ALGERIA: Author Boualem Sansal to get top German Award

BONN, Germany / Deutsche-Welle / Literature / June 9, 2011

Boualem Sansal took up Holocaust themes in his most famous novel

© dpa - Bildfunk

His books have cost him his job and landed him on the index of banned authors at home in Algeria, but Boualem Sansal remains a resident and activist there. His efforts earned him the 2011 German Book Trade Peace Prize.

Selection of Algerian author Boualem Sansal "is a symbol of support for democratic movements in North Africa," said Gottfried Honnefelder, head of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.

The author is a "passionate storyteller displaying wit and empathy," wrote the prize committee in its official statement, adding that he combines those qualities with the courage to openly criticize social and political affairs. "With his persistent pleas in favor of free expression and open dialogue in a democratic society, he opposes every form of dogmatism, terror and political arbitrariness," the committee stated.

Breaking taboos

Sansal became known to German readers by way of his 2009 novel, "Das Dorf des Deutschen," published in the US as "The German Mujahid" and in the UK as "An Unfinished Business." It tells the story of a German Nazi who goes into hiding after the war as a member of the Algerian forces fighting for independence from France.

Originally written in French, "The German Mujahid" is considered the first Arabic novel about the Holocaust - a topic that is still taboo in Algeria. The book was honored with multiple international prizes and translations but was banned in the author's home country.

Boualem Sansal was born October 15, 1949 in the Algerian mountain village of Teniet el-Had. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Algiers and later studied industrial economics before moving into high-ranking positions with the government.

Traditionally, the German Book Trade Peace Prize is presented in October to cap off the Frankfurt Book Fair.

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Report Author: Gabriela Schaaf / gsw
Editor: Kate Bowen

© DW 2011

ALGERIA: Aging in Algeria - More than 3.5 million of them

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ORAN, Algeria / AlgerieSoir / Algerian Press / April 28, 2011

During a workshop on the care of older persons, the Minister responsible for the Family and the Status of Women stressed the need to strengthen the system of protection of older people. The minister highlighted the necessity of establishing social welfare and health protection by creating hospitals specializing in age-related diseases (Global Action on Aging).

Better health care needed for Algeria's 3.5 million elderly

Currently, Algeria has 3.5 million elderly people, representing 7.5% of the population, Nouara Saadia Djaafar, Minister for the Family and the Status of Women, said yesterday.

In a speech at a workshop on the care of the elderly, Ms. Jaafar stressed that the aged required special attention and social protection and health.

For her, the Law on the Protection of Older Persons aims to strengthen the protection of this category. This law, she added, will be further strengthened soon by new implementing legislation for the protection of the elderly, especially in terms of medical coverage and psychological care.

Photograph courtesy of algerieautrefois.com

The Minister noted, moreover, the law criminalizing children who abandon their parents. This law also provides for granting a pension to each needy family that supports a senior.

Ms. Nouara Saadia Djaafar recalled efforts by government to ensure better management of this category in particular through the 30 senior centers deprived of family warmth. She stressed on the need health care centers for the populatio often vulnerable to diseases of aging, including diabetes, arthritis, hypertension and Alzheimer's disease.

It is imperative to train specialists in monitoring health of older people in hospitals, she said, and urged the community to create an awareness of the need for continuous and long-term protection of older persons, to further human values ​​in society.

Continuing extension of life expectancy has led to growth in number of older people, pointed out Rachid Hanafi, President of the Algerian Olympic Committee. He stressed the need to support the elderly.

Lamari, president of the Committee on Medical Ethics of the Medical Faculty of Algiers, raised the problem of old age and the difficulties of hospital strategy for the management of this category. The elderly, he said, are exposed to complex diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes, hence the need to create specialized centers and train specialists in diseases of old age.

