In a previous life when Ghaddafi was still alive and celebrating his 40th anniversary…. fast forward to around 5 minutes 24 seconds… and see the bit about our President….There was “one Western Leader. Like Mugabe and the others were there but there was ONE Western Leader”…. (Don’t worry… it’s already doing the rounds on FB)
Joseph Muscat must be chewing his liver by now. The Libyan Crisis has propelled our Prime Minister back up in the popularity stakes thanks to the wonderful transformation of our island into the Florence Nightingale of the Mediterranean. After the early hesitant pussy-footing Prime Minister Gonzi took a stand in line with the UN, the EU and the major policy-makers of the West. The “neutrality” issue was only bandied about by remnants of the “That 70’s Show” that still tend to appear as uninvited warts in our political constellation.
Thankfully, Muscat’s labour distanced itself from the likes of Reno Calleja but it was already too late. Muscat had dilly-dallied and hedged his bets too far. He had once again proven himself to be a massive FAIL in the statesman department. All the better for Lawrence and his troops who could draw cheques on the well thought international reputation bequeathed by his nationalist predecessors. There is no doubt that on an international level most voters with a thinking head on their necks would prefer the consistency and statesmanship of Lawrence Gonzi any day.
Behind the Scenes
It’s not so airy fairy behind the scenes though is it? We may be passing through a moment when Facebook is full of Maltese of all colours and creeds declaiming their pride to be Maltese and joy to see their nation at the service of humanity and humanitarian activity. As shiploads and planeloads of escapees from Libya entered our air and sea ports we clapped enthusiastically and patted ourselves on the back for a job well done.
David Cameron stopped short of granting a new George Cross to the island (the reference to the first period of assistance by the Maltese was not so cryptic was it?) and US viewers got their umpteenth chance to discover that Malta was an “independent tiny island” in the Mediterranean (so we also got the publicity Joseph had crassly craved for).
But we kept smelling something fishy. For behind the statesmanlike dealing with the crisis there was an incredible volte-face at both a political and popular level. Just think of it. We were watching a boatload of 2,000 workers who had lost their job due to the events in a troubled nation. Few, if anybody, were calling for them to “Go Back to Their Country”. We were suddenly the most hospitable of nations – an oasis of opportunity.
What difference is there, I ask, between a boatload of Eritreans displaced by Civil War and a boatload of Chinese displaced by Civil War? The Chinese are going home I hear you say? Oh so that is what it takes does it? So what you mean is that so long as we can wash our hands from the responsibility of safeguarding the human life ourselves then we are quite happy to don the nurse’s hat and play the hero. Is that it?
Libya no More
Until a few months ago we have seen boatloads of Sudanese, Eritreans and Somalis heading to our country. All we could think of was “Go Away”. When we panicked and when we could not draw the attention of the international community to our plight (hell, despite all efforts the Swedish foreign minister still finds claims of immigration exodus “an exaggeration”) we turned to those who offered an alternative: Muammar Gaddafi’s Iron Fist (with the connivance of Signor Maroni and the EU Commission).
We were happy to turn the boats back to Libya and then like the proverbial monkeys closed our eyes, ears and mouth as to the consequences. They were another people’s problem. So yes. Until a few months ago we bargained with Colonel Gaddafi of the “pills in Nescafe and Al Qaeda in Benghazi”. We asked the man who paid mercenaries to shoot on his own people, his own blood, his own nation to help us solve the illegal immigrant problem.
We trusted a mad man to provide us with a humanitarian solution. He obliged. Later he would come up with the 5 billion euro blackmail as the lives of thousands of persons became subject to a barter with a Europe that was too busy to care.
Still patting yourself on the back?
EU migration control: made by Gaddafi?
“What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” The Jasmine Revolution seems to continue to vindicate Fukuyama’s famous words in his 1989 essay “The End of History”.
In the long timeline of human history 20 years is just a blip. In 1812 Napoleon faced the full and final settlement of the Napoleonic Wars that had their genesis in the 14 July popular uprising in 1789. Approximately the same amount of time passed between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first rumblings of the Jasmine Revolutions. All clues point to a longer stretch of time for the viral revolutions to spread to other countries − as they have already done − such as Bahrain and Iraq: Fukuyama’s end of the Cold War is not so much an immediate happening but a gradual shutting of the door over a period of time.
