Rana Ga3 Malade Mental

In Bejaia, my home town, it was usual to hear in the morning that somebody had thrown himself off Place Gueydon. I have never seen it myself but it is said that people who go there very early in the morning can see the corpses…

The newspapers have also been reporting about suicides for many years now, either by strangulation or pills or a weapon (Algerian policemen happen to use their own weapons to commit suicide). Today, and since Tunisian El Bouazizi, more and more do set themselves on fire.

Poll: Why do Arab leaders prefer to be treated in foreign hospitals?

Isn’t this an intriguing phenomenon? I would have thought that it’d be very embarrassing for a president to be rushed outside his country to a foreign medical institution in order to receive treatment. What would that say about the state of the health sector in said country? Mubarak has been rushed to Germany to have a benign tissue removed in a gallbladder surgery and, back in 2005, our very own Bouteflika was rushed to our arch-enemy France to be treated for a gastric ulcer.  What is it with the digestive system of Arab leaders? Must be the stress of ruling such thriving economies! There are many possible reasons why

H1N1 vaccine: A question of confidence

The Algerian campaign  of vaccination against the A/H1N1 flu has finally started on December 30th, 2009 for the medical staff; and pregnant women will be the first among the public to be vaccinated. Their vaccination should start on January 5th, 2010.

The way the Algerian authorities and population handled this issue and all the rumours around it tell a lot on the level of confidence of the population in their rulers and in their ability to do things correctly.

Revisiting some of the phases of this saga: