Algerians keen to step out from shadow of violent past
After years of civil war, Algeria is desperate to move on from its violent past. And despite security measures remaining extreme, big steps are being taken to get the country back on its feet.
A few weeks ago, I was having dinner with some Algerian friends, when the conversation turned to the security measures at US airports.
When a Nigerian man tried to blow up a plane flying to Detroit on Christmas day, the American government responded by putting Algeria and a handful of other countries – including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq – on a blacklist.
Anyone flying in from these places would be subjected to extra security checks before they could set foot on American soil.
‘Like Fort Knox’
Karima, our hostess who is normally cool and calm, was absolutely furious. “It’s an insult,” she said. “It’s totally demoralising. I refuse to fly anywhere near the United States until they take us off the list.”
I have to admit I was a little bemused by her reaction. After all, Algeria does have a security problem. Pretty much every week, the local branch of al-Qaeda ambushes a police convoy or kidnaps someone.
Security in Algiers is like nothing I have ever experienced. There are armed police everywhere – on motorbikes, waving metal detectors or standing in pairs at 100m intervals in the middle of every road.
The country has recently emerged from a civil war that began in 1992
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Every embassy, government building and ministry has reinforced steel gates and walls, which are twice as high as a double-decker bus and topped with jagged glass or barbed wire. Sometimes both.
We live a few doors down from the Italian embassy. I did not think they could improve on their security, but for the past month workmen have been building the walls up even higher and attaching yet more rolls of barbed wire to the top of them. It is like Fort Knox.
Security measures here seem to have trickled down to the most mundane aspects of life.
The ‘black years’
When I first arrived in Algeria, I had trouble finding any potatoes. And then a friend explained to me what had happened. “They’ve banned the use of the fertiliser you need to grow them, because it’s sometimes used to make home-made explosives,” she said.
I am glad to say that law seems to have been relaxed, or at any rate farmers have discovered a new fertiliser, because potatoes are now back in the shops.
So why was my friend Karima so annoyed to be included on an American security blacklist?
She was not the only one complaining. Algeria’s foreign minister summoned the US ambassador here to protest about the new measures.
The reason is that if things are not great now, they are far, far better than they used to be.
Rewind five years, bombs were going off all the time in the capital and people were too scared to go out after dark.
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 We want the rest of the world to know Algeria for something other than Islamist violence  Farouk, shop worker
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A photographer friend vividly remembers seeing trees hanging with arms and legs after a bomb exploded nearby. Others recall headless bodies lying in the streets (beheadings were a common occurrence during the most brutal years of the civil war).
Slowly, haltingly, life is getting back to normal. The violence has not gone away but it has declined.
Today, cafes and shops stay open late and there have been open-air concerts put on at dusk – something unthinkable a few years ago.
Even the US security blacklist has now been revised and Algeria has been taken off it.
More than anything, Algerians are desperate to put what they call “les annees noires”, or the “black years”, behind them.
Brighter future
It is something I hear so often. Last week I was speaking to Farouk, the man who stacks shelves in his cousin’s tiny grocery store at the top of our road.
It is the first time in 24 years that Algeria has qualified for the World Cup
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He is big and fat and every time you ask him to get a jar of honey down from the top shelf, you fear that this time his rickety step ladder will give way.
He loves to laugh and chat with the customers and if his cousin isn’t looking, he creeps over to the jars of sweets and gives the children free lollipops.
But sometimes you can see a sad look in his eyes. If you catch him on his own, he becomes more serious.
“We just want to move on,” he told me. “We want the rest of the world to know Algeria for something other than Islamist violence.”
Farouk spent seven years living in England, escaping the civil war at home to work in restaurant kitchens in south London. He picked up a broad cockney accent and every week he sent money back to his family in Algiers.
Now he has come home and, like so many others, he wants to see a brighter future for his country.
That is why there was such excitement when Algeria’s football team qualified for this year’s World Cup finals in South Africa.
Hundreds of thousands of young people descended on the centre of town to celebrate.
They rode on the tops of buses and hung from lamp posts singing “Viva l’Algerie!”
For many of them growing up with daily violence, it was the first time they could be proud to be Algerian.
Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8637375.stm
Courtesy
BBC News
Awards for 10 craftspersons
HYDERABAD, India: The Andhra Pradesh Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd. on Friday announced State awards for ten craftspersons. The first three prize winners are — Dalavai China Narayana, Nimmalakunta village, Anantapur district (Rs.10,000, a shawl and a certificate for leather puppet ‘Sampurna Ramayanam’), B. Raju, Vidyanagar, Hyderabad (Rs. 7,000 for Nirmal paintings ‘Taj Mahal & ‘Lord Balaji, and Velayudam Sreenivasulu Reddy, B.R. Agraharam, Srikalahasti (Rs.5,000 for Kalamkari hand painting of ‘Sri Garukmanthuni Puranam’).
