Libya

Gold Bullets

The Invention of the Savage: Colonial Exhibitions and the Staging of the Arab Spring

Watching a popular uprising in real time was indeed a dramatic experience. As viewers tuned in (or streamed in) to the violence, courage, and uncertainty of events in North Africa this year, many of them had the impression of witnessing the “actual” events, free from the framing tactics and analytical bias often found on the six o’clock news. A host of new media celebrities became household names as they reported live from Tahrir, and news outlets such as Al-Jazeera saw an unprecedented rise in viewership. Spectators were made to believe that a return to the event “itself” was once again possible after decades of being locked into what Jean Baudrillard called the ...

The International Symposium on the Arab Spring Through the Eyes of Arab Novelists: Testimonies and Readings

In the grim depths of winter, the Arabic novel keeps the sun of the Tunisian Revolution shining. Although the sun of the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring is still playing hide and seek, it is imperative that artists, writers, and poets find a venue to discuss the cultural and artistic sides of the revolution. On 18 and 19 January 2012, an international symposium on the “Arab Spring Through the Eyes of Arab Novelists” took center stage at the Ibn Rachiq Culture House in Tunis. The symposium included the participation of an exceptional list of writers, including Algerian writer Wasini al-A’raj, Egyptian writer Ibrahim Abdelmajid, Libyan writer Mohamed Lasfar, ...

Report of the Independent Civil Society Fact-Finding Mission to Libya

 [The following is the latest from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights on Libya.] Report of the Independent Civil Society Fact-Finding Mission to Libya Introduction The Independent Civil Society Mission to Libya was established by the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR), in cooperation with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), who provided additional expertise and professional experience. The International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC) subsequently joined the mission, providing further international expertise and insight. The Mission was established in response to allegations of widespread violations of international law committed in ...

Holding Libya Together: Security Challenges After Qadhafi

[The following is the latest from International Crisis Group on Libya]. Holding Libya Together: Security Challenges After Qadhafi EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS As the recent upsurge of violence dramatically illustrates, the militias that were decisive in ousting Qadhafi’s regime are becoming a significant problem now that it is gone. Their number is a mystery: 100 according to some; three times that others say. Over 125,000 Libyans are said to be armed. The groups do not see themselves as serving a central authority; they have separate procedures to register members and weapons, arrest and detain suspects; they repeatedly have clashed. Rebuilding Libya ...

Primo Levi in the Year of Assassinations

Next year will mark twenty-five years since the great Jewish-Italian writer Primo Levi either fell or jumped to his death down the stairwell of his Turin apartment. This year has given us two important cultural products that engage with Levi the chemist, writer, and Auschwitz survivor—a collection of essays published by Fordham University Press, Answering Auschwitz: Primo Levi's Science and Humanism After the Fall, and the staging of The Mark of the Chemist, a theatrical reading of his writings at the Centro Primo Levi in New York. The re-visitation of Levi’s moral philosophy could not come at a more crucial time than this, a year of trophy assassinations when, more ...

An Interview with Hisham Matar

On 22 August, the day Libyan rebel forces took Tripoli, acclaimed author and son of Libya, Hisham Matar, opened an impassioned essay with, “We got rid of Muammar Qaddafi. I never thought I would be able to write these words. I thought it might have to be something like: ‘Qaddafi has died of old age’; a terrible sentence, not only because of what it means but also the sort of bleak and passive future it promises. Now rebel forces have reached Tripoli, we can say we have snatched freedom with our own hands, paid for it with blood. No one now will be more eager to guard it than us.” Almost exactly two months later, on 20 October, the Libyan people finally rid themselves of ...

"After 42 Years": Poet Khaled Mattawa Reading His Latest Piece (Audio Clip)

The following is an audio clip of Libyan poet Khaled Mattawa reading his latest piece, entitled "After 42 Years," performed in the aftermath of Qaddafi's death.      

Sovereign Wealth and Ruler Loot

The mobility of capital, depending on one’s position, is a virtue or a vice. Since the onset of the Arab Spring, a lot of money has been moving in, out, and around the Middle East. In the classic liberal world, the mobility of money is governed by the market. In the real world however, politics has a say. Some of these politics have been about fear as Saudi and Emirati rulers have reportedly opened their checkbooks to assuage pressures on favored rulers and foment trouble for others. These moves did not come as much of a surprise. But somewhat more unexpected and commented upon by the media have been the responses of Western authorities essentially treating Libya’s ...

Democracy Now! Interview with Mahmood Mamdani on Regional Implications of NATO Intervention

This is an interview conducted with Mahmood Mamdani on Wednesday, 14 September, in regards to recent developments in Libya and Sudan. The interview addresses the implications of NATO's intervention in Libya and the independence of South Sudan, highlighting the regional implications for the African continent. As the African Union meets today, Columbia University professor and Africa scholar Mahmood Mamdani joins us to give his take on the regional and global implications of NATO’s intervention in Libya, which he says threatens to increase the militarization of the African continent. Mamdani is the author of several books, including "Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, ...