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Smaller Protests Show Yanukovych Weakened?
Can someone reconcile these two parts from a NYT report about Ukraine? First:
On Sunday, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Independence Square here in the capital, … Rather than being placated by any of the concessions, the opposition has grown emboldened by the evidence that Mr. Yanukovych’s position has weakened.
So "tens of thousands" show that the president Yanukovych's position has "weakened". But what then is this further down in the piece?
Though large, the turnout was far lower than at the movement’s peak in early December, when more than 100,000 people gathered on three successive Sundays.
The protests are far smaller now but that is a sign that the president's position has weakened? How does that fit?
The attempts by the U.S. and the EU to now bribe Ukraine with more empty promises will not work.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Western powers were working on a financial plan for Ukraine whose numbers "won't be small" and won't hinge on Kiev first agreeing upon a long-term International Monetary Fund agreement, whose financial conditions Kiev has had difficulty complying with.
However, she said the money was contingent on the new Ukrainian government pursuing economic and political reforms.
U.S. officials said the goal was to convince Mr. Yanukovych to make a series of political reforms, including appointing a "true" technocratic government that would then start to make the tough economic changes sought by the IMF.
It makes no economic sense for Ukraine, which depends on exports to Russia and on natural gas from Russia, to turn away from Russia and towards a predatory "west". Any IMF program, which would lend money just as Russia is willing to do but with much more destructive conditions, would likely be very harsh for the people. They know this and are not willing to give in.
The U.S. and the EU are inciting the hard-rightwing and fascist "opposition" in Ukraine. The western darling Klitchko has called for the creation of "self-defense groups". One hopes that this call will be ignored like his previous two calls for a general strike which no one followed.
my email to Truthdig on acting as pimp for BBC attack on Gaddafi
February 5, 2014 at 6:05pm
Hello Truthdig:
This is what appears on your site this morning:
We all know the late Libyan dictator was a deplorable man, but now, thanks to a BBC documentary released Monday, more details of his depravity have come to light. Among the most harrowing occurrences uncovered are the kidnapping and rpe of hundreds of boys and girls as young as 14 years old. After being chosen by the dictator on visits to schools and colleges, the teens were then taken to his specially designed rpe chambers, one of which could be found in Tripoli University along with a gynecological suite where girls were tested for diseases before being abused by Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
The documentary, titled “Mad Dog: Gaddafi’s Secret World,” also revealed other grotesque acts, such as his orders to shoot down a Libyan Arab Airlines airplane, resulting in the deaths of 157 people.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/gaddafi_would_test_teenagers_for_stds_before_raping_them_in_his_sex_dungeon
No Truthdig, WE don’t all know the late and great leader Muammar Gadafi was a deplorable man: that’s your deplorable assessment and based on,..what? (see below for a different assessment)
It used to be the dead were respected: not made the object of propaganda attacks.
You, whoever you are, may have seen the BBC video, I haven’t… and you’ve not analysed the BBC piece to let us know the validity of its claims. However, someone else has : Here is the basis for this BBC propaganda video:
‘Like other tyrants, Gaddafi used torture and murder to silence opposition, but what made his rule especially terrifying was that death came so casually. A man who complained that Gaddafi had an affair with his wife was tied between two cars and torn in half. On visits to schools and orphanages Gaddafi would tap underage girls on the head to show his henchmen which ones he wanted. They would be taken to his palace and abused. Young boys were held in tunnels under the palace.”
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/30-01-2014/126728-bbc_gaddafi-0/
So the BBC ‘documentary’ begins with the axiom that Gadafi was a ‘tyrant’,has henchmen/pimps, then proceeds from there to build a case against him. Is this how the media usually works? Man was torn in half? Cast your mind back to the baby incubator story:
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/cohen1.html
We know that the BBC is british state media and has waged propaganda wars on Libya for years as it does now against Syria. So far they’ve not made a BBC documentary as to whats in Syrias presidential basement…but that must be in the works in the BBCs basement!
Fortunately, there are sites that have more self respect than to surf newsprn sits like the BBC. For a bit of context, here is an article on Gadaffi written while he was a live and could respond;
‘Under the revolutionary leadership of Muammar Qaddafi, Libya has attained the highest standard of living in Africa. In 2007, in an article which appeared in the African Executive Magazine, Norah Owaraga noted that Libya, “unlike other oil producing countries such as Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, utilized the revenue from its oil to develop its country. The standard of living of the people of Libya is one of the highest in Africa, falling in the category of countries with a GNP per capita of between USD 2,200 and 6,000.”
This is all the more remarkable when we consider that in 1951 Libya was officially the poorest country in the world. According to the World Bank, the per capita income was less than $50 a year – even lower than India. Today, all Libyans own their own homes and cars. Two Fleet Street journalists, David Blundy and Andrew Lycett, who are by no means supporters of the Libyan revolution, had this to say:
“The young people are well dressed, well fed and well educated. Libyans now earn more per capita than the British. The disparity in annual incomes… is smaller than in most countries. Libya’s wealth has been fairly spread throughout society. Every Libyan gets free, and often excellent, education, medical and health services. New colleges and hospitals are impressive by any international standard. All Libyans have a house or a flat, a car and most have televisions, video recorders and telephones. Compared with most citizens of the Third World countries, and with many in the First World, Libyans have it very good indeed.” (Source: Qaddafi and the Libyan Revolution)
Large scale housing construction has taken place right across the country. Every citizen has been given a decent house or apartment to live in rent-free. In Qaddafi’s Green Book it states: “The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family, therefore it should not be owned by others.” This dictum has now become a reality for the Libyan people
etc
http://blackagendareport.com/content/libya-getting-it-right-revolutionary-pan-african-perspective
Do I believe the BBC? Not at all..any more than the lying NYT with its WMDs in Iraq. From babies in incubators to sex dungeons, the western media and now leftusts blogs have acted as pimps for the US/UK war machines.
Strange how for all those years before his wanton murder by a toxic mix of americans politicians, eurotrash and Islamic terrorists You’ve now joined the desplorable company of a people like this person:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_x04Gn3-2g
Meanwhile a man who knew Gadafi nmuch better and had been to Libya, Nelson Mandela makes no mention of any of these claims…he does know that it was Gadafi not the US or UK govt of media pimps who aided ending SA apartheid
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/05-01-2014/126547-mandela_gaddafi-0/
The BBC ‘documentary’ is clearly propaganda of the ugliest sort, by a media of a state that is till stewing over the loss of its empire
SHAME on you and your now worthless site smearing a dead man, who cant defend his character against this sort of deplorable gutter media attack
SHAME!
Regards
Brian
Posted by: brian | Feb 5 2014 8:03 utc | 36
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