Monday, 13 February 2012

The Blame Game: Culture and Conflict in the Shafia Murders


by Elamin Abdelmahmoud


This article is not intended as an argumentative piece on the Shafia family trial. Rather, it is a brief reflection on the public opinion narratives which constructed this trial (and subsequently the guilty verdict received by the accused). Namely, I want to examine the validity of the frenzy over what became dubbed as ‘honour killings’, the going term for these types of crimes.

I presume your basic knowledge of the case, as most mainstream media outlets spent a considerable time with it. It was, after all, a horrific crime. The verdict was handed down Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba, and his son Hamed – all guilty, and all facing life in prison for the murders of Shafia’s three daughters, Zainab, Sahar, and Geeti as well as Rona Mohammed, a family relative.

Before going on, I would like to reiterate the heinousness of the crime here. I have no intention of arguing for the convicted members of the Shafia family, making excuses for them, or pardoning them of the crimes they have been accused, charged, and convicted of.

What I mainly wish to address was inspired exclusively by the reaction that the verdict has generated. The reaction, in sum, has been a frantic expression of outrage at ‘honour killings’ and the lament for Canadian multiculturalism and how it has gone too far. News outlets have spilled much ink about how this case symbolizes the extent of leniency given by the Canadian state to immigrants from other cultures. Much discussion has revolved around educating people from other cultures so they are better fit for Canadian values and a Canadian society.

I would like to suggest that, actually, by dubbing this an honour killing, and by focusing our attention on the cultural background of the perpetrators, we satisfy only an elementary understanding of the crime while sidestepping the larger, more useful point.

The point here, of course, is that this was a crime about control. Mohammad Shafia was obviously exercising a level of control over the victims, and asserting his male dominance by robbing them of their agency. The violent act was Shafia’s response based on his belief that he had agency over these women, and they ought to act according to his worldview, a worldview many attribute to his ethnic background.

I have no intention of condoning this particular worldview. But the discussion tended towards using words like “backwards”, “uncivilized”, which I think misunderstands the topic at hand. A more precise word might be “unacceptable”. But the next step isn’t to call these deaths an ‘honour killing’. When we do this, we take Shafia’s robbing of women’s agency (with its cultural justification) and we give it a specific name that isn’t necessary, and clouds the overall point.

I suggest that when discussing this case, we drop the specific-language act and instead, we call it what it is: an exercise of controlling women. Indeed the murder of these girls was a deplorable practice of abuse of women, one that depends on deeming women not worthy of making decisions about their own bodies.

The reason I suggest we abandon using exceptional language is this: the same underlying assumption - the assumption that women ought to not make decisions about their own bodies, that women are not deserving of agency over their own destinies – is used every single day in “our culture”, whatever you take that to mean (In this particular piece, I am taking that to mean some dominant culture, and not diving too deep into this).

Every time a woman is raped, a policy is passed about women’s bodies without taking agency into account, or a domestic abuse is committed, it is stemming from that exact belief. It is tiresome to make the parallel every time: Yes, a man who commits an “honour killing” is using his cultural baggage to justify his horrible act. But you know what? So is a man who rapes a woman because he thinks women’s bodies do not belong to them.

The fundamental mistake at work is assuming that cultural baggage only affects a certain segment of the population. Worse, there also seems to be a belief that rape is a bunch of singular incidents and not an action which is culturally learned. The same applies to domestic abuse. We barely connect these crimes to a cultural learning that is pervasive throughout our culture, and that learning is the same one Shafia, his son and his wife were guilty of: the learning that women’s bodies must be controlled, and that  women should possess less agency over their bodies.

So, to sum it up: Yes, the murder of these women was a heinous crime. Yes, it is a result of cultural understanding of how much agency women should have over their own bodies. But we need to ask ourselves, how many other crimes are we not attributing to the same cultural understanding? Stop calling it honour killing, and start calling it an exercise of stripping women of power. Then look for other examples of it, and you’ll find them all around you. Simply put, I’m asking you to consider the role of  culture in all violence against women.

As a final word, I guess, one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned is to question where my gut response is coming from. I’m not assuming yours is invalid. I am, however asking you to consider the possibility that  it might be coming from a place of not spending time questioning where your own ideas may be coming  from.

