NATO Being Used by Washington In Libya to Hurt Chinese Interests?
June 2011
As U.S. Secretary of Defense continues his victory lap around
U.S. foreign bases, scolding NATO allies along the way for failing to
pull their weight in the alliance, it is well worth noting that many
of the NATO member states committed only under intense U.S. pressure
to operations in Afghanistan, while Libya has generated even less
enthusiasm in European capitals.
One of the great advantages of the end of the cold War two decades
ago, coupled with the rise of the Internet is that readers worldwide
now have an open window into the Russian press and society. Of course,
there are ideological holdovers from the Soviet era, most notably
Russian paranoia about hostile military groupings on their frontiers,
most notably NATO, which Russia not unreasonably sees as dominated by
the U.S.
Nowhere is the ideological gulf still separating Moscow and Washington
more evident than in NATO's mission in Libya. A leading Russian
newspaper, Vedomosti, on 9 June published an editorial titled simply
"From the Editors: War With China".
Lest an oilprice reader think that this is some covert cryto-Commie
anti-Western screed, it might be noted that Vedomosti is owned by the
Finnish Independent Media Company; published jointly with The Wall
Street Journal and Financial Times.
After noting that congressmen questioning Libyan operations and their
attendant costs are being criticized by Obama administration officials
as "taking a non-constructive position," the editorial then moves on
to quote Paul Craig Roberts, who served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan, who wrote in the most
recent issue of Foreign Policy Journal, Roberts wrote and[sic] article
titled "Libya: The DC/NATO Agenda and the Next Great War" that
commented, "judging by all, the protests against Kaddafi were
organized by the CIA in the eastern part of Libya, where 80 percent of
the oil reserves are concentrated and there are considerable Chinese
investments into the energy sector."
Whatever Washington's ulterior motives, there is no doubt that NATO's
military operations in Libya are harming China's fiscal
interests. According to information from China's Ministry of Trade, by
March, when the military operation began, there were 75 major Chinese
companies operating in Libya, and they had concluded $18 billion in
contracts. Because of the NATO operations in Libya, the Chinese
companies are expecting gigantic losses.
It is beyond dispute that China has targeted Africa for major
investment, which trade figures bear out. While in 1995 China's trade
with Africa was $6 billion, in 2010 it exceeded $130
billion. According to estimates of the South African Standard Bank, by
2015 Chinese direct investments into African nations will reach $50
billion. China is today receiving 28 percent of its oil import from
Africa, a figure that will grow in the future.
China has also acquired great political weight in Africa, and it not
only is free of the colonialist baggage of the European powers, it
does not subject African political leadership to harangues about human
rights like Washington. On a grassroots level, again unlike the
U.S. and European nations, along with its business interests it is
building infrastructure, such as roads, railroads and schools, much
appreciated by the local populace. This presence gave the
International Monetary Fund, headquartered in and dominated by
Washington, a significant rebuff at the end of 2008, when, having
spent several years discussing a loan agreement with Angola's
government, immediately prior to its signing IMF officials learned
that Angola had already received a low interest $2 billion Chinese
long-term loan and subsequently no longer needed IMF money. Similar
things happened later in Chad, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Uganda.
So, is there any wonder that Moscow suspects Washington of using NATO
as its muscle to demonstrate in Africa that uppity leaders had better
take heed of American dictates and downgrade their business ties with
the Celestial Empire? It is notable that the Libyan operation is the
Pentagon's AFRICOM command's first outing. It is also of note that no
African nation has offered to host AFRICOM, leaving it to be run out
of a U.S. base in Stuggart. For reasons obvious to all but the most
diehard American chickenhawks, Africans (which of course includes
Libyans) apparently prefer Chinese goods and Chinese-built schools to
hectoring human rights lectures, loans with interest fees and
condition that would make a Mafia don blanch and a hail of bombs and
bullets. Russia, which has not deployed its military outside its
borders since the collapse of the USSR, is viewing events in North
Africa with more dispassion and insight than the chattering punditry
in Washington.
By John Daly
Women like Mansour give him another title: emancipator of women
is appended below.
Now we've just heard Mrs. Clinton spewing forth Orwellian speaks
everywhere. For example, according to this blurb from FT:
But Mrs. Clinton told the African diplomats that it was time to put
that behind them, at a meeting of the 53-member African Union in
the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, as the first US secretary of
state to address the group. Over many years Mr. Gaddafi has played
a major role in providing financial support for many African
nations and institutions, including the African Union," she said.
"It has become clear by the day that he has lost his legitimacy to
rule and that we are long past the day when he can remain in power."
She continued,
"to act by telling the Libyan leader to leave the country, expelling
Libyan diplomats still loyal to Mr. Gaddafi's regime, and working
with the opposition National Transitional Council. Your words and
actions could make the difference in bringing this situation to a
close and allowing the people of Libya to get to work rebuilding
their country,"
And she rounded it out saying,
"The world needs the African Union to lead."
1) So Mrs. Clinton told the African countries: "The world needs the
African Union to lead." but she also pressed them to follow the
directive of western powers. And she put the second conjunctive first
and then told them "to lead". You take our instructions and go out
there and do an act that would make you look like you're leading and
keep us out of the picture. Ha, ha! (She followed up with threats of
a Libya 2.0 or 3.0 or 4.0 later if you don't take the instructions
like God's sacred words. It was in the same FT article where she
spelled it all out!)
1a) While the African Union was leading the effort to negotiate a
ceasefire from all parties and start the walk down the negotiated
settlement path, western powers consistently ignored that leadership
effort. So we can see immediately that the call for the AU to lead is
a farce, a self-serving edict.
(With a legal dispute to be decided in a US court, criminal or civil,
but especially in the latter, the judge always invariably frowns on
Mrs. Clinton's kind of lone ranger, uncompromising attitude. Even if
you had murdered someone but would now show contrition, your lawyer
can cite a list of "mitigating circumstances" to help the judge bring
things to a close. That is the much more desirable outcome from the
court's point of view because the society, does not need more rancor
or damages. Likewise, the world would be a much better place if we
don't have Mrs. Clinton's kind of attitude around.)
1b) Of course, when Mrs. Clinton talks about the world, she means the
US government and its lackeys.
We know that the world consists of South Africa which was heading the
ceasefire and negotiation effort.
We know that the world also consists of many countries which have been
looking at the NATO barbarism with gritted teeth, knowing not what
they can do to stop killing and terrorizing the civilians NATO claims
to be protecting by running those 4,000 air strikes so far.
We know that the world also consists of the camels which were burnt to
death, maimed or frightened by NATO bombs and missiles that targeted
their reserve habitat.
We know that the world also consists of the FIDA president Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov who was brave enough to pay a visit to Tripoli and played
a game of chess with Qaddafi, risking the merciless NATO bombs.
1c) Of course, Mrs. Clinton is eager to avoid a political defeat by
having this barbarous campaign drawn out.
There is a blip in the UK Guardian:
Top story: Prolonged Libya effort unsustainable, warns Navy chief
13 Jun 2011: First Sea Lord says that if crisis continues beyond
90-day extension, government will have to examine priorities
So, Mrs. Clinton was actually eager to get the Africans to turn
against their brothers and sisters. But she made it sound like it was
their obligations. Of course, these African countries would be the
next and next targets for NATO bombs. But that has to be done
sequentially. So, by helping Mrs. Clinton, those countries are in
fact accelerating their schedule to get bombed into oblivion.
2) Mrs. Clinton's telling you that you need to forsake the friends who
have been standing by your side through the years, through thick and
thin, and have given you the much needed cash and moral support when
you were in dire financial straits, on the first day she walks into
your house and talk to you. (Mrs. Clinton was the first US foreign
secretary to address the AU, according to FT.)
3) she said: "It has become clear by the day that he has lost his
legitimacy to rule and that we are long past the day when he can
remain in power."
Of course, Mrs. Clinton, just yesterday, BBC News reported that
Nato now says it has carried out more than 4,000 air strikes on
Libyan government forces.
The air strikes obviously have caused people to flee, even your
so-called friends whom you have been feeding them with fatted calf
everynight and showering them with gold and silver pieces.
But it's disingenuous for you to say that Qaddafi's government has
lost legitimacy to govern "by the day" because of its own action.