Fukuyama’s theory centred around the fact that the only ideological alternatives that would be left after the end of the Cold War would be human rights, liberal democracy and capitalist free market economy. From Manama to Tunis, from Cairo to Tripoli, the loud voice of the peoples of what another theorist would call the Greater Middle East is being heard in order to determine their access to human rights, liberal democracy and a free market economy. On Friday, even the recently liberated Iraqis hit the streets denouncing a corrupt government and calling for reforms.
What civilisation?
The theorist who defined the civilisation of the Greater Middle East is Samuel Huntington. Like Fukuyama, Huntington also came up with an interesting analysis and theory of international relations. Unlike Fukuyama, Huntington saw a future of conflict along the fault-lines of civilisations. If he were alive, Huntington might want to rethink his theory or at least realise that his was a supposition that underestimated the power of the yearning for liberal democracy among Muslim peoples. Huntington’s Islamic civilisation has proved to have much more than “bloody borders” − it has uncovered a yearning for the liberal freedoms among a hitherto misunderstood mass of peoples.
Huntington may be forgiven for having theorised on what is fast turning out to be a stereotype but he was not alone. Even in the nineties, when the domino effect of the cold war liberation was at its highest, few would have theorised that the liberal streak would spread to the Middle East. Sure we speculated (and to a certain extent worried) about the Chinese peoples following suit but Tiananmen put an end to that quite quickly. And Gaddafi knew that didn’t he? The crackpot dictator could have lost his sanity long ago but his references to the June 1989 events in China were not haphazard.
We were all duped. All of us. In our uncomfortable entente with the pluri-decorated dictator from a North African tribe, we swallowed the lies that were fed to us. The lies that told us that tinpot dictators are the right sort of valve to hold down the hordes of uncivilised and radical peoples that threatened to be unleashed on us should the dictators ever let go. The lie was lubricated with oil and sweetened with smiles and promises. Politicians kowtowed, businessmen sucked up and we were happy to not be concerned.
The Inhuman Rights
Gaddafi was the West’s not so hidden secret. Lord Blair famously shook hands with the genocidal maniac in 2003 and Italy famously signed a Friendship Treaty with Gaddafi’s Jamahiriya. No sooner had the smiles and handshakes confirmed the Crazy Colonel’s rehabilitation in the international jet set did the businessmen land for a piece of the Libyan cake. Maltese businessmen included.
Look back at our dealings with Libya and not once will you see a reference to the people − to the subjects of the dictator. I hesitate to reproduce the image of what we thought of Gaddafi’s subjects but you do not need to go far for a reminder. Just open the comments at the foot of the first articles reporting the Libyan uprising. As Libya revolted Malta showed its revolting side. Speaking on Ghandi Xi Nghid, journalist Karl Schembri compared the vegetable vendor in Tunisia to the Czechoslovak Jan Palach. Few Maltese were making these comparisons at the start.
We were worried about the Libyan invasion (our wives, our children, our jobs in that oh so revolting singsong straight from the collective imagination inspired by Dragut’s corsairs), the GWU called on the Libyan people to calm down (lest Maltese workers lose their jobs), the politicians dragged their feet and the biggest noise the EU could make regarded the fears of an immigrant exodus.
Opportunity and hypocrisy
At the Saturday march organised in solidarity with Libya last week, the political group Graffitti caused a ruckus by carrying placards shaming Gonzi and Muscat for sucking up to Gaddafi. The pride of Maltese journalism threatened to quit the march and asked for the posters to be removed. Of course it’s one thing blogging about Mintoff’s parading with il-Kurunell and another looking such a poster in the face. The posters were not saying the whole truth though: Gonzi and Muscat were just part of a whole western lie that underestimated and disrespected the determination of a whole block of humanity in the Greater Middle East.
True, the insurgents have learnt the hard way that there will be no fighter jets coming to their rescue (who knows what accusations Obama’s government would have faced if it intervened… remember Libya has oil). They have learnt that the “self” in self-determination is a harsh reality that includes the risk of dismembered torsos and blood on the streets where you live. The are learning fast and by doing so they are earning the respect and admiration of a lazy West that had wrongly assumed that the wind of change that blew in Gorky Park would be limited to some of Huntington’s civilisations and not others. They may not know who Jan Palach is but they have shown the world that they can think just like him.
