The World Remade

by Richard Pithouse, SACSIS

As the first unconfirmed reports of airborne attacks on protestors in Tripoli and Benghazi reached Al Jazeera the station crossed to a spokesperson for the European Union. There was talk of the need to affirm ‘European values’. Moments later the programme cut away to the story of the two Libyan fighter pilots who had landed in Malta and sought political asylum rather than obey orders to attack protestors in Benghazi.

Those pilots are not the first people to have arrived in Malta after crossing the Mediterranean from Libya. But most people who make that journey don’t arrive in Mirage F1s. Migrants take many routes into Europe. Some people cross into Greece from Turkey, others from Algeria into Spain. For many, the way into Europe is through the Sahara into Libya, across the ocean and into Malta and Italy. The migrants come from Somalia, from Chad, from Senegal, from Nigeria and from all over North and West Africa.

Rifare il mondo

di Richard Pithouse, Guerro Contro, 23 febbraio 2011

Appena sono arrivati i primi rapporti non confermati di attacchi aerei contro i manifestanti a Tripoli e Bengasi attraveso l’emittente Aljazeera ha parlato un portavoce dell’Unione Europea. Si è sentito parlare della necessità di affermare i “valori europei”. Pochi istanti dopo il programma ha tagliato la notizia dei due piloti libici che sono atterrati a Malta e hanno chiesto asilo politico, piuttosto che eseguire l’ordine di attaccare i dimostranti a Bengasi.