Rather it's the rapist who is telling you that your wife has lost her
legitimacy to be your wife because she has been raped by another man,
namely you, day after day.
And ultimately it is not just Qaddafi's own fate that is holding back
NATO's wet dream from coming true, it is all his followers who have
not forgotten the "good old days", the GMMR or the Great Man-Made
River, the careers they have been able to establish because of the
government's progressive social policy.
Does Mrs. Clinton dare to address the women in Libya who were able to
have a great career and social status because of Qaddafi and call him
women's emancipator?
Can she convince them that bringing back the old monarchy to Libya and
make the country a part of the Cameron-Clinton United Kingdom is what
they want? Can they choose?
========
1) Excerpt from FT:
But Mrs. Clinton told the African diplomats that it was time to put
that behind them, at a meeting of the 53-member African Union in the
Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, as the first US secretary of state
to address the group. Over many years Mr. Gaddafi has played a major
role in providing financial support for many African nations and
institutions, including the African Union," she said. "It has become
clear by the day that he has lost his legitimacy to rule and that we
are long past the day when he can remain in power."
Mrs. Clinton urged them to act by telling the Libyan leader to leave
the country, expelling Libyan diplomats still loyal to Mr. Gaddafi's
regime, and working with the opposition National Transitional Council.
Your words and actions could make the difference in bringing this
situation to a close and allowing the people of Libya to get to work
rebuilding their country," Mrs. Clinton said. "The world needs the
African Union to lead."
. . .
Pulling no punches, Mrs. Clinton also warned African representatives
that the pro-democracy movement spreading through the Arab world could
soon extend to their countries unless they embarked on wide-ranging
political and economic reforms. "The status quo is broken and the old
ways of governing are no longer acceptable," Mrs. Clinton said.
She warned that many of the same conditions that caused the uprising
in the Arab world exist in African countries.
. . .
For the full story, please see
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/176ecd08-95fa-11e0-ba20-00144feab49a.html#axzz1PC2UuUzW
----------
2) From CBS News
Women like Mansour give him another title: emancipator of women.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/08/501364/main20070105.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
"Muammar Qaddafi is the one who opened the opportunities for us to
advance. That's why we cling to him, that's why we love him," says
Mansour. "He gave us complete freedom as a woman to enter the police
force, work as engineers, pilots, judges, lawyers. Anything."
Among Qaddafi's most ardent loyalists are a core of Libyan women who
have risen to high-profile roles in the police, military and
government and credit Qaddafi with giving them greater career avenues
than many of their sisters elsewhere in the Arab world. They consider
any threat to his regime a threat to their own advancement.
Even as Qaddafi's regime has cracked down brutally on dissent, locking
up and torturing opponents, it has also long touted its policies of
breaking cultural taboos concerning women's work and status in the
deeply conservative nation. The most well known example is Qaddafi's
personal guard of female bodyguards, but women have also been elevated
to prominent positions in government ministries.
Qaddafi's policy was in part aimed at weakening traditional tribal and
religious powers so he could impose his own vision of society.
It was only somewhat successful. Women who have gained prominence are
a small minority in an otherwise strongly male-dominated Libya, far
from the popular regime myth of a society filled with revolutionary
fighting women. And, just as for men, advancement depends on total
adherence to Qaddafi's authoritarian rule.
Women were also at the forefront of the protests that launched the
anti-Qaddafi uprising in mid-February, demanding democracy for the and
country hope they better rights for themselves. Still, while they have
no rosy memories of their lives under Qaddafi, they say their struggle
for equality is ongoing. Women activists were dismayed when the rebels
appointed only one woman to the interim administration in their de
facto capital of Benghazi.
"We are very disappointed," said Enas Al-Dursy, a 23-year-old
activist. "We feel like we are being marginalized."
For policewoman Mansour, there is nothing a woman like herself can't
aspire to in Qaddafi's Libya.
"I've never felt that I was treated differently because I'm a
woman. Even when I'm picking up drunkards off the street, nobody ever
said: 'She can't do that, she's a woman,"' said Mansour, who is
charged with cracking down on drug addicts, drunkards and beggars in
the slums of Tripoli.
A woman hugged her as she patrolled the garbage-strewn alleyways of
the Hara Kabira slum in Tripoli's walled city old once the pretty,
brightly painted Jewish quarter, now a crumbling mess of homes filled
with impoverished Libyans and African migrant workers. A little girl
running by slapped Mansour's hand in greeting.
One man with a tattoo on his arm paused at the top of an alley.
"Troublemaker," Mansour said with a wink. He scurried away.
Throughout Qaddafi's Tripoli stronghold, soldiers female a rare sight
in most countries Arab patrol roadside checkpoints in khaki uniforms
and Muslim headscarves. They keep order at gas stations made rowdy by
severe shortages that cause days-long lines. Police women sporting
large sunglasses cruise by in cars.
Senior government officials in coifed hairstyles lunch at an upscale
hotel where reporters stay in Tripoli. Qaddafi's daughter, Aisha, is a
prominent lawyer.
Women are also involved in Qaddafi's mechanism of oppression against
his opponents. Women run their own interrogation center for suspected
female anti-Qaddafi activists, according to a resident who said she
was hauled into one in May.
One of the most hated figures among the Libyan rebels seeking to
overthrow Qaddafi is woman a the former Qaddafi-appointed mayor of
Benghazi, Huda Ben Amer, known as "the executioner." During a public
hanging of a regime opponent in 1984, Ben Amer pulled down on the
man's legs so he would die faster.
Early on, Qaddafi created a cadre of bodyguards female glamorously
made-up women in form-fitting military-style uniforms and high-heeled
boots known as "amazons." He pointed to them as evidence of his
commitment to promoting nontraditional roles for women.
Other hard-core supporters are known as Qaddafi's "nuns of the
revolution," mostly women who came of age during the early years of
Qaddafi's rule in the 1970s and devote themselves to his regime. Now
in their 50s and 60s, many run ministerial departments.
(CBS/AP)
About 27 percent of Libya's labor force were women 2006 in low by
world standards but high for the Arab world. Only Lebanon, Syria and
Tunisia had higher rates, and the increase in women's participation in
Libya over the past 20 years was by far the highest in the region,
rising from 14 percent in 1986, according to the U.N.'s International
Labor Organization.
"In part to boost its legitimacy, the regime promoted a more open,
expansive, and inclusive role for women," said Ronald Bruce St John,
who has written five books on Qaddafi's Libya.
Lisa Anderson, a Libya expert and president of the American University
in Cairo, agreed, noting that when Qaddafi seized power in 1969, few
women went to university. Now more than half of Libya's university
students are women.
"One of the career paths that opened up for women in the past 30 years
is the police, but general access to employment, education and the
sphere public as much as there is one women for dramatically increased
under Qaddafi," she said.
In her studio in an upscale Tripoli suburb, 25-year-old Radia al-Bodi,
a television anchor for Libyan state TV, said women like herself would
fight to defend Qaddafi's regime because of the promise it offered
women.
"This is all because of Father Moammar," said Ibtisam Saadeddin, a
35-year-old soldier who wore gold-edged pins of a smiling Qaddafi on
her khaki uniform and headscarf. "He is our air and sustenance. We
can't be without him."
It's been reported that rebels were within 20 kilometers of Tripoli
engaging in a battle to capture Zawiya, west of Tripoli while
thousands of Qaddafi loyalists were fighting the rebels west of
Misurata to the east of the capital city. The strategy of the
western-backed rebels is clearly that of applying the vise on the
current government. With NATO's infinite supply of mega-sized bombs
and missiles against them like cancer attacks a living organism, there
is no question government forces are growing weaker and weaker and
weaker.
Maybe Qaddafi's days are numbered. In view of the overwhelming forces
of NATO, the prediction is likely to come true.
Yet, there is the right and the wrong in this. Not everyone in the
world is rushing to embrace the wrong despite the overwhelming forces
which is backing the wrong.
So, the Libyan government has every reason to showcase the visit of
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov who also played a game of chess with
Qaddafi and relayed the latter's vow not to leave Libya, the country
of his birth and the country to which he helped realizing the Great
Man Made River project.
