Tag: opinion

Income and education disparities between men and women are still conspicuous in Kenya even as the country makes gains in human development. The UNDP 2016 report Human Development for Everyone shows that the country has registered an annual average human development index growth of 0.64 per cent from 1990 to 2015. The progressive gain has seen Kenya climb from position 147 in 2014 to 146 in 2015, though the country remains at near bottom, only above Pakistan in the Medium Human Development group. Norway, Australia, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark occupy…

The village of Hara Sghira in Djerba, an island off the coast of southern Tunisia will welcome Jewish visitors between 11 and 17 May 2017 to celebrate the Lag B’Omer holiday during a week of rituals as the village is home to the Ghriba synagogue which is believed to be the oldest Jewish temple in Africa. Displaying intricate tile walls bearing blue and yellow geometric shapes El Ghriba is the most famous and venerated of the twenty synagogues and prayer houses dotting the three Jewish villages on Djerba. Its surrounding…

As part of my role, I travel the world seeking out investment opportunities for British businesses that will not only create high-quality jobs for our partners overseas, but also long-term growth investments for UK firms. North Africa is a part of the world with many such opportunities to uncover. I recently returned from a visit to Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco at the head of a City business delegation. During our time in Algiers, Tunis and Casablanca, we were able to identify much potential for UK business, in a region with…

Strategy First and Graviteam (experts in developing realistic wargames) have announced that they have formed a partnership to bring their historically accurate World War II strategy war game Tank Warfare: Tunisia 1943 to Steam this May. Tank Warfare: Tunisia 1943 allows players to experience the Tunisian Campaign as both a turn based and real time strategy game.  The game features more than 50 detailed vehicles from the UK, German and US armies and gives would be generals the opportunity the option of playing either the Allied or Axis powers. “Set in North Africa during the Tunisian…

Why did the Arab spring fail? Despite a number of revolutions in the Arab world, in the end only Tunisia emerged as a functioning democracy. Results from an interdisciplinary research project at the University of Gothenburg indicate that the problem might be traced partially to the lack of women’s civil rights in the region. A new study published in the European Journal of Political Research discusses the importance of women’s rights for countries to become democratic. The researchers used a dataset developed by V-Dem, a research institution cohosted by the…

Within the domestic political and cultural climate full of errors and lies, some historians feel a lot of pressure to endeavour rewriting our history with objectivity and without falsehood. We are convinced that it is hard to rebuild realities of history and correct the historical data without fuss or interference from some especially the unprofessionals who meddle in history. I feel hope as Khaled Abid, Academic Professor of contemporary history, warns of dealing with history as victim and executioner and of there being in history, no two narrations. Abid succeeded…

As issues relating to Russian influence in the EU, US and the Middle East are in the limelight, Russia continues to quietly make inroads in North Africa where it has been gaining a foothold in Libya and boosting its military exports to Algeria and Egypt while strengthening economic ties with Morocco and Tunisia, said the leading international relations magazine, Foreign Affairs. Oren Kessler and Boris Zilberman, the co-authors of the article, dubbed “Russia’s Charm Offensive in North Africa,” highlighted the increasing Russian influence in North Africa saying that Egypt, a…

Hundreds of Tunisian men have disappeared while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea towards Italy. In a modest, but bright, two-storey apartment in the Tunisian town of Bizerte, a group of women sit on a couch, waiting. In their hands, they clutch photos of their children and husbands, who left home six years ago in search of a better life in Europe. These mothers and wives will not stop searching, hoping to find justice for their loved ones who disappeared off Tunisia’s Mediterranean coast. “What we want is the truth,”…

The government of President Béji Caïd Essebsi is working with the IMF and investors to turn around the economy within the next three years. Tunisia’s government considers the country’s post-2011 political transition a big success, but the economy has been sputtering. The ratings agency Fitch downgraded the country’s credit rating in late January, at a time when the government was in the market to raise $2.8bn in order to meet its national budget deficit. Fitch cited government uncertainty, a weak tourism sector and a lack of investment as causes for…