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SAT., SEPTEMBER 1, 1980 THE CAROLINA TIMES 13 : A Weekly Digest Of African Affairs LIBYA Close-Up, Part I A New Wave? The election-year splash over Billy Carter and his dealings with Libya have probably generated more U.S. media coverage on that north African coun try than at any other time in recent history. Yet Libya, Africa's fourth largest slate, remains little understood, most com monly comprehended in the superficial imagery of oil wealth and Islamic fanaticism, while the par ticulars of its dramatic political transformations ' over the past ten years are easily overlooked. In spite of controversy over its unique policies w let her one regards them as radical or erratic the Libyan Arab Jamah iriya remains intimately related to Western Europe and i ' United Stales; it is, at ' ;e very least, a vital .anting partner, supplying a much as ten per cent of U.S. oil imports. This is the first of a two part series on Libya, tak ing a look at the political mood in Tripoli. Part II will examine how the changes at home are in fluencing Libyan foreign policy. TRIPOLI AN The driver who whisks us away from Tripoli airport in his brand new Volvo sedan speaks English as if he had been raised in the United States. His name is Mahmoud, and when we question him about his skill with the English language, he tells us that for fourteen years he had been a driver for the U.S. military stationed at Wheelus airbase. (That job came to an end when the Revolutionary Com mand Council led by Muammar Qaddafi seized power in 19$9 and ejected , af! foreign military -peCrS sonnel from Libyan soil.) "I like Americans," he confesses with a sincere smile, "they are good peo ple." "But your government seems very anti American," is my im mediate response. Mahmoud appears visibly saddened by this comment. "You don't understand," he pleads. "We have nothing against the American people, we want to be friends. It is your government and the monopolies who are the enemy." During my stay in Libya, I hear this refrain many times from people with various social backgrounds. The general perception is that the U.S. government and big cor porations are only in terested in Third World countries when there is some valuable resource to be exploited. The fairly religious Libyans see this as nothing less than im moral. But they are always quick to argue that average Americans should not be blamed because they are not the ones who set these policies. In this and other ways, the first-time American visitor to Libya is un prepared for what awaits. The people are open and friendly. One feels less tension walking the street here than in most major American cities. They are full of late-model cars, very few of which are American-made. Gasoline is abundant and reasonably priced, which helps make up for the lack of mass transit (though it does little for the air quali ty). Of the families I meet, many own more than one car, and their homes are well-stocked with large Sony television sets, video cassette recorders, stereos and a host of other modern appliances. It is a bit strange to be sitting in someone's living room on a beautiful Persian carpet sipping Arab coffee wat ching Gilligan 's Island with dubbed Arabic voices. Everywhere one goes there is new construction. Houses, apartment buildings and highrise ' department stores are pro liferating, often under the guidance of Yugoslavian or Romainian contractors. One of the more noteworthy reforms of the Qaddafi government has been the elimination of rental housing and interest on mortgages. Families earning less than $350 per month pay no rent, and those with higher salaries are provided subsidies to keep their housing costs down. Other government benefits come in the form of free medical care and free education including. -mtrlversity. The costs or college would be too ex pensive for many Libyan families were it not for the government subsidy, especially considering that many students go abroad , for specialized training j that as yet cannot be pro-; vided in Libya. Although Libya is the fourth largest nation in Africa, its population only barely exceeds three million (plus a few hun dred thousand foreign workers) and the per, capita share of gross na-j tional product is estimated j at over $8,000. Traveling around the country it is easy to see that the sizeable revenues from petroleum exports have been widely distributed throughout the society. j Many Libyans are quick to point out that this is in high contrast to what life was like under the previous regime of King Idris. Until he was over thrown by a young of ficers' coup in 1969, r m r on Money Market Certificates than the current rate of 10.50 with First Capital's 6 percent plus! First Capital's "6 percent plus" is the icing on the cake. At your request, First Capital will have the monthly interest earned from your Money Market Certificates automati cally transferred into a passbook savings account. That interest will then earn 6 MORE annual interest, compounded daily! 910,000 Minimum Deposit 182 Day Term. All Saving Insured up to '100,000. Penalty for Early Withdrawal Rate Good Through Wednesday Sept. 10 'first CAkntswtKa nrr-M rror capital savevbs Hirtajitt Mil. OsrsiM. 211 1 241 CklBtlNil 1211431 Sayyis Idris, along with a small elite group close to him, enjoyed a life of con siderable luxury while most Libyans were plagued by illiteracy, ill health and unemploy ment. As with the Shah of Iran, Idris received crucial support from the British and American govern ments, thus contributing to the popular distrust of these governments after his overthrow. Under King Idris, the army had developed into a fairly representative social institution, attracting many members of the lower classes due to the relatively good wages and educational benefits. Also, in a society where labor unions and political parties were illegal, the military offered a means of exerting some political influence. Muammar Qaddafi, born in a bedouin tent to a family of nomadic farmers, was typical of the humble origins of many of the young soldiers (all under 30) who toppled King Idris in a bloodless coup on September 1, 1969. Immediately upon com ing to power, the Revolu tionary Command Coun cil began to implement policies designed to shift wealth away from the Western oil companies and the Libyan elite in the direction of wage workers and peasants. The minimum wage was doubled, and the new leaders made public the details of their families' property ownership so as to minimize opportunities for corruption. This was followed by other changes which have radically altered Libya's role in the world as well as the structure of it society, among them: the expul sion of .foreign military personnel (America)! 1 and British) and the cancella tion of contracts for Western military hard ware; a change-over of public signs from English to Arabic; a push for the Libyanization of foreign business holdings (in 1969 roughly three-fourths of the nation's factories were owned by Italian in terests); and the establish ment of plans for diversi fying the economy away from an over-reliance on petroleum. Where the new govern ment had its most signifi cant impact international ly was in its policy toward oil pricing and produc tion. Companies such as Exxon, Occidental, Tex aco and Chevron made enormous profits in the 1960s under King Idris. After seizing power, tKe young radicals cut back overall production and negotiated new pricing agreements. The result: a greater share of Libya's oil-derived wealth remain ed within the country. Following Libya's ex ample, other oil producing countries also demanded price increases. When these were granted, Libya in turn pushed for even higher revenues. The Libyans are rather proud of this tradition. At a recent oil-workers con ference in Tripoli, a large banner hanging behind the podium proclaimed: "The Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya led the fight in the world of petroleum and urged peoples to claim their rights and wealth and reminded them of their lost rights and still leads the fighting until now." Militancy on the issue of the nation's oil policy has filtered down into the general population. One young Libyan oil-worker told me that in his estima tion, the United States government didn't have a correct understanding of how to do business: "Your President Carter talks about oil in the Arab Gulf and he calls it your oil. But it only becomes yours after you pay for it. What would Americans think if Colonel Qaddafi talked about sending troops to your country to protect our trucks in Detroit simply because we need them and buy them?" Currently Libyan socie ty is undergoing a nation wide campaign to restruc ture the government and many other social institu tions. In fact, according to the official ideology, there is no government, only the people ruling directly through the various 'people's committees." On paper the scheme sounds very democratic: In their workplaces and neighborhoods citizens decide on local affairs and send representatives to regional and national 'people's congresses' for larger-scale decision mak ing. Whether this system works as smoothly as it is touted remains to be seen, however. Every time I told an official that I would like to see some of these people's committees in ac tion I was met with vague promises which were never fulfilled. The campaign to restructure the political in stitutions, along with many other changes cur rently taking place, comes under the general guidance of the Green Book, three slim volumes authored by Qaddafi and sub-titled, l)The Solution of the Problem of Democracy: The Authori ty of the People; 2)The Solution of the Economic Problem: Socialism; and 3)The Social Basis of the Third Universal Theory. Critical of communist regimes for not allowing enough direct democracy, Qaddafi also makes a frontal assault on capitalism, charging that "wage-workers are a type of slave, however improv ed their wages may be." In keeping with the Green Book's assertion that "the ultimate solution" to the probteiTi" of economic ine-. quality 'is to abolish the wage system," most Li byan businesses are being transformed into cooperatives managed by committees elected from among the workers. With regard to the role of women in society, the Green Book takes a giant step backward into the realm of biological deter minism: "A woman is tender. A woman is pret ty. A woman weeps easily. A woman is easily frightened. In general woman is gentle and man is tough by virture of their inbred nature." Hence, "if a woman carries out man's work, she will be transformed into a man, abandoning her role and her beauty." But his conservative ideology is contradicted by the very real advances Libyan women have made in the past ten years. Women's participation in the labor force and political structure (although still dispropor-. tionately small) has in creased considerably, and women have gained access to formal education, in cluding university, to an extent unprecedented in Libya and most other Arab societies. Even the military has recently established an officer training school specifically