Libya: the end of the end

Unbelievable but true, Gaddafi felt.
With the international direct involvement we knew that it will come but there was still some scepticism. Now it is done.
Never two without three: It was quite quick the change in Tunisia and then in Egypt. Libya took a bit more time but it had to stand in the line.
Since months ago began the end of Gaddafi regime in Libya. The last hours the forty years in power, colonel Gaddafi, reached the bottom of his fall.
For a lot of people this is was unimaginable few months ago. But the facts are there.
Tripoli is surrounded and the zone under the control of the regimes force is becoming more and more narrow.
More painful, is the arrest of the sons. Three of them are already in the hands of the rebels. They are the first circle of personal protection of Gaddafi.
The former leader who was received by the world leaders like Tony Bler, Nicolas Sarkozy and Barak Obama, is now called the haunted “ dog of the middleeast”.
What then ?
The big question started to be asked with a serious insistence: how will it be after the end of the rebellion?
For sure there will be a transitional process, and like in all conflicts, there will be a huge plan to rebuilt the country.
The process started already in the two neighbours Tunisia and Egypt. It was not possible for Libya to stand there as an old regime between two new ones.
The photo would not be homogenous.
We knew that there will be a domino effect, now we witness it concretely.
Three of the five countries of the North of Africa are living a historical change.
The world will never be the same after that. It is not only a problem of a one country, one region, and one continent. It is the affaire of the whole world.
But Libya is a special case
Of course the whole world is concerned, but Libya is espeically interestes less on terms of democracy or human rights, but for economy.
This country is one of the biggest countries in Africa on terms of size (two million square kilometers, while tunisia, as a matter of fact is only 165000 S. klm)
It is a huge and a very rich country for a population of only 6 millions. The problem until now is that the welth was profiting only to the family of the leader Gaddafi.
Libya is one of the biggest producers of oil. It owns 3% of the global reserve and produces one million barils per day from a very good quality.
With all these caracteristics, the country could be like one of the richest Golf Emirates.
Once free from the dictatorship, and the welth democratically and equitably administrated, not only the country will emerge from fourty years of darkness, but the whole region will propser.
There however obstacles
In ashort a period the world is witnessing a the quickest changes in human history. And there is a kind of model of transition’ s proces.
After the fall of a regime, a country needs a ptransitional periode: it will be run by a group of interim governement of technocrates.
This is necessary to prepare a new constitution that is going to supply the green book of Gaddafi and establish the new political framework of the country.
This schema looks handy out of the reality. For many reasons, it is not as obvious as it looks.
The regime of Gaddafi didn’ t built any institution that could hold the construction of a united nation nor a society.
Out of the rouling family, the rest of the population is divided in around eighty tribes.
These are not going to gather for a long time. They look united right now around one idea: let’s get rid of the dictator and after that we will see.
New political paysage
One should not forget that the rebels are not obviously united. They are armed but they don’ t have have one real comandement.
Symbolically, they are represented by a kind of“council” but on the field they are groups of armed fighter pushed by only one desire: force Gaddafi to surrender or to flee.
Once this is done, it will be really complexe to birng a new order.
In addition to the ethnic confusion, the country is distorced by two big political tendencies.
The libyan nationalisme is going to emerge as a reaction to decennias frustration because of the arab nationalisme somehow developped by Gaddafi.
The islamisme is having a huge influence on a society where education was never considered as a priority by the former regime.
Like in Tunisia and egypte, and perhaps more, the religious feeling in the libyan society is very strong and could be fertile ground to grow an explicite islamic regime like in Iran or like the regimes in the arabic Golf.
Libya in the region’s
Because of the former dicatorship, Libya was allways isolated as a society. It never succeeded to connect to any regional configuration.
The first tendency was the arab nationalism. Gaddafi’s first idol was Naceur, the Egyptian leader with whom he tried to work out a kind of union or coalition.
Once this latter disappeared, he turned to toher side and tired to build a union with Tunisian leader Bourguiba in the 70’s.
None of these plans could lead to any construction first of all because of the lunatic character of the person.
Even the Maghreb Union between the five countries of North Africa (except Egypt) could never be effective because of the lake of empathy between the leaders.
His last plan was the Union of African Nations. It led also nowhere because it never had a real fundement but was based on capricious megalomaniac and pathetic search of leadership.
New dreams
A new Libya with a new political framework could lead to new real regional plans that could profit to the all populations.
The Maghreb union could be relouched with new perspectives. Three on the five members would achieve their democratic process. After Mauritania, few years ago, it is now time for Tunisia and lately Libya.
A new democrtic Libya could have a leading economic role for the region.
It was already a workers host country. A lot of Egyptians, Tunisians, Somalian, Chadian… used to make their living by working in Libya.
One could easily imagine that a free rich country will offer a lot of opportunities to investors and workers of the region.
Will Libya be for the north of Africa like South Africa for its South? Nothing is less obvious regarding many parameters.
The most important of them is the political islamism that everybody fears.
Until now in Tunisia and Egypt, there is a kind of fight between Islamism and secularisme.
The two countries have a strong progressist elite which is able to resist to the strong religious feelings and foreign influence
It is not sure that the same balance is possible in Libya.
The big challenge
The dream of democracy and prosperity has a big handicap: the islamist influence coming from the east and precisely from the wahhabite version led by Saoudia Arabia.
Historically there was always a will not to let the Maghreb countries progress out of the saudian influence as a centre of Sunnite version of political Islam.
The wahhabism stands behind the emergence of the islmaic political movements called: “Muslim Brotherhood” and fights against the Shiite growth.
The first is led by Saudia Arabia and the rich countries surrounding it; the latter by Iran and now by the new Iraqi Shiism.
In North Africa the wahhabism has always a huge influence through different programs of help and investment in the region.
The uprising is a danger if it leads to real democratic regimes. But at the same time it is an opportunity to control it completely by boosting islamist partys to power.
This can be already obviously witnessed in Tunisia where the muslim brotherhoods movement, Annahdha is showing a big financial strength and quite invading the country.
Rumours say that the party is financed by the Quatari and Saudian govenements in order to take the power in the country.
The same Qatar is directly participating to the international military operations against Gaddafi.
There is a big paradox in this revolution. The uprising is tending to two opposite directions.
On the one hand, it is winking to the modern democratic western ideas by association to the western big democracies.
On the other hand, it can’t get rid of the reactionaries ambitions of the religious influence.
Two scenarios are possible: a bizarre synthesises of the two like it is in the Golf countries or a continuous unrest not to say a civil war.
What is sure is that we are going to wait for a while until we see something really coming out of this mess.

