Conteh, BambaLaye

The bane of Africa continues to be imperial
presidencies. Until a mechanism is framed to clip the
wings of the center, our beloved Gambia and the rest
of Africa will remain in the throes of
underdevelopment and conflict. The following article
is a snapshot of life in the fiefdom that is Libya,
run by Hilliard and Jammeh's best buddy.

Abdou

Enjoy

BY DONNA ABU-NASR
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRIPOLI, Libya - A headline about the Gadhafi era:
"From 1969 to 1369 - the dawn of the 33rd year."
No, the editors of the daily Al-Jamahiriyah weren't
counting backward, and yes, the math was right - as
long as you're in Moammar Gadhafi's Libya.
Gadhafi insists he is not Libya's president, having
long ago handed over the reins to "the power of the
people," who supposedly run the country through
grass-roots-level committees.
But in reality, it's 59-year-old Gadhafi who still
makes all the decisions. So the year is whatever he
says it is.
Sometimes it's 1369, counting from the year the
Prophet Muhammad died, and sometimes it's 1431,
counting from the year of his birth.
Meanwhile, Libya's overwhelmingly Muslim population of
5 million celebrates its religious holidays by the
tradi-tional Islamic calendar, which is lunar and
shorter, begins with Muhammad's flight from Mecca to
Medina and is now in the year 1422.
But wait, it gets complicated.
Both of Gadhafi's calendars mirror the Western one,
running from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, except that he doesn't
use the Arabic translation of the names of the Western
months - like most of the Arab world does. He has come
up with a new name for each month and some of the
changes reflect an apparent desire to settle ancient
grievances.
Thus August, named after the Roman emperor Augustus
Caesar, has been renamed Hannibal, after the general
from Carthage in North Africa who crossed the Alps
with elephants to invade Italy nearly 1,800 years ago.
It's apparently payback for Italy having colonized
Libya in 1912.
July, from Julius Caesar, is now called Nasser, after
Gamal Abdel Nasser, the late Egyptian president who is
Gadhafi's hero.
But almost 30 years after changing the calendars,
Gadhafi still doesn't seem to have made up his mind
which he prefers.
In January, stationery stores sold day planners with
the year 1431 engraved in gold-bordered green.
But a few days into the new year, Libya's newspapers -
all government controlled - suddenly backdated
them-selves to 1369.
There was no explanation, and Gadhafi, who rarely
gives interviews, didn't offer one.
Nine months later, it appeared that not many people
had noticed the change.
Those same stationery salesmen looked bewildered when
asked for a 1369 day planner. They all insisted that
the year in Libya was 1431 until they were shown that
day's newspaper.
"Oh, he's changed the year again," one salesman said
in a resigned tone.
Take a 2001 planner, he suggested.
Indeed, for all Gadhafi's efforts, the 2001 planner
which uses the Western month system remains the
favorite among the Libyans. And they continue to use
the traditional Arabic names for the Western months
when celebrating birthdays, planning trips or making
appointments. Hannibal and Nasser don't seem to have
caught on.
But the Gadhafi-designed dates are used in official
correspondence and transactions, as well as by
newspapers, to sometimes bamboozling effect.
A September issue of Al-Moallem newspaper used three
different calendars: The year on the masthead was
1369; an editorial referred to the 1969 coup that
brought Gadhafi to power; and a writer gave the year
1424 when discussing a law the government had passed.

--- BambaLaye <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Conteh,
>
> Great news! This is the same Hilliard who made
> Ghadaffi his person friend
> hence the Yaya Jammeh connection. It's a lesson for
> him that a battle
> against anyone support by the Jewish community in
> this country is
> suicidal. This Hilliard's ideology was more like our
> Dr. Devil in Kanilai.
>
> Thanks,
>
> BambaLaye
>
>
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