Filed under: Ethiopia | Tags: Exploitation, Gaddafi, Libya, NATO, Propaganda, Truth, UNHDI, War
29 August, 11
The Great Libya Lie
“Obviously no government can be worse than the Gaddafi regime.” John Baird; Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
So Libya is a terrible place and Gaddafi is a terrible, terrible bastard, right? That’s why Canadian taxpayers will spend an estimated $80 million to have Canadian planes drop Canadian bombs on Libyan people: to save the people from their terrible, oppressive, corrupt government.
Well … here are some fun facts about Libya’s place in the world. Remember that NATO did NOT intervene in Iran, Egypt, Tunisia or Yemen when their people revolted. In Syria, people are still being slaughtered by their government every day, while NATO does nothing but impose weak sanctions.
According the United Nations Human Development Index (2010), which gave Libya a score of 0.755, the people of Libya, under the long reign of Muammar Gaddafi, enjoy better health, better education and more wealth than Iran (0.702), Tunisia (0.683), Egypt (0.620), Syria (0.589) and Yemen (0.439), where NATO did not intervene for the good of ‘the people.’ Overall, Libya scored 53rd out of 169 countries, better than Mexico (56), Costa Rica (62), Russia (65), Brazil (73), Turkey (83) and China (89). Indeed, Libya scored better than 17 of the 20 most populous nations on Earth, representing 63% of the world’s population. Though there are certainly well-off people in those 17 countries, there are also 99 other nations full of people that Libya outperformed, including 44 of the bottom 50 countries by HDI, that are not included in this statistic. I think it would be reasonable to assume that 75% of the world’s population has a lower quality of life than that which was provided by the long reign of the Gaddafi regime.
But that’s not all. Maybe Libya’s people have health, wealth and education, but certainly the women of Libya are oppressed, right? Not so, it would seem. According to UNICEF (2010), Libya’s “Gender Inequality” rank is 52nd (out of 169 nations). This is better than Iran (98), Tunisia (56), Egypt (108), Syria (103) and Yemen (138) where NATO did not step in to create a better society. Incidentally, in terms of gender equality, Libya also ranked better than Saudi Arabia (128), Chile (53), Argentina (60), Uruguay (54), Mexico (68), Peru (74), Brazil (80), Venezuela (64), Ecuador (86), Colombia (90), Jordan (76), Turkey (77), Thailand (69), Indonesia (100), South Africa (82), India (122) and Pakistan (112), just to name a few. UNICEF seems to think that women have it pretty good in Libya. Maybe we should bomb Mexico instead.
But the Gadaffi regime is oppressive right, and the citizens of Libya endure terrible human rights violations? Again, the truth does not seem to be so terrible. According to Gibney, Cornett, and Woods (2010), as reported in the UNHDR (2010) Libya scored 3 out of 5 for “Human Rights Violations.” Other countries scoring 3 out of 5 include: The United States of America, Israel, Greece, Ukraine, Venezuela, Tunisia, Indonesia and Turkey. Maybe Canada should send planes into the United States to overthrow their oppressive regime and protect their human rights. Stephen Harper has called Israel of beacon of hope, but they rank the same as Libya for human rights violations. That’s strange.
Countries that scored 4/5 for human rights violations (that is, worse than Libya) include: Egypt, Iran, Syria and Yemen, where NATO did not step in to protect human rights. Other countries scoring 4/5 include Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil China and India. Incidentally, Colombia, where Stephen Harper has just signed a new free trade agreement with the government, got the worst possible score (5/5).
Just for fun … Canada scored 2/5, along with such countries as Switzerland, France and Denmark. Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands all beat Canada, scoring 1 out 5. Other countries that had better human rights records than Canada include: Kuwait, Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Cyrus, Singapore, Oman, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia and Surinam. Way to go us! But wait!
There’s more! According to Reporters Without Border (2009), Libya received a “Press Freedom” score of 64.5. This is pretty bad, compared with Norway’s 0.0 and Canada’s 3.7, though Libya had 0 reported journalists imprisoned in the year 2009. Libya scored better than Syria (78.0; 1 arrest) and Yemen (83.4; 2 arrests) where NATO did not intervene in the name of freedom, but worse than Egypt (51.4; 3 arrests) and Tunisia (61.5; 2 arrests). Iran, which started the upheaval last year, scored worst of the bunch (104.1; 23 arrests). NATO didn’t intervene in Iran either.
