Sunday, September 17, 2006

Omar Mukhtar and Italian Occupation

Readers still come to my blog while googling Omar Mukhtar, especially yesterday which was the anniversary of his death ( execution) by the colonial forces.

In an earlier post in 2004 I wrote about the Italian occupation in response to a request by some readers. I was surprised that the said post is still eliciting replies in 2006. As recently as in March an Italian-Libyan left a very long comment there about the post colonial era:

"Hello everybody, I am one of the "Italians" - or Libyans seen from a different prospective - expelled or actually exiled from Libya in 1970. As a person born in Libya and knowing its history, and of all its ethnic components as the back of my hand, I invite you ....." [Read more ]

I find myself lucky that someone who lived in Libya after WWII is actually reading this blog and sharing with us his experience. So I wished to highlight his input thank him/or her and ask him/her to write some more again . Salam.

38 comments:

programmer craig said...

On the other hand, maybe they should just do it again? When peace isn't good enough, war is the answer. Right, Libyan "Warrior" ?

Mckenzie said...

Can I just say that, um, I am now addicted to your blog as well? It's a true story.

programmer craig said...
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programmer craig said...

Whassa matta, Libyan Warrior? You all upset that your victim status got revoked?

Deal with it.

PS-My apolgies to any Libyans who aren't hatemongering bigots. No offense intended. I like Libyans or I wouldn't spend so much time on this blog. But I gotta call bullshit on the two Libyans in this thread who were wallowing in their victim status at the same time they were gloating about how much they hated Italians and wanted to see them suffer.

programmer craig said...

And another think, Libyan Warrior! If you call me "Aryan" again I'm going to have to chastise you severely. Perhaps with highlander's sheb-sheb. I may have blue eyes and I may have fair hair but I am no Aryan. The Jutes came from Jutland (that's Denmark today) the Saxons came from the coastal region just south of Jutland (called saxony, oddly enough!), and the Angli came from Schleswig, also just south of Jutland. These three tribes were sea raiders (or, as some would say, pirates), just like their immediate neighbors to the North, the Norse.

Those are my ancestors, and the ancestors of all anglo-saxons. Nothing whatsoever to do with Indo-Europeans and Indo-Iranian tribes, whichever direction those tribal migrations really took.

By the way, where do you think the traits for blue eyes and blong hair came from in ancient Libya? *blink*

programmer craig said...

Hmmmm.... I said the norse to the north. Which is basically saying the north to the north, isn't it? Hmmm... well, no pun intended.

programmer craig said...

RIGHT ANSWER. All of these peoples have the same Lingustic heritage.

Yes. You're looking at it improperly, though. You're attempting to apply linguistics to the field of anthroplogy. You're looking at the language that was spread as a result of the Aryan migrations and claiming that the use of the same or similar language by all those peoples is evidence that they are all the same people. That is incorrect. The anthroplogical differences of all the various groups you listed are well documented.

And are you really trying to claim you are using the lingusitic version of the term "Aryan" and not the ethnic one?

In any case, the Aryans were pre-historic. That means you shouldn't be calling me or anybody else "Aryan" because there are no living Aryans. If you MUST, then call the Iranians Aryan, not somebody who is Germanic. I find it offensive, both because it doesn't apply to me, and because of the Nazi implications.

Ancient Iranians used the term Aryan to describe their lineage and their language. Darius the Great, King of Persia (521 - 486 BC), in an inscription in Naqsh-e Rostam (near Shiraz in present-day Iran), proclaims: "I am Darius the great King... A Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage...". The name Iran is a cognate of Aryan meaning the Land of Aryans. The term has become a term of art in the Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu religions.

The Aryan tribes in the Indian subcontinent called their land Aaryaa varta or Aryan expanse / Aryan land. When the ancient Persians lived in the Inner Asian Steppes and moved south into today's Iran, they named the place Airyanem Vaejah, or The Iranian Expanse, and today the word survives as Iran. Many present day Iranian boy and girl names reflect this ancient relation: names like Ariana, Iran-dokht (Aryan Daughter), Arian, Aryan-Pur, Aryaramne, ...

The above information, and descriptions of what the Aryans looked like, is about as good as it gets. There are no historical records. That's why the Aryans are considered pre-historic people. WTF is up with the Cro-Magnon reference though? The Aryans were someplace about 3000 BC, not 30000 years ago, dude.

programmer craig said...