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Functional Democracy

Can we conceive of party politics outside of the framework of ideology? Can party still deliver the former function without the polemics of the later? If there is one thing about partisan politics that makes people become more disenchanted it is likely that of the ideological polemics. Whether it be the economic brinksmanship witnessed this summer in the US congressional debates regarding raising the debt ceiling or our own Prime Minister’s habit of proroguing parliament in the face of non-confidence, partisanship seems to produce futile entrenchment rather than healthy compromise.
Modern politics seems inconceivable without the involvement of parties. They seems the source of which all that is basic about democracy. They act as points of organization for interest groups. They generate ideas which drive forward progressive policies. They are self financing sources of political activism. Perhaps most importantly they act as generators of the ideas which drive public policy. Parties act as an aggregators for the pool of public policy options that are available; as the public lacks the time to sort through policy journals, academic articles other sources of policy options, parties facilitate the selection of ideas to bring into the public eye in the form of party platforms and government agendas. The partisan aspect of this model is that parties cherry picks the ideas which are best suited to their ideological forms. Thus policy selection is ideologically driven. Thus policy x is the best solution because policy x coheres with party x’s assumed ideological footings. 
Politics should be about organizations not about ideologies. The politics of today takes for granted the assumption that ideas ought to arise out of ideologies or at the very least parties generate new ideas which sprout from their core ideological tenets. Ideas are expected to guide organizations and bureaucracy, wherein policy informs operations, not the inverted operations inform policy. We look to politicians to generate new public policy options, then when elected to push them from the top down, with the hope that they will not only be efficacious towards their ends but also that they will be productive towards the ends which they claim to yield. 
For instance, one might take the conservative’s recent omnibus crime legislation C-100 as an example. The legislative changes, which included stiff minimum sentences and a slew of tough on crime policy changes which where part of the conservative’s election platform. As the conservative’s won a majority they quickly moved to push the legislation through both houses. 
The resulting backlash of the bill has been tremendous with a wide-ranging cast of opponents including bureaucrats, academics, and even provincial governments objecting to the potential cost the bill might incur upon their provincially financed corrections ministries. 
Thus we see the partisan model in full operation. The partisan body selects a tough on crime policy as a tough on crime policy is at the heart of the conservative ideological mantra. Upon election they move to implement their ideologically based policy, hoping to exert their political mandate onto a reticent bureaucracy. 
Lets suppose for one moment that the conservatives had earnestly thought that their tough on crime agenda was a good idea and were completely unaware of the rather large body of empirical evidence to suggest otherwise. Now lets assume that they might be willing to change their minds about the whole affair once coming to office and being informed of the folly of their assumptions. What action could they take to step back on the legislation without angering their core supporters? The reality is there isn’t much to do but to drive forward with the legislation and ignore the technocratic dissent.
This elucidates the fundamental problem with ideologically driven politics. There is little space to step back and survey the utility of policy actions because of your public legitimacy is based on the presumption of the truth of your ideology. 
What if we were to conceive of politicians in a different light? No longer cast as soldiers for ideological persuasions, but rather as judges of public policy function. Rather than looking inward to source policy based on tautologically justified truths, why not elect politicians on the basis of their ability to gauge the utility of varying policies?
I am not suggesting the wholesale disposal of ideologies. I do believe they serve a purpose, just not to the extent to which they exercise influence over partisan politics. Ideologies can provide coherent perspective within a field of study. Liberalism is useful to economists insofar as in allows some sense of rational coherence in their ideas across the various caveats of their study. Yet at a partisan level the idea of trying to cohere all ones thoughts into an inert approach to governance disregards the nuances of governmental pursuits and vicissitudes of the world politics seeks to govern.
 What I envision for partisanship might not be unlike the way in which corporation choose their leaders. Though not particular knowledgeable in the realm of boardroom politics, I would make the assumption corporations are function driven entities. If in the process of implementing a new strategy, it was discovered that past attempts at similar policy were utter failures, one would assume that the leadership of the corporation would step back and reconsider their previous plans. Alternatively when vying for a leadership position most executives would attempt to propose solutions which find their backing in past successes or at the very least appeal to some kind of rational grounding for their ideas. 
My intent here is not to harangue the conservatives about their disappointing responsiveness to technocratic backlash. I think almost all political parties, at least those that find the basis for their identity in ideology, are guilty of ideological tunnel vision. My point is to attempt to consider what partisan politics might look like of we could mutually agree to be functionalists over ideologues. It is admittedly a tall order, not too distant from mutually agreeing to world peace perhaps. But I think its possibility is much brighter than the favorite goal of beauty contestants. 
What would happen if the Liberal Party was to say we are no longer about ideologies, we are about what works. We want to decriminalize marijuana because the drug war has failed. We want to lower corporate taxes because it will attract more business into Canadian communities. And they would want to do so not because their centrism ideology permits it but because we can find a whole bunch of really smart people who say it works. And in the chance that it fails they should be open to other options. Can we imagine ourselves as a polity re-electing an incumbent not based on solely on the success of their past policies but rather on their responsiveness to their failures? 
I would like to think that politicians have the capacity to become the hearth from which a policy debate is kindled rather than prerecorded messages volleying entrenched ideas at each other with ever increasing volume.  

