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, November 29, 2013

Libya's Hell, Enabled by Canadian Humanitarians

Click here to access article by Murray Dobbin from The Tyee (Canada). 
But we hear nothing from the international choir, led here by Lloyd Axworthy [a prominent Canadian politician, statesman and academic], which sang the "responsibility to protect" (R2P) hymn at the top of their lungs two years ago. The R2P, established by the UN in 2005, has lofty principles but in practice has been used as an excuse for any brutal assault on sovereign nations that serves the capitalist interests of the first world.
This left Canadian website is calling attention to the increasing chaos in Libya where many well-armed militias are fighting for control of the country. The "responsibility to protect" doctrine as applied in Libya provided an excellent public relations cover for the Empire's strategy known as the Salvador Option about which I address at length in this previous post.

Read also this, this, and this.