May Day Greetings from the

The Liaison Committee for the Fourth International sends its
warmest revolutionary greetings to The VOAG and the world’s working class, the poor and oppressed and in particular to its fighting vanguard- those most class-conscious elements- who have now begun to emerge on a global scale to fight its cause under the banner of the world revolution, so shamelessly abandoned by so many international groups claiming the name of Trotskyism.
 

Since the uprising on 15 February, 2011 in Benghazi, the ‘Libyan revolution’ has
been the touchstone for revolutionaries worldwide. The mass media supplied us
with a great deal of lying propaganda, lies that the majority of left groups
would have had no trouble exposing in an earlier period, as with Iraq,
for example, but they did not try.

They did not find and expose the racism of the ‘rebels’, their lynchings and
summary executions of black people on the pretext they were all “Gaddafi’s
mercenaries from Chad”. They could not expose the CIA connections and obvious
pro-imperialism of the Transitional National Council, and even those who were
eventually forced to acknowledged this told us that there was a ‘real
revolution’ in the ranks of the ‘rebels’, pointing to the sole pathetic piece of
‘evidence’, the very sophisticated banner that opposed intervention with six
people around it, undoubtedly flown in from CIA headquarters in Langley,
Virginia to fool the gullible and those who wanted to be fooled.

Of course the LCFI recognises that Gaddafi was no
revolutionary socialist, he was a bourgeois nationalist who ruled with a
corrupt clique of capitalist backers, whose main aim was the preservation of
the privileges of that group. He assisted Imperialism by supplying weapons to
Southern Sudan to divide the country to enable the US to seize the oil
resources then controlled by China. In return Omar al-Bashir (whom Gaddafi
assisted to come to power in the 1986 coup) was the foremost backer of the
rebels in Benghazi, secretly supplying weapons and other assistance to overthrow
Gaddafi, totally consistent with the completely unprincipled character of the
national bourgeoisie.

Those on the ‘left’ who wish to assist in the overthrow of
Assad in Syria, (and they are generally the same culprits) can point to similar examples
of treachery, and the favours Assad and his father Hafez al-Assad performed
for Israel and the US in Lebanon, intervening to prevent the defeat of the Falangists
(Christian fascist forces), when the alliance between Lebanon’s leftists and
Palestinians were on the brink of victory during the Civil War in 1976.

As with the policy of the United Front of working class
parties, the LCFI champions the Anti-Imperialist United Front tactic as developed by
Lenin and the Comintern in its first four Congresses. Just because the
semi-colonial world is terrorised by a brutal dictator, it does not mean that they
are the main enemy of the world’s working class and oppressed. That epithet
belongs to Imperialism and global finance capital, and to it alone in all wars and
conflicts.

A defeat for Imperialism has always two great progressive
consequences. The strengthening of the class consciousness of the workers and poor
in the oppressed nation under Imperialist attack; and far more importantly in the
global balance of class forces, the dashing of illusions in the working class
of the imperialist country in their ‘own’ bourgeoisie, as the defeat of US Imperialism
in Vietnam showed.

As with the international class struggle, so with the national.
You cannot fight for Imperialism in its foreign wars whilst consistently
seeking its overthrow at home. Domestically, the first line of Trotsky’s
Transitional Programme, “The world political situation
as a whole is chiefly characterized by a historical crisis of the leadership of
the proletariat” is as true today as when written in 1938. Every refugee from the
fight to build the world party of socialist revolution must deny the truth of
that proposition. Every refugee from the class struggle blames the working
class for its lack of combativity and its inability to lead itself, and thereby defends
the class treachery of the trade union bureaucracy and their political
representatives in parliament.

Trotsky said the British Trades Union leaders were the “backbone of British
Imperialism”. This is true of every national TU bureaucracy, from the British TUC
to COSATU in South Africa. Without for a single moment neglecting our
internationalist duties, our main task today in our own class struggle is to
fight and pose alternatives to these treacherous misleaders. The building of rank
and file movements in the trade unions, the placing of demands on all those who
claim leadership of the working class, the relentless exposing of the centrists
who defend the left Trade Union bureaucrats is our central task in the class struggle.

