21-Feb-11 News -- Libya's bloodbath spreads to Tripoli

[John]

21-Feb-11 News -- Libya's bloodbath spreads to Tripoli as tribal leaders turn against government

Son of Libya's leader Gaddafi gives a harsh, rambling speech on television.

** 21-Feb-11 News -- Libya's bloodbath spreads to Tripoli as tribal leaders turn against government
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... 21#e110221

[JULLIEN]

The last generational crisis in Libya might have been the Senoussi uprising in the 1920's (uncertain)
1947 : independence
1950's 1960"s : awakening era ?
1969 : Libyan revolution. Awakening climax ?
1970's-1980's : militarism, terrorism funding, bloody purges, expulsions of foreigners, near-war with Egypt, near-war with France over Chad (Tchad)... revolutionary dynamics coupled with generational ones
1986 : American aerial bombings (unraveling "climax" ?)
2003 : renunciation mass destruction weapons
2000's : openness policy. As a result, beginning of foreign investments and increasing of corruption
2011 : Libya on the edge of civil war ? New generational crisis ?

[thomasglee]

John,

From what I can find in regards to 1937, he must be talking about that being the year Libya was formed as a colony of Italy. In 1937 the two colonies of Tripolitania and Cirenaica were joined together and formed the new colony called Libya.

I think he is comparing 1937's outside influences in forming Libya to today's supposed outside influences that are creating the internal strife.

Once pacification had been accomplished, fascist Italy endeavored to convert Libya into an Italian province to be referred to popularly as Italy's Fourth Shore. In 1934 Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were divided into four provinces--Tripoli, Misratah, Benghazi, and Darnah--which were formally linked as a single colony known as Libya, thus officially resurrecting the name that Diocletian had applied nearly 1,500 years earlier. Fezzan, designated as South Tripolitania, remained a military territory. A governor general, called the first consul after 1937, was in overall direction of the colony, assisted by the General Consultative Council, on which Arabs were represented. Traditional tribal councils, formerly sanctioned by the Italian administration, were abolished, and all local officials were thereafter appointed by the governor general. Administrative posts at all levels were held by Italians. An accord with Britain and Egypt obtained the transfer of a corner of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, known as the Sarra Triangle, to Italian control in 1934. The next year, a French-Italian agreement was negotiated that relocated the 1,000-kilometer border between Libya and Chad southward about 100 kilometers across the Aouzou Strip, but this territorial concession to Italy was never ratified by the French legislature. In 1939 Libya was incorporated into metropolitan Italy. During the 1930s, impressive strides were made in improving the country's economic and transportation infrastructure. Italy invested capital and technology in public works projects, extension and modernization of cities, highway and railroad construction, expanded port facilities, and irrigation, but these measures were introduced to benefit the Italian-controlled modern sector of the economy. Italian development policy after World War I had called for capital-intensive "economic colonization" intended to promote the maximum exploitation of the resources available. One of the initial Italian objectives in Libya, however, had been the relief of overpopulation and unemployment in Italy through emigration to the undeveloped colony. With security established, systematic "demographic colonization" was encouraged by Mussolini's government. A project initiated by Libya's governor, Italo Balbo, brought the first 20,000 settlers--the ventimilli--to Libya in a single convoy in October 1938. More settlers followed in 1939, and by 1940 there were approximately 110,000 Italians in Libya, constituting about 12 percent of the total population. Plans envisioned an Italian colony of 500,000 settlers by the 1960s. Libya's best land was allocated to the settlers to be brought under productive cultivation, primarily in olive groves. Settlement was directed by a state corporation, the Libyan Colonization Society, which undertook land reclamation and the building of model villages and offered a grubstake and credit facilities to the settlers it had sponsored. The Italians made modern medical care available for the first time in Libya, improved sanitary conditions in the towns, and undertook to replenish the herds and flocks that had been depleted during the war. But, although Mussolini liked to refer to the Libyans as "Muslim Italians," little more was accomplished that directly improved the living standards of the Arab population.

[John]

Thanks for the information and suggestions, Jullien and Thomas.

The mystery of the "civil war of 1937" deepened this evening. I saw
the same clip on Fox News this evening, and they translated it as
"the civil war of 1936," so they had a different translation than
al-Jazeera.

Somebody else had a different theory. I suggested that Saif might not
know any history prior to his birth as an explanation, but another
theory is that he knows that there was no civil war in 1937 (or 1936),
but he said that as part of his rambling speech, since he knows that
most Libyan's won't know that there wasn't a civil war in 1937, but he
just wanted to take advantage of their ignorance.

One possibility is that he was talking about the 1969 coup, and either
misstated the date, or there was a translation error.

The candidates for Libya's last crisis war, as far as I can tell, are
the 1912 Italian victory of the Ottomans, WW II, and the 1969 coup
(which I agree, Jullien, looks more like an Awakening coup). I can't
find anything in the 20th century that "reads" like a crisis war.

It's also possible that there are different crisis wars for the east
and west. I've tried to figure out what's going on, but right now
I have no idea.

John

[John]

Listening to Muammar Gaddafi's speech today, wherein he sounded like
the resurrection of Hitler, I believe it's likely that he's a Nomad
(Gen-Xer). He was born in 1942, which would make it likely that the
1912 Italian invasion was the last crisis war. Actually, he sounds
like an early Nomad, which would place the previous crisis war climax
in the early 1920s, when there were several wars going on, following
the Italian invasion.

This would also mean that the 1969 coup was the latest crisis war.

John