the ill-considered release of Abd al-Baset Ali al-Megrahi
Ali al-Megrahi, the lone person convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombings, has been released early from a 27-year prison sentence and returned to Libya. Not only that, but he was given a celebration and accompanied by Saif al-Islam Qaddafi (the dictator’s own son). This has drawn criticism from both Gordon Brown and Barack Obama, who reportedly tried to ask Muammar Qaddafi to be sensitive about receiving al-Megrahi, as the British and American governments as well as relatives of the Lockerbie victims have received news of his release by Scottish officials with frustration and anger. In fact, various leaders have referred to the whole situation as “deeply disturbing” and “outrageous and disgusting.”
To put the situation in context; in 1988, Pan-Am flight 103 exploded in mid-air over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people on board as well as 11 people on the ground below. The Libyan government was quickly blamed for the terrorist attack, resulting in all sorts of economic and diplomatic sanctions against Libya (which were only lifted years later when Qaddafi agreed to accept responsibility for the incident and pay reparations to victims’ families). Eventually only one person was convicted, Ali al-Megrahi, and he was put in prison in 2001.
This event played right into Qaddafi’s hands: he had been preaching about how the West was out to get him for years (Reagan’s virulent comments had given him material), and now he had something tangible that he could bring home to his beleaguered people. 7 years later, upon al-Megrahi’s release, Qaddafi, to his mind, has another diplomatic triumph: he has defeated the evil West and brought home the maligned and wrongly imprisoned al-Megrahi. His dubious guilt being out of the picture for a moment, his release was a diplomatically poor move. Qaddafi now has a sequence of events that he can use to back up his power and influence. Supporting that argument is the fact that most Libyans I’ve talked to do see him as a scapegoat. And why not? Libya was blockaded and sanctioned for so many years, that why wouldn’t “the West” pick a Libyan at random in order to seemingly seal the issue of Libya’s agency in the attacks?
But from another angle, appeasing the Libyan dictator in this matter means that he is less likely to deny access to his country’s oil reserves. Gordon Brown is not likely to want to get in the way of British Petroleum’s huge contract for Libyan oil, for example. Both the US and the UK have been working toward improved relations with Libya ever since Qaddafi renounced state-sponsored terrorism, and so this has the looks of a sly diplomatic move. It is neither unexpected nor implausible that either government would be driven by business interests. Though Qaddafi may have wrinkled the situation a little by welcoming al-Megrahi back home in a celebratory manner, in his mind he came out ahead.
I think, though, that the anger at al-Megrahi’s release is somewhat misplaced. It is horrible to have to suffer through a terrorist attack of Lockerbie’s caliber, and it is no good thing to have a known murderer or terrorist released from any prison (though al-Megrahi isn’t necessarily that). It is even less of a good thing, however, to not be angry that the leaders of our countries are fraternizing with, appeasing, and even patronizing a dictator, one with cited human rights violations. On September 1, Qaddafi will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the military coup that brought him to power. During those four decades his people have experienced no civil rights and liberties and have not felt the economic benefits of the world’s 9th-largest oil reserves. Indeed, Qaddafi reserves the freedoms of speech and travel for himself and his family just as he does his country’s oil income.
International leaders have rarely criticized Qaddafi’s grip on power or his human rights abuses; they have only questioned his eccentric behavior and politicking while accepting his legitimacy as a world leader, rewarding him with a seat on the UN Security Council and the chairmanship of the African Union. Though far be it from me to believe that our leaders act on discernible and upright principle, I think it is high time we demand that they refuse both to cooperate with an oppressive dictator and to accept him as a responsible and legitimate world leader. Since our ideology of spreading democracy only applies to countries whose oil we want, it is perfectly logical that the Libyan dictatorship be opposed from the angle of international diplomacy.
some found libyan proverbs
When I was a student at AUC in 2008, I whiled away the hours between buses browsing through old books in their new library. The library’s collection as a whole wasn’t great, but it did have a number of books on obscurish (and even extinct) Arabic dialects (Sicilian, Cypriot). To my excitement, I found several old Italian books on Libyan Arabic. One of them was a descriptive grammar of the Arabic spoken in Cyrenaica, or eastern Libya. The book was titled L’arabo parlato in Cyrenaica, and was published in 1933, during the time when the Italians occupied Libya. Perhaps the only fortunate result of the Italian colonization was that much of older Libyan culture and language was recorded – albeit in out-of-print Italian books – but recorded, nonetheless. Since I couldn’t keep this book and bring it home, I checked it out and, had a complete photocopy made.
Skimming past the grammar and syntax section – since I don’t know much Italian, I didn’t get too much from these parts – I came upon section entitled Proverbi Beduini, “Bedouin Proverbs.” This was the most exciting – 84 eastern Libyan proverbs, at least 70 years old, with accompanying Italian translations.
Since the book transliterated Arabic for Italians pronouncing the Latin alphabet, I just transliterated the Latin letters back into Arabic, using the appropriate tashkīl to preserve exact pronunciation (as exact as the Italian who recorded this got, that is) in case certain vowels have changed since the 1930s. Then I translated them into English, asking my father for help with interpretation. He was familiar with nearly all of them, which I take as proof that their use wasn’t just limited to non-urban Libyans (my father wasn’t no desert-wanderer!).
Here are the first 10:
الزَمّار يموت و صُبْعه يرِفّ
“The flute player dies with his finger shaking,” meaning that strong habits stay with you your whole life, even until death.
كل حدّ يجِرّ النار لخُبزه
“Each one brings the fire (closest) to his bread”
لو قُوّسَت في العشيِ دَوِّر لك شجَرة تقية
“If the sun starts to move west, find a shady tree.” Problems don’t get solved and disappear, life involves continuous problem-solving (I imagine).
من يقول للصيد فَمَّك ابخر
“Who would tell the lion that his breath stinks?” For fear of retaliation, nobody wants to confront a tyrant. If this isn’t poignant in contemporary Libya, I don’t know what is.
رقيق الغرَض ياكِل عشاه مَرّتين
“The person with no dignity eats his dinner twice.” This may be because, food being scarce in times past, eating more than one’s share would have been considered not only gluttonous, but a sign of lacking shame or concern for one’s fellows or host. [Thanks, Abdurahman!]
طول الخيط يوَدِّر لابرة
“The needle will be lost if the thread is too long.” Meaning, use enough to do the job, and do not extend the matter (whether it’s conversation or a project).
ما يحَكّ للحَيّ لَذّ مِن يده
“Only you can scratch your itch.” No one will do your job or look after your interests.
جَت تجْري و الحَمَتها حادورة
“It came running and was met by a slope.” Similar idea as the English “to add fuel to the fire…”
طويلة القَرْن تحَكّ وين تِستلذّ
“The one with big horns scratches itself where it pleases.” Interpretation unsure…I’m thinking something along the lines of ‘those who have the means can do what they please.’
سوق الغلا جلّاب
“The high priced brings customers.” Unobtainable things are attractive.
These kind of proverbs provide an interesting look at folk wisdom, though it is debatable how much insight they give into the kinds of things that Libyan Bedouin found important to think and educate their young about. It’s also neat to see that a lot of these proverbs have equivalents in English (and no doubt in other languages as well), which indicates to me that there is at least some similarity in human experience around the globe.