As the Transitional Programme says: “In the struggle for partial and transitional demands, the workers now more than ever before need mass organizations, principally trade unions. The powerful growth of trade unionism in France and the United States is the best refutation of the preachments of those ultra-left doctrinaires who have been teaching that trade unions have “outlived their usefulness.”

We therefore reject totally any suggestions that the trade
unions have become simple agents of the capitalist state; that Trotsky’s
Transitional Programme no longer applies in 2012, that we must seek to build
our own sect in isolation from the mass struggles of the working class.
We are as confident as ever that with a correct orientation to Imperialism
internationally, and to the class struggle domestically based on irreconcilable
opposition to the TU bureaucracy, our small international current will
undoubtedly find the ear of the resurgent vanguard of the international working class.

·  Defeat World Imperialism, finance capital and its agents in Syria and in every war!
·  The Malvinas are part of Argentinean national territory, defeat British Imperialism!
·  No reliance on Bourgeois nationalist leaders, even of the left variety like Chavez!
·  Only the International Working class can defeat Global Imperialism!
·  Build the World Party of Socialist Revolution!
·  Forward to the Liaison Committee for the Fourth International! 
Liga Comunista—Brasil
Tendencia Militante Bolchevique—Argentina
Socialist Fight—Britain
1 May 2012

"Bombs Away!" by Anxious223 Chris Dixon. Creative Commons license.

About a year ago Conservation International was pilloried by a couple of British videographers posing as executives of the arms maker Lockheed Martin. They bamboozled a C.I. official in London into a meeting where she outlined several ways the nonprofit could “partner” with the arms maker under terms that looked a lot like greenwashing. You can watch the video here and judge for yourself if C.I. did anything wrong.

I had a few issues with the “exposé;” chiefly that C.I. already had dealings with B2 bomber maker Northrop Grumman, whose chairman and CEO Wes Bush is a member of its board of directors. And another big group, The Nature Conservancy, was already in the pay of Lockheed. These existing relationships undermined the shock value the scamsters were going for.

Still, you’d think the critique, or at least the bad press coverage it generated, would inspire reflection about the reputational damage some corporate deals can bring down on a nonprofit organization. More specifically, is a company that makes weapons of war an appropriate partner for a group whose mission is saving the Earth’s biodiversity? Well, if those questions were raised, they didn’t lead to change.

C.I. has just cranked up its P.R. machine in service of a new partnership with Northrop, “a unique and innovative professional development program for public middle and high school science teachers.”

In a nutshell: The Northrop Grumman Foundation will pay for 16 teachers from four U.S. public school systems to visit CI’s Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network’s Volcan Barva site inside La Selva Biological Station and Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica.

“We believe that supporting professional development opportunities for teachers will have the greatest impact on engaging students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. We expect this program will help cultivate the next generation of environmental stewards,” said Sandy Andelman, vice president at Conservation International in a press release the two partners issued April 19.

Whoa! That statement requires a reality check. According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are 3.6 million K to 12 grade teachers in the United States spread across 14,000 public school districts. The group selected for this program doesn’t even come close to representing 1 percent of the teachers in the country.

While they will surely have a rewarding time and may even return home to inspire their students, the scale of the program is too small to have the impact Andelman claims. Like so many of these corporate-conservationist joint ventures they are more symbolic than substantive.

They deliver real public relations boons for Northrop, however, which might explain why the Falls Church, Vir. -based company features the “ECO classroom” as a top story on its homepage.

Hat tip to Wiki Scraper for writing the search tool that brought this story to my attention.

While we’re on the subject of corporate-environmentalist ties, here’s another couple of recent stories that deserve mentions:

This upbeat Q & A featuring Wal-Mart chairman Rob Walton and C.I.’s CEO Peter Seligmann comes out as Wal-Mart as struggles to overcome awkward questions about its greening policies and a recent bribery scandal.

