Libya
A year ago being an American and standing on Libyan soil was a crime. With the advent of Qaddafi’s 'glasnost' and 'perestroika' Michael J. Totten decided to travel to Tripoli to see what life is like in a socialist, Islamic dictatorship. It’s not surprising that the combination of military rule, combative socialism and Islamic fundamentalism made for a tragically backward country.
“after walking around his [Qaddafi’s] outdoor laboratory and everywhere seeing his beady eyes and that arrogant jut of his mouth, it suddenly hit me. He isn’t merely Libya’s tyrant. He is a man who would be god.His Mukhabarat, the secret police, are omniscient. His visage is omnipresent. His power is omnipotent.And he is deranged. He says he’s the sun of Africa. He threatens to ban money and schools. He vanquished beauty and art. He liquidates those who oppose him. He says he can’t help it if the people of Libya love him so much they plaster his portrait up everywhere. Fuck him. I wanted to rip his face from the walls.”
Totten then recalls a shop keeper’s confessions about Qaddafi -
“We hate that fucking bastard, we have nothing to do with him. Nothing. We keep our heads down and our mouths shut. We do our jobs, we go home. If I talk, they will take me out of my house in the night and put me in prison.”
Towards the end of the article he tells us various French diplomats are staying in his hotel while Chirac cuts new oil deals with Qaddafi. Moral clarity Mr Chirac? This seems as morally corrupt as our dependence on the Saudis.
Perhaps the most important point made in the article is the reminder that “people are people” – the desire for freedom is universal. Despite the diet of anti-Americanism fed by the state media for over 30 years, the ordinary Libyans Totten spoke to hate Qaddaffi with a passion. When we hear people saying Democracy wont work in the middle east, or that the people are content to live under repressive doctrinal and even theocratic regimes, this is more than often not the case. Some interesting points to consider.
The article can be found
here at LA weekly.
a brief update on fascism, the USA and a good deed being done by a comrade
Now, as I am sure you will be aware there is talk that Mr Blair dissuaded Mr Bush from bombing al jazeera. Bar the idiotic hypocrisy of this issue (building a democratic Iraq with a free press, then only to want to blow up a slightly critical news organisation in Qatar), the issue of whether al jazeera is anti-American, or pro-the resistance should also be debated. From what I have read al jazeera is a relatively liberal and impartial news company that gives its stories from an Arab perspective. Obviously, with the majority of the Arab world being up in arms over Bush’s policies, this will be reflected in their news coverage. They aren’t militants, as their
staffers blog will show.
Indeed, Sir David Frost (remember breakfast with frost on Sundays?) is now their Washington correspondent and a fair proportion of their staff are ex-BBC world service. Another quality check of the impartiality of a news organisation is who it pisses off. The bbc is accused of being pro-Israeli by some liberals, and pro-Palestine by conservatives. Seems to me like its doing a pretty good job then. Regards, al jazeera, as
this news item would suggest the same can apply to them. Al jazzera is accused of being 'Israel Controlled' by extremists on t’other side of the argument. When compared to some of the other stuff in the Arab media… like
this from Saudi.. how can Bush still view them as allies while making such a big deal about al jazeera.
As one would expect,
the dude was in wonderful form when discussing the issue of journalistic freedom in Iraq.
"The prostitute journalist is a familiar and well-understood figure in the Middle East, and Saddam Hussein's regime made lavish use of the buyability of the regional press. Now we, too, have hired that clapped-out old floozy, Miss Rosie Scenario, and sent her whoring through the streets. If there was one single thing that gave a certain grandeur to the change of regime in Baghdad, it was the reopening of the free press (with the Communist Party's paper the first one back on the streets just after the statue fell) and the profusion of satellite dishes, radio stations, and TV programs. There were some crass exceptions—Paul Bremer's decision to close Muqtada Sadr's paper being one of the stupidest and most calamitous decisions—but in general it was something to be proud of. Now any fool is entitled to say that a free Iraqi paper is a mouthpiece, and any killer is licensed to allege that a free Iraqi reporter is a mercenary. A fine day's work. Someone should be fired for it."
Also in the world of fascism, one of my former favourite footballers
has come out as a fascist, and a sympathiser of Mussolini. I bought Di Canio’s autobiography and used to think he was gods gift to football. People like him make me fucking sick.
On a slightly more uplifting note –
comrade Aaronovitch is running the London marathon for charity. Reminding us all there is still a lot of good in the world.
