Absolutely. Just about the only thing that’s keeping the country together is the people’s rabid, irrational hatred of France.

Pray that Algeria does not go up in flames. I have worked there and knowing the past history of the place (1945 – 1962 and 1990 – 2000) it would make the Libya/Egypt/Tunisia uprisings look like a children’s birthday party fight.

So did thousands of others, thanks to the maniacal behaviour of the Gaddafis.

Sure, in the conflict that was started by her own father when the people rose up and peacefully demanded basic human rights, which rights had been denied them for 42 years.

Quite right. Patronizing ……..and smug!

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/28/libya.gadhafi.nanny/index.html

Did anyone notice the subtext to all this? Gaddafi goes down. Labour, suddenly denuded of funds, desperately flails around trying to find some new device to charm the Libyans.

Hey presto, a party for Malta’s Muslim community i.e. mostly Libyan expats.

Ah, that’s a tricky one.

The thing about Algeria is that there is no unified anti-Bouteflika front.

There are Islamists, there are Bouteflika’s cronies, and there’s the great unknown: the Berber and Kabyle population. All mixed up on some very complex topography.

And we in the West keep getting our clichés wrong: France has no more say in Algerian affairs than I have in Sarkozy’s choice of breakfast cereal, and “foreign Al Qaeda elements” are very much present this time round.

If it all boils over, it’ll be a nasty war.

Nasty, but fascinating.

And perhaps it’ll convince Algerians of the real cause of their economic backwardness – their own leaders.

If it was Haraam here then the Islamic PL candidate would have informed Joseph not to do it.