When Colonel Gaddafi inherited power peacefully, it was a burdening task to transform an impoverished nation located on a barren desert which recently declared independence, to the wealthiest African country where citizens enjoyed exceptional rights and a true direct democracy, called Jahiliyya. Prior to the US-led bombing campaign in 2011, Libya had the highest Human Development Index, the lowest infant mortality and the highest life expectancy in all of Africa. Under his rule, he raised the literacy levels from a low 25% to an exceptional 87% in which 25% of those earned university degrees. He also established what is known in America as “Pursuit of property” as he considered a home for every person a natural human right, as stated in his …show more content…
The largest irrigation system in the world also known as the great manmade river was designed to make water readily available to all Libyans across the entire country. It was funded by the Gaddafi government and it said that Gaddafi himself called it ”the eighth wonder of the world”. Basic commodities of modern era such as petrol was 0.14 (US Dollars) a litre, and electricity was free, making room for lower income families to access. Speaking of which, those who intending on starting a farming business, the government would subsided a house, farm land, livestock, and seeds, all free of charge. Again, in support of single mothers, a bursary of 5,000 (US Dollars) was given to the mother and the newborn after birth. And if those were in need of financial support, one could simply go to the Libyan state bank which provided loans at zero percent interest. The country also boasted no external debt. Contrary to the popular belief, Libya, which western media routinely described as “Gaddafi’s military dictatorship” was in actually one of the world’s most democratic …show more content…
Within these “mini autonomous states” the three main bodies of Libya’s Jahil democracy consisted of local communities, Basic people's congress and executive revolutionary councils. The BPC or Mu’tamar sha ‘bi asāsi was the Libyan take on the house of representatives in the United States. However they were not merely elected officials who decided on their behalf, (which are regularly liable to corruption) rather this congress allowed all Libyans to directly contribute to the lawmaking process. Eight hundred BPCs were erected across the country to ensure every Libyans right to participate in government. Even the New York Times, which was highly critical of Gaddafi, visited Libya in 2009 to observe the nation's experimental form of Jamarily democracy. They concluded that “everyone is involved in every decision…Tens of thousands of people take part in local committee meetings to discuss issues and vote on everything from foreign treaties to building schools.” If Gaddafi truly maintained a “military dictatorship”, one would assume his proposals passed without
There was a war in Sierra Leone, Africa, from 1991 to 2002 where a rebel army stormed through African villages amputating and raping citizens left and right (“Sierra Leone Profile”). Adebunmi Savage, a former citizen of Sierra Leone, describes the reality of this civil war: In 1996 the war in Sierra Leone was becoming a horrific catastrophe. Children were recruited to be soldiers, families were murdered, death came easily, and staying alive was a privilege. Torture became the favorite pastime of the Revolutionary United Front rebel movement, which was against the citizens who supported Sierra Leone’s president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
Marcus, Johnathon. "BBC News - Arming Libya's Rebels: A Cautionary Tale." BBC - Homepage. 30 Mar. 2011. Web. 02 Apr. 2011. .
Republicanism and direct democracy, these are two ways that a people can be governed. There is a major difference between these two systems. In a republican system the government represents the people. The representatives are chosen by popular vote and are given the power to make decisions on behalf of the people. The people do not get to voice their own opinions, the best they can do is vote for their representative and hope he wins. This can also be referred to as indirect democracy. Direct democracy which was exemplified in the ancient Athenian city-state, or the New England town meeting in modern times, is a government based solely on the people. The governmental decisions are passed only if the majority of the people vote for it. "People", that is the key word, the people themselves are included in making political decisions.
The acts of violence that were performed by rebels in Africa were horrific. Adults and children were murdered, mutilated, tortured, and raped. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone performed despicable acts of cutting off a people's body parts with machetes to instill fear in the community. If you were working in the diamond mines and not performing up to the standards of the rebels you would lose a body part as punishment. Rebels would continue to do this from one village to another in order “to take control of the mines in the area” (Hoyt). It is estimated that in Sierra Leone that over 20,000 people suffered mutilation. The acts that the rebels performed to these innocent victims was clearly a violation to their human rights. The RUF collected 125 million a year to fund their war on the government and the people of Sierra Leone.
Economic ways started in the nineteenth century, still have a hold on the countries of the sub-Sahara today. These countries are all impoverished and have seen horrific civil wars, however, the general consensus is that they are making slow improvements in their economy. The starvation, overpopulation and health problems are still very evident. Perhaps continued assistance coupled with education and protection will keep them on the road to stability and more rewarding lives for their citizens.
Early 2011 uprisings swept across the Middle East and North Africa, and many rebellions are still going on today. The Arab region has seen revolts and conflict since the 1800‘s, but only recently have these revolts been redirected to the problems of Arab society (Ghannam, J. 2011 pg 4-5)The Arab Spring Uprising was first sparked in Tunisia and eventually struck Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and then spread to other countries. Citizens throughout these countries were dissatisfied with the rule of their local governments. Issues like human rights violations, political corruption, economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, dictators...
4. United Nations Development Programme, U.N. Human Development Report 2006, Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty, and the Global Water Crisis, web. 6 Dec. 2009 http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr2006_english_summary.pdf
In Tunisia, young people have taken control of a country that has been under the control of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali for the last 20 years. Tunisians could not get jobs without being extorted by local officials. They could not buy a house without bribing an official. Any activity involving government often required money to push the paperwork through. Tunisians who received coll...
