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Viewing Libya through a different lens
An inevitably recurring theme in discussions of foreignness is the disjunction between our increasingly globalized world and global systems that limit and misrepresent that globalization. We have found this tension in economics this month: the European Union’s ongoing economic struggles and this month’s financial roller coaster, triggered by the U.S. debt crisis, are both symptoms of global society haltingly coming to terms with an interconnectedness unprecedented in history. And, perhaps equally poignantly, we have found it in politics: global reactions to turmoil in Libya signal uneasiness and uncertainty in our collective understanding of the extent to which global society should intervene in the affairs of a sovereign state. When revolution…
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Can we be foreign to our own selves?
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Libya’s Migrant Slaves
Among the tragedies befalling the people of Libya, is the tragedy befalling its migrant workers. On 9 March the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reported that 30,000 migrant workers were forced back into Libya by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi to ‘return to work’ in Tripoli. This forced return amounts to slavery. It also violates international human rights in another way: Everyone has the right to leave any country … (article 14(2) Universal Declaration of Human Rights). Almost as soon as the uprising began in Libya the bonds that had held a multi-national community together fell apart. Although nationals and foreigners had lived together and shared their future before the uprising – after the uprising a person’s…
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Remote Control Borders: Violating Freedom of Movement
Article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that everyone has the right to leave any country. Increasingly countries are cooperating to violate this human rights by preventing aslyum seekers and others from leaving a country to seek refuge in another country. Some examples are: Egypt: which prevents Africans from leaving Egypt in attempting to enter Israel. On 11 June Reuters reported the killing of migrants on the Egyptian border, who were attempting to leave Egypt. 18 people have been killed this year so far, as compared to 19 for the whole of last year. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE65A0CZ.htm Indonesia: which cooperates with Australia to prevent asylum seekers leaving Indonesia to…
