TOUGH CROWD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GHARDAIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 001336

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR ECA AND NEA/MAG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2018
TAGS: EDU PGOV PREL IQ AG
SUBJECT: TOUGH CROWD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GHARDAIA

Classified By: Ambassador David D. Pearce for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (U) SUMMARY: Welcomed by a lively group of 250 students,
the Ambassador spoke December 18 at the University of
Ghardaia on the importance of youth participation in
elections. His remarks were met with critical comments from
faculty and students alike regarding U.S. policy on the
Arab-Israeli conflict and the war in Iraq. Despite the
skeptical posture of the audience, it appeared that the
students understood the effect youth participation had in the
recent U.S. elections and many seemed impressed by the
Ambassador's openness in discussing the way the American
people achieved change through peaceful, democratic means.
The lecture followed by a day the Iraqi shoe-throwing
incident that has transformed the journalist into a folk
hero. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) The Ambassador's appearance at the University of
Ghardaia (in south-central Algeria) was the major outreach
activity of his December 16-18 visit to the region (other
meetings will be reported septel). His visit was the first
by a U.S. Ambassador since Professor Mohamed Halilat took
over as university rector in early 2008. The university was
founded in 2003 to consolidate several tertiary academic
institutes in Ghardaia. With a current student population of
3200 (65 percent of whom are female),the university is still
working to establish various faculties to offer the full
range of degree programs. For example, the university does
not yet have a foreign language department, thus the
students' study of English is limited. During the
Ambassador's introductory call on the rector, several members
of the university's senior staff highlighted the need for
better English training and for exchanges with foreign
universities.


3. (U) Given that the Ambassador's visit came the day before
the beginning of the midyear holiday, the turnout of more
than 250 students was a genuine display of interest at an
institution that rarely receives high-level visitors. The
Ambassador spoke for 20 minutes in Arabic about the role of
youth participation in the U.S. presidential election. He
discussed the impact of new technologies and the grassroots
campaigns that in many ways put the youth of America more
directly in touch with the candidates than ever before.


4. (C) When the Ambassador asked for questions from students
in the audience, a history professor was quick to take the
microphone first and comment that "a history of rule by white
men (in the United States) has led to nothing but black
results." He went on to say that the United States has
brought suffering to Iraqi and Palestinian children and that
the people of Iraq were better off under Saddam Hussein
because they "still had their dignity." The Ambassador
responded that he had served in the Middle East for more than
30 years, including in Iraq, and he pointed out the fact that
no one had brought greater suffering to the Iraqi people than
Saddam Hussein. The professor responded by saying that he
could not accept the Ambassador's response and left the
auditorium, followed by a number of his students who we
believe were coached before the event.


5. (C) A young woman asked what the Ambassador thought about
the incident the day before in Baghdad when a journalist
threw his shoes at President Bush and whether it was a sign
of freedom of opinion in the Arab world. He responded that
he knew the gesture was an insult in Arab culture and it was
certainly perceived as one by Americans. He said insults and
protests, like the professor's walkout, may make us feel a
little better for a little while, but after that we have to
ask ourselves if we have managed to actually change anything
with such gestures. Returning to his earlier remarks, the
Ambassador stated that the students in the audience were the
future leaders of their country. If they want to affect real
change, what they should do is stay engaged, and participate
in the political process, and vote, rather than simply
boycotting and staging protests. This is what had just
happened in the United States, and the youth of America had
been a key factor in what had clearly been a vote for change.



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6. (U) Another student questioned why nuclear weapons must be
restricted to an elite group of countries. The Ambassador
responded that nuclear proliferation is a difficult issue,
but also a potentially dangerous and destabilizing one that
must be governed through international agreements. The
Ambassador continued by noting that President-elect Obama has
stated that it is not from the power of our weapons that the
United States derives its strength, but from the power of its
ideas, the fundamental values of freedom and democracy.


7. (C) The last question was posed by a student who wondered
what the U.S. position was on the recent amendment to the
Algerian constitution which eliminated term limits. In
responding, the Ambassador stated that it is for each country
to decide the contents of their constitution and he noted
that the United States had done it both ways. George
Washington had resisted appeals to run for a third term. But
in the conditions of the Great Depression and the Second
World War, Franklin Roosevelt had been elected to four terms.



8. (SBU) COMMENT: Ironically, the professorQ,s walkout helped
underline the AmbassadorQ,s basic message about the
importance and value of political participation. While the
University of Ghardaia students were not a group easily
convinced of the value of U.S. policies, the impressive
turnout for the talk and the active engagement of the
students in posing questions was remarkable in that it showed
the students were both interested in the topics and felt free
to express their views openly. The visit also showed an
appetite for programming and English-language education at
universities further afield in Algeria, which can often yield
exponential returns given the rarity of foreign visitors.
PEARCE