African Scarface in Amsterdam

After Berlin last February, and Los Angeles, San Francesco and NYC last May, Viva Riva by outsider producer and director Djo Tunda Wa Munga is following its European cruise. From 10 August to 21 August, it is the only African film competing for the two prizes of the World cinema Amsterdam,Netherlands.
Congolese filmmaker Jo Munga is one of those filmmakers who can still show some African colours on world screening. He is well known as a documentary producer and did well in particular with Congo four acts, the collective film directed by Dieudo Hamadi, Kiripi Katembo Siku et Divita Wa Lusala and also with State of mind by Munga Tunda Djo
It is all about Congolese stories like Viva Riva the new film, which is a feature film inspired by the underground life of Kinshasa. After helping other directors to tell their stories it seems that Jo Munga wanted to tell his own.
The film seems to be intended to be more entertaining for the audience. The filmmaker put all ingredients together; fight between gangsters, a lot of action and shooting, music and dancing scenes in Kinshasa’s night clubs and slums, quite hard erotic scenes. All the action is compiled according to a romantic love story and melodrama involving two main characters Riva (Patsha Bay) the good burglar and Nora (Manie Malone) the fatal beauty of the city. It’s all about love, money and criminality.
If the film is made of a very stereotyped crime thriller story, yet it is also deeply inspired by the real life in Kinshasa. The actors, coached by French actress Sandrine Bonnaire look sincere and authentic.
A lot of scenes are shot in real locations and with real people and give the film a documentary dimension: scenes of the city, gas stations, and bus stations for instance create the atmosphere of the film. All these are real images contrasting with the violent and erotic scenes which are more like a fantasia.
The film is typical Nollywood product: a mixture of the African reality on the one hand, and the cliché scenes from Hollywood gangster films like Scarface by Hawks, Reservoir dogs and Pulp Fiction by Tarantino.
Yet all of this gives an idea about the life and the dreams of young Congolese and Africans of these days. The film got six trophies at the 7th African Academy Film Award 2010.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/LifeStyle/Theatre+++Cinema/-/691234/1221754/-/6kb1sa/-/index.html

