The Sprout

Update: The Jasmine Revolution

Posted by dirty from Cardiff - Published on 09/03/2011 at 16:19
2 comments » - Tagged as History, People, Topical

Tweet

Libya’s closing in. Well, most of the world is closing in as we see a rolling ball of both revolt and revolution, just like the one Marx spoke about. Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has been thrown out, the leader of Tunisia was thrown out and now those in Libya are demanding their fair share of the democracy pie.

Its leader, the notoriously bizarre and eccentric Colonel Gaddafi, hasn’t backed down like the other leaders have. Perhaps it’s owing to his time spent ruling Libya, far more time than Mubarak spent in Egypt. Perhaps it’s just because he’s a tiny bit crazy and wrapped in mystery. When the rebellion started one of his sons showed up on television claiming that the “rebellion” was started by drug addicts and the BBC. His Dad showed up on telly a few days later saying the same thing, and that drugs (specifically, acid) had been put into the water. It was during a recent brief cooling period Gaddafi made this comment, claiming this was proof that the drugs were wearing off.

Reports in the early days of this revolution claimed the Colonel fled to Venezuela when protests took the coastal capital city of Tripoli. Rumours of a speech had been circulating, fuelled by the BBC and Al Jazeera. It wasn’t a speech. It was Gaddafi, making a comment. “I’m in Libya, not in Venezuela”. I love Gaddafi, so short, so to the point. Less is more with Gaddafi, apart from with his plastic surgery. God help you if you watch the news as much as I do and unlike me, you own a HDTV.

Joking aside, apparently Gaddafi has been flying in mercenaries to the heavily populated city and taking out protestors. Yeah, mercenaries. The leader is sending men trained to kill to take out his own people. Air attacks, too. Some men high up in the air force defected to flee to Malta claiming political asylum as they claimed they couldn’t bomb their own people. In turn, like the first domino going down in a row, Libyan ambassadors all over the world stepped down. Resignations were happening left, right and centre. The air strikes continued, though. This led to boisterous talk from our beloved David Cameron; he’s sort of like the kid in the playground who just talks to threaten other people. The protests have been going on for a while now and there’s no evidence of this no-fly zone. People have been ushered and kept in secret underground jails and mutilated corpses are being unearthed. Apparently, so have mass graves. The army, in drastic opposition to the army of Egypt when she saw a similar situation, aren’t protecting the people. Anonymous calls from Libya from pleading citizens, too afraid to mention their name, give reports of random shootings into heavily populated groups of people.

Military intervention would be the worst possible thing here and why? Because this isn’t our place, just like Iraq wasn’t our place. The Middle East has seen enough Western intervention to the anger of the people of the area without us needing to exacerbate our already heavily damaged reputation.

Libya’s a huge producer of oil. In fact, that’s a main concern because the price of oil has already been increased. For the likes of you and me that means bus prices and train prices will go up. So will the food that we buy to eat. The price of oil has already soared to around $140 a barrel, meaning petrol’s going up to ?1.41 a litre. I can’t begin to imagine the damage that will inflict on our already stumbling economy. Alan Duncan, a former oil trader, suggested and hinted that it wouldn’t be inconceivable to see drivers to pay ?4 a litre. Four pound a litre would probably bring most of the UK to a standstill and present an energy crisis MPs are already trying to address, the biggest since the energy crisis we saw in the 1970s.

With all of this exaggerated talk of petrol possibly reaching ?4 a litre, climate of fear, panic buying etc. (which will eventually happen), it’s unlikely to see the West backing down and not intervening in Libya.

Info ~ World, Europe, UK & Wales ~ Politics ~ Rest of the World Politics

IMAGES: Free Revolution zone and Libya's new flag by khalid Albaih

Related Article: