a thread about the civil unrest in egypt (& elsewhere in 'the region' if necessary)

they turn the sirens off

Was in Peal Riv Mrt yesterday and in the basement there are repros of Mao posters for your kitch consumption enjoyment. O_o

"He may not be in Caracas, but he is almost certainly crackers"

Thanks, Jon Snow.

hehe

(Great work on the title of this thread, Max.)

Why is Qaddafi a colonel?

"A Revolutionary Command Council was formed to rule the country, with Gaddafi as chairman. He added the title of prime minister in 1970, but gave up this title in 1972. Unlike some other military revolutionaries, Gaddafi did not promote himself to the rank of general upon seizing power, but rather accepted a ceremonial promotion from captain to colonel and has remained at this rank since then. While at odds with Western military ranking for a colonel to rule a country and serve as Commander-in-Chief of its military, in Gaddafi's own words Libya's society is "ruled by the people", so he needs no more grandiose title or supreme military rank."

So modest!

what the

Mr. Rabie said the decision — and timing — had “nothing, nothing at all” to do with the popular revolts against longstanding autocrats now erupting across the Arab world, which have inspired relatively small but spirited protests in Sudan as well.

“In Egypt, there was a gap between the rulers and the people, but not in our country,” Mr. Rabie said. In Sudan, he said, the rulers “live with the people.”

oh right

Was just in meeting in which boss said, about all the Arab-world stuff, "If you understand the MENTALITY of this part of the world, you'll understand that it has NOTHING to do with DEMOCRACY. This is going to change a lot of things that no one is even THINKING about." Delivered with total confidence in her own words.

O_o

First of all, racist. Second, by "things no one is thinking about," she clearly and patently means Israel. Third, TONS OF PEOPLE ARE THINKING ABOUT ISRAEL, ACTUALLY, BUT NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU AND ALSO, SHUT UP.

yr boss is an idiot

(FYI)

Newsflash.

yup, gotta love all the people wringing their hands saying "are we sure they're READY for democracy?" cos they all look plenty ready to me.

goole, you have to understand it's NOT in their MENTALITY.

What was this meeting about? I hope you don't work for the CIA

sure they may be carrying signs demanding it and proclaiming forcefully their desire for it but if only you understood their mentality youd see it has nothing to do w/democracy and more to do w/things no one is even thinking abt like isreal which everyone is thinking abt and indeed even talking abt

Exactly.

u sure she meant israel? maybe she thinks it's about (i dunno) food prices or something reasonable?

oil probably

Also oil. But I'm sure about the Israel part. Also she said, "I have my BIASES, of course, but I really feel sorry for those people."

chart chart yalll http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/africa-mideast/gadhafis-influence-on-africa/article1915484/?from=1915485

is Qaddafi the only OG 70s pan-African nationalist guy still in power?

mubarak oh wait

oh right Mugabe

xp

Mugabe didn't get power till '80, though, I think

that map is idiotic.

Tunisia is not part of Libya.

Mugabe didn't get power till '80, though, I think

right but he still came up in the late 60s/70s, he's part of that generation

Tunisia is not part of Libya.

^^^yeah I was wondering about that lol

some of those boxed statements are a little vague... and the $ amounts look kinda peanuts but in context of US defense spending it's hard to tell what's substantial

i'm sure for an african nation is alot more. but seriously, i have higher expectations than this from the globe.

btw was it ever proven (Qaddafi's boasts notwithstanding) that Libya was responsible for that bomb in the Berlin nightclub -- the attack that the Reagan admnistration used as a pretext to bomb him?

I've read a couple of things alleging that Syria was responsible.

There was a good piece in the Evening Standard (honest) yesterday about the unfortunate habit of turning brutal dictators into comic figures - concentrating on the kitsch decor and absurd rhetoric rather than the crimes. I am certainly not immune to this.

i think about this a lot actually. i basically think there are two kinds of jokes. there are distant uninformed vague "lol isn't kim jong-il crazy" jokes and then there are "i grew up in 1930s russia and/or have spent years studying it and can make very specific and very grim jokes about stalinism". the second class of joke is a light in darkness, i think. also they're much funnier, which is important.

jokes have a funny (heh) double function that way, partly they allow you to call it like it is and say, this guy is hopelessly ridiculous, must be so insane and horrible to live under him. on the other hand they kind of immunize you from looking clearly at acts themselves done by anyone else: surely we aren't doing anything horrible, it's not like we're that guy

Some of the ridicule is a liberal reflex. Because grew up with the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations pleading for the support of a tinpot tyrant, we point at Ahmadinejad's JcPenny trousers and Kim Jong-Il's sunglasses as a way to deflate the seriousness.

*because WE grew up

Danny DeVito has weighed in. This must be the endgame.

http://t.co/v7pXa4Z

pretty bad when divito is calling you sick.

So imagining him in Louie mode saying that.

Also apparently Algeria has just lifted its 19-year state of emergency? No idea what that actually entails on the ground.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 17:36 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

they turn the sirens off

― goole, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 17:36 (5 hours ago) Bookmark

^^^ goole killin it itt

This old photo of Qaddafi is surely straight out of Thunderbirds:

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/homepage/hp2-22-11r.jpg

lol Africa map fixed!

gadaffi's military-chic hugh-hefner arab-messiah thing is i think we all have to admit a pretty good look.

but FASHION ISN'T EVERYTHING.

ha, been thinking the same thing but afraid to say it.

i think gaddafis look is "late 70s bob dylan as late 80s michael jackson"

aka "rich, curly-haired & paranoid"

so wait, gaddafi sleeps on the second floor of a tent?

It's a really nice tent.

BBC: The UK's recent ban on arms exports to Libya shows welcome restraint but comes too late, says Pieter Wezeman from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. He told the BBC's Focus on Africa: "Politicians up to the levels of presidents and prime ministers have visited Libya and tried to market military equipment to Gaddafi in the knowledge that this man is a dictator, and in the knowledge that there was a risk he might use those weapons against his own population. So it's good that they have restraint now, but it does seem a bit late."