for women. And I talked to women who, despite the Green Book's denuncia tion of public nurseries, reported that it was not difficult to find child-care facilities for their children while they worked. The kind of changes that women are undergo ing are indicative of a society in rapid and cons tant flux. It is this dynamic that seems to be propelling Libya into an unorthodox and militant posture both internally and through its foreign policy. . - NIGERIA Wrestling With Multinationals By Kevin Danaher AN The success or failure of the eleven-month-old civilian govern ment depends to a great degree on President Shehu Shagari 's skill in main taining and expanding Nigeria's cordial relation- Independent Type TALLAHASSEE FLA -"I work because it's right to work. That's what the Bible says. As long as you feel like work, then work. That way you stay off welfare checks. Give welfare to the people who need it." Those are some of the views of legless James Robinson 84 who's cleaning mortar from dismantled sections of Florida's old Capitol building recently. Robinson lost his legs above the knees from the effects of diabetes. He's not sure when it was but thinks it was about 15 years ago. Robinson is paid two cents for each brick he chips clean. "I worked like hell yesterday and made $15. You've got to clean a whole hundred to make $2 " he told a visitor. He receives Social Security from earlier work and supplements it with savings and his earnings at the old Capitol, which is behind a new 22-story Capitol. Bricks Robinson cleans are used in the 135-year-old Capitol, undergoing renevation for use as a museum. UPI Pnoto ship with K4he multina tional corporations that hold the technical keys to the country 's future, while at the same time maintain ing enough control over those corporations to in sure that the principal benefits of Nigerian oil ac crue to the nation and its development. Africa News here reviews two events of recent weeks that have provided Shagari with an opportunity to demonstrate his skill: Earlier this month, Nigeria demanded that three oil companies Shell, Gulf and Mobil repay 182.95 million bar rels of crude oil which, authorities say, should have been delivered to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) in the years bet ween 1975 and 1978. The demand for the oil, worth some $6.1 billion at cur rent prices, comes on the heels of the report of an official investigation into alleged mismanagement of funds by the NNPC itself. The new conflict bet ween the Shagari govern ment and Shell, Gulf and Mobil stems from discord over implementation of Nigeria's participation agreements with the oil firms, contracts which granted Nigeria 55 of the petroleum yield. During the period in question, because of an oversupply on the world market and the high price of Nigerian crude, the companies slowed produc tion, at the suggestion of the Nigerian government. According to Nigerian authorities, however, the firms violated the agree ment by taking a full 45 share of the oil scheduled to be produced, thereby giving themselves a larger than 45 share of actual production for that year. The companies, for their part, contend tti! their actions were c pletely correct and done with the full knowledge of officials in Lagos. Nigeria's oil for those years, they say, remained in the ground. The government's de mand to the oil giants is a surprising and somewhat dramatic conclusion to the 'oilgate scandal' that threatened the Shagari government during its first months. The scandal had . its origin in charges by the newspaper Punch that some $5 billion was miss , ing from NNPC accounts. The commission report, however, focused not on corruption but on the fail ings of the international oil companies. The panel found NNPC record keeping to be totally in adequate, but it complete ly absolved officials of any wrongdoing. President Shagar's message to the oil com panies stated that the lost revenue could be repaid over several years. He also appointed yet another special panel to report to him in October with a plan for the recovery of the funds. In the talks last month during Vice President Mondale's visit to Lagos, the Nigerians made it clear that they must make op timum use of the twenty years worth of oil reserves left to them. They stressed the importance of increas ed technical assistance and training to help expand production of coal and natural gas and other potentially viable in dustries. The U.S. delega tion, by contrast, put priority on opening export and investment outlets for U.S. agribusiness, for ex ample, as a means of eas ing the current trade im balance that favors oil exporting Nigeria. In an effort to en courage American in vestors, restrictions on the repatriation of profits have now been liberalized and the 'indigenization decree' of the military regime is under recon sideration. For some individual Nigerians, this drive to at tract foreign investors is proving quite profitable. Several government critics have charged that these wealthy Nigerians are us ing their influence with (Continued on Page 15) Ward Furniture Mart Labor Day Specials Sleep-Sofas By: nd Line qsdown , cg-,u3 i I Holiday Hryfctefl Large s Tyies m vinyls, tweeds "JSnSyL J and plalds. w V"1 5 $1 8950 1 ip SAVE OW SERTTA PERFECT SLEEPER SIGNATURE I SETS MATTRESS AND Twin 299.90 227 JO Full 379.90 269.90 FOUNDATION Queen 45995 34M rWTHfn IV" King : 599.9S 459.93 "y ' '""I1 1 1:1: Wt:n- T .1. ,.1 jf
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Sept. 6, 1980, edition 1
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