Many environmental groups, including C.I., don’t count donations from corporate-tied foundations as “corporate” cash. Instead, they report money from the likes of the Walton Family Foundation and the Northrop foundation as foundation grants, which helps them claim that only a fraction of their funding comes from corporate sources.  For that matter, C.I. doesn’t tally the money it receives from scions like Rob Walton in the corporate column either. But Walton, in this article, doesn’t talk like someone whose relationship to C.I. is detached from the workings of the family firm, even if he does say he leaves the day-to-day greening to “middle managers.”

Environmental Defense Fund was caught in a similar controversy last week. The group claims to take zero corporate dollars but the Walton Family Foundation granted EDF $16 million in 2009 and continuing support equal to more than $7 million in 2010, among other support.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports this morning that an obscure private foundation threatened to pull funding from the Potomac Riverkeeper group unless it dropped its opposition to a trading scheme proposed as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‘s Chesapeake Bay cleanup.

“What I know is that I care much more about him being charged, then I do about him being convicted. What always rankled about this case wasn’t that Zimmerman might not see a jail cell (that’s what judges and juries determine) but that law enforcement had done everything to foreclose that possibility. We may find that they still have. I imagine a lot was lost in bungling. But at the very least this says, ‘We take the loss of life seriously.’”

This has been another edition of “What TNC Said.”

By Michael Klassen

“Imagine Jesus crucified in your arms and on your chest, and say a hundred times as you kiss His chest, ‘This is my hope, the living source of my happiness; this is the heart of my soul; nothing will ever separate me from His love.’” St. Padre Pio
Last week a friend of mine posted this quote to her FaceBook page. How counterintuitive to what we expect. The hope of the world is the crucifixion of its God.

By John Moyer MD

The most extreme spot I know of is Death Valley California.

In this picture you can see an amazing plant, the Desert Holly, set in the midst of barren hills. The Creator, my Lord, adapted this beautiful example of his majesty to withstand very little moisture and intense heat. Its silver coloration reflects the sun, its incurved leaves collect the moisture that comes in the winter months when the holly comes out of dormancy and flowers. This is a prime example of survival during impossible times and conditions, something we all are able to do with the Lord’s care and love.

By Emmy Michelle Scott

There is a village tucked away in the mountains of Guatemala named, Yulmacap. The Guatemalan’s in Yulmacap do not speak spanish. They speak a Mayan dialect, Q’anjobal. They all wear traditional Mayan garb and are so secluded that hardly anyone ever leaves the village. It is beautiful, so I completely understand why no one leaves.  The mountains shoot straight up and the deep blues of the sky splash against them like a water painting. A dirt road winds down the mountain into the village. You can feel the breath of God in the atmosphere.

How are ugly things made beautiful?  An awkward bird spends his whole life teased and tormented for being so hideous, and then one morning the ugly duckling wakes up to find himself a swan.  Such stories intrigue me.  They contain some special element that moves me.  There is a great metamorphosis and suddenly everything is made right.  Put it however you like:  the ugly is made beautiful, the useless finds purpose, or fate turns to fortune.  Somehow this dramatic twist catches my heart’s desire.

We see this pattern happening all around us.  The story of Susan Boyle is not just good television—it taps something universal inside of us.  We see it in nature when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.  I hear black sapote looks like death but tastes like chocolate pudding.  Isn’t that wonderful?  Extreme Makeover: Home Edition took just a few days to transform a family’s ramshackle house into a luxurious home.  Does anyone else start to sniffle when they yell, “Bus driver, move that bus,”?  Why does this move me?  What makes these stories great?  Why do I long for even greater transformations?  Transformation is bursting at the seams with new hope.  Hope was lost and now it is found.  I would wait on tiptoe for such a thing!