And just as clear to anyone who can think independently and for him-
and herself is that despite all the fighting near the Libyan capital
that went on during the Russian's visit, Qaddafi wasn't directing any
battle in the field, much less being at the "command/control center to
kill the civilian population" as NATO has repeatedly insisted like a
programmed automaton.
And just as clear is that Qaddafi was telling the truth when he
insisted that he held no government offices and had no positions to
resign from. He couldn't have been able to play chess if ferocious
battles were going on near the capital at the time. We recall that
Dick Cheney who acted as the commander-in-chief in GW Bush's absence
was directing military operations from a war room in the White House
basement during the height of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. (In fact,
transportation secretary Norman Manetta had a visit with Dick Cheney
there and recalled an exchange between the VP and an underling asking
whether a certain order still stood which Manetta thought was related
to the NORAD stand-down. In any case, you don't play chess with a
foreign guest while you're busy commanding a couple of wars in the
battlefield at the same time. You just don't! Period.
I'm sure that David Cameron et al. who are still busy yelling "we must
get rid of Qaddafi" and "time is not on Qaddafi's side" know that
Qaddafi is not physically at the command/control center in the war
NATO wages against Libya. But David Cameron et al. want Qaddafi dead
all the same because he is the unifying force of those who have a
stake in the current Libyan government.
If you see other YouTube clips, you'll see that the people who are
waving the green flags of the government wouldn't be able to find
another name to chant about in conjunction with their support for the
current government if Qaddafi were suddenly killed. And that's why
Qaddafi was right in saying that he "lived in the hearts of millions"
of his followers and that it wouldn't make sense for him to leave
Libya.
This is very much like Mahamat Gandhi for the Indians who were
struggling to free themselves from the colonial rule of Britain.
Likewise, Jesus told his disciples somewhat cryptically that when the
shepherd was gone, the sheep would scatter.
Such is the paradox of a leadership without the requisite weapon for
self-defense.
In this light, we can see that just as Jesus was crucified because the
real powers-that-be wanted him dead (to save themselves), Qaddafi will
likely be killed, along with a lot of innocent Libyans. But the truth
will remain and what is right will remain with the truth.
Susan Raven from her Rome in Africa (1993):
Much of the history of north-west Africa is the history of
foreigners. Its civilizations have been imposed on its indigenous
people largely from outside, and it was usually conquered from
outside. Yet they have endured with considerable vigor.
But the most important fact is that we, meaning the people who only
hear about Libya, whether it is about Lockerbie or about the tall
tales of the rebels in the latest fight, know little about Libya.
Most of us have simply been spoon-fed by the media about Qaddafi's
"crimes", when after four decades of Qaddafi's "rule", we still
haven't seen a case proving his "crimes".
I can wager that none in these newsgroups who are talking Qaddafi
murdering his people have seen a single such act. Of course, there
were executions of people in any country where taking a human life is
legalized. Under George W Bush's leadership, Texas murdered scores,
if not more, of people, many of whom could have been wrongfully
accused. And under Bill Clinton's presidency, tens of Branch
Davidians, most of them were women and children, were burned to death
by the firebombs of government troops.
But the blood lust or greed in these people prevent them from waiting
for a trial, or giving the due process a chance, before we hang the
man.
They insisted that we had to kill the man first "before he killed us",
in contradiction to facts and all the revenues available.
Of course, these same people and their predecessors also insisted that
the German Kaiser's soldiers were killing babies, Saddam's soldiers
were snatching babies from their incubators in Kuwaiti hospitals, and
Qaddafi was "massacring" or "doing awful things to" his own people.
But just as the accusations against the German Kaiser and Iraq's
Saddam Hussein were massive hysteria designed to inflame the people's
emotion and were fabricated to secure the people's support for the
wars the former powers-that-be wanted to wage, the accusations against
Qaddafi remain just accusations.
They're not only unproven, they don't even sound plausible. For
example the Viagra charge.
The fact that so many Libyan women have chosen to remain the most
loyal supporters of Qaddafi's government and find their future and
their careers inextricably tied to Qaddafi's fate is a testimony to
Qaddafi's popularity due to the progressive policy he initiated for
the Libyan society: Libyan women's high level of education and their
career opportunities compared to the rest of the Arab world; the Great
Man Made River (GMMR) project; the 55,000 dollar interest-free loan
for any couple getting married for the first time, etc, etc - facts
which cannot be erased overnight, even with the barbarous explosions
that are ready to kill you and your children next time.
On top of the actual facts which are on the Libyan ground, we happen
to also know that the media and the governments in the west have the
propensity of manipulating the data to suit their war-oriented foreign
policy.
And the people in America are also hopelessly easy to be manipulated
when it comes to helping the warmongers to realize their greed or
blood lust.
This is why people who have a sense of self-respect and are thinking
individuals are unwilling to just take whatever misinformation the war
propaganda machines and their field operatives try to feed them. They
are saying: why don't you believe in the due process? Why do you want
to stoop so low to spill innocent people's blood, even if this Qaddafi
guy you accuse of are as bad as you claim? And when are you going to
stop killing the civilians in order to "protect" them?
I don't know whether the self-made millionaire Kirsan Ilyumzhinov who
was in Tripoli to play a game of chess with Qaddafi today had nothing
to live for to brave NATO's bombs to show solidarity with the Qaddafi
and his followers. Yet I know one thing: we have been fooled too many
times by the warmongers.
Let me tell you, warmongers carry a much greater burden of proof then
the people who are opposed to the wars because their action means the
obliteration of lives, from human to the animals which happened to be
there. In Qaddafi's case, the camels were unfortunately also victims
to NATO's bombs and missiles just as the residents of Libya. Those
camels were fortunate enough to be for a long time in the paradise -
in a Wildlife Reserves Libya has set up and maintained and to which
Qaddafi often took his visitors to show case Libya's own "Sierra Club"
credentials.
But the warmongers and their sycophants never are men or women enough
to shoulder their burden before they start shooting and calling for
someone's head. They just want to degrade the righteousness and the
general quality of the anti-war discussion. These warmongers and
their sycophants are of course not interested in any discussion except
to support the killing until the goal of seizing other people's assets
is finally accomplished.
We've been fooled too many times about how urgent we must kill in
order to protect ourselves or others. But, even as the case of the
Iraq war has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt to be a war
waged on false pretenses, the war's destruction and its human costs
have yet to be addressed. After more than eight years of rape and
plunder of the land, our government still "asked" and "was granted" an
extension of stay of our tens of thousands of troops in the devastated
country, after such an all-around unpopular and unjustified war.
So, after our government has been proven to use false pretenses to go
to wars which have caused so much destruction and so much suffering to
others, what is the reason for us to believe it again so as to give it
the comfort to wage still another war, to wreak more destruction and
to cause still more suffering to others, when it's still in fact busy
fighting to pacify and killing the indigenous people who dare to
resist its brutal treatment of them and their countries?
========
1) Women like Mansour give him another title: emancipator of women.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/08/501364/main20070105.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
"Muammar Qaddafi is the one who opened the opportunities for us to
advance. That's why we cling to him, that's why we love him," says
Mansour. "He gave us complete freedom as a woman to enter the police
force, work as engineers, pilots, judges, lawyers. Anything."
Among Qaddafi's most ardent loyalists are a core of Libyan women who
have risen to high-profile roles in the police, military and
government and credit Qaddafi with giving them greater career avenues
than many of their sisters elsewhere in the Arab world. They consider
any threat to his regime a threat to their own advancement.
Even as Qaddafi's regime has cracked down brutally on dissent, locking
up and torturing opponents, it has also long touted its policies of
breaking cultural taboos concerning women's work and status in the
deeply conservative nation. The most well known example is Qaddafi's
personal guard of female bodyguards, but women have also been elevated
to prominent positions in government ministries.
Qaddafi's policy was in part aimed at weakening traditional tribal and
religious powers so he could impose his own vision of society.
It was only somewhat successful. Women who have gained prominence are
a small minority in an otherwise strongly male-dominated Libya, far
from the popular regime myth of a society filled with revolutionary
fighting women. And, just as for men, advancement depends on total
adherence to Qaddafi's authoritarian rule.
