypt’s transition – most notably the first free parliamentary elections and the continued protests against the military rule. While covering the ensuing power struggles between liberals and Islamists, and the military and the protesters, the struggles of the common Egyptian person have remained largely inconspicuous. This begs the question: what are the lives of ordinary Egyptians like a year after the uprising? I spoke to two of these “ordinary” Egyptians to find out.  Read More