The tears of joy that burnt my face when I saw the jubilant scenes in Benghazi were mingled with a sense of anger at how long we have allowed ourselves to live the lie. True the revolution is fuelled by the new means of mass information (see the J’accuse post urging a philo-revolutionary revival of the defunct Voice of the Mediterranean) but it has also become one huge learning curve for the civilisations on all sides of the fault lines.
Viva la Vida indeed
Beyond the barricades there is a hidden link of humanity linking the Serb to the Burmese to the Egyptian to the Berber to the Maltese. Beyond the parochial perspective of journalists vying to become a one man CNN, of egocentric business communities and short-term politicians, there is a new movement and ideal that has rekindled the flame that started burning with the fall of the Berlin Wall. From Havana to Caracas to Moscow to Beijing all the way to earthquake riddled Christchurch, the world is still watching.
And if like Nero, Gaddafi is guilty of Queening while Tripoli burns, we would do well to learn at least one lesson from this latest instalment of the liberal democrat dream… that human rights are universal − really universal. They do not see the barriers of race, colour or creed − and that the DNA to fight for the rights of liberty, freedom and democracy is to be found in every last human being. Yes, even in those brothers of ours across the sea who we have looked down upon or ignored for so long.
Allahu akbar!
This article and corresponding Bertoon was published in The Malta Independent on Sunday (27.02.2011)
www.akkuza.com is fully compatible with the 2011 Jasmine Revolution.
Once we’re on an “I’m going to say it if nobody bothers” roll let’s talk about Air Malta. First of all a hand on heart expression of gratitude and admiration to the crews who manned the Air Malta flights into Tripoli to get passengers out of the revolution torn country. There’s no sarcasm, really, we admire them. They went “beyond their call of duty” as Minister Fenech said and volunteered for an act of personal sacrifice not without an element of danger. For that they deserve recognition and, as I said, gratitude.
Fine. That’s the honours. Now for the stark reality. Back in Malta the pilots and crew were treated to a deserved welcome by the Minister while the Labour side of the political divide croaked about the Great National Airline. Here’s Leo Brincat’s thoughts from facebook (his capitals not mine):
TGHID L-AIR MALTA GHAD TIBQA F’QAGHDA LI TAQDI IL-FUNZJONI SOCJALI LI QDIET F’DAWN L-AHHAR SIEGHAT B’TANT KBURIJA, FI- TRIPLI, FL-INTERESS NAZZJONALI, WARA LI TIGI MBICCRA BHALA LINJA NAZZJONALI TAL-AJRU MILL GVERN FUQ PARIR TAL KONSULENTI LI QED JITHALLSU E1 MILJUN FIX-XAHAR?
L-Ghasafar fic-Comb (birds in lead)
It’s all there isn’t it. The war story, the brave heroes acting beyond the call of duty and the capitalist villain earning €1 million while planning a cull of this brave workforce. Air Malta’s dreams have come true. Finally we have a reason to justify its running at a loss. From ghasafar tac-comb (lead (heavy) birds) they have transformed to the ghasafar fic-comb (birds that fly through lead) and boy are we not proud of them.So now we should ride over popular feeling and sentiment and take a huge dump on economic and accounting figures. Because you never know when the next revolution under a tinpot dictator will happen. You never know when the next revolution in a country full of Maltese expats can come about do you?
Well. To be fair there’s always Belgium. You know. The tinpot Walloons might declare war over the Vlams Frites and before you know it a valiant crew will be flying out the fonctionnaires from Zaventem amid the last minute rush. Or Luxembourg – whaddayouknow… a flight from Findel is always easier than a twenty minute drive to Belgium/France or Germany. Take your pick.
Sorry Leo. The butchery of the national airline is an exercise in downsizing based on economic realities that go far beyond the sudden emergency of a Libyan revolution. Funny how no one is mentioning that one particular possible saviour of AirMalta a few weeks ago could have been Ghaddafi himself. Anything goes eh?
Don’t get me wrong I love Air Malta and the service it provides. I am also resigned to the economic realities surrounding Air Malta. Without a national airline or a proper army plane to speak of Malta would just have to do what the Americans did with the ferries no? It’s called chartering planes. The cost of chartering planes in times of emergency would more than justify eliminating the bleeding accounts of a limping national airline. No?
