Year: 2017

Tunisia: Tunis tops African cities in low crime and high safety levels

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Whatever one may say, Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, is not the city where a great number of crimes and offenses are committed. It is the place where the safety level is highest in Africa, according to the Numbeo site which analyzes the perception and the statistics on crime and security. The ranking, based on the most recent data, provides two sets of figures for 334 cities in the world, one on crime levels and the other on safety. Tunis is credited with the lowest crime rate and the highest…

‘Spain is quite FULL’ Tourists urged to travel elsewhere as protests grip holiday hotspots

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TOURISTS have been urged to consider destinations other than Spain as a major travel company claims “Spain is quite full”.  Spain remains one of the most popular destinations in Europe for Britons planning their summer getaways. Increasing numbers of tourists have flocked to the country over the last two years, as security concerns saw popular summer destinations like Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey fall out of favour with sun-seekers. The first half of 2017 saw as 12 per cent jump, with more than 36.4 million tourists arriving in Spain. But the…

Far-right’s anti-refugee ship helped out by refugee rescue boat

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Michael Buschheuer, the chairman of Sea-Eye, said: “To help a ship in distress in the duty of anyone at sea, without regard for their origin, race, religion or beliefs”. Italian officials told Sea-Eye, a German nongovernmental organization (NGO) that operates rescue ships in the Mediterranean, that Defend Europe’s vessel “had suffered a mechanical failure and could not manoeuvre”, according to the report. It needed to refuel earlier this week, but was stuck off the coast of Tunisia after a powerful Tunisian union and fishermen refused to allow it access to…

What do people in the Arab countries want? Conceptions of democracy

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Arab respondents mostly reject the EU brand of formal liberal democracy in which elections are essential, but civil and political rights remain decoupled from unprioritised social and economic rights. Findings from the Arab Transformation survey carried out in 2014 in six developing Arab states, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco  and Tunisia suggest that the EU assumption of democratisation as a value shared with Arab states is misplaced. Few respondents wanted the EU brand of ‘thin’, procedural democracy in which civil and political rights remain decoupled from social and economic rights. Furthermore, few…

Why European companies need a long-term strategy in Africa

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The history of Europe in Africa goes far back in time when the Roman Empire annihilated the ancient Carthaginian civilisation that is now Tunis, Tunisia. During the modern period, the African continent has been colonised and controlled by all major European countries like Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. It wasn’t until the 1950s that the former colonial powers started to let go of their grip on Africa by giving independence to their former colonies. Today, it is with a mixture of fear and awe that Europe…

How this Algerian entrepreneur is recycling plastic waste

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Unemployment rate in Algeria increased to 10.5 percent, reaches almost 27 percent of the youth, and 20 percent of women, according to figures released by the International Monetary Fund in 2016. Besma Belbedjaoui, 33, an Algerian graduate holding a diploma in genetics and molecular biology and another one in communication and marketing, faced the fate of many Algerians, when she kept on searching for a job during two years, with no luck. At this point, she decided to create a startup that would be useful to her country. During her daily…

‘Find me beyond your hate’: The challenge behind calligraffiti artist Karim Jabbari’s mural

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When calligraffiti artist Karim Jabbari picks up a paintbrush, a spray can or a light-painting pen, regardless of the wall or intangible space in front of him, he breathes new life into a centuries-old art form. “In my work, I’m trying to redefine how we see and how we perceive the Arabic calligraphy,” Jabbari explained to me as we headed up into the sky a few metres (correction: four storeys!) on a mini-forklift at the site of his latest mural in Montreal. “People are getting really away from it, and I wanted to bring it…

Tunisia: ambiguous answers and obscure language about GFH’s Financial Harbor

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It is no longer “Tunisia Financial Harbor”, originally designed “with the ambition to become the financial hub opening on Africa, positioned in the heart of the Mediterranean and offering excellent transport connections (…) and will offer access to human capital, investment opportunities from international markets to Africa and vice versa “. It is now, according to the title of CEO granted by the promoter GFH to Lotfi Ezzar, the “Tunis Bay Project Company”. Clearly, it is a simple but gigantic real estate project. The external infrastructure, financed by the Tunisian…

Tunisian beachside town fights industrial pollution

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Next to a palm grove, a blackish mud flows into the sea. After years of living with industrial pollution, residents of Tunisia’s Gabes are fighting back. Close to the Chott Essalem beach and in front of a rare coastal oasis, the state-owned Tunisian Chemical Group (GCT) has been processing phosphate since the 1970s. The authorities say the plant pumps 14,000 tonnes of phosphogypsum into the sea every day. On top of the toxic mud, the factory also pumps phosphoric acid into the air. “In the past, our town was clean,”…

Tunisia: Date exports soar 19% to $220 million

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 From October 1, 2016 to August 7, 2017, period over which extends the date season, Tunisia exported 103,000 tons of dates valued at 530.3 million dinars ($220 million). This was disclosed by a statement from the ministry of agriculture, water resources and fishery released yesterday. Proceeds of the exports over the period reviewed is 19% more than that recorded a year before, knowingly 445.8 million dinars ($185 million). In regards to the main export destinations of the dates, Morocco is at the top of the ranking with more than a…