Women were also at the forefront of the protests that launched the
anti-Qaddafi uprising in mid-February, demanding democracy for the and
country hope they better rights for themselves. Still, while they have
no rosy memories of their lives under Qaddafi, they say their struggle
for equality is ongoing. Women activists were dismayed when the rebels
appointed only one woman to the interim administration in their de
facto capital of Benghazi.
"We are very disappointed," said Enas Al-Dursy, a 23-year-old
activist. "We feel like we are being marginalized."
For policewoman Mansour, there is nothing a woman like herself can't
aspire to in Qaddafi's Libya.
"I've never felt that I was treated differently because I'm a
woman. Even when I'm picking up drunkards off the street, nobody ever
said: 'She can't do that, she's a woman,"' said Mansour, who is
charged with cracking down on drug addicts, drunkards and beggars in
the slums of Tripoli.
A woman hugged her as she patrolled the garbage-strewn alleyways of
the Hara Kabira slum in Tripoli's walled city old once the pretty,
brightly painted Jewish quarter, now a crumbling mess of homes filled
with impoverished Libyans and African migrant workers. A little girl
running by slapped Mansour's hand in greeting.
One man with a tattoo on his arm paused at the top of an alley.
"Troublemaker," Mansour said with a wink. He scurried away.
Throughout Qaddafi's Tripoli stronghold, soldiers female a rare sight
in most countries Arab patrol roadside checkpoints in khaki uniforms
and Muslim headscarves. They keep order at gas stations made rowdy by
severe shortages that cause days-long lines. Police women sporting
large sunglasses cruise by in cars.
Senior government officials in coifed hairstyles lunch at an upscale
hotel where reporters stay in Tripoli. Qaddafi's daughter, Aisha, is a
prominent lawyer.
Women are also involved in Qaddafi's mechanism of oppression against
his opponents. Women run their own interrogation center for suspected
female anti-Qaddafi activists, according to a resident who said she
was hauled into one in May.
One of the most hated figures among the Libyan rebels seeking to
overthrow Qaddafi is woman a the former Qaddafi-appointed mayor of
Benghazi, Huda Ben Amer, known as "the executioner." During a public
hanging of a regime opponent in 1984, Ben Amer pulled down on the
man's legs so he would die faster.
Early on, Qaddafi created a cadre of bodyguards female glamorously
made-up women in form-fitting military-style uniforms and high-heeled
boots known as "amazons." He pointed to them as evidence of his
commitment to promoting nontraditional roles for women.
Other hard-core supporters are known as Qaddafi's "nuns of the
revolution," mostly women who came of age during the early years of
Qaddafi's rule in the 1970s and devote themselves to his regime. Now
in their 50s and 60s, many run ministerial departments.
(CBS/AP)
About 27 percent of Libya's labor force were women 2006 in low by
world standards but high for the Arab world. Only Lebanon, Syria and
Tunisia had higher rates, and the increase in women's participation in
Libya over the past 20 years was by far the highest in the region,
rising from 14 percent in 1986, according to the U.N.'s International
Labor Organization.
"In part to boost its legitimacy, the regime promoted a more open,
expansive, and inclusive role for women," said Ronald Bruce St John,
who has written five books on Qaddafi's Libya.
Lisa Anderson, a Libya expert and president of the American University
in Cairo, agreed, noting that when Qaddafi seized power in 1969, few
women went to university. Now more than half of Libya's university
students are women.
"One of the career paths that opened up for women in the past 30 years
is the police, but general access to employment, education and the
sphere public as much as there is one women for dramatically increased
under Qaddafi," she said.
In her studio in an upscale Tripoli suburb, 25-year-old Radia al-Bodi,
a television anchor for Libyan state TV, said women like herself would
fight to defend Qaddafi's regime because of the promise it offered
women.
"This is all because of Father Moammar," said Ibtisam Saadeddin, a
35-year-old soldier who wore gold-edged pins of a smiling Qaddafi on
her khaki uniform and headscarf. "He is our air and sustenance. We
can't be without him."
2) Reuters wrap-up for 12/06/2011 in Libya
. . .
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, in an interview with Reuters,
said there was a growing confidence that Gaddafi's "days are
numbered".
Libyan state television broadcast images of Gaddafi -- who has been
keeping a low profile since NATO began its air strikes -- meeting
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the international chess federation.
Ilyumzhinov, quoted by Russian news agencies, said he played a game of
chess in Tripoli with the Libyan leader, who told him he had no
intention of leaving his country.
. . .
NATO member states are keen for a quick resolution in Libya because
their voters do not want another long, costly conflict along the lines
of those in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Mussab
Al-Khairall in Tripoli, Matt Robinson in Misrata, Kate Kelland in
London, Andrew Hammond in Dubai and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels;
Writing by Michael Roddy; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
---
3) Libyan TV broadcast Gaddafi meeting with FIDE President Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov, Tripoli Jun 12 2011
Uploaded by OnToDenver on Jun 12, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylpA3TSBtr8
Libyan state television on Sunday broadcast pictures of leader Muammar
Gaddafi meeting the president of the international chess federation
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
"The meeting lasted about two hours, we played chess with Gaddafi. The
meeting took place not in some bunker but in one of the administrative
buildings in the Libyan capital," - told Interfax he Ilyumzhinov, who
is on his trip to Africa.
"Gaddafi said he was not going to leave Libya, stressing that it is
his birthplace and the land where his children and grandchildren ware
killed. He also said that he does not know what position he should
leave." I'm not premier, not the president and not a king. I do not
occupy any post in Libya, and so I have no position that I must leave,
"- said Ilyumzhinov.
"I expressed my condolences to Gaddafi from his family in connection
with the death of his 20-year-old son, two grandchildren and
four-granddaughter. And then they showed me a house, which hit five
bombs and where relatives were killed Kaddafi," - said the president
of FIDE.
Ilyumzhinov also met with Foreign Ministers of Libya and the Ministry
of Education, as well as his eldest son Muhammad al-Gaddafi, who heads
the National Olympic Committee.
"We were also played chess and played the Sicilian Defense," - said
Ilyumzhinov.
---
4) Kalmykia (from Wiki)
The Republic of Kalmykia is a federal subject of Russia (a republic).
It is the only state in Europe where the dominant religion is
Buddhism.[11] It has also become well-known as an international chess
Mecca because its former President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is the head of
the International Chess Federation (FIDE) [until October 2010].
[Kalmykia is by the Caspian Sea, traversed by the northeasterly line
of equal latitude and longitude. And the famous Volga River meets the
Caspian Sea through the southeast of the country.]
Kalmykia's natural resources include coal, oil, and natural gas.
The republic's wildlife includes the famous saga antelope, whose
habitat is protected in Cherny Zemli Nature Reserve.
Population: 292,410 (2002)
Average life expectancy:
* Male: 59.6 years (exceeding Russia's average of 59.0 years)
* Female: 72.4 years (exceeding Russia's average of 72.2 years)
* Ethnic groups
According to the 2002 Census, Kalmyks make up 53.3% of the republic's
population. Other groups include Russians (33.6%), Dargins (7,295, or
2.5%), Chechens (5,979, or 2.0%), Kazakhs (5,011, or 1.7%), Turks
(3,124, or 1.1%), Ukrainians (2,505, or 0.9%), Avars (2,305, or 0.8%),
ethnic Germans (1,643, or 0.6%), and a host of smaller groups, each
accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population.
The ancestors of the Kalmyks, the Oirats, migrated from the steppes of
southern Siberia on the banks of the Irtysh River to the Lower Volga
region. Various reasons have been given for the move, but the
generally accepted answer is that the Kalmyks sought abundant pastures
for their herds. Another motivation may have been to escape the
growing dominance of the neighboring Dzungar Mongol tribe.
---
5) Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (from Wiki)
On April 12, 1993, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was elected as the first
president of the Republic of Kalmykia, and has been running the state
since then. This has allowed him to promote Kalmyk culture and music,
but more importantly, chess which has been his real passion. Soon
after his election, Ilyumzhinov introduced presidential rule,
concentrating power in his own hands. He called early elections on
October 15, 1995 and was unopposed re-electedthis time for a 7-year
term. He won re-election in 2002.
. . .