Saturday, 4 February 2012

Food Frankenstein



By: Jennifer D'Cruz

“We are what we eat,” is an age-old adage familiar to almost everyone, but today it is becoming increasingly more questionable with the advent of genetically modified (GM) foods. Initially, in 1940’s the Green Revolution transformed farming practice to create high-yielding crops through use of pesticides, intense breeding and better access to irrigation. However, that has shifted into the Gene Revolution which includes transgenic or GM foods. Advocacy groups such as Greenpeace and the Council of Canadians argue that GM foods are a health risk and that with proper distribution of food (“sharing”), these GM foods are unnecessary. However, I disagree with these statements and instead believe that GM foods are important and necessary in our society.
All living organisms have instructions (gene) coded in DNA. GM foods contain additional genes cut and pasted from another organism to acquire a desired trait. In this way, crops can be genetically modified to be salt-tolerant, drought tolerant, pest resistant, herbicide tolerant and disease resistant. Having these characteristics are important in yielding a higher productivity of crops, especially in such a time of need. It is estimated that the world’s population will grow from the current 7 billion to 9 billion by 2050. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) predict that such a population growth will require a boost in food production by 70%. Moreover, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) predicts that crop yields in developing countries will reduce by 50% due to climate change. Added to that is the fact that 30% of crops harvested are lost due to pests. Combined, these three metrics stress the importance of increasing crop productivity in the future. Otherwise, food prices may continue to rise, as seen in February of 2011 when the UN FAO reported a record high food price index particularly for rice and maize. By adding pesticide resistant gene to GM foods, we are also reducing our carbon footprint; in 2007 alone, GM foods saved 15.6 million tons of CO2, which is equivalent to 6.3 million cars off the road by just cutting back on herbicide and pesticide usage. 
The benefit of GM foods can also be found in its capacity to deliver essential nutrients where regular diet would not. For example, reports from the World Health Organization have warned about the harsh reality of Vitamin A deficiencies in Africa and South-east Asia. This nutritional deprivation results in 500,000 children becoming blind each year and half of them dying within the next 12 months. In 1999, the third world breathed a collective sigh of relief when Dr. Ingo Potrykus and Dr. Peter Beyer created GM Golden rice. The edible seed of this rice contains an additional gene for β-carotene that codes a precursor (inactive form) to Vitamin A, which would otherwise not be present. Research shows that every gram of Golden rice contains 35μg of β-carotene. Hence, one cup (nearly 200 grams) of rice delivers 55-70% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for men and women. According to an article published in Nature, unjustified and impractical legal requirements are delaying its entrance into markets. Had Golden rice been allowed to cultivate in 2002, when it was prepared, approximately 22 million deaths might have been prevented due to vitamin A deficiency. This is sadly equivalent to a nutritional massacre via artrition. Fortunately, in 2005 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded $450 million to this project to increase the levels and quality of pro-vitamin A, Vitamin E, iron, and zinc through biotechnology.
Back home in North America, GM foods may also play a similar role in Vitamin D supplementation. A recent survey conducted by Statistics Canada found that 70% of Canadians have inadequate levels of Vitamin D. Short summers and a tendency to stay indoors have deprived Canadians of sufficient exposure to sunlight, which is a key source of this nutrient. Studies show that Vitamin D is important in the prevention of certain cancers, multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes and heart disease. It is also needed to promote calcium absorption in the body, which is crucial to the development of strong bones and prevention of osteoporosis in adults and rickets in children. Dr. Schwalfenberg, clinical professor in department of family medicine in Alberta stated that 3000 International Units (I.U.) of Vitamin D is required to have an anti-cancer benefit. However, one glass of milk contains only 100 I.U, thus, sole dependence on this dietary source of Vitamin D would evidently not meet the RDA. As had been done with Golden Rice, perhaps Vitamin D could be the next candidate for genetic integration into another food to provide 70% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance. 
In today’s society, there is much concern targeted towards GM foods due to their novelty and possible harmful effects. For instance, prior to 17th century, only white carrots were available in markets. However, later on Dutch growers crossbred cultivated and wild-type carrots to harvest only orange carrots since they were sweeter and bred in tribute to Prince William III of Orange. In this way, generations of white, yellow and purple carrots were wiped from history. Perhaps similarly, white rice may one day become food of the past! 
Overall, GM foods are important for increasing productivity and quality of crops amidst the growing population. The reduced usage of pesticides results in a cleaner environment with increased savings. Most importantly, GM foods permit the production of more nutritional crops which may decrease mortality. Together, these facts bring new light to the old adage, “good health comes from the farm, not from the pharmacy.”
References
1) http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/focus/2004/41655/article_41667en.html
2) http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/genetics_modification/
3) http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef130.asp
4) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/23/gm-foods-world-population-crisis
5) http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs-home/foodpricesindex/en/
6) http://knowledge.allianz.com/health/food_water/?500/gm-crops-facts-and-figures
7) http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/vad/en/
8) http://goldenrice.org/
9) Tang, G., Qin J., Dolnikowski G., Russell, R., Grusak, M. (2009). Golden Rice is an effective source of vitamin A. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 89: pp 1776-1783. 
10) Potrykus, I., Ammann, K. (2010). Regulation must be revolutionized. Nature, 466: p561.
11) http://www.gmobelus.com/
12) http://www.grandchallenges.org/about/Newsroom/Pages/GroundbreakingProjects.aspx
13) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/statscan-finds-widespread-vitamin-d-deficiency-in-canadians/article1510334/
14) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/statscan-finds-widespread-vitamin-d-deficiency-in-
15) http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind

