We sit in our living rooms, waiting for the world to help free Libya from a monstrous dictatorship.
We watch and wonder when the world will act as one. This time it’s different, each liberation is bound to be different. Yemen is in the offing, as well as Bahrain, Oman and others. And then there’s the wonders yet to come out of Algeria and Saudi Arabia. Meantime the Ivory Coast continues to suffer under an illegitimate regime.
I for one am quite tortured. It’s hard to sleep when so many cannot for far different reasons. The people cowering behind doors in Tripoli and its environs haunt me most right now.
Meantime, the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt continue to have to deal with counter-revolutionary types, unwilling or reticent to let go control, to let go access to a privileged elite lifestyle. I imagine unliberated, needy, privileged wives harassing their beleaguered counter-revolutionary husbands, egging them on to find a way to keep, get more….and vice-versa, especially amongst the professional classes. Some of their sons and daughters must be part of the revolution and thus, a family civil war, crises of conscience. Those who have lost sons and daughters and who support revolution and change are keepers of the threshold, watchers at the gate; they will ensure the sacrifice of their children does not go unrecognized and justified by serious change for the good. It is a fluid and terrifying social mix. Stories, programmes, pictures, blogs, news items–emerge across the gamut of media. Nail-biting stuff.
We watch and wonder, reflect upon closer to home. The Independent (UK) newspaper worthily goes for Belarus’ and Europe’s ‘last dictatorship’. Now is the time. In our own backyard.
In a very old church last night, in my rural fen village in Cambridgeshire, we were called out to support ‘localism’, a code cover name for Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ programme, a cover-up for government not being brave enough to put a Robin Hood tax on the bankers (or other means to get back what the taxpayer has spent to save the banks), close the tax loops for the rich right away, deal with delinquent big tax avoidance. The ghosts of the village ancestors were surely rising from their graves to demand justice. There was resentment and anger in the old church pews, not a sense of inspiration to go forth and do yet more volunteering to save our souls and keep the old, sick and vulnerable from further encroachment upon their ‘benefits.’ This is where the Murdoch fascist right wing propaganda approach (read Fox News in USA) leads to: stopping support and encouraging everyone to go back to the bad old times when suffering was normal but very British indeed. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer; the middle-class squeeze encourages people to work more if you want to earn more and take advantage of any loopholes you can. Taxes will continue to rise as well as the cost of everything but you will get less for your money. You will join the poor or if you are extra cunning, greedy and don’t waste your time being political (just work more for money), you might get richer, but unlikely, as it’s a scam. The elite have it planned, you’ll be their Victorian servant soon (read economic slave) as the Poles are leaving the country. And the Russians are really smart migrants, moving up the economic ladder so fast one can hardly catch them at it. They know what hard times really can be.
So it’s all very well to watch the revolutions on the media, just watch out you don’t get too riled up and get involved.