i think whats happening in libya is awesome. not the fact that people are dying, people are killing each other and the whole place is going to hell, but that people are fighting for their freedom.
libya is the most censored country in the middle east and north africa. anyone found guilty of founding a political party is executed. political conversations - just talking about politics- with a foreigner is met with 3 years in prison. the libyan government - gaddaffi - puts bounties on its critics, such as $1 million US on the head of a libyan-british journalist. just to be clear, thats ASSASSINATION. just saying 'gadhaffi is a shithead' could get you killed.
gadhaffi has been in power since 1969, and since then the government has grown corrupt, with gadhaffi putting family and tribe members in office using government money on luxurious holiday homes and stuff. this is what the at first friendly protests were about; democratic elections, more freedom, less corruption
as the protests were dispersed in more and more violent ways, the protesters were, in my opinion, forced to become violent in turn to get their point across.
i mean, you can't talk to someone in english if the only language they know is italian. you have to talk to them in italian. speak the same language.
so the protest became bloody. and gadhaffi went all out trying to scare the populace out of rebellion, attempting to control the media, arresting, threatening and murdering journalists. he said in a televised broadcast many frankly insane things, such as
'those whop don't love me don't deserve to live.'
he ordered soldiers who refused to fire upon civilians to be executed, in some cases burnt alive. he sent snipers, artillery and gunships to fire upon demonstrators, and in some cases government personnel drove cars through waves of demonstrators with the purpose of running them over. i don't see any reason to say for sure that the thugs reported throughout the country attacking families in their homes with hammers and knives, or driving around randomly attacking civilians who look dissentful, but it definitely sounds like he had something to do with them.
he also paid people to protest the protesters, to support his government, apparently US$2000 per person. apparently, at one point there were about 50.
the rebels were gaining ground at a phenomenal rate, until they started to feel the blows of the air force, the gun ships, the bombing runs and the anti aircraft guns mowing them down.
official talks of a no fly zone began on 28 february, by the british prime minister, to the UN. the US secretary of defence was reluctant, because it would require military action. russia, china, india, romania and turkey were opposed to the idea. i don't know why, but i don't like them anymore. i never liked the US, so nothings changed there. france was in favour of it, as well as other countries. my respect for france has gone up considerably, and i hope to find which other countries were in favour of it. apparently kevin rudd was also in favour of a no fly zone, telling other countries that was australias official position. it wasn't. julia gillard was against it, probably because america was. kevin and julias role might have been reversed if kevin was prime minister, so he shouldn't really get any points, but i'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
on the 12th of march, the arab league asked the UN to impose a no fly zone over libya, and USA changed its mind. by the 17th, the no ly zone had been implemented, just as the rebellion had almost been entirely quashed.
that is of course an extremely watered down version of the events that led to the uprising, and the eventual no fly zone. for more information, go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Libyan_uprising i know, it wikipedia, but i stand by the facts you can get from it. there are people who literally have nothing better to do than correct it. if ou are in doubt about a page, look for references, and check out the discussion page.
http://roosterteeth.com/members/journal/?uid=81745&page=1 a blog by a guy in libya at the time. it used to have videos of people doing things to get back at gadhaffi, such as putting up posters, ripping posters down, a few with guns, but they were taken down before some of the aforementioned thugs could find them. i think hes in tunisia at the moment.
i guess what i'm trying to say with this, vey large post, that has probably been extremely boring
(if you made it this far, you deserve a medal, or at least some ice cream or a coke. go ahead, treat yourself)
and rant like, is that talking about an issue without actually doing anything about it is just like doing nothing. government officials can have as many meetings, Summits as they want, for global wariming, overpopulation, destruction of biodiversity etc, its not going to do anything.
um, heres a pic that i think is funny. hope you enjoy it.
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