

Inside Libya – A Photographer Reports  - cwan
http://blogs.wsj.com/photojournal/2011/02/24/inside-libya-a-photographer-reports/?mod=e2fb

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kloncks
As an Arab (Egyptian), what amazes me is the audacity of the leaders. The
refusal to grant any wishes to the people, the sense of entitlement and
"owning" the country, and the absolute ignorance most live in after believing
in their own lies.

Corruption is one thing. But, having an estimated networth between $40-70
billion while 40% of your population lives on less than $2/day is just
disgusting. Does the standard of living _really_ change that much from the
first billion to the tenth? Or, from the tenth to the fiftieth?

It's despicable. This was a long time coming; a few decades of holding back
the people and that dam finally burst.

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w1ntermute
The problem is that oil allows the dictators to fund their governments'
without the people's consent. This is in stark contrast to the Western world,
where our political leaders must pay at least a modicum of respect to the
common man, because he's the one paying the taxes.

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antihero
In the UK it seems like the government is quite happy to ignore the people
aside from gesturing, and when the real decisions are made they listen more to
their mates from Eton, who run banks and big business.

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rsuttongee
Which totally explains the existence of the NHS.

Either the Eton-conspiracy is less powerful than you think, or they have a
bizarre concern for the health of the British people.

I apologize for the snarkiness, but really? Comparing the way that British
politicians treat their constituents to the way that Qaddafi is literally
gunning down his is pretty absurd.

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tomh-
A friendly reminder:

"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're
evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters,
or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-
topic."

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kloncks
I honestly don't mean to attack but I think I'd read this simply on the basis
of good photography. This is our generation's Fall of the Berlin Wall; I'd say
that's an interesting new phenomenon.

Nothing too political about this, either. Libya's also connected to us on a
closer level with the .ly TLD.

The keyword in the second sentence is _probably_ , but I think that enough
people (55 now) found this interesting and made it acceptable here.

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tomh-
This post has nothing to do with .ly domains. Even the fact that Libya is
connected to 'us' doesn't make this relevant, we don't submit nice pictures of
the US either right?

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mahmud
What's this? If you wanna play HN-cop go and flag the countless simple-minded
articles that grace the front page, rise up against the mundane minutia and
mediocrity that pass for tech reporting or "hacker culture".

Seriously.

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mahmud
Intifada everywhere. Today there are protests in 8 Arab countries.

Let freedom ring!

