Libya has officially begun the transition to the post-revolutionary era, something nicely underlined by the Transnational National Council's relocation to the newly-freed capital city of Tripoli, where they held their first press conference today.
Despite its small demographic size -- Libya has a population of 7 million, smaller than Tunisia's 10 million and much smaller than Egypt's 84 million -- the success of Libya's revolution will have far-reaching consequences for the entire region. The reason is that both Tunisia and Egypt
have economies deeply damaged by Euro-American neoliberalism and indigenous comprador elites. However, Libya has $150 billion in foreign exchange reserves, plus one-quarter of Africa's energy reserves. A free, democratic Libya is precisely the financial motor the North African region urgently needs.
All the initial signs are promising. The freedom fighters have done a remarkable job in avoiding unnecessary bloodshed and revenge attacks, and have moved quickly to re-establish civic security and stability. Most neighborhoods in Tripoli now have checkpoints, excess weapons are being collected, and electricity, internet and cellphone access have been almost fully restored. There are still isolated firefights with the remnants of Qaddafi's militias, but the vast majority of the city is secure.
Tripoli's extensive cadre of civil servants, engineers and professionals can now begin to reconstruct the country. Libya's financial and energy resources, its newfound sense of national unity and purpose, and competent political leadership could spark an unprecedented economic boom. Libya, Tunisia and Egypt could conceivably form a "growth triangle" which will be one of the two key economic motors of the Middle East (the other is AKP-led Turkey, one of Eurasia's fastest-growing developmental states).
This isn't to say there won't be missteps along the way. Author Hisham Matar has this timely essay on the challenges of building a post-Qaddafi Libya.
Also, check out this portal of Arabic-language rap music, which will hopefully expand in the near future.
UPDATE: Twitter posts say Mohammed Bin Lamin, the brilliant Misurata artist whose work was mentioned in a previous post, has been freed (along with thousands of others) from the notorious Abu Salim prison.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
The Libya You Don't Know
The Arab Spring is on the march, and no dictators, one-party states, or crumbling Empires can stop it. Still, one of the hurdles facing the Arab Spring is the persistence of neo-Orientalist stereotypes about the Arab world in the mainstream English-speaking media. All too often, the region is depicted as a landscape of oil, deserts, and political tyranny. To counter these stereotypes, here's a small sampling of the amazing cultural richness of just one Arab country, the country of Libya.
Sight. Here's a piece called "Tree of Women" by Misurata-based Libyan artist Mohammad Bin Lamin:
Bin Lamin's works are riveting, haunted by postcolonial ghosts and yet scintillating with energy. More of his work can be seen here and here (his homepage is here). Early in the Libyan revolution, Qaddafi thugs ravaged Misurata, killing and abducting thousands of people. The revolutionaries defeated them and drove them out of the city, but Bin Lamin was one of those abducted. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Sound. In 2010 and 2011, exiled Libyan musician Ibn Thabit created some of the finest rap music of the Arabic region, including this track, which may go down in history as the unofficial anthem of the revolution (his homepage is here, and his Youtube videos are here). Recently, Ibn Thabit made the courageous decision to join the frontlines of the revolution -- read his latest account of the revolution in the Nafusa mountains.
Diversity.The Libyan revolution is not just about formal political liberation, it's also about the liberation of the long-suppressed cultural diversity of Libyan society. Some of the staunchest defenders of the revolution are the Amazigh (also known in English as Berber) inhabitants of the Nafusa mountains, whose language and culture were ruthlessly suppressed by the dictatorship. A Libyan resident of the mountains created this video, counterpointing the soaring music and words of Algerian artist Idir (a member of the Algerian branch of the Amazigh) to images of the mountains and its revolution. Note that the language is not Arabic but Amazigh, and English subtitles are included in the video.
Food. Last but surely not least, Libya has its own world-class culinary traditions. You can check out some of them at the Libyan Food Blog, with authentic Libyan and regional recipes. We've tried some of them, and can certify they're delicious.
Sight. Here's a piece called "Tree of Women" by Misurata-based Libyan artist Mohammad Bin Lamin:
Bin Lamin's works are riveting, haunted by postcolonial ghosts and yet scintillating with energy. More of his work can be seen here and here (his homepage is here). Early in the Libyan revolution, Qaddafi thugs ravaged Misurata, killing and abducting thousands of people. The revolutionaries defeated them and drove them out of the city, but Bin Lamin was one of those abducted. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Sound. In 2010 and 2011, exiled Libyan musician Ibn Thabit created some of the finest rap music of the Arabic region, including this track, which may go down in history as the unofficial anthem of the revolution (his homepage is here, and his Youtube videos are here). Recently, Ibn Thabit made the courageous decision to join the frontlines of the revolution -- read his latest account of the revolution in the Nafusa mountains.
