A different revolution

migration to Italy.

Reparation is a big diplomatic statement with Gaddafi,and the

occasion is yet another reminder of his skill to make himself over. The bombing of a Pan-Am flight over Lockerbie,Scotland,in 1988 was the high noon of Libya’s pariah status. But in subsequent years,he retreated from his anti-West —

particularly,anti-American — battleline by offering cooperation on investigations into the incident.

By 2003,Libya had denounced terrorism,given an undertaking that it would give up WMDs,and agreed to pay $1.5 billion to relatives of the Lockerbie victims. The US later thanked him for Libya’s “excellent cooperation” in the war on terror. His politics too had changed,with the focus shifting from Arab nationalism to an assertion of Libya’s African status. He now talks of achieving the “United States of Africa”,even as he offers unsolicited advice to “our Kenyan brother of American nationality”.

Gaddafi’s domestic politics too is interesting. His large brood of children is a source for speculation on possible lines of succession. And it’s still an open question whether his maverick scheme to parcel off Libya’s oil windfall directly to its citizens can succeed and be a model for other oil-rich countries.