DDT: A Curse or Blessing In Disguise

By: Jennifer Pearson

From Bisphenol A (BPA) in plastics to the use of mercury in immunizations, the scientific community is certainly accustomed to public fear, not scientific evidence, being the primary reason for banning chemicals in various everyday products. One chemical subject to such scrutiny is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT. Today, with only China and India producing DDT and only a handful more using it, DDT acts as a symbol for the dangers that can be incurred when man attempts to alter nature. However, DDT has not always had such a reputation.

Discovered in the late 1930s, DDT was quickly acknowledged as a more or less miracle insecticide used abundantly to treat typhus and malaria. Throughout the 1940s, DDT had a profound impact on the state of public health across nations. However, many changes were made in 1962, when Rachel Carson published “Silent Spring,” claiming that DDT caused a plethora of adverse environmental effects that not only disrupted the health of mosquitoes or lice but also that of the entire food chain. Naturally, it would be prudent to question the credibility of Carson's claims. After years of research into DDT, it has been found that DDT can pose a danger to both our health and environment. In some research, DDT has been correlated to the pathogenesis of diabetes, cancers, and endocrine diseases that can even be passed on through breast milk, posing a particular risk for the developing world. Further confirming Carson's claims is DDT's ability to disturb entire ecosystems. Given these issues, is it justified to advocate for the increased use of a dangerous chemical in developing nations? 