Diversity.The Libyan revolution is not just about formal political liberation, it's also about the liberation of the long-suppressed cultural diversity of Libyan society. Some of the staunchest defenders of the revolution are the Amazigh (also known in English as Berber) inhabitants of the Nafusa mountains, whose language and culture were ruthlessly suppressed by the dictatorship. A Libyan resident of the mountains created this video, counterpointing the soaring music and words of Algerian artist Idir (a member of the Algerian branch of the Amazigh) to images of the mountains and its revolution. Note that the language is not Arabic but Amazigh, and English subtitles are included in the video.
Food. Last but surely not least, Libya has its own world-class culinary traditions. You can check out some of them at the Libyan Food Blog, with authentic Libyan and regional recipes. We've tried some of them, and can certify they're delicious.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Margins
How thin, the veil between critical thinking and the total system.
One false step, one missed shot, one mangled interview and you spiral down into the brokenness of the United Status of Chimerica. The morbid symptoms of imperial collapse are multiplying -- plutocrats who prattled endlessly about market discipline while indulging in the biggest, most irresponsible credit bubble in recorded history, health insurers whose business model is to deny health care to the sick, elites who prattle endlessly about freedom while building the biggest prison-system of all time, the savaging of education and social services while trillions are pissed away on failed neocolonial wars. These days, you can feel the geopolitical riptide carrying an entire society out to sea.
But that's not a reason to despair, but a reason to fight for the things which give us life. Those things can be as complex as Adorno's message in a bottle, or as simple as the sight of a child laboriously hand-copying its first written word. They are the things which are cast off, excluded, dismissed -- the things at the margins. They shimmer, just out of reach of the prison-house of neoliberalism, their surfaces edged with the faintest shadow of what could be.
I can hear it in the best transnational hip hop.
I can see it in the best transnational video.
I can feel it in the best transnational videogames.
The heartbeat of the Resistance.
One false step, one missed shot, one mangled interview and you spiral down into the brokenness of the United Status of Chimerica. The morbid symptoms of imperial collapse are multiplying -- plutocrats who prattled endlessly about market discipline while indulging in the biggest, most irresponsible credit bubble in recorded history, health insurers whose business model is to deny health care to the sick, elites who prattle endlessly about freedom while building the biggest prison-system of all time, the savaging of education and social services while trillions are pissed away on failed neocolonial wars. These days, you can feel the geopolitical riptide carrying an entire society out to sea.
But that's not a reason to despair, but a reason to fight for the things which give us life. Those things can be as complex as Adorno's message in a bottle, or as simple as the sight of a child laboriously hand-copying its first written word. They are the things which are cast off, excluded, dismissed -- the things at the margins. They shimmer, just out of reach of the prison-house of neoliberalism, their surfaces edged with the faintest shadow of what could be.
I can hear it in the best transnational hip hop.
I can see it in the best transnational video.
I can feel it in the best transnational videogames.
The heartbeat of the Resistance.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Metrics of Decline
Occasionally I get comments from readers who express surprise at my gloominess about the US. Surely this place isn't melting down completely... is it?
Here's a chart showing just one metric of imperial decline, the implosion of the US machine-tools industry (data from the ever-reliable folks at Gardner Publications):
(Side-note: the magnitude of the US decline is matched only by the slide of that other former superpower trashed by market fundamentalism, Britain, whose share of machine-tools production dropped from 2.3% in 2001 to 0.7% in 2010).
It doesn't have to be this way. If the US spent $1 trillion every year on education and green jobs instead of neocolonial war and drone strikes on Afghan wedding processions, 90% of our social and economic problems would go away within a decade.
America has a choice: military-colonial ruination, or eco-democratic rebirth.