Ilyumzhinov has striven to become an "Asian values" authoritarian like
his Singaporean, Korean, and Chinese role models (even though his
republic is in the southern European portion of Russia). He has spent
millions of dollars on chess and supporting religion, building a
Catholic church at the instigation of the Pope John Paul II.[5][9] He
has also built a mosque, a synagogue, 22 Orthodox churches, and 30
Buddhist temples. Chess was made a compulsory subject in the first
three years of school elementarythe only place in the world where this
is the case. The region now has numerous champions.
The Dalai Lama has visited Kirsan Ilyumzhinov on many occasions and
has blessed a number of the temples in Elista, as well as Kalmyk
Buddhist temples overseas.
Ilyumzhinov denies persistent accusations of diverting the republic's
resources for his own use (in fact he does not draw a salary as
president) and of suppressing media freedom.
Visiting journalists and tourists who have come to Kalmykia have
spoken of the great reception they have received, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
often meeting them in person. In 2004, police dispersed a small number
of demonstrators who demanded his resignation. When Australian
journalist Eric Campbell interviewed people in Elista about
Ilyumzhinov, he found that many were happy that he had managed to gain
widespread attention for Kalmykia through chess, although one was
slightly critical of the money invested in chess projects.
Ilyumzhinov is also famous for his nature-conservative activities. He
created the only reserve in Europe where it is possible to see relict
saga antelope. The year of 2010 in Kalmykia announced by Ilyumzhinov
as Year of Saiga.
---
6) The Saiga Antelope (from Wiki)
The saiga (Saiga tatarica) is a Critically Endangered antelope which
originally inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe zone from the
foothills of the Carpathians and Caucasus into Dzungaria and
Mongolia. They also lived in North America during the
Pleistocene. Today the nominate subspecies (Saiga tatarica tatarica)
is only found in one location in Russia (steppes of the North-West
Precaspian region) and three areas in Kazakhstan (the Ural, Ustiurt
and Betpak-dala populations). A proportion of the Ustiurt population
migrates south to Uzbekistan and occasionally Turkmenistan in
winter. It is extinct in China and southwestern Mongolia. The
Mongolian subspecies (Saiga tatarica mongolica) is found only in
western Mongolia.
is appended below.
Now we've just heard Mrs. Clinton spewing forth Orwellian speaks
everywhere. For example, according to this blurb from FT:
But Mrs. Clinton told the African diplomats that it was time to put
that behind them, at a meeting of the 53-member African Union in
the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, as the first US secretary of
state to address the group. Over many years Mr. Gaddafi has played
a major role in providing financial support for many African
nations and institutions, including the African Union," she said.
"It has become clear by the day that he has lost his legitimacy to
rule and that we are long past the day when he can remain in power."
She continued,
"to act by telling the Libyan leader to leave the country, expelling
Libyan diplomats still loyal to Mr. Gaddafi's regime, and working
with the opposition National Transitional Council. Your words and
actions could make the difference in bringing this situation to a
close and allowing the people of Libya to get to work rebuilding
their country,"
And she rounded it out saying,
"The world needs the African Union to lead."
1) So Mrs. Clinton told the African countries: "The world needs the
African Union to lead." but she also pressed them to follow the
directive of western powers. And she put the second conjunctive first
and then told them "to lead". You take our instructions and go out
there and do an act that would make you look like you're leading and
keep us out of the picture. Ha, ha! (She followed up with threats of
a Libya 2.0 or 3.0 or 4.0 later if you don't take the instructions
like God's sacred words. It was in the same FT article where she
spelled it all out!)
1a) While the African Union was leading the effort to negotiate a
ceasefire from all parties and start the walk down the negotiated
settlement path, western powers consistently ignored that leadership
effort. So we can see immediately that the call for the AU to lead is
a farce, a self-serving edict.
(With a legal dispute to be decided in a US court, criminal or civil,
but especially in the latter, the judge always invariably frowns on
Mrs. Clinton's kind of lone ranger, uncompromising attitude. Even if
you had murdered someone but would now show contrition, your lawyer
can cite a list of "mitigating circumstances" to help the judge bring
things to a close. That is the much more desirable outcome from the
court's point of view because the society, does not need more rancor
or damages. Likewise, the world would be a much better place if we
don't have Mrs. Clinton's kind of attitude around.)
1b) Of course, when Mrs. Clinton talks about the world, she means the
US government and its lackeys.
We know that the world consists of South Africa which was heading the
ceasefire and negotiation effort.
We know that the world also consists of many countries which have been
looking at the NATO barbarism with gritted teeth, knowing not what
they can do to stop killing and terrorizing the civilians NATO claims
to be protecting by running those 4,000 air strikes so far.
We know that the world also consists of the camels which were burnt to
death, maimed or frightened by NATO bombs and missiles that targeted
their reserve habitat.
We know that the world also consists of the FIDA president Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov who was brave enough to pay a visit to Tripoli and played
a game of chess with Qaddafi, risking the merciless NATO bombs.
1c) Of course, Mrs. Clinton is eager to avoid a political defeat by
having this barbarous campaign drawn out.
There is a blip in the UK Guardian:
Top story: Prolonged Libya effort unsustainable, warns Navy chief
13 Jun 2011: First Sea Lord says that if crisis continues beyond
90-day extension, government will have to examine priorities
So, Mrs. Clinton was actually eager to get the Africans to turn
against their brothers and sisters. But she made it sound like it was
their obligations. Of course, these African countries would be the
next and next targets for NATO bombs. But that has to be done
sequentially. So, by helping Mrs. Clinton, those countries are in
fact accelerating their schedule to get bombed into oblivion.
2) Mrs. Clinton's telling you that you need to forsake the friends who
have been standing by your side through the years, through thick and
thin, and have given you the much needed cash and moral support when
you were in dire financial straits, on the first day she walks into
your house and talk to you. (Mrs. Clinton was the first US foreign
secretary to address the AU, according to FT.)
3) she said: "It has become clear by the day that he has lost his
legitimacy to rule and that we are long past the day when he can
remain in power."
Of course, Mrs. Clinton, just yesterday, BBC News reported that
Nato now says it has carried out more than 4,000 air strikes on
Libyan government forces.
The air strikes obviously have caused people to flee, even your
so-called friends whom you have been feeding them with fatted calf
everynight and showering them with gold and silver pieces.
But it's disingenuous for you to say that Qaddafi's government has
lost legitimacy to govern "by the day" because of its own action.
Rather it's the rapist who is telling you that your wife has lost her
legitimacy to be your wife because she has been raped by another man,
namely you, day after day.
And ultimately it is not just Qaddafi's own fate that is holding back
NATO's wet dream from coming true, it is all his followers who have
not forgotten the "good old days", the GMMR or the Great Man-Made
River, the careers they have been able to establish because of the
government's progressive social policy.
Does Mrs. Clinton dare to address the women in Libya who were able to
have a great career and social status because of Qaddafi and call him
women's emancipator?
Can she convince them that bringing back the old monarchy to Libya and
make the country a part of the Cameron-Clinton United Kingdom is what
they want? Can they choose?
========
1) Excerpt from FT:
But Mrs. Clinton told the African diplomats that it was time to put
that behind them, at a meeting of the 53-member African Union in the
Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, as the first US secretary of state
to address the group. Over many years Mr. Gaddafi has played a major
role in providing financial support for many African nations and
institutions, including the African Union," she said. "It has become
clear by the day that he has lost his legitimacy to rule and that we
are long past the day when he can remain in power."
Mrs. Clinton urged them to act by telling the Libyan leader to leave
the country, expelling Libyan diplomats still loyal to Mr. Gaddafi's
regime, and working with the opposition National Transitional Council.
Your words and actions could make the difference in bringing this
situation to a close and allowing the people of Libya to get to work
rebuilding their country," Mrs. Clinton said. "The world needs the
African Union to lead."
. . .
Pulling no punches, Mrs. Clinton also warned African representatives
that the pro-democracy movement spreading through the Arab world could
soon extend to their countries unless they embarked on wide-ranging
political and economic reforms. "The status quo is broken and the old
ways of governing are no longer acceptable," Mrs. Clinton said.
She warned that many of the same conditions that caused the uprising
in the Arab world exist in African countries.
. . .