There is a universal longing for transformation, for metamorphosis.  It is a longing for redemption.  The Bible is full of redemptive images.  The first man, Adam, is said to be gathered up from dirt.  The first woman, made from a man’s rib. (I think we can all agree things went from ugly to beautiful there!) Keep on reading: Moses strikes a rock, and water flows from it.  Joseph’s slavery transforms into kingship.  Even King David’s sin is part of Jesus’ family history.  When it comes to the business of redemption, God has a corner on the market.  He monopolizes on every single chance He gets.

This week many Christians around the world are celebrating Holy Week.  It marks the week leading up to Easter.  Christians somehow find life in an ancient symbol of Roman torture, the cross.  We celebrate how Jesus’ death leads to our life.  Our sin must lead to death.  It always does, and so Jesus has to die—not because he sinned.  Rather, Jesus must die for our sins, and His innocence makes it all the more gruesome.  Every story we know ends right there… with death.  It is always the final word in our world.  Every one of our lives ends with this gloomy equalizer.  Yet every desire we have begs for more.  Our universal longing for hints at another ending.  “Can something this ugly be made beautiful?”  “Can we see another metamorphosis?”  “Is there hope for redemption even here… in death?”  Jesus’ resurrection changes everything.  The great metamorphosis is just that.  It is Easter.  Through his death Jesus offers the world new life!  How can Jesus take ugliness and make it so beautiful?

If you would like to explore this theme further, then come tomorrow (Friday, April 6th) to our Good Friday Experience at the Main Street Centre in Old Littleton.  The address is:  2629 West Main Street — Littleton, CO 80120.  Doors will be open from 6-8pm, so come whenever you’d like.  It should take about 30mins to walk through, and the experience will be kid-friendly.

By Valerie Yeo

More often than not, I find myself needing to be reminded that I am not the God of my life.  Vexed and plagued by the imperfection of being human, I often imagine the day that we will be made clean, washed free of the crust of sin that right now holds us to this earth, and given our true name.  However, until that day, I’m doing my best to remember that it will be God who will bring us through; God, who sometimes presents Himself in a whisper, and at other times, draws us to Himself through a whirlwind.

There is something about a whirlwind that draws me to repeatedly paint tornadoes and other swirling vortexes.  There is something so intrinsically terrifying about a force so much bigger than I am, replete with all my imperfections.  Yet, it is a comfort to look back on my history and see God’s presence within many of the whirlwinds in life, and to see and remember the times He drew me out of them, even when I was absolutely unaware of His presence.  I chose this painting because it is of a tornado bearing down on a tree, but also because it is unfinished, and has remained so for the past few months because of whirlwind of other tasks that have taken precedence over its completion.  But I leave it out on a table as a reminder that even in its unfinished nature, you can see glimpses of what is to come.

By Diana Kramer

What moves me artistically?  For those of you who know me or have seen me, I’m sure you realize it isn’t difficult to move me, particularly to tears.  The landscape the Lord created for us to gaze upon every day, moves me to awe, and it inspires me, and it somehow reminds me of what is possible, and of course to be grateful.  That is an awful lot of MOVEment it seems to me.

Growing up here in Denver, I learned that the mountains are to the west, and I could always orient myself that way.  It is comforting to know that God’s landscape is unchanging…well I guess God’s landscape really does change, it just does it so slowly that we would never notice.  Hmmm, what can we learn from that?

God’s landscape is elemental too isn’t it?  Fire, water, air and land.  We all identify with these elements, and they provide for so much more than mere aesthetic enjoyment.  The ground, as in “being moved to be grounded”.  “Being moved to tears”, and there is your water.  To “light a fire under us”, is in fact being moved to action, which we all need every once in a while.   The air we breathe is what fuels everything on this earth, so that there can be movement.

I love photography, and what better way to capture God’s landscape?  Photos in general move me to memories and those memories are my life and therefore me.  Photos also help me to visually learn about others, and therefore orient myself in this world God placed me in.

As I drive through the landscape, what better accompaniment than music.  I love all kinds of music.  It moves me to tears, but also to action.  This beautiful landscape God has given us is best enjoyed when using all of our senses.

