FaceBook
YouTube
Home

Gaddafi

Muslim Outrage and Western shock

Author / Source / Date: 

As'ad AbuKhalil, Courtesy: Al Akhbar, September 17, 2012

libya1.png

Yet again, Western governments and media are shocked. A group of fanatic Salafi and Ikhwan types attacked the US embassy in Cairo and the US consulate in Benghazi, and the US ambassador was killed.

Vijay Prashad: Arab Spring Libyan Winter - Part I

Author / Source / Date: 

Newsclick Production, July 19, 2012

Prof. VIjay Prashad-.png

Vijay Prashad discusses with Newsclick how the US and its allies have struck back against the mas movements that overthrew Ben Ali and Mubarak. This is what he terms as the Libyan Winter. He analyses the forces that the US and its allies are putting together and the danger to the region from these forces.

Vijay Prashad: Arab Spring Libyan Winter - Part II

Author / Source / Date: 

Newsclick Production, July 19, 2012

Prof. Vijay Prashad.png

Vijay Prashad discusses with Newsclick how the US and its allies have struck back against the mas movements that overthrew Ben Ali and Mubarak. This is what he terms as the Libyan Winter. He analyses the forces that the US and its allies are putting together and the danger to the region from these forces.

Aminata Traore on the recent events in Mali.

Author / Source / Date: 

Newsclick Production, July 14, 2012

Aminata Traore2.png
In the wake of NATO's military intervention and Gaddafi's fall in Libya, well armed Tuareg groups have returned home to Mali and in alliance with Islamic fundamentalist group Ansar Dine, have taken over its northern region. Newsclick.discusses with Aminata Traore, an author and a well-known Malian political figure to talk about the recent events in Mali.

Cyberwar, Drones and Imperial Sovereignty (Part I)

Author / Source / Date: 

Newsclick Production, June 27, 2012

Prof. Aijaz Ahmad.png

Prof. Aijaz Ahmad discusses with Newsclick the implications of cyberwar and drone attacks in other countries.

UN's Syria Vote: Kings and Ex-Colonial Powers “Championing” Democracy

Author / Source / Date: 

Prabir Purkayastha, Newsclick, Feb. 8, 2012

syria1.jpeg
The Syrian crisis continues even though the attempt to have a Libyan-style solution through the Security Council failed with Russia and China vetoing this move.

The Stories that Media Does not Get

Author / Source / Date: 

Seema Mustafa, Newsclick, Nov. 28, 2011

media.jpeg

The internet is buzzing with news of peoples protests, opposition to various legislations slated for Parliament, petitions against government oppression, an entirely different world from that reflected in the so called mainstream media through the long, and often very tedious, 24 hours coverage.

The VIP media of editors and proprietors with farm houses and five star book launches covers only VIP politicians, mega scams, corporate honcho successions, sensational rapes, leaving the protesting people of India to fend for themselves. So while television channels are engaged in sensationalizing non events, and generating debates on inconsequential political happenings, the people of India have moved on to the internet, flooding it with petitions, videos, photographs of a reality that has been squeezed out of the so called ‘national’ media altogether. For instance, there was coverage of the peoples protests against the Koodankulam nuclear power project so long as the anchors could dress up the story in sexy garb by pitching the centre against Chief Minister Jayalalitha. It was almost projected as a protest organized by the AIADMK leader in a major distortion of the facts. But there has not been a word in the media about the fact that 3015 persons, including leading activists like Dr S.P.Udayakumar, have been charged now for waging war against the country and sedition by the Tamil Nadu police. The media has disappeared from view, leaving it to activists to launch petition campaigns and seek justice on their own.

