u/syriah213

I was recently looking at old photos of my hometown Chlef ( El-Asnam ) honestly feels strange sometimes. It’s hard to believe it’s the same city.

Before the 1980 earthquake, the city had so much charm: white houses with red roofs, tree-lined streets, rivers, green landscapes, beautiful farmland, and a really clean vibe. Even the urban planning looked better and more organized than today.

After the earthquake, everything changed. Of course the disaster itself was devastating, but it also feels like the city slowly lost its identity over the decades. Rivers dried up, green spaces disappeared, the architecture became more chaotic ( سكنات هماجية ) , and there was never enough investment to truly bring the city back to life.

The sad part is that Chlef still has massive potential. Good location, fertile land, history.. it could honestly be one of the nicest cities in Algeria with the right vision.

When you compare the old photos to today, the difference is just depressing.

Do you think Chlef’s decline was unavoidable after 1980, or was it mostly caused by years of neglect and bad planning by Central Government in Algiers ?

So I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and started putting the numbers into perspective, and honestly the reality is worse than most people outside Algeria realize.

The average salary here is around 48,000 DZD a month. On paper that sounds like a real salary until you convert it using the actual street exchange rate of roughly 1€ = 280 DZD. That comes out to around €170 a month. About €42 a week.

The minimum wage (SNMG) is 24,000 DZD, which is barely €85 a month. Less than €3 a day. In many Western countries, people spend more than that on a coffee and a sandwich without thinking twice.

What makes the situation even more frustrating is that prices in Algeria are nowhere near as “cheap” as outsiders imagine. Rent, food, transportation, electronics, clothes, imported products — everything keeps getting more expensive while salaries remain almost frozen. So even if someone is technically employed, they still struggle to save money, invest, build a future, or even plan long term.

And if we look at inflation over the last 10 years, the situation becomes even clearer. The Algerian dinar has lost more than half of its real value. Which means, in practical terms, the purchasing power of ordinary Algerians has been cut dramatically. People aren’t imagining that life became harder — mathematically, it did.

Another major problem is that a lot of Algeria’s monetary and financial laws are outdated. Many of the structures and regulations still governing the economy date back to the 1970s and 1980s. In a modern global economy, operating with archaic financial systems slows investment, innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. The system simply hasn’t evolved enough with the times.

And this is why I don’t think the problem is “lack of opportunity” or lack of resources. Algeria is not a poor country in terms of natural wealth. We are a hydrocarbon economy with enormous energy resources.

The issue is management.

If we compare Algeria to other rentier economies based heavily on oil and gas, the difference becomes obvious. Look at countries like Saudi Arabia. They also depend heavily on hydrocarbons, yet their purchasing power is several times higher. Salaries there are often comparable to Southern or even parts of Western Europe, while Algeria continues to fall behind despite decades of energy revenues.

So clearly, this is not simply about “being an oil economy.” It’s about economic policy, financial management, long-term planning, and institutional modernization.

Some people try to justify the weakness of the dinar by comparing it to countries like Japan or China, but that comparison doesn’t really work. Those countries maintain weaker currencies strategically because they possess massive industrial production, export power, technological dominance, and strong economic fundamentals.

At some point we have to be honest with ourselves: decades of poor economic management, outdated policies, bureaucratic stagnation, and failure to modernize the financial system have severely damaged the purchasing power and future prospects of ordinary Algerians.

So when young Algerians talk about wanting to leave, it’s not always “lack of patriotism” or pessimism.

What do you all think? Is there realistically a way out of this situation? What reforms or changes do you believe Algeria would actually need to reverse this decline and rebuild real purchasing power and economic opportunity for ordinary people?”

A lot of people misunderstand the term “Semitic” and reduce it to a single modern group, when historically it refers to a broader linguistic and cultural family spread across the Middle East and North Africa.

This image shows the historical distribution of Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic) language groups, including Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, Chadic, and Ancient Egyptian branches. Languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac all belong to the Semitic branch.

Whether people agree with every detail of the map or not, it’s still interesting to see how interconnected the linguistic history of North Africa and West Asia really is.

Hey everyone,

I’m looking to install this style of balcony enclosure a metal frame with vertical wood-look battens/slats. You see it a lot on modern new builds.

Does anyone know where I can source this in Algeria? Whether it’s a metalworker, carpenter, or building materials supplier, any lead would be appreciated.

Thanks!

At last the black dragon, the king who bore the sword will rise again in the world of Golarion.

More seriously I need help to build a strong character, I am bad in multi-classing any suggestions?