There, I think I covered everything

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

by Eugene Scott

What most moves me closer to God? People. Their lives, their stories, the beautiful and the ugly. The hilarious. The imago dei. God’s image in each of us, even in its current tarnished state. Without this human element (our stories), art and poetry and music and theology and all we see in the world is detached reality too abstract to touch the heart. I struggle to define love and commitment and pain and joy.

Then I see a tear on a face and I know the reality of pain; or in a toothy smile or raucous laugh, I recognize elusive joy. In two friends speaking close, I see love.

This is one reason God chose to Incarnate Himself in flesh, in Jesus. Because we can see and understand and know God better even seen through the sometimes dirty and distorted lens of our own human eyes.

This video of our recent TNC mission trip to Guatemala moves me then because of the images of God in us it contains. As you watch, see if you catch a glimpse of Him.

The song I’m listening to is a ballad about somebody’s lost love one, I’m wondering how it applies to what I’m about to write and I realise EVERYTHING.

Some months ago, actually August last year, some colour in the form of you was added to our room and our lives. Vese and I had known you were coming, so we cleared a little portion of our wardrobes for you, I cleared under my bed because somehow I suspected you’d show up with a lot of luggage. The arrangement was that you’d stay on my bed with me, and put most of your stuff on my side. Then you finally came, box and bags in tow on a Saturday or was it Sunday evening? Can’t exactly remember.

Before I just used to look at you from a distance and say to myself, ‘see this fine, yellow pawpaw oyinbo girl’. Ok, I still say it. The three of us would talk and talk about everything, gist, laugh, argue, encourage each other and bit by bit, the space you occupied was exceeding the confines of our 13 by 13 room.

You’d come back from school almost everyday and say, ‘guess what happened today or guess who I saw on twitter’ and from there we’d move to all kinds of topics. It became routine, the norm to always have you come back and say, ‘guess what this or that’.

I remember when somebody hurt you so much and how you decided to tell me, I’d never have guessed you were hurting so much, I remember telling you to move on and how you told me something I’ll never forget, that you can’t tell your heart who to love.

Then I’d want to go out and we’d go together, really cool, like we were each other’s side kick. We went almost everywhere together, to go and eat shawarma, edikainkong, afang soup, some pasta at cafe chrysalis. Do you remember that day when we both went to register me at the gym? You laughed when you saw the new diet I was supposed to be on that I never followed for a single moment. We went to that amala joint in the rain, to eat what was supposed to be my last calorie laden food, amala, goat meat, bokoto and you just shook your head.

Do you remember when had to go to Lagos together to shop for the finalists in fellowship, how we got a free ride and how we walked all over Ojuelegba looking for a sustain pedal and how we quarrelled over what watch to buy at that place where they sell all the watches in the world?

What about when we stayed at Lekki with Doyin and Money, went to the palms, ate and window shopped? And how we left Lagos so late that night.

What about when we went to that Yemetu tailor together and met those two Poly guys at that amala joint?

Do you remember our pancake and jam phase? How we finished Vese’s flour making pancakes. You taught me how to make pancakes.

How I dragged you to perform in that drama with me?

How we struggled to get our ‘The Experience’ tickets on your blackberry at odd hours of the day. How we went for the experience and when you lost your blackberry? That day was bittersweet, it was painful to stand there watching you grieve your bold 4 and not be able to do anything about it. Later,you followed me to shop for my glasses and we ended up buying gold shoes at ‘American Plaza’ . We later went out to watch Real Steele at the palms with Odun, Vese, Teju, Wale and Busola. That trip was a fantastic one. We took pictures with the Noisy Boy statue and with ‘no photography allowed’ sign. =))

We went for Tolani’s wedding together, and made fun of that guy that did one rap song at the reception. Do you remember when we baked together for my christmas get together and made the fruit salad?

And how you guys came for my mum’s birthday, when we watched that ‘dragon tattoo’ movie. You cooked the fried rice and of course we went shopping again for shoes.

