In Libya, we managed using force from 40,000 feet to kill Moamar Gaddafi and now separatism is breaking out. The region of Cyrenaica (an old Roman province) from Ras Lanuf on the Mediterranean to the Egyptian border, and from the Mediterranean to Chad contains three quarters of Libya’s oil reserves and desires to separate. What was their grievance?
They claim under Gaddafi, this oil rich eastern province was marginalized and exploited to support the dictator’s popularity in the densely populated areas of Tripolitania and Fezzan. This sounds very familiar.
How ironic that Nato has achieved the hiving off of the oil rich region which no doubt will be more than willing to sell oil at a reasonable price in exchange for independence. The residents of this area will no doubt be better off individually, freer as a people, and better able to preserve their democratic rights and legal and cultural identity than subordinated to the Libyan version of Ontario which Moamar Gaddafi had so carefully manipulated.
Everywhere in the world, small nations are emerging from resource-based economies, which are better able to reflect the democratic will of the people in the land where they live. Usually this is by force of arms. Here in Canada, we have a legal method – The Clarity Act – whereby this can be achieved by the peaceful means of a democratic referendum. Why should we blindly surrender to the Ontario dictatorship and more than Cyrenaica did the Gaddafi dictatorship? They had to fight for their freedom. All we have to do is wake up, organize, and vote!
Friday, March 9, 2012
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