BTW, there's no definitive history of the Huns either, including where they originated, and that was less than 2000 years ago. It was about the time the Vandals were invading Libya. In fact, it was exactly when the Vandals were invading Libya.

Just had to throw that bit in again, sorry :P

Are you going to imply Attila was a competitor to cro-magnon man as well?

Anonymous said...
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programmer craig said...

You guys think you're scoring points with the homophobia, eh? :P

Highlander said...

LW - I see you read some of the links . Did you read the one about the Libyan Italian?

Mckenzie - welcome to my blog :) which part do you find addictive ?

Anonymous 9.25 Am - who are you ?

Umm Aminah , thanks for sharing about your husband's grandpa - we are proud of him .

Dirk - welcome to the blog .

Programmer_Craig this is your first reply:

"On the other hand, maybe they should just do it again? When peace isn't good enough, war is the answer. Right, Libyan "Warrior" ?"

I wish you had replied something about the post and not taken LW's bait :( . Did you have time to read the link? what do you think about it ? I wanted to highlight the point of a descendant of a colonial family.

programmer craig said...

Hi Highlander,

I did read the link. Very interesting. I enjoyed reading his story. But I'm not Italian or Libyan, or even Turkish, so I don't have any input. It doesn't surprise me that nothing is as it seems. It never is.

I prefer to confront the people who believe the lies they've been told.

Thank you for posting that link, though. It was very informative :)

If the wto Libyans hadn't started ranting about how much they were victims I might have hd something to say that was more constructive.

Anonymous said...

PC

I don't know what lies your talking about but most of the history during that time was written by the italians and later americans/british the only lies i can see are yours. The UN estimated that the libyan population was reduced to a half during the italina occupation, and our grandparents are still alive so we don't even have to go to other source for what happened . The bottom line is they invaded us for no reason I don't think anyhting else is relevant.
As for libyans portraying themselves as victims, who do u think were the victims the italians?
Again the problemm is that people like you still live in denial and can't seem to cope with the fact that you are a part and a main reason to most of the violence we see today.

Anonymous said...

PC

In your reply to highlander you said you weren't libyan italian or turkish so you didn't have any . are you trying to convince us that more than 4 replies which have a threat of reoccupation and a denial of the atrocities is a neutral no-reply????????????
I'd hate to see what you'd have to say if you were italian.

Anonymous said...

At a slightly less noisy note I would like to ask Highlander a question. Your anonymous Libyan/Italian visitor in March wrote something that caught my eye:
The Libyans especially young are brought up to have hatred for Italy, the Italians with the excuse of the past colonialism.
How would you comment on that? (Sure LW u can answer too, but please try to control your tone of voice :)

programmer craig said...

Anon,

(not sure if both comments are the same person but I'll reply as if they are)

I don't know what lies your talking about but most of the history during that time was written by the italians

Really? They teach the Italian version of events in Libya? Are you sure about that? Because that doesn't seem consistant with the Q-man's methods, to me.

and later americans/british the only lies i can see are yours.

What lies are those? I didn't even comment on either the Turkish colonization of Libya *or* the Italian colonization of Libya.

The UN estimated that the libyan population was reduced to a half during the italina occupation

That's an interesting development, considering the UN didn't even exist during the Italian occupation. What data did the UN use?

In any case, not only did I not challenge this claim or any other, I didn't say anything the least bit rrelevant to this claim. So, why exactly are you coming after me on this? I didn't state an opinion.

and our grandparents are still alive so we don't even have to go to other source for what happened .

I understand what you're saying. I always geta kick out of people who tell me what REALLY happened in Lebanon in 1983, too :)

Things have a way of becoming what they never were, over time.

The bottom line is they invaded us for no reason I don't think anyhting else is relevant.

Well, there was a reason. But I didn't comment on it. The reason was that Italy was at war with Turkey, and Libya was part of the Ottomon Empire.

That doesn't make it right. But it is a reason.

Libya was part of the Ottomon Empire when it attacked the US 200 years ago, too. But I don't blame the Turks for what Libyans do.

As for libyans portraying themselves as victims, who do u think were the victims the italians?

Again, I did not say anything about Italians. My point was that all your ill will for things that happened long in the past can be applied by others, to Libya, as well. You are no angels, you Libyans. Many people have historical grievances against you, and some of them are fairly recent.

Again the problemm is that people like you still live in denial and can't seem to cope with the fact that you are a part and a main reason to most of the violence we see today.

