Blogging the democratic revolution
I was just about to post a translation of an article from Al-Hayat on the Libyan opposition’s conference which closed yesterday, and then I noticed that one of my collaborateurs beat me to it with this article a few hours ago (linking to ABC’s website). But the Al-Hayat article takes a different angle on the issue from the ABC article, and so may be worth reading as well. I’ll just provide the link: Window on the Arab World, and More! I will note that whereas our own A.M. Mora y Leon makes the point that the Libyan opposition seemed to…
It sure looks like it: LONDON Jun 25, 2005 ???????? Mohammed al-Senousi calls himself a prince, although he has had no throne since his grandfather was ousted in a 1969 coup by Moammar Gadhafi. Al-Senousi, 42, joined hundreds of Libyan opposition members in London on Saturday to push for Gadhafi’s ouster their first conference in exile to tell the world, they said, there is an alternative to Gadhafi that is not Islamic extremism. This group, though seems pretty negative and thinks it more important to condemn the U.S. for recognizing Khaddafi for his improved record than just getting on with…
Larry Kudlow on Real Clear Politics has an important analysis on just how out out of whack oil prices are and why skyrocketing prices at the pump won’t last. If he is right, there will be political consequences for oil giants like Iran, Venezuela and others whose dictators have sealed their claims to power on a foundation of soaring oil. The market gets these bastards every time.
In my recent post, Has Qadafi Caught the Spirit?, I wrote that there were mixed signs that Libya’s ruler, Mu’amar Qadafi, was committed to ending his country’s economic and political isolation. In today’s Al-Quds Al-Arabi, it was reported that Libya plans to cut 46,000 government jobs over the next year. As the article notes, Libya has 862,000 government workers, a huge figure when you consider that the country’s entire population is only a little over five million. Libya’s Prime Minister, Muhammad Mu’atuq, stated that some of the positions were to be eliminated through privatization, pushing them into “other productive work.”…
Iraq, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon – each in its own way has taken steps lately, some large, some small, toward joining the free world. But now Libya? Today’s Al-Hayat reports that Libya’s ruler, Mu’amar Qadafi, seems to have charted a new path in some ways, and reframed old predilictions on other issues. Coming off Libya’s renunciation of nuclear weapons and semi-normalization with the U.S. and Britain, this is potentially encouraging. The article, Qadafi Declares Reforms and Ends Hostility Between ‘African Libya’ and Israel, made the following points: The main point which was new was that normalization with Israel seems…