Again, I have the huge suspicion that those who are most vociferous in promoting the “Brave AirMalta” campaign are those who stand to lose most from having the benefits and perks of our national airline cut off. It’s not the heroic pilots that they are going to miss… it’s the freebies and discounted flights.
A little blip in the series. I just got an idea. Not a revolutionary one but one that may help. Ghaddafi’s government (we have to start distinguishing between Ghaddafi and the Libyans just as we did with the Nazis and the Germans at least so as to get to the simple minded among us) can block internet but can it block the good old radio waves? Whatever happened to the Voice of the Mediterranean? It was one of those fancy projects that ended in a very nationalist scandal towards the end.
The time might be ripe to set up the station and direct it’s waves towards the Maghreb peoples. Shared experiences, shared stories and stirring music from common cultures. Now, if ever, is there the need for such a station to coordinate and inform. Exiles could pitch in and use the radio to disseminate guides on safety. Let the Tunisians and Ehyptians and any other nation participate. Why not include Italians, Spanish and other Mediterranean nations and grasp this opportunity to create a solid building block on Mediterranean cooperation.
Carpe diem. Give the Jasmine Revolution a voice of its own – Malta owes it to the Mediterranean.
A few years ago when there was military coup in Thailand I called an uncle of mine who has business interests in the country. I asked him if he was worried that all the years of investment and relocation (from Spain – too much bureaucracy in Spain) would all go up in smoke – a factoory, huge amounts of stock and employees. His reply was very matter-of-fact. It all boiled down to a business risk. He had chosen Thailand for the well-priced labour, for the good prices on goods and for the markets that would be available from there (including the Middle East). The political turmoil was one of the cons in the equation but it had to be factored in – he had to hold his chin up and bear the brunt of any effects on his risk investment.
Chapter 2 – The “Save Our Business” Brigade
An article in today’s Times describes a Maltese businessman’s views of Libya: “Libya has proven to be fertile ground for Maltese business interests and some had plans for “massive” expansions. But the scenario seems to have changed overnight and they now question whether they would materialise.” The article was less crass than Tony Zarb over at GWU (see the Runs’ apt interpretation on that one) but whether it is workers or entrepreneurs you still get the impression that these people had absolutely no idea of the risk factor entered into when living, working or investing in a country run by a mad dictator.
Fashion outlets in Tripoli or Benghazi? Sweet. Did the immigrants held back by Ghaddafi as ransom to EU pockets stop over at the Libyan equivalent of Zara or Benetton to buy a piece of clothing or two for their nieces? One entrepreneur complained of furniture stock stuck in the UK and costing him 3,000€ every fifteen days. I remembered Antonio from the Merchant of Venice worrying about his lost merchandise at sea… business risks, business risks. History is full of entrepreneurs who had to factor in the risks of dealing with volatile nations. The Venetian Republic combined business and policy (and a bit of conniving thievery) to great effect for many a year. This business risk however carried the moral weight of investing and encouraging the growth of a dictator’s home patch. So long as he showed us the money we were not worried about storage were we?
What does baffle me is how bloggers and article writers can suddenly yell out in favour of our “business interests”. The same bloggers who would unthinkingly slap a Fair Trade logo on their blog or denounce sweat shops in India or China do not seem to be able to make the same equation for a similar reality closer to home. Well, I guess Nike, Apple and Sony don’t have the same familiar faces as hotel chains full of juicy restaurants, enticing spas and luxurious bedrooms.
Would you work in Afghanistan? Do you wonder why jobs in certain hot spots are much better paid? Do you know why an oil rig job is so well paid by the hour? The risk factor has a lot to do with it. Then when it comes to morals… the price is never high enough. Dealing with Ghaddafi means joining him in his quest to have the funds to pay mercenaries to shoot to kill.
On a state level it may be a Macchiavellian choice that is slave to the realpolitik of the day (like buying oil or submitting to the Italian request to pass on arms through your space). On a business level it is the equivalent of the golden goose… you never know when it is going to croak its last breath do you?
Again, forgive us if we are not weeping “our” business’ losses.
More on Entrepreneurs & Libya (pre-revolution)