Yeah. Whatever.

are you trying to convince us that more than 4 replies which have a threat of reoccupation

I made one comment that the Italians might very well respond with all the hate and threatening language with some of the same, directed towards you. That's what people do when they hate each other enough, you know. They wage war.

and a denial of the atrocities is a neutral no-reply????????????

I call bullshit on that. I didn't comment on any Italian actions, so how could I have denied something they did?

I'd hate to see what you'd have to say if you were italian.

Well, I'm not. So don't worry about it. Worry about what the Italians think when they read how much Libyans despise them.

I'm American. I speak as an American. And Libya and the US have a long history. Libya has the honor of being America's first foreign war. The very first American flag to fly over enemy territory was at the Fortress of Derne, over 200 years ago.

I'm still waiting for some Libyans to answer the question about whether the US is justified in any future aggression against Libya because of what Libya has done to Americans in the past. Nursing grudges is not a uniquely arab trait, you know :)

programmer craig said...
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programmer craig said...

By the way, Libyan Pirate,

The First Barbary War was beneficial to the military reputation of the United States. America's military command and war mechanism had been up to that time relatively untested. The First Barbary War proved that America could execute a war far from home, and that American forces had the cohesion to fight together as Americans rather than Georgians or New Yorkers. The United States Navy and Marines became a permanent part of the American government and the American mythos, and Decatur returned to the U.S. as its first post-Revolutionary war hero.

Our first step on the long road to becoming a global power, and then a super-power. Thanks :)

We owe you guys a lot.

Maya M said...

Myriam, it seems you don't know our young friend Libyan Warrior. The real problem with him is not anything he says (although the denial of the Armenian genocide came too much even for me who knows him well enough). The problem is that you never know whether he really thinks what he says. He reminds me of an Oscar Wilde's character who complained, "Why do people, instead of just paying attention to what I say, ask whether I mean it seriously, as if it matters!". And also of an ancient master of rhetoric who one day held a speech advocating some thesis, and the next day - another speech advocating exactly the opposite thesis. (Both comparisons, I think, are too flattering for LW.) So you risk spending your mental energy to argue with LW about things he actually doesn't believe himself. I am not sure he believes in anything at all. I don't understand him, I would care what I publish in the Web under my nickname and everybody can read and remember and save. Anyway, his business, this is freedom of speech.

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Highlander said...

To all I was serious when I said foul language will be deleted 2 days ago. To be fair and objective to all I deleted from everyone's comments on this post. So please dear all - no more expletive and no more hate words.

Hi Adam :) in response to your question somewhere above on the thread ; nope hate towards Italians is not thought in the school curicula. I said in somewhere else on my blog , the number one favourite destination of travel for Libyans has to be Italy.

Um Aminah I apologize if you were offended on my blog .

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Anonymous said...

Programmer Craig wrote:
"Things have a way of becoming what they never were, over time."
Yeah like the Holocaust,

But this kind statement in the West will be viewed as Anti-Semitic and racist. And I only said it to make a point not because I believe it’s true. The truth is that Italians killed a lot of Libyans for no reason but to create an empire. Three of my grandparents’ grew-up as orphans, but according to you this could be a lie and may be I shouldn’t trust them.
You are saying Libyans should get over what Italy did because Libyans also commit crimes. Then why don’t you tell the Jews to get over the Nazis, because they also commit war crimes. I know you won’t because that doesn’t make sense, so don’t tell us to get over what the Fascists did in Libya over a period of 40 years.
Also I challenge you to find any thing that Libyans did that can be compared to what Italians did to Libya.

Highlander said...

Libyan I agree with you the Italians did commit atrocious crimes in Libya for the sole reason of increasing their imperial aspirations which they thought would bring economic rewards.

Programmer_Craig, Libyans got over it and built friendly and economic ties with the former colonialist Italy after independence. Italy did apologise and sent compensation and recently agreed on a compensation plan which would me more just. However, that does not mean we have to forget our dead ,our heros and our survivors or change history to please some hurt sensibilities. As you know all countries do recall their fallen. The Italians did commit somethink akin to a holocaust in Libya by decimating almost 700 000 Libyans.


Maya , hi again - actually the Jews have not gotten over Germany, they don't let pass an occasion where they will not remind the world about the Holocaust and remind the Germans about it - what do today's German's have to do with those of Nazi Germany ?
It should not matter in this particular thread what the Arabs think about the Holocaust, as this is not the topic of this post. As I said above Libyans have gotten over it, and we must give them right to remmember their own holocaust once in a while - God know we don't whine about it all over the global media. But 700 000 for a population of one million something is a real tragedy !