Special Ramadan in North Africa

Since January this year, and the eruption of North African societies, everybody knows that nothing is going to be like before.
Since Monday the first Ramadan after the revolution began in the cacophony of the political debates and the rise of the foodstuffs prices. Freedom has indeed another taste, isn’t it?
Ramadan is the holy month for Muslim societies. It is supposed to be very peaceful time for pray and human solidarity. It seems that the spiritual mood is going to be mixed with the will of changes.
Ironically what the people see right now as the most concrete change is how prices of food are absurdly and extremely high. The basic element is quite unaffordable for the ordinary Tunisian or Egyptian.
One cannot think of it without considering the objective situation in which millions of people are like trapped by conflicts and live in a kind of an open air prison.
Algerians are under the pressure of a political regime which is not ready to concede any margin of change unless it comes from it. The opposition would have tried to make the population move but had no success.
In morocco, Mohamed VI, made a big effort by announcing a big political reform daring even to give the executive power a bigger margin.
Still a big part of the opposition considers it not enough. Some radicals are even calling for a continuous uprising. The country is divided but the majority stands after the beloved king.
In Libya , where the revolution is still going on with the very problematic help of the NATO, the holy month will be a month of fight and war. Gaddafi and his clan are more and more weak.
The end of the Libyan leader is probably coming within the end of the holy month. Insurgent are already dreaming of a double celebration: the religious fete and the fall of the dictator.
Countries like Tunisia and Egypt, where dictators belong already to a bygone era, are not necessarily privileged. It seems that the mechanics of change are facing some dysfunction.
After Mubarak en Ben Ali left the power, interim government were established in both of the two countries. Their mission is to watch after the democratic transition.
It doesn’t simply work. People are back to the streets. They call for the justice and for the change which they are not seeing any concrete sings.
There are elections planned is September for the one country and in October for the other. A process is going on with the international dubious financial sustain despite demonstrations, despite screams from here and there.
There will be elections, but only a small part of the population believes in it.
Less than two million Tunisians are officially registered in the elective lists until now. The deadline of inscription was postponed in order to get more people in.
In Egypt , people are back to the streets to force the highest military institution in charge of the country to act according to the promises made right after Mubarak stepped out.
There is one common point to all these situations: the politics are doing without that the people gets really involved in the process.
Politic doesn’t really have a direct connection with the real and daily life of the people. This latter is aware of it.
Politicians are debating and going on with a process despite the suffer of the poor, the despair of the youth, the anger of the intellectuals and the frustrations of those who naively believed in a possible and fair change.
If change there will be, it will never be the one of politicians. The main important thing remains the change of the way people from now on are going to think.
Until this is going to have any influence on the politic, these societies are going to waste one or two generations .... at least.

