People riot over the prices of food and cooking oil on the streets of Algeria.

What ruins societies? The maldistribution of wealth between the very rich and the very poor.  Inequalities that are magnified by state apparatus that legislates for and caters to the the class that holds the power.  This particular drama is being played out in Algeria.

 

“Algerian authorities have vowed to punish those responsible for nationwide food riots in which at least four people were reported killed and more than 800 injured.

Press reports on Sunday quoted Dahou Ould Kablia, interior minster, saying that troublemakers “will not go unpunished”.

It is important to mobilize the coercive agents of the state to keep the people in line.  The status quo, after all, needs defending.

“The government on Saturday said it will cut taxes and import duties on some staple foods, amid a series of deadly riots that have killed at least three people.

According to state media, a meeting of ministers in the capital Algiers agreed to measures which would reduce the price of sugar and cooking oil by 41 per cent.

“Nothing can cast doubt on the resolute will of the state, under the direction of the president of the republic, to intervene whenever necessary to preserve the purchasing power of citizens in the face of any price increase,” a government statement said.

Algeria has seen three days of unrest over the rising costs of living and unemployment, which government figures show standing at about 10 per cent, but which independent organisations put closer to 25 per cent.

Layachi Ansar, professor of sociology at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera that the cutting of food taxes and duties was “a superficial measure” that doesn’t address “the deep crisis” going on in Algeria, connected with the “unequal distribution of wealth – this wealth is spoilt by corruption, by bad governance and lack of accountability of government officials and state civil servants”.

Throw them some crusts and curds and hope they ignore the lavish feast going on in the background.

“Mohamed Zitout, a former Algerian diplomat, told Al Jazeera: “It is a revolt, and probably a revolution, of an oppressed people who have, for 50 years, been waiting for housing, employment, and a proper and decent life in a very rich country.

“But unfortunately it is ruled by a very rich elite that does not care about what is happening in the country – because they did not give people what they want, even though the government has the means to do so, the people are now revolting.”

Young people clashed with police in Algiers and several other towns across the country on Friday despite appeals for calm from imams.  In Annaba, 600km west of the capital, rioting broke out after Friday prayers in a poor neighbourhood of the city and continued late into the night. A local government office was ransacked, according to witnesses.  Protesters also cut down electricity poles during the night, cutting off power to the working class suburb of Auzas.”

Breaking points are reached, the poor majority finally can take no more of a country being run for the benefits of a small segment of society.  Will it be popular revolution or even more repression when it comes to Algeria?  It is too soon to make a prediction.