UN Security Council to meet, Libya hands out cash

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: Reuters

The U.N. Security Council was to meet on Friday to discuss a draft proposal for sanctions against Libyan leaders, locked in a bloody battle for survival against a popular uprising.

The Security Council meeting follows U.S. efforts to drum up international backing for ways to stem the bloodshed in Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi's forces have fought back against a rebellion in which French estimates say some 2,000 people may have died.
...
Libyan state television said the government was raising wages, increasing food subsidies and ordering special allowances for all families, in its first practical attempt to enrol the support of citizens since the uprising began.

Each family will receive 500 Libyan dinars to help cover increased food costs, and wages for some categories of public sector workers wuill increase by 150 percent, the television station said.

Read more: http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE71O00920110225?sp=true

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500 dinars is about $400 - just under 2 weeks' average income according to the Toronto Star.

[maddezmom]

1. MSNBC: Gadhafi tries to bribe his way out of trouble

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41775200/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

[rpannier]

2. Another example

When those in charge are scared, suddenly there is money for salaries and social benefits

[WhiteTara]

3. How stupid is that?

That's supposed to mollify the country? Kill thousands and give out a few bucks. What worked in the past won't do anymore.

[bemildred]

4. Libya's Qaddafi offers $400 per family as rebels close in on Tripoli

Source: CSM

As antigovernment forces and demonstrators draw nearer to Libya's capital, Tripoli, Col. Muammar Qaddafi appears to be further losing his grip on power.

In an attempt to appease the masses – possibly inspired by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who promised his subject $36 billion in benefits to stave off any potential revolutionaries – Libya's besieged leader on Friday pledged a 150 percent increase in some government workers' wages and promised to give every family $400.

Libyan state television announced the wage increase and said each family would receive $400 to help them cope with the rising food prices. The broadcast aired shortly before Libyans went to mosques for Friday prayers. After prayers, antigovernment protesters are expected to continue demonstrating, reports MSNBC.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2011/0225/Libya-s-Qaddafi-offers-400-per-family-as-rebels-close-in-on-Tripoli

[meegbear]

5. And Bush only gave us $300

[bemildred]

6. Crowds laugh as tyrannical charade ends in Libya

MUAMMAR "Mad Dog" Gaddafi is not mad. Bad, yes. Brutal, touchy and exhibitionist, undoubtedly. Capricious, overdressed, long-winded and weirdly coiffured, certainly.

But so far from being insane, Libya's ruler of 41 years has clung to power in a way that is consistent, effective and ruthless. Gaddafi's rule, even if it is over by the time you read this, has been one of the longest in modern history, and in many ways has been a textbook dictatorship, surviving by assiduously shoring up the twin pillars of every tyranny: the cult of personality and artificial fear.

Gaddafi took power as the arch-enemy of imperialism, the "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution", and the bitter legacy of colonialism has always underpinned his popular appeal. "The Libyans do not know everything," he once said. "But they know Italy, and they hate Italy."

On a "visit of reconciliation" to Rome in 2009, the colonel wore a Ruritanian uniform, replete with epaulettes and gold braid. He also wore on his chest a picture of a Libyan resistance leader hanged by Italian colonists in 1931.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/crowds-laugh-as-tyrannical-charade-ends-in-libya/story-e6frg6ux-1226012194916