I would to argue yes. First, DDT is a highly cost effective option. DDT has been noted to possess the lowest cost per person protected compared to other interventions, including Icon, Ficam and Propxur. Cheap health intervention methods are not that easy to come by and typically, effective intervention methods can have crippling logistical and distribution issues. Nonetheless, the cost should never be the sole determining factor in the approval of healthcare interventions. In the case of DDT, its potency is another, if not more important, factor that provides support for its safe use. Before DDT, pyrethrum was used in anti-malarial prevention. However, pyrethrum required multiple administrations as it only killed those mosquitoes present during the spray. Alternatively, with DDT, one spray would kill all mosquitoes in the vicinity for an entire 6 month period. For that reason, if we are able to provide an intervention method that is extremely effective without placing significant financial burden on the healthcare system, one must seriously consider the feasibility of such an option.

While such a potent substance do possess extremely adverse side effects, current proposals have made provisions in the use of DDT such as discouraging continuous spraying of the insecticide. If a country elects to use DDT as an intervention method, it is recommended that DDT is used only through indoor residual spraying (IRS). The World Health Organization also includes IRS as a component of malarial prevention strategies, alongside environmental management and improved infrastructure development. Due to the presence of pathogen resistance to DDT in various parts of Africa, monitoring such resistance has as become an essential aspect of current DDT intervention strategies. When DDT resistance is found, spraying in those regions ceases and alternative (and less effective) malarial intervention methods are implemented. Resistance monitoring, therefore, limits the use of DDT to only those regions which are non-resistant and prevents unnecessary spraying in resistant areas.

Despite the fact that DDT spraying is more conservative in today’s intervention methods, many environmentalists and advocates against the use of DDT actually argue that any use of DDT is greatly detrimental to both human health and the environment yet some literature suggests otherwise. Studies assessing the long term effects of DDT found “no significant excess morbidity” in spraymen who worked in previous eradication programs. If anyone is to be prone to DDT’s toxic effects, it would surely be those who work with DDT directly and whose exposure to the pesticide is the greatest. DDT has most infamously been linked to the cause of breast cancer through its weak estrogenic activity. However, recent conclusions have suggested that there is no strong evidence to support these claims nor has DDT ever been successfully linked to adverse effects on reproductive health. 

No one has to be told about the great impact malaria has had on health in Africa. If using one cost-effective chemical responsibly can provide a significant reduction in the number of deaths due to malaria, one would think that this intervention would be employed with great gusto. Those against the use of DDT must bare in mind that until a more sustainable alternative is found, DDT remains an important and highly effective component of today’s malarial prevention strategies. It is not this article’s contention that DDT is without its problems, rather when used with caution, DDT’s benefits greatly outweigh the potential threats it poses. In judgment of practices that weigh so heavily on matters of life and death, we must avoid summing the issue into a simple binary of yes or no. We must carefully weigh the risks against the benefits in order to take the most responsible and ethical route to prevent and treat such a widespread disease. 
References
(1) http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/toxic-people.html
(2) Gladwell M. The Mosquito Killer. The New Yorker 2001 July 2, 2001.
(3) Guyatt HL, Corlett SK, Robinson TP, Ochola SA, Snow RW. Malaria prevention in highland Kenya: indoor residual house-spraying vs. insecticide-treated bednets. Trop Med Int Health 2002 Apr;7(4):298-303.
(4) Sadasivaiah S, Tozan Y, Breman JG. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) for indoor residual spraying in Africa: how can it be used for malaria control? Am J Trop Med Hyg 2007 Dec;77(6 Suppl):249-263.
(5) Schapira A. DDT: a polluted debate in malaria control. Lancet 2006 Dec 16;368(9553):2111-2113.
(6) Schapira A. DDT still has a role in the fight against malaria. Nature 2004 Nov 25;432(7016):439.
(7) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6083944

Libya: Past and Future



By: Flora Huang and Tahrin Mahmood


The body lay lifeless on the mattress littered with blood smears and bullet wounds. Its image frozen in time with each flash of a cellphone camera. Inside a refrigerated meat shop in Misrata, Muammar Gaddafi’s body was on display. After being paraded in the street, his dead corpse was now available for a photo-op. Celebrations erupted in the room with jubilant cheers, only inches away from the gruesome reminder of Libya’s past. Indeed, this was the long-awaited moment for Libyans after six months of civil uprising and 42 years of authoritarian dictatorship. On October 20, 2011, news of Gaddafi’s death spread across the globe as the once powerful ruler fell to the ground in what was originally believed to be crossfire. Although rebels had already occupied the Libyan capital of Tripoli in August, capturing and killing Gaddafi symbolized the beginning of the country’s social and political liberation. 