Others are — D. Padma (Warangal district), P. Mohan (Anantapur), V.S.M. Manjula (Chittoor), N. Srinivasa Rao (Krishna). M. Srinivasa Rao (Visakhapatnam), K. Raja Gopal (Chittoor), S. Srinivas of Balamrai, Secunderabad.
The awards will be presented by Minister for Handlooms and Textiles B. Srinivasa Reddy on April 30 at S.K.V.B.R. Botanical Gardens, Chirec Public School Road, Kothaguda Crossroads.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/24/stories/2010042461780200.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
27-hour non-stop painting by school student
She worked on 150-metre-long canvas to create awareness of global warming Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan
Determined effort:J. Mithra, XI standard student of Sri Narayani Vidyalaya, working on the theme global warming on the school campus in Thirumalaikkodi near Vellore on Thursday. C. Rajendran, Collector of Vellore (left), who inaugurated the painting feat, and A.V. Venkatachalam, Conservator of Forests, Vellore are in the picture.
VELLORE, India: J. Mithra, XI Standard student of Sri Narayani Vidyalaya, Thirumalaikkodi, Vellore completed a marathon exercise of painting a picture on a 150-metre-long cotton cloth to create awareness of global warming. She started work at 8 a.m. on Thursday and completed it at 11.30 a.m. on Friday, working non-stop for 27 hours and taking a break for just half an hour.
C. Rajendran, Collector of Vellore inaugurated the exercise on the school premises in the presence of A.V. Venkatachalam, Conservator of Forests. S. Ramesh, Principal, Sri Narayani Vidyalaya said the event was sponsored by Sri Narayani Peedam, Thirumalaikkodi. Sri Sakthi Amma, Head, Sri Narayani Peedam, presented a cheque for Rs.10,000 to Mithra on behalf of the Peedam on Friday, in recognition of her talent. He gave a cheque for Rs.5,000 to Selvaganesh, art teacher, who guided Mithra. T.V. Manjunatha, District Forest Officer, Vellore, congratulated her.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/24/stories/2010042450770300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
First of its kind gene bank at TNAU
Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University P. Murugesa Boopathi (third right) takes a look at ‘K. Ramiah Gene Bank’ which was opened at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in the city on Friday.
COIMBATORE, India: Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has established a gene bank, first of its kind, in its premises at a cost of Rs. 1.2 crore. It has been named after K. Ramiah, the first Indian Paddy Specialist, and the Founder Director of Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack.
Sponsored by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the gene bank has been set up in the newly incepted Department of Plant Genetic Resources of the university.
Inaugurating the state-of-the-art facility, Vice-Chancellor of the university P. Murugesa Boopathi said it was the first of its kind in any State Agricultural University in the county.
The bank was meant for conservation of genetic resources.
Germ plasm collection of cultivars, land races and wild species would be maintained.
Pointing out the salient features of the bank, Director of the Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics K. Thiyagarajan said it had 3,000 cubic feet of cold storage space for medium and long term storage of plant genetic resources.
“It is planned to store nearly 50,000 germ plasm entries apart from commercially cultivated varieties of crops like rice, millets, pulses, oilseeds, cotton, forages, fruits, vegetables, spices, medicinal and aromatic plants, trees, and bio-energy crops”.
Storage
Explaining the storage process, he said the seeds of the germ plasm accession intended to be stored would be processed adopting scientific principles of seed storage in a precision-controlled-programmed de-humidified chamber and hermetically (air-tight) sealed with trilaminated aluminium pouches before depositing them in the cold room.
The estimated storage life of seeds without loss of viability was likely to be five to 20 years depending upon the nature of the seed.
Plant breeders of the university could reduce the frequency of rejuvenation by depositing the seeds in the gene bank. “They can not only save resources, but also reduce the chance of genetic deterioration that occurs due to out-crossing and admixtures commonly encountered while raising crops in the field,” Mr. Thiyagarajan added. Head of the Department of Plant Genetic Resources P. Shanmugasundaram said the gene bank would also be equipped with facilities to characterise and document germ plasm resources.
It was also planned to create an Internet-based database of the university’s germ plasm resources to promote exchange and utilisation among plant breeders and crop scientists.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/24/stories/2010042461830200.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
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