Libya Blocks Internet Access As Citizens Protest 93
An anonymous reader writes "As protests rage across the Middle East, in particular gaining strength in Libya, Djibouti, Iraq, Bahrain, and Yemen over the past two days, Libya has taken the lead role in blocking internet access to its citizens. Residents of Tripoli, Libya are reporting wide-spread internet blockage for most sites, and access to circumvention tools like OperaTor and VPN is also being blocked."
Libya blocks access to Facebook, Al Jazeera (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Great idea! Quite original! (Score:3, Informative)
To add to that:
Each one of these places has state control(direct like socialism or indirect like fascism) over food production and allocation. Each also has very poor output and imports food. Each also selects favorites to get the most food based on political pull usually giving certain districts more or less based on their political backing. Food becomes bribes for votes, essentially.
In egypt, food subsidies provide food for a large portion of the population. In fact egypt is the largest wheat importer of the world. When the crop failures hit, egypt was caught off guard. When the governments of india and russia prevented their agriculture industry from selling wheat outside of their countries, it was stunned. When inflation of currencies drove commodity rates up 30% in just 6 months of 2010, egypt was devastated.
Add to that the fact that these countries subsidizes education costs, which creates massive unemployment for the increased number of graduates. Tunisia particularly had a 45% unemployment rate for graduates, when the national average was only 15%. 57% of new workers entering the market to find jobs are college educated so we are talking about 25% of all new workers not finding jobs. This idle and restless youth is the most inclined to fight against the current power structure. With no reliance upon it for handouts(after graduating, I mean) and nothing to lose besides their despairing or even hopeless lives, they are a volatile group.
Some links for lots of sources:
http://mises.org/daily/5045/The-Education-Bubble-Is-Fuel-for-Revolt
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/egypt-protests2011.html
http://www.care2.com/causes/womens-rights/blog/gender-barriers-break-in-egyptian-protests/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/middleeast/28alexandria.html
http://www.grist.org/article/2011-01-31-how-food-prices-can-fuel-revolutions-like-egypts/
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2011/01/spike_in_global_food_prices_tr.html
http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/
http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/agr_cou_818.pdf
http://mises.org/daily/5050/QE2-Fuels-a-Global-Fury
Each of these links is worth reading, and provide even more evidence than I mentioned above.
Re:Great idea! Quite original! (Score:5, Informative)
"Libya is a wealthier if not economically more equal country than either."
Not entirely accurate. The GOVERNMENT of Libya is wealthy. US diplomatic cables paint an entirely different picture then that you describe.
The locals...
http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/07/08TRIPOLI530.html [213.251.145.96]
http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/11/08TRIPOLI889.html [213.251.145.96]
http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/01/09TRIPOLI22.html [213.251.145.96]
The shit the locals have to put up with...
http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/08/08TRIPOLI635.html [213.251.145.96]
The leaders the locals have to put up with (not to be confused with the shit)...
http://213.251.145.96/cable/2010/02/10TRIPOLI95.html [213.251.145.96]
http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/07/08TRIPOLI592.html [213.251.145.96]
With only more of the same shit to look forward to...
http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/12/08TRIPOLI936.html [213.251.145.96]
All it really takes to get Libyan panties in a bunch...
http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/12/09TRIPOLI961.html [213.251.145.96]
So, in reality, things aren't really any different there then they are in other countries we see in full-swing upheaval--we just haven't heard about it in the media...yet.