Not sure if anyone has posted this or not, hundreds reportedly killed yesterday;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12517327

This is a really sad one. The worst part of this really will be the lack of international press coverage which means their attempts will probably be in vain.

When I worked in Tripoli in 1978-81 there were always rumours Gaddafi had been shot etc, but now in his 42nd year in the hot seat he is still there but certainly looks a bit rough these days! Where I worked was odd. At times everyone chatted merrily other times little or no interaction. I asked one guy quietly why this was so and he said we cannot be sure of some of the people who may be Gaddafi informants!! Very sad! Most of them hated Gaddafi on the quiet!

Apparently there is also unrest in Morocco - we have closed our office there. So that's most of North Africa done now.

Re Morocco

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...ia-yemen-china

and

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/856068-p...ets-of-morocco

Surely Gaddafi's days are numbered - the man's a nutter, you only have to look at him to see he's not firing on all cylinders.

apparently today will be his last day, even the military and police have now gone against him

we hope that

Seems like civil war now with some army bases who have turned against him being bombed.

And all the time Gaddafi is going on TV blaming foreign media and influence for everything. What is it with these people - every time they mess up they blame outsiders? From the collapse of the Arab Islamic empires due to infighting to the rise in food prices, the Iran/Iraq war - you name it, it's all someone else's fault.

Must be because there's plenty of sand to stick their head in these here parts...

N.

Yeah and I suppose politician's in the UK (and elsewhere) would never dream of blaming anyone else? When you don't have an internal opposition to blame, then you look outside.

Politicians in the UK haven't oppressed their own people anywhere near what many middle eastern leaders have...well not in the last 400 years anyway.

Our politicians blame each other - not outsiders. No one in the UK would take a politician seriously who claimed the financial crisis was an terrorist plot and the job situation is due to foreign elements etc etc. There's a big difference. Also, we ultimately admit our wrongs historically and apologise for them....from the Atlantic slave trade to many aspects of colonialism. I've yet to hear any prominent Arab say sorry for the annexing of a third of the christian world, the continued occupation of Anatolia, Cyprus or the still continuing African slavery some of them are engaged in.

N.

Please elaborate. We are all ears.

I was pretty much glued to Al Jazeera news last night. More and more live feeds started coming through indicating that the people were starting to take more of a grip and allowing TV crews to film.

The mad dog is allegedly holed up in the central HQ with only a few aides. He apparently can't use the air force as they are refusing to carry out orders so has resorted to using plain clothed african mercenaries to cause terror in Tripoli.

Tough times but I hope everyone gets out safely. The UK's involvement in it all has been an utter joke.

The other thing that gets me is all this political BS where leaders are coming out and just saying "yes Libya's actions are unacceptable". No kidding...they're the top leaders of the world and this is the best they've got? Then you've got the guy from Iran saying that everyone should have their own freedom and choices when his own people are so oppressed.

Not that you could class him as a politician - Nick Griffin? Pretty sure the BNP would claim that the job situation is due to mucky foreigners.... and you'd have to admit there's far too many who take the idiot seriously.

He's fringe, not really mainstream. We got the same types here in the US, only here the blaming foreigners is slightly more mainstream with usually conservative politicians every once in a while blaming illegals.

In the grand scheme of things though most of the blame in Western nations is directed internally. Part of that is Western nations really haven't been controlled by foreign cultures but a lot of that is also like Norm said that in the West atleast people are genuine about accepting fault, unlike much of the MidEast where people just won't ever accept they did anything wrong.