Unemployment is high, even by Libyan standards.
In turn, the Libyans' standard of life greatly improved over the first decade of Gaddafi's administration, and by 1979 the average per-capita income was at $8,170, up from $40 in 1951; this was above the average of many industrialized countries like Italy and the U.K. The RCC attempted to suppress regional and tribal affiliation, replacing it with a unified pan-Libyan identity.
Bankrolled by a flood of oil money, schools and clinics and public housing complexes were built in the most remote reaches of the nation, sparking a sweeping social transformation that vastly enhanced the average Libyan's standard of living.
Earlier this week, fighters loyal to the former dictator raised the old Libyan green standard above the key oil town of Bani Walid after fighting that led to at least four deaths.
and the C.I.A). that Libyans enjoy the highest standard of living in Africa, with free health care, a low child-mortality rate, free housing, clean water, education, a superior literacy rate and a decent distribution of wealth.
For these reasons, he said, aid groups should concentrate on training Libyan explosive ordnance disposal teams and developing standards for their work.
What Libyans mainly relate to, though, is the standard of living in other oil-rich states, as displayed on Al Jazeera and other Arab channels.
Libya has signed the U.N. Convention Against Torture, and the Minister of Justice has said that he will bring Libyan law in line with international human-rights standards.
It cannot be policy to protect the lives of tens of thousands of Libyan civilians only if the intervention meets certain standards of cost effectiveness from week to week.
The response of the Libyan government to its opponents, he said, "violates international norms, and every standard of common decency".
