Word: el
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That's hardly news to El Phil, as he stands between two long rows of peach trees on his Grombalia farm, 22 miles (35 km) south of Tunis. Just four years after starting to export to Europe, Jinene Agro now gains half its profits from foreign sales. Tunisia's sunny latitude allows El Phil to ship fresh peaches and plums during the weeks from mid-March to mid-April when there's space on supermarket shelves throughout Europe. "We harvest after the end of production in Chile and South Africa, and before Europe begins," he says. "We exploit that...
...success of El Phil's enterprise should not obscure how much remains to be done. Pierre Beckouche, a senior researcher with IPEMED, a Paris-based think tank on Mediterranean issues, says that regional economic advantages have been well exploited elsewhere over the past decade: by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in North America and the ASEAN free-trade area in Southeast Asia. But the E.U.'s 1995 "Barcelona Process," which was meant to encourage deeper ties across the Mediterranean, has largely been a Brussels-driven dud. "What's missing is a network of firms, of experts, of political...
Jinene Agro, for its part, is keeping folks on the farm. El Phil has lost no workers to European dreams since the night watchmen's attempted escape. The two dozen laborers he retains only earn about $11 a day, but they can make a living for their families, knowing prospects are improving. That is because El Phil is focused on adopting the higher standards that foreign markets expect. He now promotes not only the ability to harvest before European competitors, but also "traceability." His peaches, plums and nectarines are all labeled with the location of his grove, and cool-packed...
...vine. The local fields are worked almost exclusively by migrants. Hosseim (not his real name), 22, an illegal immigrant from Morocco, came to Europe two years ago, crammed with 65 others in a rickety fishing boat. His family owns 12 acres (5 ha) in the town of El Kelaa, 47 miles (75 km) northeast of Marrakech, but raises only a few cows and goats, and some zucchini. The oldest of five, Hosseim was encouraged by his parents to emigrate. He figured that by now he'd be wiring money back home and putting aside something for his future. But with...
...Eyewitnesses say that Dawyyat used the machine's backhoe to slam into cars and flip over two buses, and that he tore onto the sidewalk, crushing pedestrians. Bat El-Ganem, a bus passenger, told reporters that the bulldozer "rammed into the bus again and again. Two babies flew towards me; I was in shock. I don't know how I made it out alive. We flipped over until a wall stopped us." It is believed that the killer was headed toward the Machaneh Yehudah open market, teeming with shoppers at the noon hour...