Ok. So maybe the Libyan people have a reasonable quality of life, and women are fairly well empowered, and many countries have worse records for human rights and press freedom, but the Gaddafi regime is a military dictatorship, and that’s bad, right? Wrong again. Libya, the great military dictatorship did not import more than $1 million in arms in 2009 (SIPRI, 2010). Compare this with arms imports by Iran ($91 million), Tunisia ($7 million), Algeria (Libya’s neighbour at $1.5 billion, with a “B”), Egypt ($214 million), Syria ($292 million) and Yemen ($45 million). Now it’s possible that they make their own weapons, or maybe there was an embargo, but still it seems a bit unfair to pick on him because he spends his money on something other than the military. Incidentally, Libya spends 1.3% of its GDP on its military, the same percentage spent by Canada (2008; reported in SIPRI, 2010). Compare this with: Iran (2.7%), Tunisia (1.3%), Egypt (2.3%) and Syria (3.4%). And just for fun, check out: the USA (4.3%), and Israel, that beacon of hope (7.0%, more than five times the Libyan proportion). Who is a threat to their neighbours?
Ok, ok. But the Libyan people are dissatisfied with their government, right? Wrong again. We are told that Libyans are miserable, but in 2008, only 2,100 people fled from Libya (UNHCR, 2010). Compare this with Iran (69,000), Tunisia (2,300), Algeria (9,100), Egypt (6,800) and Syria (15,200). And speaking of dissatisfaction, according to the Gallup Poll (2010), 64% of Libyans were satisfied with their standard of living. Compare this with: Japan (64%), France (72%) Greece (57%), Portugal (47%), Bulgaria (29%), Peru (54%), Russia (36%) and Iran (55%). Only 1/3 of Libyans were dissatisfied. And yet we helped an armed faction to overthrow their government. It’s worth nothing that the Conservatives achieved about 1/3 of the popular vote in 2011. Maybe we are next on NATO’s hit-list.
But Gadaffi is a selfish leader, who doesn’t care about his people. This is why only 88% of adults are literate in Libya (UNESCO, 2010). Compare this with: Iran (82%), Tunisia (78%), Algeria (73%), Egypt (66%), Syria (84%), Morocco (56%) and Yemen (61%). What a terrible leader this Gaddafi seems to be.
Canada, along with NATO, largely ignored the plight of Iran, Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia as their citizens rallied to topple their respective governments, all of whom scored worse than Libya on virtually every measure of human rights and quality of life. Every day reports are emerging of protesters in Syria being slaughtered as we stand idly by. Instead, we sent our planes and bombs into Libya, “to protect civilians,” to promote freedom and encourage democracy.
All this in spite of the fact that, on average, the Gaddafi government has provided Libyans with a higher quality of life, a more equal society and better human rights than are enjoyed by the vast majority of the people in the world.
So is Canada a peace loving country and a champion for freedom? Or did we support an armed uprising in a sovereign nation in order to install a government that would give Western corporations freer access to Libyan oil?
The United Nations statistics say that our government is lying to us. An estimated 11,000 Libyan civilians have died. Many were killed in our name, with our tax dollars and to our benefit.
Is this your Canada: killing civilians for economic prosperity?
I’d like to close the way I started, with the words of John Baird, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs: “Obviously no government can be worse than the Gaddafi regime.”
No government, that is, except for the 67% of world governments that ranked lower than the Gaddafi regime for the quality of life they provided to their citizens. Lies, lies, lies. And 11,000 Libyan families watched their loved ones die over the past 6-months, which is to say nothing of the thousands of members of the pro-government forces, who risked and gave their lives to defend their nation against foreign invaders: us.
Peace and love.
2 Comments so far
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You forgot to mention the Great Man Made River. I believe this is worth mentioning as it’s one of the Gaddafi government’s greatest projects.
Comment by anon August 30, 2011 @ 1:11 amA powerful argument.
Comment by Anonymous August 30, 2011 @ 9:28 am