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Comment by curiousgal | Hacker News Reader

Well Tunisia has been focused on education as well and that hasn't led them anywhere.

Without a solid economy you just end up with like 30% unemployment rate where a large percentage of those unemployed hold higher degrees (masters and PhDs).

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Huh, I disagree. As someone from Tunisia, the early focus on education has led a considerable number of people to become wealthy (me included). I still remember the days (early childhood) where I was helping my father farming and selling food on the street. That life is quite different from where I am today. I attribute this to the solid education I had early on and the particular culture where I grew up (mid-coast).

I don't think education alone is enough for the path to richness in a nation. Tunisia is still stuck with an inability to re-innovate and free its economy, and resolve its corruption issues. I don't think centralized government is the answer either (neither is industry as some comments suggested; Tunisia could have jumped directly from an agricultural to an information economy, but so many things went wrong).

Maybe it's the Mediterranean? There is hardly any Mediterranean country that had economic success in that same time-frame.

One big difference between Asian nations such as Korea or Japan and Tunisia is simple: the prevalence of corruption. Corruption is everywhere and has been normalized for centuries in North African cultures (Baksheesh).

> you just end up with like 30% unemployment rate where a large percentage of those unemployed hold higher degrees (masters and PhDs).

The other question is how valuable really are these degrees? I don't recall Tunisian universities being particularly sought after.

Tunisia's natural resources and trade position on the global stage is not very clear and also matters because countries that also focus upon education that have whatever natural resources also include Iceland where many people emigrate from and it's a big local issue there. I'm certainly ignorant to Tunisia' problems nor strengths and am interested in understanding how to best tap into educated persons wherever they are in the world given they're such a valuable resource regardless of country of origin. Countries like Korea and Japan have partly benefited from the West's fears of communism with extra resources and diplomatic attention to serve as a set of buffer countries against the USSR while it didn't do as well in former Soviet countries for reasons I have zero understanding of. To deny that the US and NATO countries have tried to manipulate these buffer countries is pretty much a denial of reality BTW and something worth analyzing compared to other countries with similar socioeconomic conditions during the Cold War period.

In my opinion, Tunisia's problem is cultural. I see the recent mass-immigration of sub-Saharan as potentially significant to let Tunisia lose its culture and identity; and finally break from it toward a liberalized economy and order.

Language, network effects and political affiliations allow for slightly easier visa access beneficial for Asians to work across Middle East, EU, USA.

Language: Tunisians speak fluent French.

Network effects: Tunisia is quite close to Europe.

Visa Access: It's limited but still https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_diaspora vs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Chinese. Relative to population size, Tunisians moved more overseas.

AS you know even in Western Europe, talented devs/students lose out - sadly -as English is paramount.

Geographically close to Europe but I bet Europeans/Americans do not feel that way. Again due to various factors.

VISA: For Asians there is one advantage - they have some established characteristics - like hardworking, reputation in IT etc. Again not to say others do not have it but when people talk about IT guy/girl they refer to Indians or Asians - NOT Tunisians.

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