Arab Spring's cruel truth

[xchrom]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MH27Ak02.html

The protests for regime change that are sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have been interpreted as the quest for democracy. While democratic reform is undoubtedly in the hearts and minds of the protesters, the core of the struggle is for economic justice. How to divide up the pie in all these countries, especially in countries where the pie is largely baked by depleting oil and natural gas resources?

The ruling elite in all these countries wants to control the levers of power not for political power per se, but to grab a disproportionate share of the economic pie. But the quest for economic justice and a more equitable division of the pie is made all the more problematic because of intertwined foreign economic and financial interests.

Although the autocratic rule and the subpar economic


performance of these Arab countries (and Iran) over the past 50 or so years, especially given their vast oil and natural gas resources, is widely recognized, it recently appeared that the corruption and self-enrichment of the rulers was a surprise to some in the sophisticated global press.

The wealth, lifestyle and excesses of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and especially Muammar Gaddafi and his family in Libya seemed to be a surprise to the media. Yes, they had not reported it in any detail before, but to be surprised? Frankly, it was much more surprising that the media was surprised. Where have they been all these years?

[bemildred]

1. The media long since abandoned any notion of being "reality based".

They serve these days essentially as reality-denial-enablers.

"I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"

[tcaudilllg]

2. We need real media leaders in our time.

Persons of courage, like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite.

[truth2power]

3. The last line of that article is certainly true, "Follow the money". But I have some questions...

Regarding Libya...What about Libya's Sovereign Wealth Fund and the pan-African bank, where Gaddafi was apparently making some effort to lock in the oil profits for Libya itself.

Also, Goldman Sachs "losing" 98% of Libys's Wealth Fund investment, causing Gaddafi's guys to be so enraged that the GS people had to scurry to the airport, accompanied by bodyguards.

Which is not to say Gaddafi wasn't a horrible dictator who tortured and killed his own people. But the U.S. hasn't a leg to stnd on in that argument.

[bhikkhu]

4. Libyan oil profits go 90% to Libya itself - and will continue

apparently. As a nationalized resource, when the sanctions were dropped in 2004 there was a great deal of hope in Libya that foreign investment and drilling expertise would ramp things up and produce another Saudi Arabia. Needless to say, is spite of a great deal of exploration, no big new finds were made. Gadhafi did, in any case, secure good terms for the oil contracts that are in operation (90/10), and the NTC has been assuring the industry that all existing contracts will be honored.

on edit - I don't know about the other questions!

[truth2power]

5. Thanks for that update. I hope the 90/10 oil contract agreement stands...

We shall see.

Here's a link to the Goldman Sachs bruhaha:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2011/05/31/goldman-sachs-lost-98-of-libyas-1-3b-sovereign-wealth-fund-investment/

And what is NTC? I think I've become acronym-challenged lately.

[bhikkhu]

6. NTC is the usual abbreviation for the Libyan rebel council

stands for National Transitional Council. It will dissolve at some point, when they vote through a new constitution and form a more solid government.

Thanks for the link!

[BobbyBoring]

7. It's sort of like America

Once upon a time, war loving savages owned this land of plenty. What the hell were they doing with it in the first place? Same with the Arabby scum. We great whiteys were given this stuff by god in the first place. Sometimes, it just takes a while to claim it~