Tag: algeria

From Reuters:

Egypt sent in riot police to quash street protests after a soccer loss to Algeria, but the state’s own rantings against Algiers suggest Cairo may have welcomed the diversion of discontent to a foreign target.
Far from quelling public anger over talk of Algerian hooliganism after match-day scuffles, Egypt summoned Algeria’s envoy and recalled its own. President Hosni Mubarak pledged to protect citizens abroad to applause in parliament.
Egyptians, angry at Algerian conduct after the decisive 1-0 loss, smashed shop windows, overturned cars and hurled stones near Algeria’s embassy in Cairo — a rare sight in Egypt where security forces are usually swifter to crush public dissent.
“The government has been inciting in a very crazy manner these anti-Algerian feelings,” Hossam el-Hamalawy, a blogger who often criticises the government, said of protests that erupted after Wednesday’s loss dashed Egypt’s World Cup hopes.
“The easiest way to distract the attention of the public, both in Egypt and in Algeria, is to do a little bit of flag waving,” Hamalawy said. “Everybody will start forgetting about the unemployment and the economic turmoil we are in.”
Egypt could use the diversion, several analysts said.
The most populous Arab country, where a fifth of the 77 million people live on less than $1 a day, appears to be slowly emerging from the weight of the global financial crisis, with economic growth expected to hit 5 percent in 2010.
But inflation has resumed its skyward creep and now exceeds 13 percent, and official unemployment is over 9 percent. Fiscal reforms praised by investors are cursed by poorer Egyptians who have seen scant material improvement in their lot.
Egypt is also approaching a presidential vote in 2011 amid mounting speculation over who will succeed 81-year-old Mubarak, who has given no indication he will step down when his current term ends. His son Gamal is widely tipped as a likely successor.