For the full story, please see
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/176ecd08-95fa-11e0-ba20-00144feab49a.html#axzz1PC2UuUzW
----------
2) From CBS News
Women like Mansour give him another title: emancipator of women.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/08/501364/main20070105.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
"Muammar Qaddafi is the one who opened the opportunities for us to
advance. That's why we cling to him, that's why we love him," says
Mansour. "He gave us complete freedom as a woman to enter the police
force, work as engineers, pilots, judges, lawyers. Anything."
Among Qaddafi's most ardent loyalists are a core of Libyan women who
have risen to high-profile roles in the police, military and
government and credit Qaddafi with giving them greater career avenues
than many of their sisters elsewhere in the Arab world. They consider
any threat to his regime a threat to their own advancement.
Even as Qaddafi's regime has cracked down brutally on dissent, locking
up and torturing opponents, it has also long touted its policies of
breaking cultural taboos concerning women's work and status in the
deeply conservative nation. The most well known example is Qaddafi's
personal guard of female bodyguards, but women have also been elevated
to prominent positions in government ministries.
Qaddafi's policy was in part aimed at weakening traditional tribal and
religious powers so he could impose his own vision of society.
It was only somewhat successful. Women who have gained prominence are
a small minority in an otherwise strongly male-dominated Libya, far
from the popular regime myth of a society filled with revolutionary
fighting women. And, just as for men, advancement depends on total
adherence to Qaddafi's authoritarian rule.
Women were also at the forefront of the protests that launched the
anti-Qaddafi uprising in mid-February, demanding democracy for the and
country hope they better rights for themselves. Still, while they have
no rosy memories of their lives under Qaddafi, they say their struggle
for equality is ongoing. Women activists were dismayed when the rebels
appointed only one woman to the interim administration in their de
facto capital of Benghazi.
"We are very disappointed," said Enas Al-Dursy, a 23-year-old
activist. "We feel like we are being marginalized."
For policewoman Mansour, there is nothing a woman like herself can't
aspire to in Qaddafi's Libya.
"I've never felt that I was treated differently because I'm a
woman. Even when I'm picking up drunkards off the street, nobody ever
said: 'She can't do that, she's a woman,"' said Mansour, who is
charged with cracking down on drug addicts, drunkards and beggars in
the slums of Tripoli.
A woman hugged her as she patrolled the garbage-strewn alleyways of
the Hara Kabira slum in Tripoli's walled city old once the pretty,
brightly painted Jewish quarter, now a crumbling mess of homes filled
with impoverished Libyans and African migrant workers. A little girl
running by slapped Mansour's hand in greeting.
One man with a tattoo on his arm paused at the top of an alley.
"Troublemaker," Mansour said with a wink. He scurried away.
Throughout Qaddafi's Tripoli stronghold, soldiers female a rare sight
in most countries Arab patrol roadside checkpoints in khaki uniforms
and Muslim headscarves. They keep order at gas stations made rowdy by
severe shortages that cause days-long lines. Police women sporting
large sunglasses cruise by in cars.
Senior government officials in coifed hairstyles lunch at an upscale
hotel where reporters stay in Tripoli. Qaddafi's daughter, Aisha, is a
prominent lawyer.
Women are also involved in Qaddafi's mechanism of oppression against
his opponents. Women run their own interrogation center for suspected
female anti-Qaddafi activists, according to a resident who said she
was hauled into one in May.
One of the most hated figures among the Libyan rebels seeking to
overthrow Qaddafi is woman a the former Qaddafi-appointed mayor of
Benghazi, Huda Ben Amer, known as "the executioner." During a public
hanging of a regime opponent in 1984, Ben Amer pulled down on the
man's legs so he would die faster.
Early on, Qaddafi created a cadre of bodyguards female glamorously
made-up women in form-fitting military-style uniforms and high-heeled
boots known as "amazons." He pointed to them as evidence of his
commitment to promoting nontraditional roles for women.
Other hard-core supporters are known as Qaddafi's "nuns of the
revolution," mostly women who came of age during the early years of
Qaddafi's rule in the 1970s and devote themselves to his regime. Now
in their 50s and 60s, many run ministerial departments.
(CBS/AP)
About 27 percent of Libya's labor force were women 2006 in low by
world standards but high for the Arab world. Only Lebanon, Syria and
Tunisia had higher rates, and the increase in women's participation in
Libya over the past 20 years was by far the highest in the region,
rising from 14 percent in 1986, according to the U.N.'s International
Labor Organization.
"In part to boost its legitimacy, the regime promoted a more open,
expansive, and inclusive role for women," said Ronald Bruce St John,
who has written five books on Qaddafi's Libya.
Lisa Anderson, a Libya expert and president of the American University
in Cairo, agreed, noting that when Qaddafi seized power in 1969, few
women went to university. Now more than half of Libya's university
students are women.
"One of the career paths that opened up for women in the past 30 years
is the police, but general access to employment, education and the
sphere public as much as there is one women for dramatically increased
under Qaddafi," she said.
In her studio in an upscale Tripoli suburb, 25-year-old Radia al-Bodi,
a television anchor for Libyan state TV, said women like herself would
fight to defend Qaddafi's regime because of the promise it offered
women.
"This is all because of Father Moammar," said Ibtisam Saadeddin, a
35-year-old soldier who wore gold-edged pins of a smiling Qaddafi on
her khaki uniform and headscarf. "He is our air and sustenance. We
can't be without him."
It's been reported that rebels were within 20 kilometers of Tripoli
engaging in a battle to capture Zawiya, west of Tripoli while
thousands of Qaddafi loyalists were fighting the rebels west of
Misurata to the east of the capital city. The strategy of the
western-backed rebels is clearly that of applying the vise on the
current government. With NATO's infinite supply of mega-sized bombs
and missiles against them like cancer attacks a living organism, there
is no question government forces are growing weaker and weaker and
weaker.
Maybe Qaddafi's days are numbered. In view of the overwhelming forces
of NATO, the prediction is likely to come true.
Yet, there is the right and the wrong in this. Not everyone in the
world is rushing to embrace the wrong despite the overwhelming forces
which is backing the wrong.
So, the Libyan government has every reason to showcase the visit of
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov who also played a game of chess with
Qaddafi and relayed the latter's vow not to leave Libya, the country
of his birth and the country to which he helped realizing the Great
Man Made River project.
And just as clear to anyone who can think independently and for him-
and herself is that despite all the fighting near the Libyan capital
that went on during the Russian's visit, Qaddafi wasn't directing any
battle in the field, much less being at the "command/control center to
kill the civilian population" as NATO has repeatedly insisted like a
programmed automaton.
And just as clear is that Qaddafi was telling the truth when he
insisted that he held no government offices and had no positions to
resign from. He couldn't have been able to play chess if ferocious
battles were going on near the capital at the time. We recall that
Dick Cheney who acted as the commander-in-chief in GW Bush's absence
was directing military operations from a war room in the White House
basement during the height of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. (In fact,
transportation secretary Norman Manetta had a visit with Dick Cheney
there and recalled an exchange between the VP and an underling asking
whether a certain order still stood which Manetta thought was related
to the NORAD stand-down. In any case, you don't play chess with a
foreign guest while you're busy commanding a couple of wars in the
battlefield at the same time. You just don't! Period.
I'm sure that David Cameron et al. who are still busy yelling "we must
get rid of Qaddafi" and "time is not on Qaddafi's side" know that
Qaddafi is not physically at the command/control center in the war
NATO wages against Libya. But David Cameron et al. want Qaddafi dead
all the same because he is the unifying force of those who have a
stake in the current Libyan government.
If you see other YouTube clips, you'll see that the people who are
waving the green flags of the government wouldn't be able to find
another name to chant about in conjunction with their support for the
current government if Qaddafi were suddenly killed. And that's why
Qaddafi was right in saying that he "lived in the hearts of millions"
of his followers and that it wouldn't make sense for him to leave
Libya.
This is very much like Mahamat Gandhi for the Indians who were
struggling to free themselves from the colonial rule of Britain.
Likewise, Jesus told his disciples somewhat cryptically that when the
shepherd was gone, the sheep would scatter.
Such is the paradox of a leadership without the requisite weapon for
self-defense.
In this light, we can see that just as Jesus was crucified because the
real powers-that-be wanted him dead (to save themselves), Qaddafi will
likely be killed, along with a lot of innocent Libyans. But the truth
will remain and what is right will remain with the truth.
