the shores of Tripoli

[ZenGum]

Hi Bruce! long time, not much post.

Tunisia have just held their first general election, nine months after they ousted their tyrant. 90% turnout, no reports of violence as yet. Holy moly, the world has got better this year.

[footfootfoot]

?

[ZenGum]

You should consult your proctologist.

[classicman]

Anyone know anything about this site or its claims? I stumbled upon it...

16 Things Libya Will Never See Again
1) There is no electricity bill in Libya; electricity is free for all its citizens.
2) There is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given to all its citizens at zero percent interest by law.
3) Having a home considered a human right in Libya.
4) All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 dinar (U.S.$50,000) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start up the family.
5) Education and medical treatments are free in Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25 percent of Libyans were literate. Today, the figure is 83 percent.
6) Should Libyans want to take up farming career, they would receive farming land, a farming house, equipments, seeds and livestock to kickstart their farms are all for free.
7) If Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they need, the government funds them to go abroad, for it is not only paid for, but they get a U.S.$2,300/month for accommodation and car allowance.
8) If a Libyan buys a car, the government subsidizes 50 percent of the price.
9) The price of petrol in Libya is $0.14 per liter.
10) Libya has no external debt and its reserves amounting to $150 billion are now frozen globally.
11) If a Libyan is unable to get employment after graduation the state would pay the average salary of the profession, as if he or she is employed, until employment is found.
12) A portion of every Libyan oil sale is credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.
13) A mother who gives birth to a child receive U.S.$5,000.
14) 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $0.15.
15) 25 percent of Libyans have a university degree.
16) Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project, known as the Great Manmade River project, to make water readily available throughout the desert country.

Link

[piercehawkeye45]

It's all over leftist sites who claim that Qaddafi was actually a good leader and the overthrow was just a neoliberal interventionist plot to get more oil money. I wouldn't doubt they are true, probably exaggerated and misleading, but it doesn't even get close to cancelling out all the fucked up things he did to his country to stay in power.

[ZenGum]

3) Having a home considered a human right in Libya.

Having an opinion was a capital offence.

I suspect that is either half-truths, complete lies, or best case scenarios that you might get if you are one of Gadaffi's loyalists. Beloved leaders do not get hauled from a drain and lynched by an angry mob.

Except maybe the cheap oil. I think the irrigation project was real.

[Trilby]

:

[Aliantha]

13) A mother who gives birth to a child receive U.S.$5,000.

Same here! Wow.

[Undertoad]

If you want to read about it from someone who went there two years ago:

http://www.michaeltotten.com/archive...he-land-of.php

I met one shopkeeper who opened right up when he and I found ourselves alone in his store.
...
"And Qaddafi is our president," he said. "About him, no comment." He laughed, but I don't think he thought it was funny.

"Oh, come on," I said. "Comment away. I don't live here."

He thought about that. For a long drawn-out moment, he calculated the odds and weighed the consequences. Then the dam burst.

"We hate that fucking bastard, we have nothing to do with him. Nothing. We keep our heads down and our mouths shut. We do our jobs, we go home. If I talk, they will take me out of my house in the night and put me in prison.

"Qaddafi steals," he told me. "He steals from us." He spoke rapidly now, twice as fast as before, as though he had been holding back all his life. He wiped sweat off his forehead with trembling hands. "The oil money goes to his friends. Tunisians next door are richer and they don't even have any oil."

"I know," I said. "I'm sorry."

"We get three or four hundred dinars each month to live on. Our families are huge, we have five or six children. It is a really big problem. We don't make enough to take care of them. I want to live in Lebanon. Beirut is the second Paris. It is civilized! Women and men mix freely in Lebanon."

[Pete Zicato]

Pun thread: The Stores of Tripoli

I bet they get an Abercrombie and Fitch soon.

[TheMercenary]

Democracy and regime change in the Middle East = Sharia Law.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/peter-w...b_1030508.html

[TheMercenary]

Is that Opra in pic #4?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...6.html#s424777