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi rose to power in 1969 under a coup that overthrew the incumbent Libyan king. His subsequent rule of the North African state has been largely characterized as erratic. He promoted the ideals of a socialist democracy in Libya while building his repressive regime using the nation’s oil revenues. In 1975, Gaddafi wrote the widely-known Green Book, which espoused his own philosophy by renouncing capitalism and liberal democracy. He proposed a new system of democracy formed by committees with members elected by the people but in the absence of political parties. Inevitably, the reality of the situation was hardly a government chosen by the masses. Gaddafi appointed his loyal supporters to these cabinet positions and remained the sole commander of the country’s operations. Political dissidents were silenced by imprisonment and extrajudicial killings were common. In fact, The Green Book was mandatory reading material for Libyan students, even though the majority of the content was one man’s tangential ramblings. With citizen’s education being a low priority, Gaddafi did no better in advancing Libya’s economic frontier. The meagre wealth of Libyans paints a heavy contradiction to the nation’s oil-rich natural resources and untouched Mediterranean coastline. An estimated 30% of Libyans are unemployed, unsurprising given that most of them lack the necessary training for respectable careers given only 10 universities in the country. Gaddafi’s image is also tainted by reports suggesting he redirected Libya’s oil revenues into family investments via him and his nine children.

Fast forward to 2011, after a slew of successful internal revolutions against some of North Africa’s long-standing tyrannical leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, mounting frustration from Libyans resulted in demonstrations across the country in February. In response to the protests, Gaddafi forces turned violent, characteristic of his history of ruling Libya with an iron fist. The rebels soon joined forces to form the National Transitional Council, which consisted of mostly untrained civilians who collectively paled in comparison to the strong paramilitary team recruited by Gaddafi. When Gaddafi forces approached the city of Benghazi, the United Nations Security Council authorized international intervention against the Gaddafi regime to prevent potential mass brutality. NATO air strikes and bombing began and a no fly-zone was imposed over Libya. With the aid of Western involvement, the capital city of Tripoli was successfully taken by rebels in August. Gaddafi was finally killed by gunshot wounds at close-range in October in his hometown. 

As the confetti settles to the ground, the decades of struggle for Libyans is unfortunately far from over. No doubt, freedom comes at a cost. The challenge of rebuilding a government that will democratically represent a diverse population is enormous. How will the new laws of the nation be inclusive to all Islamists, moderates and secularists? Most Libyans do not share a common vision for the country’s future and there is even a chance that Libya might split into two due to the strong divisions between the two predominant groups. Suspicions also arise over whether the current transitional government can be trusted to put the guns down and promote a new Libya that will solve its problems judicially with an emphasis on human rights preservation. The issue surrounding the events of Gaddafi’s death, which many have likened to an execution, is concerning for many Libyans. Killing without being tried in a court of law alludes to the old Libya that could not escape the ruthless grasp of violence. Furthermore, this political and economic instability makes Libya vulnerable to exploitations from other countries. 


Many people are questioning whether it is Libya or its oil reserve that is liberated. Before this revolution, the oil revenues had been returned to Libya’s people but now that Libya’s political isolation is eliminated, the inflation in oil prices will be imported to Libya as well. For a country that is already suffering from political unrest, adding economic turmoil would be like fuel to a blazing fire. 
There is no denying that Libya has indeed made a right step in terms of gaining human rights, but whether and how this nation will stand up on its own in this phase of recovery remains unclear.



Sources:
Nimmo, K. (n.d.). Prison Planet.com » In 2009 Gaddafi Proposed Nationalizing Libya’s Oil. Prison Planet.com . Retrieved November 13, 2011, from http://www.prisonplanet.com/in-2009-gaddafi-proposed-nationalizing-libya%E2%80%99s-oil.html
Spencer, R. (n.d.). Libya: 'civil war not over' - Telegraph.Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph. Retrieved November 13, 2011, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8750961/Libya-civil-war-not-over.html