Some time in the late 1980s while working for a bank I received a visit from a senior member of the entourage of the President of Algeria. They were fearing riots, he said, through the lack of food on the streets, and Islam would benefit from this, as it always did, running like wildfire among the poor and hungry. There would be global implications.
Eventually, using money from we didn't ask where, we began to finance shipments of chickpeas, the local staple. Of course Algeria has massive revenues from gas, but nobody knows quite where the money goes.
Algeria has been rumbling with discontent since then, and now we see it has broken out on to the streets. There have been riots all over the Maghreb, particularly in Egypt and, surprisingly, Tunisia, which is ruled by the iron fist of President Ben Ali. The issue is not yet empty bellies but lack of jobs, for North Africa is dependent on the EU and times have been hard there.
It may be this is temporary or it may be, as I fear, the start of something bigger. These rulers are the last of the old guard, who were activists before independence: Bouteflika of Algeria is 74 this year; Ben Ali of Tunisa has had his 74th, while Mubarak of Egypt is 82.
The question is, who will replace them?
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