World events

They're now bombing Tripoli!?

One of the things is that I always thought Gaddafi wasn't the worst one. Fuck me. Who told me that, and why did I have that impression.

Still in utter disbelief over what is happening. I'm not going to sleep soon, and I shouldn't care so much.

Yeah, obviously you weren't around much in the Eighties, Bregt, when Ghadaffi was Public Enemy Number One.
I remember him firing off a torpedo (!) at the Cannes Film Festival right after some US fighter planes knocked some sense into him (well, obviously that didn't work, but interestingly he became a bit of a stabilising, moderate Islamic influence in that region after that. So internationally he has been a bit of a boon the last twenty years.
Nationally, apparently, rather less so in the last twenty days. )

In a way this series of revolutions seems to be completely non-fundamentalist.

Some weeks ago I talked to a kebab store owner here in Poland, by my university. He is a Baghdad born Iraqi who has lived in Poland for last 25 years and was watching Al-Jazeera at the moment. He said that the issues aren't at all religious (which in case of Egypt was particularly important, because this and Jordan are for example the only two Arab countries which acknowledge Israel as a state, so if Egypt turned fundamental, that would be a grave danger to the state), but political and dealing with poverty.

Also, at least according to NY Times and Washington Post (or one of them at least), the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is going through deep conflicts at the moment. so their power is somehow waned. They also promised not to run in elections that would happen after Mubarak's leave.

Also this resurgence of protests also reinforced the anti-Ahmadjinezzad protests in Iran and those are definitely *against* a Muslim state. Analysts say that what's happening in the Middle East and North Africa right now may lead to those countries picking the Turkish model, which is army as a constitutional defender of the separation between state and religion.

Comparison to the "People's Autumn" of 1989 are very interesting and that's the direction where European analyses seem to go in.

I see that two Libyan pilots are seeking political asylum in Malta after flying their jets there.

I was in Christchurch a year ago today. It's been a terrible year so far for Australia and New Zealand!
Floods, cyclones and earthquakes! Very sad!
All the "end times" dooms day folk are lapping this up and making the most of it over here. Humans!

There's always some 'silly buggers' pitiable

I remember Christchurch very well and had a great time there. Sadly it seems inevitable that the death toll will rise.

Indeed, people tend to get naive as years, medicine, technology and everything improves, and tend to really believe that such bad events belong to the past and can't happen to us, not anymore.

He did what!?

Apparently I was not very well informed. It sure has to do with the sometimes 'positive' comments from the news. Also, our minister of foreign stuff recently told that had voted for Libya for the UN Human Rights Council, next to 140 other countries because it had recently opened up towards the West, or something like that. Surely, that gave me the wrong impression.

I also read a book about a well-known reporter/musician here (The Road to Mekka) in which he travelled these Middle Eastern countries from west to east and in which Libya didn't really seems to have a bad reputation. Some interviews with citizens showed they supported the amount of decision making (sort of referenda). Clearly, I have read the wrong books.

Makes it all the way more depressing and awful.

Mmkay.

We are fucked.

Have you seen oil prices lately?

When i bought my car in 2009, for instance, here in Greece unleaded 95 was 90cents of euro / per litre. Now it's 1.60 and counting. Yay.

Yeah, and rising.
Not really surprised.
Slightly surprised other people still seem surprised.

For many reasons fossil fuels are NOT the wave of the future.
Like I said earler, i REALLY hope this will be the kickstart the world needs for more extensive, concentrated efforts towards oil alternatives.

i am not surprised my friend. I am angry and disappointed because still in 2011 the world has done so much and reached so far but yet depends on middle friggin east for its resources.

Gaddafi is nearing Benghazi (should the UN intervene, or keep on chatting about blocking his money?), Yemen is still shooting on its protesters, Bahrain called the help of Saudi Arabia, in the latter police outnumbered protesters last Friday, in Iran it's quiet on the surface again, North-Korea has had some small protests and in Ivory Coast the cacao doesn't get out of the country because of an upcoming civial war...

And in the US there's a Day of Rage coming as well, and a spokesman had to resign because Obama thinks it's just fine to torture a prisoner who hasn't had a trial yet...
http://wlcentral.org/node/1454

This all depressing me, and there's nothing one can do.

A no-fly zone should have already been in place by now IMO.

The Japan earthquake was the best thing that could have happened to Gaddafi...