And how she fell ill and we had to pray together for her recovery, run around for various things at A&E, and subsequently visit her on the wards, how that night we went to 411 to eat that terrible Ofada rice only to visit her that night to find her in respiratory distress. We went from 3rd floor to 4th floor, to the bank, to OTCHEW and back to 3rd floor, all in the bid to get oxygen.

How on valentine’s day, you hugged me and told me not to be sad.

How you pestered me to continue my series. How we’d gist about the twitter trends and TNC’s latest post. How we’d finish your coco pops. When Whitney died… So many memories…

At this point, I can barely see my screen, ’cause the tears are clouding my vision.

You this fair skinned, leggy lady came into our lives last August, became so entrenched in the fabric of our existence and it’s so hard to believe that in a few weeks, you’d be moving to another room far from us. Sorry the room issue didn’t work out, it hurt me a lot because I selfishly wanted to keep you close, where we’d see everyday and when you come back from school, you’d say in your high-pitched, shrill voice, ‘guess what happened today’.

I look around the room sometimes and think, my wardrobe will be empty, under my bed will soon be devoid of her box, her shoes will soon be gone from under the table and her pink bathroom slippers from in front of the room. I try to console myself that at least I’d have my space all to myself again, but at this point, I’d have to admit that I don’t want you to go, because you didn’t just move into my room, you moved into my heart, carved your own niche and became the little sister I never had.

I hope that somehow in all my inadequacies, I’ve impacted your life positively and been a good friend to you, like you have. Because I still can’t come to terms with the fact that you won’t always be there in our room, it won’t be the same to live without you.

But I know unlike the skillet song, our best memories won’t be in a dream I won’t want to wake up from, plus they won’t get cold, because we’d make new ones and the future will be better than the past and neither will I say ‘bittersweet memories’ like that Dolly Parton’s song. I won’t need to say, ‘Don’t wake me’, when the memories become dreams, ’cause I’d wake up and we’ll make better ones.

I’ve got to let you go, ’cause you have to go.

I love you my dear sister and friend Rolayo Ayomide Williams and I hope your new roommate is really worthy of you. Thanks for staying with us and giving us such awesome memories.

Never forget that all things are working together for your good and you’ll get superabundantly, far over and above all that you [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond your highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams].

This isn’t goodbye by the way. You just live a block away.

IDR 90.000.

order: e-mail to anggie_angelic@yahoo.com or text/WhatsApp to +6287888855164

Brand new.
width : 66-90 (belakangnya pake karet)
P : 34

]]> http://bigeyeslittlesoles.com/2012/03/09/big-eyes-little-soles-of-mischief/ Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:07:14 +0000 lemonsneaks http://bigeyeslittlesoles.com/2012/03/09/big-eyes-little-soles-of-mischief/ Some of you may have seen the Souls Of Mischief Post for the event on Wednesday presented by Taste The Difference, and if you wern’t able to make it – you missed out foo’ !

TNC (The Natural Curriculum) smashed it with DJ’s MR E and DJ Cutterz & BANE keeping the crowd warm before the mighty Souls Of Mischief came to rock Roadhouse.

Managed to spot some nice kicks too…. and Me and Tash managed to get a photo with Tajai and both got T-shirts signed.

Check out the Godfather of photography: Air Adam Photography’s photo set HERE… more to come on Example Magazine!

Peace & Riz

@Lem0n_Cake
X

Taste The Difference (TTD) are back in action! After a year of working on their own stuff, playing residencies, festivals and testing the waters with a few other bits and bobs they are more than happy to announce that they are back in true Taste The Diff’rence fashion with one of our favourite acts of yesteryear.

Souls Of Mischief

Support from some of Manchester’s finest…

T.N.C. (The Natural Curriculum) – If you’ve seen any TNC shows before then you don’t need reminding not to miss this, these boys hold it down!

