Egalité, fraternité, liberté

Just in case it has not been entirely clear, Algeria is not for the faint of heart.

At some point, all the little things will make someone, perhaps a woman, crumble in despair. She could be aghast at the lack of bus route maps. The complete opacity of information at the train station. The lack of implementing seat assignments, either on planes or trains. The official re-naming of streets on maps, while on the streets themselves the old names are still in the plaques. The idea that  Oran is a fun, vibrant, partying city ... because it is only really fun and vibrant for guys.

Like "Egalité, fraternité, liberté", it was complained during the Algerian War that universal principles applied exclusively to the French. I'm finding this applies only to men here.

My Kabyl mother had really wanted me to stay at the Maison Diocésaine here. Wherever it was. She said that any taxi driver would know. Rather than have a complicated interaction with a taxi driver, armed with neither address or phone number, I decided to head for a hotel of good online repute, and well enough snagged a nice room. One cannot choose mothers, so I am grateful for her concern.

By Canadian customs, a woma, esp. an Asian-looking woman, having a dinner and a glass of wine on her own is considered atypical. Here in Oran it is well off the navigated charts. But it can be accomplished if one envisions the possible. First I do a tripadvisor check (having left all tourist material in Algiers) for a really good restaurant. I head for dinner there tonight at 7:30, which is the equivalent of 'crack of dawn' - rather early. Any combination of 'Chinese', 'woman', 'restaurant/non-home dinner' and 'pre-8:30'  would raise eyebrows. I'm not sure that women eat out for dinner - there was a party of 16 beside me - all men. And the rest were men that trickled in too. Add non-smoking, which is fine - they moved an entire table for me. Then the request, "Can I have just a glass of wine?" Unfortunately, all wine is sold by bottles - was the response. Thankfully, mid-way through my meal, the proprietor poured a very smooth Algerian Cabernet Sauvignon.

Somehow, I was imagining that there would be women on the streets here in Oran after dark. The city is quite a bit more lively than Algiers during the daytime. but it seems for both that there is still a kind of psychological couvre-feu that dates back to the troubles in the 90s (twenty years ago now!). The idea that women on the streets are loose, all foreign women are loose, and that the streets are not safe is still prevalent. Though do the most basic research on the state of the woman here, and one finds very quickly that it is within their home that women are most vulnerable to violence.

This results in truly no-fun cities that cannot develop and grow. Evenings cannot be used for public gatherings, limiting cultural gatherings of any sort. There are hundreds of cinemas, but neither audience nor films. Even in Damascus when I was there, there was a bit more of evening culture. Certainly there were women in restaurants for dinner, and women walking at night. Last weekend in Algiers, there was a concert at 4pm, with an ambience of midnight. Until Algerians sort this out, as this seems to be a collective thing, I'm not sure that there will be too many tourists staying the night (once they find a decent hotel room).

As for me, I just have to solve the riddle: how to have a good dinner, when it is at dusk that restaurants open and when women on the streets are scarce?