Revolutionary Wants Technology To Transform Libya 117
pbahra writes in with the story of Khaled el Mufti, the network-security engineer who was in charge of providing telecommunications for the Libyan revolution. "It isn't often you get the chance to meet a real revolutionary. It is a term cheapened by misuse, but Khaled el Mufti is a revolutionary. It is no exaggeration to say that the role he played in the Libyan uprising last year was crucial; had he and his telecoms team failed, it isn't hard to think that Col. Muammar Gadhafi might still be in power. Today, Mr. Mufti is a telecoms adviser to the interim government and heads the e-Libya initiative, a bold plan to use the transformative powers of technology to modernize the Libyan state, overturning 40 years of corruption and misrule under Gadhafi. Mr. Mufti is an unlikely revolutionary, a softly spoken network-security engineer with a degree from Imperial College in London. Almost by chance he was in his native Libya when the revolution took place, working on a project with BT in the capital, Tripoli."
Interesting background on the coup (Score:5, Interesting)
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD14Ak02.html [atimes.com]
No wonder The Wall St. Journal is gushing.
Copyright Term (Score:0, Interesting)
According to Wikipedia, the copyright term in Libya [wikipedia.org] is "Life + 25 years with 50-year minimum (as of 1968; may have changed since)". That's 25 years less than in Canada and New Zealand, 45 years less than in the European Union and Australia, and who knows how much less than the US.
He should be able to do work with that and create something beautiful for the world... even better if he can get the term of protection down to 20 years flat. Oh... such a nice dream. The reality will of course be that those who control the US Government have their puppets on the case already.
Re:Quick (Score:2, Interesting)
Better to use a hammer to put on a screw than to be clueless as to why the spoon doesn't work.
Re:Interesting background on the coup (Score:3, Interesting)
That's one hell of a conspiracy theory. Her main thesis is that Libya was attacked because it wouldn't play ball with the Bank for International Settlements? Well, if you look at the map there are only 4 Islamic countries which are part of the BIS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_for_International_Settlements [wikipedia.org]
Could it just be that banking standards in the Islamic world differs highly from the rest of the world, and rather than there being an extra layer of conspiracy where Western countries are targeting non-BIS countries (of which there are yet many in USA's backyard of South America, and in France's backyard of Easter Europe), it's just that Libya happened to be a place where human rights violations were immediate (like Syria, Bahrain) and no major powers were backing it (unlike Syria, Bahrain).
There are two kids being abused, one lives near you, the other lives in a community where neighbors support the abuse. Where would intervention be the most effective?
Re:This depresses me (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh come on. The media elitists keep telling us that this arab spring is nothing but good stuff, and there's rainbows, and cookies, and everyone is going to hold hands. That's why in egypt they just elected a group of people which will be happily throwing the countries legal system back to the 13th-14th century, and quickly shoving women back to chattel status.
Oh...and the same thing is going on in libya. Sadly the people that believed this revolution stuff would be positive were so naive that it made me wonder if they'd ever left their home countries and wondered the world in the slightest.
Re:This depresses me (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, based on what I know of history, I bet a lot of these homosexuals want Sharia law even if it means death for them. They probably think that despite Sharia law, they'll never get caught or they think the risk is worth the "good" stuff Sharia law brings. I'm willing to bet at least half of Egypt's homosexual are just as extremist as the straight extremists and would have no problem stoning a cheating woman or beheading a girl who had premarital sex.
And to be clear, I'm not saying the fact that they are homosexual makes them extremist or supportive of Sharia law - I would also say that a lot of cheating women would support Sharia law because they don't like gays... That's the way people are - they'll support something that harms those they do not like, even if what they support could hurt them too; they'll just assume they won't get caught but everyone else will.
A recent example of this is World War II. A lot of Tziganes (gypsies) were happy to see the Jews go and a lot of Jews were happy to see the Tziganes go. They just all thought they'd escape the Nazis while everyone else wouldn't. A lot of Germans were happy about the war on everyone else and the death it brought to their enemies, even though they were fighting and risking their lives too. When France was occupied, some French people were glad to report their neighbors for stuff the Germans/Vichy government deemed illegal. Some did it in support of Germany, some did it to get revenge on their neighbors... Those who reported their neighbors could have been reported themselves too, but they thought they'd get away with it while their neighbors whom they disliked would be the only ones to get caught.
Out of those 10% of homosexuals, maybe 5% are really opposed to Sharia law. And about half of cheating women or unmarried women who lost their virginity would support Sharia law too. It's not fair to those who don't support Sharia law, but the reality is a lot darker than you think.
Re:This depresses me (Score:4, Interesting)
If you refer to the Muslim Brotherhood, then you must be really misguided. It's like saying that a Christian-Democrat partys wants reintitute inquisition.