Still I wish someone read the link I posted, which was on a completely different note :(

Maya M said...

Highlander, I see some contradiction between "actually the Jews have not gotten over Germany, they don't let pass an occasion where they will not remind the world about the Holocaust and remind the Germans about it" and "Libyans have gotten over it, and we must give them right to remmember their own holocaust" because I don't see how any nation can remember its Holocaust without remembering who did it, even if it has gotten over it! And now Italians can say that you are "reminding them about it".
By the way, I like Omar Mukhtar from the little I know about him. It is unfortunate that people like him usually die in the struggle for independence, and when independence finally comes, the country wakes up being led by, eh, quite different sort of people.

programmer craig said...

Hi Highlander,

Can you explain to me why Libyans and all other Arabs are so obsessed with the supposed "genocide" Israelis have perpetrated on Palestinians? Most estimates I've seen for the total number of Palestinians killed by Israelis in *60 years* are under 10,000.... and here you say Libya lost 700,000 to Italian occupation. Considering that Libyas population has probably always been similar to the Palestinian population, why so much of an emphasis on one and not the other?

To an outsider it looks like the whole Arab world is getting played, and has been getting played for generations.

And no, LW, I'm not asking for more absurdities from you, and I intend to ignore any of your input :)

Anonymous said...

"Can you explain to me why Libyans and all other Arabs are so obsessed with the supposed "genocide" Israelis have perpetrated on Palestinians? Most estimates I've seen for the total number of Palestinians killed by Israelis in *60 years* are under 10,000"
I'll try and answer this one, first the number must be a lot higher than 10,000.
3000 to 4000 Palestinians have been killed in the latest fighting, so unless the Israeli Jews have killed as many Palestinians in the last few years as they did in the past 55 years then the number must be a lot higher, also you are not counting all the refugees who will number in the millions. But the real issue is not the numbers, otherwise Arabs would be most angry at the French who have killed anything between 300,000 Algerians by French estimates to 1 million by Algerian estimates, and the happened not too long back during the sixties. But the issue with Palestine is the continuing occupation, while most occupations that started in the 20th century have ended with liberation of both the people and the land, the only people who have been continually occupied and deprived are the Palestinians.

Maya M said...

"3000 to 4000 Palestinians have been killed in the latest fighting", Libyan said.
According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Israel-Gaza_conflict), the latest fighting took the lives of 168 Palestinian fighters and 64 civilians.
I guess Libyan meant the killed Lebanese. Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Israel-Lebanon_conflict puts the Lebanese casualties at nearly 1200 civilians and 46 soldiers. I guess Libyan has confused the number of wonded civilians (3600) for the death toll.
Anyway, why does Libyan count the dead Lebanese as Palestinians? Perhaps he considers being a Palestinian as an honour and promotes them posthumously, similarly to the Army practice to give higher ranks to killed soldiers?

Anonymous said...

What I meant by the “latest fighting” is the Second Intefada (uprising) by the Palestinian people which essentially has been one conflict since the year 2000 until now. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (http://www.palestinercs.org/crisistables/table_of_figures.htm) 4,217 Palestinians have been killed. So to answer your question Maya M no I didn’t count the Lebanese in the Palestinian death toll, those are other crimes that Arabs are angry about. And Non-Blogging thank you for your feed back, and yes I was referring only to the Arab world, and despite of my “shallow … knowledge of modern political history” I am almost certainly aware more than you are of other conflicts in the Arab world. Being a non-Arab, Berber my self I know that there are many people who are not happy with the governments or the borders that govern them. Yet there is no other example like that of Israel, which is basically people coming from overseas to make a home for themselves by displacing the natives, yes the French did that in Algeria and the Italians in Libya to some extent. But it only continues in Palestine. And what you call occupation of Lebanon and the Western Sahara is by no means a colonization. And that was my point that the difference between this conflict and many other conflicts in the region is colonization.

programmer craig said...

Libyan, you're numbers for Palestinians killed in the second Intifadeh are undoubtedly accurate, as it has been by fare the deadliest period in the last 60 years, for both Israelis and Palestinians. Almost as many Palestinians were killed since 2000 as weer killed in the whole preceding 45 years. I think my numbers for the total are still pretty accurate.