COMMUNIQUÉ DE THALA DE SOUTIEN AU PROJET DE FONDS PANAFRICAIN DU CINEMA

Les organisations cinématographiques et culturelles tunisiennes soussignées présentes aux 7eme rencontres cinématographiques de Hergla, invitées de Thala en Tunisie (27-31 juillet 2011) et la direction des rencontres ont décidé, à partir de cette ville phare de la révolution tunisienne, de saisir cette occasion pour réaffirmer leur soutien au Projet de « Fonds Panafricain du Cinéma » .
Ce fonds dont l’initiative a été lancée conjointement par l’OIF, la FEPACI et le syndicat des producteurs de films tunisiens à l’occasion du Festival de Cannes 2010, répond à une demande de longue date de la Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes (FEPACI) née sur le sol tunisien en 1970 à l’occasion de la 3ème session des « Journées cinématographiques de Carthage ». Ce projet vient couronner les efforts et la vision de Tahar CHERIAA élu cette année là Président d’Honneur de la FEPACI en tant qu’ inlassable militant tunisien qui a voué sa vie à la promotion du cinéma panafricain.
Ce projet a pu commencer à prendre corps grâce au soutien de son excellence Monsieur le Président Abdou Diouf, secrétaire Général de l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) qui, répondant à une demande de la FEPACI a accepté, bien que le champs prévu pour ce Fonds soit plus large que celui de ses états membres, que l’OIF , forte de son expérience dans le soutien aux cinémas africains, apporte son appui logistique à la mise en place de ce « Fonds Panafricain ».
C’est ainsi que l’OIF a pris en charge entre autres les frais d’une « étude de faisabilité » qui a été présentée conjointement par la FEPACI et par l’OIF aux dernières « Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage » en octobre 2010.
C’est ainsi que lors des JCC 2010 a eu lieu une première assemblée avec les cinéastes africains et de futurs sponsors et possibles partenaires du Fonds, organisée par L’OIF et La chambre syndicale nationale des producteurs de films, où une première étude du Fonds a été présentée aux intéressés.
A l’étape suivante, en mars 2011, à l’occasion du Festival Panafricain du Cinéma et de la Télévision (FESPACO) de Ouagadougou, les représentants de la FEPACI ont alors lancé un appel à l’implication directe du Président Abdou Diouf, pour qu’il veuille bien accepter d’être leur ambassadeur auprès de plusieurs chefs d’Etat africains, pour proposer que leurs pays soient parmi les premiers donateurs de ce Fonds.
Pour concrétiser cet appel le Président de la FEPACI, feu Charles Mensah, accompagné de Monsieur Ferid Boughedir, historien du cinéma africain, membre fondateur de l’Association des Cinéastes Tunisiens, (elle même fondatrice de la FEPACI) ont été alors reçus le 26 mai 2011 par le président Abdou Diouf au siège de l’OIF pour lui remettre une requête écrite en ce sens. le Président Abdou Diouf l’avait acceptée avec une généreuse motivation en tant que Promoteur de toujours de la culture et de la création artistique en Afrique.
Pour toutes les raisons citées plus haut, nous basant sur le fait que la Tunisie est historiquement à la fois membre fondateur de la FEPACI et membre fondateur de l’OIF , les organisations cinématographiques et culturelles tunisiennes soussignées, souhaitent présenter leurs plus vifs remerciements au Président Abdou Diouf pour son appui à ce projet, qui représente une extension Panafricaine à l’actuel effort que fait la Tunisie au lendemain de sa révolution, pour organiser le soutien à son cinéma et son audiovisuel sur des bases industrielles protégées et viables, en développant l’auto –suffisance financière et la nécessaire coopération Sud-Sud.
A cette occasion, les organisations cinématographiques et culturelles tunisiennes présentes à Thala en ce mois de juillet 2011, proposent que, pour les multiples motivations évoquées précédemment, et conformément aux recommandations de l’étude de faisabilité, la Tunisie puisse accueillir le siège officiel du Fonds en terre africaine, sachant que l’unité autonome de gestion du fonds sera basée à Paris, à proximité de l’OIF qui en assurera le contrôle financier. Aussi, les organisations cinématographiques et culturelles tunisiennes soussignées s’engagent à mettre tous leurs efforts en commun pour l’organisation et la mise sur pieds de cette future représentation officielle qui ne peut qu’être utile aux cinémas de notre continent.

Vive le projet de Fonds Panafricain du cinéma,
Vive le Cinéma tunisien,
Vive la Fédération Panafricaine des cinéastes
Signé :
Pour le Syndicat National des Producteurs de films, Lotfi Layouni
Pour l’Association des réalisateurs de films (ARF), Khaled Barsaoui
Pour l’Association des cinéastes tunisiens (ACT 2011), Amine Chiboube
Pour le Syndicat des Techniciens Intermittents de l’Audiovisuel, Habib Mestiri
Pour l’Association tunisienne des jeunes de l’audiovisuel, Manel Balti
Pour l’Assocition tunisienne des techniciens intermittents du cinéma et de l’audiovisuel, Khaled Ben Aziza
Pour la Fédération tunisienne des cinéastes amateurs, Adel Abid
Pour l’Association tunisienne pour la promotion de la critique cinématographique, Soundess Zarrouk
Pour L’Association culturelle Afrique -Méditerranée, Mohamed Challouf
Pour l’Association Thala Solidarité, Noureddine Bourogaa