Must admit we made something of a faux pas with this post from a couple weeks ago, praising the integrity of former Liberal leader Bob Rae.
Bob has betrayed the trust we had in him with his unfortunate comments about Libya that appeared in the Globe and Mail today.
Bob did get one thing right; it's rare for an establishment commentator, especially one who was an enthusiastic cheerleader for the war, to admit that two years after the demise of Gaddafi the country is a shambles.
But here's the whopper that floored me; "Gaddafi did not invest in people, institutions, or infrastructure."
Gaddafi's people enjoyed free housing, health care, and education. Before we liberated them they enjoyed the highest standard of living on the African continent.
Under Gaddafi, tens of thousands of Libyans studied abroad at the expense of the state.
Gaddafi built one of the greatest infrastructure projects of all time, the Great Man-made river.
And notice how Bullshit Bob bemoans the fact that "aid money is drying up."
How is it possible that Gaddafi was able to do all the above without aid money, but now that we've liberated them the Libyans have become aid dependent?
Perhaps the key to this mystery is revealed by the note at the end of the article. Bob is working with the "National Democratic Institute." That is one of a multiplicity of US funded "democracy promoters" busy on the ground to help guide nascent democracies towards the "right" sort of democracy.
And only a Washington approved democracy will ever be the right sort.
Showing posts with label National Democratic Institute Libya propaganda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Democratic Institute Libya propaganda. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
The murky provenance of a Libya "good news" story
As I was scrolling down the Google news aggregator this morning a headline on the right side of the screen caught my eye; Libya might be on right path.
Well that would certainly be good news! I clicked on for a read. The article is from a website called War in Context which appears to be the hobby blog of one Paul Woodward. The article is a recycle of a piece by James Traub that appeared earlier on the Foreign Policy website under the title Baby Steps.
Traub informs us that he gets a lot of his Libya news from a "plucky" little start-up called the Libya Herald. Traub approvingly informs us that the Herald has informed him that no less an authority than William Hague has declared Libya's progress "inspiring."
Traub then goes on to spend several paragraphs celebrating the victory of secular forces (i.e. NTC boss Jibril) over Islamist forces in the recent election. He quotes an official from the National Democratic Institute, "a democracy promotion group," who assures him that since all Libyans are Muslims, an Islamist party has no appeal.
Alas, and give Traub credit, it's not all unvarnished good news. A gratuitous reference to Max Weber leads to a discussion of how those unruly NATO rebels could yet throw a spanner in the works. He concludes with a celebration of the impressive resilience of Libya's oil sector.
The think tank here at Falling Downs would like to climb aboard the happy-talk bandwagon with Messrs. Traub and Hague. Here's why we'll stand aside for the time being.
That plucky start-up doesn't seem all that plucky, unless you think that it takes "pluck" to write a continuous stream of pro-NATO propaganda. While there are certainly Libyans who owe that viewpoint their current good fortune (Mr. Jibril?) it seems like an unfortunate source for an experienced journo like Mr. Traub to get a "lot" of his information about Libya.
Aside from being an experienced journalist, James Traub is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a fact that some might conclude could becloud his journalistic objectivity.
And who are these democracy promoters, the National Democratic Institute? Why, they're not Libyan, they're American! Here's a link to their Libya page, where they're quite happy to tell you that they've been ever-so-busy fanning the embers of freedom in Libya long before the spontaneous eruption of Arab Spring!
Finally, lets have a look at that election that we're told established the "secularist" Jibril as the champion of the Libyan people.
In the first place, Jibril is famously on record as stating he wants a "secular" Libya based on Sharia law. That's not a secularism that I personally would put a lot of stock in.
Secondly, approximately 1.7 million Libyans took part in the election, out of 3.5 million eligible voters, in a country of 6.7 million. Do the math and then decide if this election should be heralded as a triumph for democracy.
So I'm somewhat saddened to let go of that brief flicker of hope I felt when I first read the words 'Libya might be on right path'. The seeds of that sadness were right there in the title all along of course...
If Libya "might" be on the right path, then I guess it might not be.
Well that would certainly be good news! I clicked on for a read. The article is from a website called War in Context which appears to be the hobby blog of one Paul Woodward. The article is a recycle of a piece by James Traub that appeared earlier on the Foreign Policy website under the title Baby Steps.
Traub informs us that he gets a lot of his Libya news from a "plucky" little start-up called the Libya Herald. Traub approvingly informs us that the Herald has informed him that no less an authority than William Hague has declared Libya's progress "inspiring."
Traub then goes on to spend several paragraphs celebrating the victory of secular forces (i.e. NTC boss Jibril) over Islamist forces in the recent election. He quotes an official from the National Democratic Institute, "a democracy promotion group," who assures him that since all Libyans are Muslims, an Islamist party has no appeal.
Alas, and give Traub credit, it's not all unvarnished good news. A gratuitous reference to Max Weber leads to a discussion of how those unruly NATO rebels could yet throw a spanner in the works. He concludes with a celebration of the impressive resilience of Libya's oil sector.
The think tank here at Falling Downs would like to climb aboard the happy-talk bandwagon with Messrs. Traub and Hague. Here's why we'll stand aside for the time being.
That plucky start-up doesn't seem all that plucky, unless you think that it takes "pluck" to write a continuous stream of pro-NATO propaganda. While there are certainly Libyans who owe that viewpoint their current good fortune (Mr. Jibril?) it seems like an unfortunate source for an experienced journo like Mr. Traub to get a "lot" of his information about Libya.
Aside from being an experienced journalist, James Traub is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a fact that some might conclude could becloud his journalistic objectivity.
And who are these democracy promoters, the National Democratic Institute? Why, they're not Libyan, they're American! Here's a link to their Libya page, where they're quite happy to tell you that they've been ever-so-busy fanning the embers of freedom in Libya long before the spontaneous eruption of Arab Spring!
Finally, lets have a look at that election that we're told established the "secularist" Jibril as the champion of the Libyan people.
In the first place, Jibril is famously on record as stating he wants a "secular" Libya based on Sharia law. That's not a secularism that I personally would put a lot of stock in.
Secondly, approximately 1.7 million Libyans took part in the election, out of 3.5 million eligible voters, in a country of 6.7 million. Do the math and then decide if this election should be heralded as a triumph for democracy.
So I'm somewhat saddened to let go of that brief flicker of hope I felt when I first read the words 'Libya might be on right path'. The seeds of that sadness were right there in the title all along of course...
If Libya "might" be on the right path, then I guess it might not be.
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