Susan Raven from her Rome in Africa (1993):
Much of the history of north-west Africa is the history of
foreigners. Its civilizations have been imposed on its indigenous
people largely from outside, and it was usually conquered from
outside. Yet they have endured with considerable vigor.
But the most important fact is that we, meaning the people who only
hear about Libya, whether it is about Lockerbie or about the tall
tales of the rebels in the latest fight, know little about Libya.
Most of us have simply been spoon-fed by the media about Qaddafi's
"crimes", when after four decades of Qaddafi's "rule", we still
haven't seen a case proving his "crimes".
I can wager that none in these newsgroups who are talking Qaddafi
murdering his people have seen a single such act. Of course, there
were executions of people in any country where taking a human life is
legalized. Under George W Bush's leadership, Texas murdered scores,
if not more, of people, many of whom could have been wrongfully
accused. And under Bill Clinton's presidency, tens of Branch
Davidians, most of them were women and children, were burned to death
by the firebombs of government troops.
But the blood lust or greed in these people prevent them from waiting
for a trial, or giving the due process a chance, before we hang the
man.
They insisted that we had to kill the man first "before he killed us",
in contradiction to facts and all the revenues available.
Of course, these same people and their predecessors also insisted that
the German Kaiser's soldiers were killing babies, Saddam's soldiers
were snatching babies from their incubators in Kuwaiti hospitals, and
Qaddafi was "massacring" or "doing awful things to" his own people.
But just as the accusations against the German Kaiser and Iraq's
Saddam Hussein were massive hysteria designed to inflame the people's
emotion and were fabricated to secure the people's support for the
wars the former powers-that-be wanted to wage, the accusations against
Qaddafi remain just accusations.
They're not only unproven, they don't even sound plausible. For
example the Viagra charge.
The fact that so many Libyan women have chosen to remain the most
loyal supporters of Qaddafi's government and find their future and
their careers inextricably tied to Qaddafi's fate is a testimony to
Qaddafi's popularity due to the progressive policy he initiated for
the Libyan society: Libyan women's high level of education and their
career opportunities compared to the rest of the Arab world; the Great
Man Made River (GMMR) project; the 55,000 dollar interest-free loan
for any couple getting married for the first time, etc, etc - facts
which cannot be erased overnight, even with the barbarous explosions
that are ready to kill you and your children next time.
On top of the actual facts which are on the Libyan ground, we happen
to also know that the media and the governments in the west have the
propensity of manipulating the data to suit their war-oriented foreign
policy.
And the people in America are also hopelessly easy to be manipulated
when it comes to helping the warmongers to realize their greed or
blood lust.
This is why people who have a sense of self-respect and are thinking
individuals are unwilling to just take whatever misinformation the war
propaganda machines and their field operatives try to feed them. They
are saying: why don't you believe in the due process? Why do you want
to stoop so low to spill innocent people's blood, even if this Qaddafi
guy you accuse of are as bad as you claim? And when are you going to
stop killing the civilians in order to "protect" them?
I don't know whether the self-made millionaire Kirsan Ilyumzhinov who
was in Tripoli to play a game of chess with Qaddafi today had nothing
to live for to brave NATO's bombs to show solidarity with the Qaddafi
and his followers. Yet I know one thing: we have been fooled too many
times by the warmongers.
Let me tell you, warmongers carry a much greater burden of proof then
the people who are opposed to the wars because their action means the
obliteration of lives, from human to the animals which happened to be
there. In Qaddafi's case, the camels were unfortunately also victims
to NATO's bombs and missiles just as the residents of Libya. Those
camels were fortunate enough to be for a long time in the paradise -
in a Wildlife Reserves Libya has set up and maintained and to which
Qaddafi often took his visitors to show case Libya's own "Sierra Club"
credentials.
But the warmongers and their sycophants never are men or women enough
to shoulder their burden before they start shooting and calling for
someone's head. They just want to degrade the righteousness and the
general quality of the anti-war discussion. These warmongers and
their sycophants are of course not interested in any discussion except
to support the killing until the goal of seizing other people's assets
is finally accomplished.
We've been fooled too many times about how urgent we must kill in
order to protect ourselves or others. But, even as the case of the
Iraq war has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt to be a war
waged on false pretenses, the war's destruction and its human costs
have yet to be addressed. After more than eight years of rape and
plunder of the land, our government still "asked" and "was granted" an
extension of stay of our tens of thousands of troops in the devastated
country, after such an all-around unpopular and unjustified war.
So, after our government has been proven to use false pretenses to go
to wars which have caused so much destruction and so much suffering to
others, what is the reason for us to believe it again so as to give it
the comfort to wage still another war, to wreak more destruction and
to cause still more suffering to others, when it's still in fact busy
fighting to pacify and killing the indigenous people who dare to
resist its brutal treatment of them and their countries?
========
1) Women like Mansour give him another title: emancipator of women.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/08/501364/main20070105.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
"Muammar Qaddafi is the one who opened the opportunities for us to
advance. That's why we cling to him, that's why we love him," says
Mansour. "He gave us complete freedom as a woman to enter the police
force, work as engineers, pilots, judges, lawyers. Anything."
Among Qaddafi's most ardent loyalists are a core of Libyan women who
have risen to high-profile roles in the police, military and
government and credit Qaddafi with giving them greater career avenues
than many of their sisters elsewhere in the Arab world. They consider
any threat to his regime a threat to their own advancement.
Even as Qaddafi's regime has cracked down brutally on dissent, locking
up and torturing opponents, it has also long touted its policies of
breaking cultural taboos concerning women's work and status in the
deeply conservative nation. The most well known example is Qaddafi's
personal guard of female bodyguards, but women have also been elevated
to prominent positions in government ministries.
Qaddafi's policy was in part aimed at weakening traditional tribal and
religious powers so he could impose his own vision of society.
It was only somewhat successful. Women who have gained prominence are
a small minority in an otherwise strongly male-dominated Libya, far
from the popular regime myth of a society filled with revolutionary
fighting women. And, just as for men, advancement depends on total
adherence to Qaddafi's authoritarian rule.
Women were also at the forefront of the protests that launched the
anti-Qaddafi uprising in mid-February, demanding democracy for the and
country hope they better rights for themselves. Still, while they have
no rosy memories of their lives under Qaddafi, they say their struggle
for equality is ongoing. Women activists were dismayed when the rebels
appointed only one woman to the interim administration in their de
facto capital of Benghazi.
"We are very disappointed," said Enas Al-Dursy, a 23-year-old
activist. "We feel like we are being marginalized."
For policewoman Mansour, there is nothing a woman like herself can't
aspire to in Qaddafi's Libya.
"I've never felt that I was treated differently because I'm a
woman. Even when I'm picking up drunkards off the street, nobody ever
said: 'She can't do that, she's a woman,"' said Mansour, who is
charged with cracking down on drug addicts, drunkards and beggars in
the slums of Tripoli.
A woman hugged her as she patrolled the garbage-strewn alleyways of
the Hara Kabira slum in Tripoli's walled city old once the pretty,
brightly painted Jewish quarter, now a crumbling mess of homes filled
with impoverished Libyans and African migrant workers. A little girl
running by slapped Mansour's hand in greeting.
One man with a tattoo on his arm paused at the top of an alley.
"Troublemaker," Mansour said with a wink. He scurried away.
Throughout Qaddafi's Tripoli stronghold, soldiers female a rare sight
in most countries Arab patrol roadside checkpoints in khaki uniforms
and Muslim headscarves. They keep order at gas stations made rowdy by
severe shortages that cause days-long lines. Police women sporting
large sunglasses cruise by in cars.
Senior government officials in coifed hairstyles lunch at an upscale
hotel where reporters stay in Tripoli. Qaddafi's daughter, Aisha, is a
prominent lawyer.
Women are also involved in Qaddafi's mechanism of oppression against
his opponents. Women run their own interrogation center for suspected
female anti-Qaddafi activists, according to a resident who said she
was hauled into one in May.
One of the most hated figures among the Libyan rebels seeking to
overthrow Qaddafi is woman a the former Qaddafi-appointed mayor of
Benghazi, Huda Ben Amer, known as "the executioner." During a public
hanging of a regime opponent in 1984, Ben Amer pulled down on the
man's legs so he would die faster.