MR E & DJ Cutterz

Bane (Eastern Bloc // Soundwave)

Hosted by Noel Edge

Shouts to Note Skate Shop for providing prizes for giveaways

more acts and fun stuff tba on the night

Tickets £7.50

Online tickets now SOLD OUT

Physical tickets still available from Note, Eastern Bloc and New Zealand Wines (Fallowfield)

—————————————————————————-

True Skool

Stick around at The Roadhouse and party til the early hours with Taste The Diff’rence Residents and live performances from some of Manchester’s finest hip hop acts including:

Mothership Connection – Some of my favourite MC’s coming out of the Mothership Connection!

Pete Cannon

Taste The Diff’rence Residents

free entry for gig attendees // £2.50 otherwise

—————————————————————————–

So Make sure you get down! I will be there gettin’ flicks of fly kicks!

Here’s what I’m listening to right now…

Peace & <3

@Lem0n_Cake

The presence of rich oil fields in the area are believed to be the driving force behind today’s announcement, but local leaders addressing the Congress of the People of Cyrenaica were keen to stress that what they wanted was not complete seperation – they still wanted to belong to a unified Libya – but to be governed in a federal sense – both locally and nationally. They are insistent that the region should get a fair share of oil profits, and that the previous draining of money and resources from Eastern to the Western Libya should no longer be allowed to continue in the post-Gaddafi era. Whilst this explanation may have been an attempt to soften the announcement, the notion of a rival power base – for whatever reason – emerging in Libya’s second city, and a city with a recent history of fomenting political protest and revolutionary movements, predictably started a stir of unease amongst the now Tripoli-based NTC.

The disquiet of the NTC at this proposal is perhaps as justifiable as the support for its enactment in Eastern quarters. The country, just a year into its revolution and a few months into its post-Gaddafi existence, was already showing signs of fragmentation between the diverse collection of militias that had acted together to bring the downfall of their one-time dictator. In the absence of a common enemy, it seems, there became a distinct lack of commonality between the different groupings, and the population started to realise that their ideas of a Libya post-revolution were a lot more varied and conflicting than anyone prior to Gaddafi’s death would dare admit. This has been made particularly evident in the emergence of fringe Islamist groupings acting contrary to the sensitivities of the more widely supported NTC.

As it stands, there is still a long way to go for Libya in order to resurface as a stable and peaceful state, a rare and hard fought success story for the Arab Spring. Elections are still to be called, fought, and won; the constitutional parameters of how those elections are to proceed are still to be properly worked over. In the meantime, militias still remain armed and gun battles occur sporadically as conflagrations between two or more groups boil over into a move to arms. The country is fragile enough as it is without adding separation anxiety to the mix; and even if a federal system is the best form of political framework for Libya, making sudden, loud, and shock announcements will do more harm than good. They may turn tiny little fractures, into a fully fledged break.

by Emmy Scott

Sunrises are like a clean state. They always remind me of God’s Glory. I am in awe of the beauty that God shares with us daily. No matter what rough times come upon us, there is always a new day — a new start.

Psalm 30:5 says, “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”

Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning.”

The Magic of Morning by Bud Morris

He may paint the morning purple

to display His majesty,

He can tinge it with a glory

that the dullest of eye can see.

He reflects it from the mountains

that were sculpted by His hand,

and it guilds the plains and prairies

as it spreads across the land.

He may emphasize its beauty

with a silver-misted shroud,

Or conceal its flaming splendor

in a somber cloak of cloud–

But the slightest hint of morning

breaking through the longest night

Fills the darkness with the prospect

of a future that is bright;

And the sunshine of its promise

coaxes flowers from the sod,

For the magic of the morning

bears the signature of God.

By Andrew Weygandt

I did this drawing a few years ago when I was living in Chicago.  Yes, it was originally drawn on a table at Macaroni Grill using the kiddie crayons they give you.  I guess I was in an interesting mood that night, because it’s not the type of art you normally want on your dinner table.  I later copied it using  pens, and that is how the picture below came about.