Broni-Mensah got water for thousands of Ghanaians and other rural African countries. First of all, “The Manchester-based PhD student's response was to launch GiveMeTap -- a sustainable water scheme where people can buy stainless steel water bottles and refill them using a network of cafes and restaurants across Britain” (Said-Moorhouse). Here, Broni-Mensah started the company when he realized how hard it must be to get clean water to poor people. Moreover, “Outside of Africa, Broni-Mensah continues to push the GiveMeTap ethos and build up the free water refill participation network” (Said-Moorhouse). As you can see here, Broni-Mensah is working hard to build up GiveMeTap’s reputation so he can give more clean water to rural Africa. As Said-Moorhouse said, “To date, GiveMeTap has been able to build four water projects in Ghana, Malawi and Namibia with another four projects to be constructed in Ghana from December” (Said-Moorhouse). Broni-Mensah’s company has been quite successful in building water projects. consequently, GiveMeTap and Broni-Mensah has been able to save thousands of people and will save thousands
The United States Military Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (HOA) is a geographical region that encompasses the countries of Djibouti, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, and neighboring Yemen. Each country in the region houses many culturally unique distinctions to include groups, which comprise the HOA area of operation. Specifically one of these culturally unique groups originates out of Yemen. The country of Yemen, according to a 2004 census, has reached almost 20 million people (UNDP, 2010). Over 45% of the population lives on less than $2.00 U.S. a day (UNDP, 2010). The poverty-stricken people in Yemen have shaped a cultural group that in essence contains the majority of the Country’s population. The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate the current Yemen culture shaped by the effects of poverty on the people of Yemen. These effects span a wide array of problematic issues predicated on three major topics. The effects of poverty on the people of Yemen include severe health problems spanning a majority of the region, the decay of the Country’s political infrastructure, and the growing support of terrorist organizations in the region. The dilemmas in Yemen did not solely originate internally. Yemen is host to some 91,587 (as of 2007) refugees from Somalia (CIA, 2011). The wake of events perpetuated by the effects of poverty on the people of Yemen, left unchecked, will continue to erode with significant and lasting negative effects on the entire HOA Area of Responsibility (AOR) to include local, regional, and U.S. interests.
At the height of the conflict, about one third of the country's people were displaced. The chronic financial crisis became severe and the economy was close to collapsing. Poverty has become deeper in the rural areas of the Congo where poor people are now powerless, vulnerable and isolated. This is a big contributor to the poverty Congo is experiencing today, because little has improved and won’t improve until these problems are fixed. Overall, Central Africa’s dependence on agriculture could improve the wellbeing of the people but a long history of corruption, violence, and prevalent transportation issues have hindered an improvement in the economy resulting in poverty in the region.
...most distressed by outcome of a war, could exercise only inadequate control on the issue of armed action against Iraq. Most of the regional actors discarded the U.S. policy towards Iraq with varying intensity as they feared insecurity after Iraq’s disintegration (Reuters, 2003) whereas; Jordan decided not to endanger its rewarding ties with Washington. Another key actor at this level is the Baathi party in Iraq which was based on tribal division, domestic oppression and economic enticement. Under Baathi regime military, bureaucracy and security services was divided into several competing institutions which reinforced Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq. In the post war Iraq, the USA in collaboration with the Iraq National Congress and the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution started to make Iraq a democracy that is similar to the American political culture and values.
One of most crucial aspects of humanitarian intervention is the lack of proper motives. As noted by Bush, Martiniello, and Mercer, in the case of Libya and Côte d’Ivoire the Western nations were pursuing their own economic imperial interests under the guise of humanitarian intervention (Bush). The lack of pure motives to help decrease crimes against humanity resulted in an increased number of human rights violations in both Libya and Côte d’Ivoire (Bush). In order
The idea of an ideal democracy is not a particularly obtainable idea, considering the different in culture and history of countries this could be a dramatic change to previous authoritarian regimes. Although we can work towards this idea of an ideal democracy reaching this goal will be a much harder task. The attributes that contribute to having an ideal democracy are free and fair elections, their capability to implement policies, political participation of the masses and universal adult suffrage, and a multiple party political system.
Although many people believe that democracy is the best and successful form of the government. However History tells us that many times Dictatorship has proven to be successful. For example in France( when lead by a dictator Napoleon) and in Germany (when lead by Hitler) . Dictatorship also has proven to be successful in Pakistan. Dictatorship is much more effective way of running a government as it establishes peace, and has less room for the corruption. It provides economic stability to a country. Moreover Dictatorship is much flexible than that of democracy. P Pakistan is better of being ruled by dictatorship than that of democracy. Although in democracy people have a right to choose their representatives but when you consider a country like Pakistan about 43% of the people are illiterate so they are not qualified enough to choose their representatives. They do not understand the economical and political issues. On the other hand dictators are not elected by the people. In democratic country like Pakistan there is a lot of political violence which leads to the disruption of the peace. On the other hand in dictatorship one person or a small group of people have absolute power resulting in no political violence. In Pakistan people want peace and this can be achieved through dictatorship. In many countries dictatorship is successful then democracy. I...