Early on, Qaddafi created a cadre of bodyguards female glamorously
made-up women in form-fitting military-style uniforms and high-heeled
boots known as "amazons." He pointed to them as evidence of his
commitment to promoting nontraditional roles for women.
Other hard-core supporters are known as Qaddafi's "nuns of the
revolution," mostly women who came of age during the early years of
Qaddafi's rule in the 1970s and devote themselves to his regime. Now
in their 50s and 60s, many run ministerial departments.
(CBS/AP)
About 27 percent of Libya's labor force were women 2006 in low by
world standards but high for the Arab world. Only Lebanon, Syria and
Tunisia had higher rates, and the increase in women's participation in
Libya over the past 20 years was by far the highest in the region,
rising from 14 percent in 1986, according to the U.N.'s International
Labor Organization.
"In part to boost its legitimacy, the regime promoted a more open,
expansive, and inclusive role for women," said Ronald Bruce St John,
who has written five books on Qaddafi's Libya.
Lisa Anderson, a Libya expert and president of the American University
in Cairo, agreed, noting that when Qaddafi seized power in 1969, few
women went to university. Now more than half of Libya's university
students are women.
"One of the career paths that opened up for women in the past 30 years
is the police, but general access to employment, education and the
sphere public as much as there is one women for dramatically increased
under Qaddafi," she said.
In her studio in an upscale Tripoli suburb, 25-year-old Radia al-Bodi,
a television anchor for Libyan state TV, said women like herself would
fight to defend Qaddafi's regime because of the promise it offered
women.
"This is all because of Father Moammar," said Ibtisam Saadeddin, a
35-year-old soldier who wore gold-edged pins of a smiling Qaddafi on
her khaki uniform and headscarf. "He is our air and sustenance. We
can't be without him."
2) Reuters wrap-up for 12/06/2011 in Libya
. . .
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, in an interview with Reuters,
said there was a growing confidence that Gaddafi's "days are
numbered".
Libyan state television broadcast images of Gaddafi -- who has been
keeping a low profile since NATO began its air strikes -- meeting
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the international chess federation.
Ilyumzhinov, quoted by Russian news agencies, said he played a game of
chess in Tripoli with the Libyan leader, who told him he had no
intention of leaving his country.
. . .
NATO member states are keen for a quick resolution in Libya because
their voters do not want another long, costly conflict along the lines
of those in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Mussab
Al-Khairall in Tripoli, Matt Robinson in Misrata, Kate Kelland in
London, Andrew Hammond in Dubai and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels;
Writing by Michael Roddy; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
---
3) Libyan TV broadcast Gaddafi meeting with FIDE President Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov, Tripoli Jun 12 2011
Uploaded by OnToDenver on Jun 12, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylpA3TSBtr8
Libyan state television on Sunday broadcast pictures of leader Muammar
Gaddafi meeting the president of the international chess federation
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
"The meeting lasted about two hours, we played chess with Gaddafi. The
meeting took place not in some bunker but in one of the administrative
buildings in the Libyan capital," - told Interfax he Ilyumzhinov, who
is on his trip to Africa.
"Gaddafi said he was not going to leave Libya, stressing that it is
his birthplace and the land where his children and grandchildren ware
killed. He also said that he does not know what position he should
leave." I'm not premier, not the president and not a king. I do not
occupy any post in Libya, and so I have no position that I must leave,
"- said Ilyumzhinov.
"I expressed my condolences to Gaddafi from his family in connection
with the death of his 20-year-old son, two grandchildren and
four-granddaughter. And then they showed me a house, which hit five
bombs and where relatives were killed Kaddafi," - said the president
of FIDE.
Ilyumzhinov also met with Foreign Ministers of Libya and the Ministry
of Education, as well as his eldest son Muhammad al-Gaddafi, who heads
the National Olympic Committee.
"We were also played chess and played the Sicilian Defense," - said
Ilyumzhinov.
---
4) Kalmykia (from Wiki)
The Republic of Kalmykia is a federal subject of Russia (a republic).
It is the only state in Europe where the dominant religion is
Buddhism.[11] It has also become well-known as an international chess
Mecca because its former President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is the head of
the International Chess Federation (FIDE) [until October 2010].
[Kalmykia is by the Caspian Sea, traversed by the northeasterly line
of equal latitude and longitude. And the famous Volga River meets the
Caspian Sea through the southeast of the country.]
Kalmykia's natural resources include coal, oil, and natural gas.
The republic's wildlife includes the famous saga antelope, whose
habitat is protected in Cherny Zemli Nature Reserve.
Population: 292,410 (2002)
Average life expectancy:
* Male: 59.6 years (exceeding Russia's average of 59.0 years)
* Female: 72.4 years (exceeding Russia's average of 72.2 years)
* Ethnic groups
According to the 2002 Census, Kalmyks make up 53.3% of the republic's
population. Other groups include Russians (33.6%), Dargins (7,295, or
2.5%), Chechens (5,979, or 2.0%), Kazakhs (5,011, or 1.7%), Turks
(3,124, or 1.1%), Ukrainians (2,505, or 0.9%), Avars (2,305, or 0.8%),
ethnic Germans (1,643, or 0.6%), and a host of smaller groups, each
accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population.
The ancestors of the Kalmyks, the Oirats, migrated from the steppes of
southern Siberia on the banks of the Irtysh River to the Lower Volga
region. Various reasons have been given for the move, but the
generally accepted answer is that the Kalmyks sought abundant pastures
for their herds. Another motivation may have been to escape the
growing dominance of the neighboring Dzungar Mongol tribe.
---
5) Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (from Wiki)
On April 12, 1993, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was elected as the first
president of the Republic of Kalmykia, and has been running the state
since then. This has allowed him to promote Kalmyk culture and music,
but more importantly, chess which has been his real passion. Soon
after his election, Ilyumzhinov introduced presidential rule,
concentrating power in his own hands. He called early elections on
October 15, 1995 and was unopposed re-electedthis time for a 7-year
term. He won re-election in 2002.
. . .
Ilyumzhinov has striven to become an "Asian values" authoritarian like
his Singaporean, Korean, and Chinese role models (even though his
republic is in the southern European portion of Russia). He has spent
millions of dollars on chess and supporting religion, building a
Catholic church at the instigation of the Pope John Paul II.[5][9] He
has also built a mosque, a synagogue, 22 Orthodox churches, and 30
Buddhist temples. Chess was made a compulsory subject in the first
three years of school elementarythe only place in the world where this
is the case. The region now has numerous champions.
The Dalai Lama has visited Kirsan Ilyumzhinov on many occasions and
has blessed a number of the temples in Elista, as well as Kalmyk
Buddhist temples overseas.
Ilyumzhinov denies persistent accusations of diverting the republic's
resources for his own use (in fact he does not draw a salary as
president) and of suppressing media freedom.
Visiting journalists and tourists who have come to Kalmykia have
spoken of the great reception they have received, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
often meeting them in person. In 2004, police dispersed a small number
of demonstrators who demanded his resignation. When Australian
journalist Eric Campbell interviewed people in Elista about
Ilyumzhinov, he found that many were happy that he had managed to gain
widespread attention for Kalmykia through chess, although one was
slightly critical of the money invested in chess projects.
Ilyumzhinov is also famous for his nature-conservative activities. He
created the only reserve in Europe where it is possible to see relict
saga antelope. The year of 2010 in Kalmykia announced by Ilyumzhinov
as Year of Saiga.
---
6) The Saiga Antelope (from Wiki)
The saiga (Saiga tatarica) is a Critically Endangered antelope which
originally inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe zone from the
foothills of the Carpathians and Caucasus into Dzungaria and
Mongolia. They also lived in North America during the
Pleistocene. Today the nominate subspecies (Saiga tatarica tatarica)
is only found in one location in Russia (steppes of the North-West
Precaspian region) and three areas in Kazakhstan (the Ural, Ustiurt
and Betpak-dala populations). A proportion of the Ustiurt population
migrates south to Uzbekistan and occasionally Turkmenistan in
winter. It is extinct in China and southwestern Mongolia. The
Mongolian subspecies (Saiga tatarica mongolica) is found only in
western Mongolia.
Posts
