Wednesday 24 August 2011

"Humanitarian Imperialism" - The White Curse

With alacrity, David Cameron gave up on his holiday in Cornwall to return to Downing Street to trumpet the triumph of his country over Qaddafi's Libya.  While he is doing this, I hope many will be sniffing the rising stench of his country's political, social and moral degradation.  Cameron may rejoice in Britain's success in getting rid of Libya's despot.  That 'victory' is an easy task.  Cleaning out the Augean stable that is Britain will take a bigger man than Hercules, Cameron, Clegg and Milliband put together.

-  His is a country on the edge of financial bankruptcy.  His regime is ripping up the National Health Service (NHS), the Welfare system, the schools, the universities and even the Police to make ends meet.  Jobs have been slashed in the public sector (i.e. government jobs) and in the final quarter of 2010, employment in this sector fell by 45,000.  Unemployment is running at nearly 8% and this is dire for a country where in 2008/2009, 13 million people (22% of the population) are living on 'low-income', a sanitized word for 'poverty'.

More significantly, unemployment of 16-24 year old Britons rose from 0.8% (1992) to 20.6% (2011)

More and more British pensioners  (the over 60s) have to keep on working to keep body and soul together, as well as to support their poverty stricken and unemployed children.  The over 65s who are in work increased from 56,000 (1992) to 900,000 in 2011.  (Re. my posting 'The Curtain Twitcher'  13 April 2011) Read http://www.anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2011/04/curtain-twitcher.html

-  His is a country that is morally bankrupt - where the Ministers, politicians, media men (and women), and the members of the police and legal systems are complicit in opening up their legs to accomodate the rapacious fundamentalist right-wing Murdoch and his cohorts.

Just over a year ago, MPs and Ministers, the sentinels of democracy, freedom and human rights blah , blah, blah were caught with their hands in the People's till.  (Re. posting  'Was: Is: & Will Be'  11 May 2009)http://www.anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2009/05/was-is-will-be.html

-  His is a country that harbours and nurtures rabid anti-Islam and anti-Muslim right-wingers in their Internet  ghettos, in the gutters and streets of English fascism, and in the political, literary, academic and media circuses - providing fodder for the blonde, blue-eyed Christian fundamentalist Brevik to massacre his fellow Norwegians.  Names like Melanie Philips, Nick Cohen, Christopher Caldwell, Christopher Hitchens, Professors Stephen Hutchings  ( Re. posting 'Reality Bites' 26 Jan 2011  Readhttp://www.anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2011/01/suspending-reality-csh.html) and Bernard Lewis, Euro MP Denis Macshane (or Denis Matyjaszek) and salon writers like Naipaul, Rushdie and Amis are but some of the brahmin Eurabia mongers.


Here's an extract about a classic English hypocrite : the great novelist Martin Amis:


- His is the country that rioted and demonstrated the most amazing "smash and grab" in this millenium. It was born out of the frustration, greed and sheer boredom of young Brits with life in cool Britannia. It was shaped by the breakdown of the British family and a debt-fuelled model of growth that collapsed.


Then , here comes along the feel-good-factor that this  country desperately needs - their success in getting rid of that despot Qaddafi.

According to today's Telegraph :     http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8716758/Libya-secret-role-played-by-Britain-creating-path-to-the-fall-of-Tripoli.html

1. MI6 officers based in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi had honed battle plans drawn up by Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC) which were agreed 10 weeks ago.

2. We are revelled with stories of the arsenal that UK unleashed on Libya like RAF Tornado GR4, precision-guided Paveway bombs, RAF Brimstone ground attack missiles that can pound civilian areas without causing civilian casualties????   The Tornados' advanced electronics enabled 'dynamic targetting'. (What is non-dynamic targetting?)  And oh yes, the TNC fighters were given " a range of 'non-lethal' kit including advanced telecommunications equipment and 1,000 sets of body armour".  Oh I must not forget the gifts of 'night vision goggles'.  Is that all??  It doesn't take much to please the TNC!

All these sound like a good shopping list for wannabe ambitious countries.  I can see British, American, French and Israeli and other European arms dealers setting up their advertisement and sales stalls. The theme could be " How to conquer without boots on the ground."

But the TNC will rue the day they slept with the Devil.  He who pays the piper, plays the tune.  This may close a chapter on Libya's history but it will not open a refreshing new Libya.  Already Obama, another world leader with his boots mired in his own Augean stable said the Libya conflict is 'not over'.

This conquest of Libya by proxy will ensure the Pentagon and NATO a key outpost in the Mediterranean,  a triumph for AFRICOM (US Africa Command) and an extension of the American Empire with the aid of their lap dogs, Cameron and Sarkozy especially.

After the Mediterranean there will be other seas to dominate like the Indian Ocean, the Straits of Malacca, the South China Sea etc....

Finally, the most poignant weapon used by the rebels was when  "Mr Jalil  (the TNC chairman) told the citizens of Tripoli  'you have to rise to the event,' and as dusk fell at around 8pm local time, a group of rebels seized their chance and took control of the Ben Nabi Mosque ..... using loudspeakers which normally call people to prayers, they began their anti-Gaddafi chants....."

This is the holy month of Ramadan.  In less than a week it will be Eid.

I hope the population of all NATO countries will be spared  'grief' like this when they celebrate Christmas 2011.

At least, they did not have to shed a drop of their boys' blood in this conquest of Libya.  Hallelujah.

2 comments:

Awang Goneng said...

Selamat Hari to you both, wherever you are. I have things to say about Libya too but you have it already, and more eloquently too. But here's something to clear our minds about the invasion of the poor country:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6IbzttQomY&NR=1

Best wishes. Leicester misses you both.

anak si-hamid said...

Awang Goneng, thank you for the bouquet (or bucket?).

I shall certainly look up your link.But it all look so hopeless for those under the heels of the "white curse".

Salam Hari Raya to you and that gal of yours.

Yes, I do miss autumn in Leicester