Above is a free translation of the original in French

Copyright © 2011 Algerie soir

ALGERIA: Woman aged 126 has 427 grandsons living in Tebessa

ALGERS, Algeria (El Khabar), April 28, 2008: On the margins of the national day of old people, the Social Activities Directorate of Tebessa southernmost province, has paid a tribute to Mrs. Hada Bent Tayeb, the eldest woman in Tebessa. She is 126. In this regard, the Director of social activities direction, Mr. Abdelouahab Belalmi, has disclosed that this woman lives in Aouinat municipality, but the most striking aspect in the story is that she visited a doctor only once when she was 40. Hada Bent Tayed has 7 sons, the oldest is 84, while the youngest is 61. Her grand sons are as numerous as to create a village in Tebessa. They are 427 in number. By Z.A / Translation Section/News Item No.N 5307 Copyright © 2003 - 2008 El Khabar.

ALGERIA: Suicide Bomber Bechla, Was Grandfather of Seven

ALGIERS, Algeria (The International Herald Tribune), December 17, 2007:

As a suicide bomber he was most unusual. But the story of Rabah Bechla, a 63-year-old grandfather of seven who rammed an explosive-packed truck into a UN office here one week ago, killing 17, is in many ways the story of Algeria itself.

"Many Algerians can identify with this story," said Mouloud Hamrouche, a former prime minister of the same age..."He is a real-life example of what has gone wrong over the years."

His age has thrown into shock a nation accustomed to terror - but a terror usually associated with the malleable impulsiveness of youth.

Algerians are further intrigued by Bechla because his life contains the story of the problems that have haunted this country for six decades. As recounted by family members at Bechla's home, a cement shack in the village of Heraoua, some 30 kilometers, or 50 miles, from the capital, the family history in those years stretches from his grandfather who fought for France against Germany in World War II, his father who they say was tortured and killed by the French during the War of Independence, and Bechla's decision to vote for the Islamists in the 1991 presidential election that was subsequently canceled.

The trajectory continues to the present. One of his sons did something that many other young Algerians have tried: He made a desperate decision to try to get into Spain as an illegal immigrant.

At the home in Heraoua, footsteps away from the local police station, Bechla's children and his 82-year-old mother Zohra were still in a state of shock.

Zohra Bechla, 82, holding a picture of her son Rabah Bechlah, the suicide bomber, with his sons, Younes, left, and Athmane.

Ouaheb Hebbat/Sipa, for
International Herald Tribune

"The country is rich, but the people are poor."
Read the full story

By Katrin Bennhold
Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune

ALGERIA: Age No Bar In Search For Better Life

180 illegal immigrants aged over 40 arrested ALGIERS, Algeria (Ech-Chuouruk), October 24, 2007: More than 170 Algerian illegal immigrants aged over 40 have been arrested by the National Gendarmerie services since January, according to official figures. Some of them left their children and families to look for a better life. Others could not get married and did not found families in view of their difficult financial situations. Because of that, they did not find any other solution than going illegally abroad and run risks on mortal boats to reach Europe. The total number of illegal immigrants of different ages has reached 662. Most of the illegal immigrants are arrested in coastal areas where 210 were caught in the wilaya (province) of Annaba (east of Algiers) followed by Oran (west of Algiers) with 176 and Ain Timouchent (west of Algiers) with 79 illegal immigrants. Source: Ech Chorouk

ALGERIA: One Million Retirees To Get 4% Rise in Pension Benefits

ALGIERS, Algeria (El Akhbar), October 11, 2007:

A million and 600 retired are to benefit from a 4% increase in pension benefits to be back paid as of last May.

Labour ministry and the central trade union came up to an agreement providing for a 4% increase in retirement pension benefits as of the current month. However, the increase is to be back paid since last May. The agreement falls within the implementation of Article 43 of retirement law which allows for the increase of retired pensions each May.

The agreement crowns a series of negotiations between labour ministry representatives and retired federation since last May.

By H. Slimane
Copyright © 2003 - 2007 El Khabar.