We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, March 18, 2011

The Club Med war

by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online.
History may register that the real tipping point was this past Tuesday when, in an interview to German TV, the African king of kings [Gaddafi] made sure that Western corporations - unless they are German (because the country was against a no-fly zone) - can kiss goodbye to Libya's energy bonanza. Gaddafi explicitly said, "We do not trust their firms, they have conspired against us ... Our oil contracts are going to Russian, Chinese and Indian firms." In other words: BRICS member countries.
Escobar cynically asks, "What about Bahrain?" And I would add, what about the Palestinians in Gaza, the Yemens, the insurgents in the Ivory Coast?

It is clear that NATO countries are once again imposing their control over countries that have oil resources, especially where Western oil companies are active. Given the recent outburst of democratic aspirations in the Middle East and North Africa, this use of military force by mostly NATO countries and their oil-rich, extremely unpopular, Medieval satraps upon Libya is likely to backfire in the long run. And, I suspect that is precisely why Russia and China, although opposed to intervention, abstained from the UN Security Council resolution.
 
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