ALGERIA AND THE ART OF HAVING MORE TIME

"The value of things is not in the time they last, but in the intensity with which they happen, so there are unforgettable moments, unexplainable things and incomparable people."

Fernando Pessoa

 It was in June 2004 that I have stepped on the Algerian soil for the first time. I was waiting to find a country torn apart by civil war, with traumatized people and enough insecurity on the street. I realized that this preconceived idea was wrong. I realized that the time here was another.

I was fortunate to be received at the airport by an Algerian who was married to a Portuguese woman, which made all the difference this first contact with a slightly Lusitanian flavor. The discreet sympathy of this first reception remains in my memory today as the most cautious form of reception typical of a welcoming but prudent society.

 I came looking for possible business opportunities and when I first started, I immediately realized that Algeria in terms of time was similar to Portugal 30 years ago. It fascinated me to be able to relive a known time, but now with the advantage of experience gained over that time. A kind of return to the past.

Another time came to my memory, told by my brother, in the eighties, he traveled by bicycle in Algeria. Before the civil war, before Portugal also had the highest density of motorways in the world, even before we had an World Exposition, a Vasco da Gama Bridge, a train on the 25 de Abril Bridge, coloruful footeball stadiums design by our famous architect Tomás Taveira, more than a Metro line in Lisbon, cable television, prepaid mobile phone and a number of Shopping Centers to make any European country envy. At that time, I still remember my brother's narrative when referring to the Algerian people as being extremely welcoming and warm. It was undoubtedly a very pleasant experience to remember. Then the civil war made Algeria go back in time, which contributed to Portugal being further distanced from this country that served as an exile to revolutionary Manuel Alegre and from where the broadcasts of the short-wave "A Voz da Liberdade" (the voice from freedom) of Radio de Algiers, in the fight against the dictatorship installed in Portugal. Before 1974.

 I ended up staying and reliving in many ways a time I had already lived. There was (and is) so much to do in this country. I concluded that my competitive advantage was the experience of having already lived the time that Algeria was beginning to live, but now with much more experience than thirty years ago. Certainly, with the advantage of not committing the mistakes once experienced.

I was mistaken for the first time about this time. I incorrectly calculated that this time of delay in Algeria was due to the connotation of a third world country. From an African country with a past of a civil war still alive in the collective memory.

However, this time was also the time it took to look at things in a different way.

I began by realizing that in Algiers the time to move from one place to another was much greater than I had estimated. Planning meetings was at best a meeting in the morning and another meeting in the afternoon. One day, I managed to have four meetings outside my office in the same day, my Algerian assistant was incredulous.

I began to realize that the tolerance for delays in appointments was several hours and that the traffic was the ideal excuse for all non-compliance with schedules, breach of commitments and often even a breach of memory. I adapted in such a way that I found myself in Portugal arriving at meetings fifteen minutes late, instead of arriving five minutes in advance as I usually do. I discovered later that this tolerance is a way of life that invites the conviviality and the emotional connections, that so much is now spoken in the western world namely on the new index of "emotional intelligence".

 In Algeria, a meeting between strangers is a ritual of searching in the past. We look for the origins, the ancestors, the family, the friends, the place of birth and the activities of each one, this ritual is the beginning of the meeting where our network of contacts can touch the network of contacts of the other. A kind of ancestral linkedin, consolidated in many centuries of commercial contacts in the Mediterranean area. This time spent in the search for common points seems to us an unnecessarily long time, a waste of time apparently speaking of banalities or even futilities. Incorrect. This is the time necessary to establish connections that allow the exchange of advantage or not of knowledge or facts that enhance some benefit, be it financial, favors or even opportunities. It is also the time to find a circuit of contacts that can validate the credibility of the interlocutor.

 Knowing that in time it will usually be possible to find some points in common, this ritual is used very often. Speaking (or if you prefer to communicate) for hours is not just a hobby, it is a cultural necessity for social and professional advancement.

After all, this time is another way, perhaps even wiser and apparently advanced, to make social and professional contacts without the need for Facebook or Linkedin.

I also discovered that in Algeria it is important and necessary to know how to wait.

That the time required to comply with a five-year plan is a necessary five-year multiple and that the best way to negotiate is to have time.

The second time I was wrong with time was to think that in Algeria, time was money, calculated on bank interest rates as taught in MBA management. It is also, but essentially, by a bureaucracy that takes to leave, by still clinging to a time of a heavy bureaucracy, a bureaucracy dependent of "to the superior consideration". Nevertheless, where I was mistaken, the time in Algeria is money and power, not because of the profitability of money, but because deciding without haste reduces the risk of deceit and loss of money and increases the pressure on the partner who needs to do the business quickly.

I found that in Algeria having the time in our favour is always the best way to negotiate. Time is the way to technically and financially optimize all proposals and business.

The key is to learn how to take time in our favour. How to get the time.

Decision time is great, too much for our "western" habits, but it's the time it takes to choose the right business model, partner, and price. "doucement mais surement" (gently but surely) is the current explanation of the Algerians for this time.

Lastly, I cannot fail to mention the time that is missing in Algeria. The time to teach a country that grew from approximately ten million citizens in 1960, to nearly 40 million after fifty years. In my opinion, there was no time to train properly the teachers who taught the teachers now. This is reflected in the existing level of training that Algeria is trying to increase by multiplying efforts in a gigantic university network and even in the creation of a new ministry, that of "vocational training". There is no time to waste in this area.

Also, note that the time in Algeria is that of youth. A country in which fifty percent of the population is under twenty-five is an important reality in the strategic analysis of the future in Algeria. We have to think about what this represents in terms of the ambitions and wishes of a population that has so much to build and that it wants to be a benchmark not only because it is the largest country in Africa but which aims to be a major player in the Mediterranean and of Africa.

The weather in Algeria is inexplicably intense because there is much to be done, although there is undoubtedly a time of decision very different from what we are accustomed to.

Anyone who wants to succeed in Algeria has to learn to live with this time.

 The text above was written in 2015, 11 years after my first time in Algeria. Today in 2019, I can confirm again these words, when the youth of Algeria, is in the 8th Friday of pacific contestation about their need of changing the Algerian governance. They replicate 45 years after the Portuguese Revolution, a bloodless demand of a country changing.

They know really how to deal with the time. In addition, they are using time again in his favour.