Geography Archives: Africa

  • The Cash Option

    When I was growing up, several decades ago, middle-class society in India was always a little delayed in catching on to Western fashions whether in music or dress or in other aspects.  The past decades of globalisation seemed to have changed all that.  Modern communications technology has ensured that at least the upper income deciles […]

  • Aslı Ü. Bâli and Ziad Abu-Rish on International Intervention in Libya: A Documentary Remix

    In evaluating calls for intervention, the first question we might ask is how the Libyan case differs from recent events in Tunisia and Egypt, where intervention of this type was not invited.  In both of those countries authoritarian leaders who were erstwhile Western allies were pushed out when their military institutions refused to turn on […]

  • NATO’s inevitable war (Part II)

    When Gaddafi, aged just 28 and a colonel in the Libyan army, inspired by his Egyptian colleague Abdel Nasser, overthrew King Idris I in 1969, he implemented important revolutionary measures such as agrarian reform and the nationalization of oil. The growing income was dedicated to economic and social development, particularly educational and health services for […]

  • Venezuela’s Position on Libya

      Venezuela’s proposal to “set up a Goodwill International Commission for the search for peace in Libya” mentioned in the statement below has been accepted by the government of Libya but rejected by the opposition Libyan National Council, France, and the United States. — Ed. This statement records Venezuela’s position on United Nations General Assembly […]

  • NATO’s Inevitable War (Part I)

    In contrast with what is happening in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya occupies the first spot on the Human Development Index for Africa and it has the highest life expectancy on the continent. Education and health receive special attention from the State. The cultural level of its population is without a doubt the highest. Its problems […]

  • What Does the Libyan Opposition Want?

    As everyone knows, Muammar Gaddafi is an authoritarian dictator.  Authoritarian dictators are a dime a dozen in world history, though, so that is not what would distinguish him from the rest of his kind in history books.  What might make him stand out is this: in the twilight of his autocratic career, Gaddafi had become […]

  • Musa Sadr in Libya?

    In 2007, Gaddafi expressed ambitions to revive a Fatimid state to create the foundations for a renaissance in North Africa, in a bid to attract the attention of Shia scholars and leaders.  In vain — for he unapologetically also expressed shockingly undemocratic sentiments to the effect that elections and coups are no different!  His failed […]

  • We Condemn the Killing of Innocents, But We Cannot Accept Intervention in Libya

    Statement of Ambassador Rodolfo Reyes, Permanent Representative, before the Human Rights Council on the Situation in Libya, Geneva, 25 February 2011 Mr. President: Less than 72 hours ago, Cuba, through its Foreign Minister, communicated the following in Brussels: “We are following with utmost attention the current events in the internal affairs of Libya and their […]

  • Azmi Bishara on Libya

      On Al Jazeera, Dr. Azmi Bishara said that the violence unleashed in Libya against the Libyan people is beyond belief — indicative of desperation on the part of the political order — or rather “disorder” — in Libya, attempting to put a quick end to the uprising before escalation, as the situation is a […]

  • The Cynical Dance Macabre

    The policy of plunder imposed by the United States and their NATO allies in the Middle East has gone into a crisis. It has inevitably unraveled with the high cost of grain, the effects of which can be felt more forcefully in the Arab countries where, in spite of their huge resources of oil, the […]

  • The Plan is to Occupy Libya

    The nature of a capitalist system depends upon the institutional framework that supports and shapes it. Oil has become the principal wealth in the hands of the great Yankee transnationals; through this energy source they had an instrument that considerably expanded their political power in the world. It was their main weapon when they decided […]

  • Is There a Tahrir Square in Washington?

    Egyptians are celebrating the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, as I write.  Inshallah they will celebrate for a long time to come.  But leaderless crowds are not well placed to govern.  The triumph of the Egyptian people leaves the military in control.  Let us hope that Egyptians will find no reason to share the complaint of […]

  • Egypt’s Uprising: Not Just a Question of ‘Transition’

    The events of the last weeks are one of those historical moments where the lessons of many decades can be telescoped into a few brief moments and seemingly minor occurrences can take on immense significance.  The entry of millions of Egyptians onto the political stage has graphically illuminated the real processes that underlie the politics […]

  • Washington Can’t Block Aristide’s Return or Deny Haiti’s Sovereignty

    In 1915 the U.S. Marines invaded Haiti, occupying the country until 1934.  U.S. officials rewrote the Haitian constitution, and when the Haitian national assembly refused to ratify it, they dissolved the assembly.  They then held a “referendum” in which about 5 percent of the electorate voted and approved the new constitution — which conveniently changed […]

  • Tunisia’s Future: Opposition Says It Feels Threatened

      Moncef Marzouki: We got rid of the dictator, but the dictatorship is still there.  I mean the secret police is still there, the party of the dictatorship is still there. Nazanine Moshiri: . . . Rachid Ghannouchi was also exiled under Ben Ali.  With many members of his Islamic al-Nahda movement imprisoned or tortured, […]

  • Haiti Resists US Pressure, Announces Aristide Can Return

    It didn’t get much attention in the media, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did something quite surprising on Sunday.  After taping interviews on five big Sunday talk shows about Egypt, she then boarded a plane to Haiti.  Yes, Haiti.  The most impoverished country in the hemisphere, not exactly a “strategic ally” or a […]

  • Tomorrow’s Tunisia and Egypt: Reform or Revolution?

      Arab uprisings are taking place with the historical speed of light.  I began writing this piece following the downfall of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali and closed with the imminent downfall of the Egyptian one Hosni Mubarak.  The Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings are not, as some armchair pundits called the Tunisian one, Jasmine Revolutions.  They […]

  • Tunisia: Continue the Revolution to Achieve Its Objectives

      No to the Continuation of Tyranny, No to Foreign Intervention While the Tunisian masses have been continuing their sit-in in the Qasbah Government Square, and tens of thousands of Tunisians have been marching in Sfax, Tunis, Sidi Bouzid, Jendouba, Nabeul, and other parts of the country, to bring down the “national unity government,” a […]

  • Can the Obama Administration Learn Lessons from the Egyptian Uprising?

      Karl Marx, in his famous treatise on Louis Bonaparte’s coup d’état of 2 December 1851, pointing out its similarities to the coup undertaken by Napoleon Bonaparte a little over 50 years before, remarked that history has the tendency to repeat itself, ‘the first [time] as tragedy, then as farce’. As with so many other […]

  • Photographing the Tunisian Revolution

      Nasser Nouri is an Egyptian photographer.  The videos above were released by Ahram Online on 20, 23, and 24 January 2011.   var idcomments_acct = ‘c90a61ed51fd7b64001f1361a7a71191’; var idcomments_post_id; var idcomments_post_url; | Print