 
Similarly, there has not been a word in the media criticizing former Home Secretary G.K.Pillai for virtually justifying the encounter murder of young Ishrat Jehan by the Gujarat police by suggesting that by checking into different hotels with “another man” was definite ground for suspicion. This at a time when the SIT report has established her death as an encounter, in the first glimmerings of justice for the victims of the Gujarat violence. It is the Pillai kind of mindset that justifies state brutality, as clearly his case is that an independent woman taking control of her own life is suspect. This mentality is reflected in the police station where rape victims are placed on trial by the cops---“the woman is of ‘loose’ character”, “she was not dressed soberly,”etc--- before they even register the complaint. It has been left to civil society to move a petition for signatures against the former Home Secretary demanding an “immediate apology.” The Gujarat High Court has fortunately expressed serious displeasure at the comments made by Pillai to the media.
 
Tired and disillusioned, the young people are moving to the internet not just in India but all across the world. The real pictures of Libya and now possibly Syria are not found in the world media, controlled as it is by the big powers, but on the internet where local journalists and photographers have been posting videos about the cold blooded murders of sovereign state leaders like Gadaffi (after Saddam Hussein), the repression of the people by Israel in Palestine on a daily basis, and the contrast between the rebels and the people who are supporting the regime in Syria as they do not want their country to be destroyed by US/Nato bombers. The story on the internet is often totally different to what is projected by the big media that has either not understood what is happening inside a nation, or has understood but does not care, or more sinister, is playing along with a larger international conspiracy.
 
The story of a country cannot be without its people. The government’s decision to bring in a Food Security Bill cannot be divorced, in the coverage, of what impact it will have on the ground. It is the job of the media to explore not the legalities of the legislation, but whether it will bring relief to the people, and to what extent. These stories are not being covered any more with the media getting away with a couple of quotes from the VIP politicians, and a ‘this party is against the other party’ kind of superficial approach. What has happened to the Womens' Reservation Bill? What does 51 per cent FDI in the retail sector mean for the people? And by people, the yardstick should be the poor people at the receiving end, and not just the consumers who determine the advertisements and the TRP ratings.
 
People do not like to come out on the streets to protest. Not even those who belong to political parties. They do so because they genuinely believe that there is no other course, and the issue is important enough to merit their full participation. But when thousands of workers march on the streets of Delhi for justice and rights, the entire media with not a single exception blocks them out as they are the conscience check for unbridled capitalism keeping the corporates in business. All that is reported are traffic jams as a result of peoples protests. Of course, if the protests turn violent the media is in full attendance to damn the protestors and their supporters.
 

Pilgers film (The War You Don't See) while very important is not mainstream media. It can never be as it is too honest, very courageous and brutal in projecting the truth. It will be seen by a handful of persons as compared to the millions who are bombarded with contrived images and manipulated news about the Arab world day after day. The media motto is: convert the lie into a truth by repeating it over and over again. It works as international, and of course national, stereotypes have been created on this basis, completely suffocating the tiny voices of truth. Right and wrong is established through this manipulation, with the definition being determined by the powerful few and not the impoverished many.

Geo-strategic Scenario in North Africa and West Asia After Gaddafi

Author / Source / Date: 

Newsclick Production, Oct.30, 2011

libya301011.png

Gaddafi’s death has been a significant event in Libya and politics of West Asia. Prof. Aijaz Ahmad speaks to Newsclick about its relevance.

NATO's Agenda for Libya Qaddafi, From Beginning to End

Author / Source / Date: 

Vijay Prashad, Counter Punch, Oct 23, 2011

gadaffi1.jpg

On the dusty reaches out of Sirte, a convoy flees a battlefield. A NATO aircraft fires and strikes the cars. The wounded struggle to escape. Armed trucks, with armed fighters, rush to the scene.

NATO's Libyan War Crimes; ICC's Hypocrisy

Author / Source / Date: 

Newsclick Production, 1st August 2011

Vijay Prashad.jpg

 Prof. Vijay Prashad, Trinity College, CT, USA speaks about the latest developments in the Libyan Civil War and NATO's actions. He also talks about the International Criminal Court's hypocrisy in not trying NATO for war crimes or for that matter, the US' drone attacks killing several civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Syndicate content