Look at ‘Liberated’ Libya and Despair

[JohnyCanuck]

By Abdel Bari Atwan

Welcome to the new Libya, a country 'liberated' by NATO which now finds itself without the oil revenues which could make it rich, with no security, no stability and assassinations and corruption at unprecendented levels.

snip

Two years ago, the British and French business community sharpened their teeth and rubbed their hands with glee in anticipation of their share of Libyan reconstruction. Now there isn't a single foreign businessman in Tripoli, all of them ran for their lives after the assasssination of the American Ambassador and attacks on several foreign Embassies and Consulates.

During the NATO bombardment, news from Libya dominated the front pages and was the first news item on every Western and Arabic television station. There was 24-hour coverage about the Libyan Liberation miracle and the great victory achieved by NATO and the revolutionaries. Nowadays it is very rare to find a Western reporter there and even more rare to read a decent report about Libya and what is really going on there.

Oil was the main objective and the real reason for the NATO intervention; but oil producation has all but ceased due to a strike by security guards on the oil fields and export terminal. The ostensible reason for this strike is the demand for a pay rise but there is another, equally powerful, motive – they are protesting the demands of various separatist movements who are calling for self-rule for oil-rich Barca (Cyrenaica) with its capital in Benghazi. Most of Libya's oil reserves are situated here.

http://www.bariatwan.com/english/?p=1959

[Jesus Malverde]

1. "Oil was the main objective and the real reason for the NATO intervention"

I think it's partly true. A greater reason was to neuter the Libyan sovereign wealth fund so that it could not fund projects in Africa.

A good example was Libya funding Africa's first telecommunication satellite. Having their own satellite saved Africa BILLIONS of dollars that were being extracted to the west.

Satellites and telecommunications. Until relatively recently, the African continent was dependent on its former rulers in Europe for access to satellite communications. Western companies like Intelsat used their monopoly position in space technology to fleece Africa for basic communications, collecting $500 million a year by making the most expensive place on Earth to make a phone call.

From 1992 onwards, African governments decided to actively try and extract themselves from such a blatant scam by putting up their own communications satellite. But western banks and the IMF failed to provide loans to make it possible. The project needed $400 million as a one off payment to save African countries more than that every year, meaning they would easily be able to pay it back. But with international lenders protecting the profits of European satellite companies, the project was stuck.


That is until Gadaffi stepped in with the cash, putting $300 million up to launch Africa’s first ever communications satellite in 2007. Although it was built and delivered by a European company, it’s not under their control. What’s more is that it has opened the door to African use of space, with established space powers such as Russia and China sharing technology and providing launch facilities for African countries. Algeria is now aiming to have the first satellite built and launched from African soil by 2020.

African countries have historically been divided from each other by state borders, infrastructure systems and communications networks that had been designed with the needs of colonial powers to extract resources in mind, rather than the needs of Africans themselves. Access to cheaper telecommunications is helping for the first time to connect people all over the continent by phone, broadcasting and internet. Even in rural areas people have access to distance learning, and practical information on sustainable technology and agriculture. The growth of African communications can have a transformative aspect that’s unimaginable for someone living in a post-industrial advanced capitalist country.

The west probably would have funded the project in the end, but only through extortionate loans that would have stuck African countries for interest for decades afterwards, effectively wiping out the savings they were making and continuing dependence on former colonial powers. So by putting up the cost, Gadaffi was not only depriving European satellite companies of $500 million per year, but also in the long term meant western banks missed out on potentially billions in debt repayments that would have kept coming for a long time.

http://socialistcephalopod.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/5-things-you-might-not-have-known-about-the-war-in-libya/

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. But the important thing is the oil is flowing again.

Even if the national government is a bad joke and bands of armed thugs run their own little fiefdoms.

The national government can't even put Saeef Gaddafi on trial because the Zintan militia won't turn him over. That's how much authority the central government has.

The Libyan intervention is also Russia's main excuse for blocking UN action on Syria.

[Igel]

3. But it's not.

All the disruptions and territorial boundaries prevent the oil from flowing at anything near pre-war levels.

It's almost as bad as it was during the actual fighting.

"Cui bono?" Well, not the multinational oil companies. Not the people of Libya. Not even the satellite companies--they're just not powerful enough to ask the question about (it's just another way of asking about motive, means, and opportunity, with the heavy focus on "motive&quot .

Who has power? Lots of people who didn't. Oddly, they were instigators in the fighting as well, largely predicted to be the winners if Qaddhafi fell, but pretty much ignored because for most Americans all politics in every country ultimately is taken to be whatever's important for domestic US partisan politics.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Russia's main excuse for blocking UN action on Syria.

Indeed. Having fallen for one Micky Mouse loosely worded resolution they're no about to fall for the same stunt again and neither is China.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

5. I remember a Middle East expert I was reading at the time,

who said Libya wasn't really a modern country, but rather very tribal, and that Qaddafi came from a tribe that was not real up there in the hierarchy, kind of like Assad over in Syria and his Alawites, I guess. Anyway, he figured the place would break up. Looks like he was right.