Here's a chart showing just one metric of imperial decline, the implosion of the US machine-tools industry (data from the ever-reliable folks at Gardner Publications):
| Region or Country | 2001 Production of Machine-tools as Percent World | 2010 Production of Machine-tools as Percent World |
| BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) | 8.9% | 32.4% |
| Europe (EU plus Switzerland) | 48.7% | 31.0% |
| East Asia (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) | 14.0% | 30.4% |
| US | 7.9% | 3.1% |
(Side-note: the magnitude of the US decline is matched only by the slide of that other former superpower trashed by market fundamentalism, Britain, whose share of machine-tools production dropped from 2.3% in 2001 to 0.7% in 2010).
It doesn't have to be this way. If the US spent $1 trillion every year on education and green jobs instead of neocolonial war and drone strikes on Afghan wedding processions, 90% of our social and economic problems would go away within a decade.
America has a choice: military-colonial ruination, or eco-democratic rebirth.
Friday, June 17, 2011
The Death Mask of Neoliberalism
In times like these, it's easy to give in to rampant despair.
But the painful, bumpy descent of the US Empire into stagnation and irrelevance isn't the end of the world.
The plutocrats own trillions in assets. But we workers of the world own twenty-five or so developmental states and gigantic sovereign wealth funds.
The plutocrats own the US political overclass. But we own massive social movements.
The plutocrats own the mainstream media. But we own the digital commons and the videogame culture.
The plutocrats are trying to make workers pay for the cost of their thievery and outrageous greed. But progressive candidates are winning in Latin America and revolutions are sweeping the Middle East.
Neoliberalism has trashed our planet. It's time to take it back.
But the painful, bumpy descent of the US Empire into stagnation and irrelevance isn't the end of the world.
The plutocrats own trillions in assets. But we workers of the world own twenty-five or so developmental states and gigantic sovereign wealth funds.
The plutocrats own the US political overclass. But we own massive social movements.
The plutocrats own the mainstream media. But we own the digital commons and the videogame culture.
The plutocrats are trying to make workers pay for the cost of their thievery and outrageous greed. But progressive candidates are winning in Latin America and revolutions are sweeping the Middle East.
Neoliberalism has trashed our planet. It's time to take it back.
One, two, many Joe Capellis!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Why I Study Transnational Media
Fame? Fortune? Actually, it's because my day job is finding gems like this.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Imperial Undertow
Surefire sign that I'm getting older: science-fiction posthistory is increasingly difficult to distinguish from fantasy-fiction prehistory. Because the tide is going out on this Empire, and the undertow is pulling millions of Americans under.
It's a familiar undertow. I know all too well what they're going through. The rage, the frustration, the steadily increasing desperation, the spiral into near-suicidal depression -- been there, done that. Long ago, the first ripples of that undertow almost carried me out to sea. This was almost a decade ago, when my chosen profession (the teaching of literature in the US) went and shot itself in the head. I shudder to think of what would've happened if I hadn't discovered the world of media studies.
The ripples became waves, the waves became a flood. The horrible tragedy is that most Americans still don't realize it isn't their fault. It is the fault of this dreadfully corrupt and unjust system we live in, this dying Empire collapsing under the weight of trillion dollar military boondoggles and trillion-dollar bailouts for corrupt banksters. Trillions for war and theft, while schoolteachers are fired to save pennies and children are test-milled into oblivion.
We must disassemble the monster, before it disassembles us all.
In happier news, I've posted some new theory-rants posted here (the first of six, they're all up now). Also, I finally scored a cheap webcam, which means more webcasts will be unleashed in the near future on an unsuspecting planet. Next up: thoughts on the postneoliberal era.
It's a familiar undertow. I know all too well what they're going through. The rage, the frustration, the steadily increasing desperation, the spiral into near-suicidal depression -- been there, done that. Long ago, the first ripples of that undertow almost carried me out to sea. This was almost a decade ago, when my chosen profession (the teaching of literature in the US) went and shot itself in the head. I shudder to think of what would've happened if I hadn't discovered the world of media studies.
The ripples became waves, the waves became a flood. The horrible tragedy is that most Americans still don't realize it isn't their fault. It is the fault of this dreadfully corrupt and unjust system we live in, this dying Empire collapsing under the weight of trillion dollar military boondoggles and trillion-dollar bailouts for corrupt banksters. Trillions for war and theft, while schoolteachers are fired to save pennies and children are test-milled into oblivion.
We must disassemble the monster, before it disassembles us all.
In happier news, I've posted some new theory-rants posted here (the first of six, they're all up now). Also, I finally scored a cheap webcam, which means more webcasts will be unleashed in the near future on an unsuspecting planet. Next up: thoughts on the postneoliberal era.
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