Libya

__LIBYA__ By: Travis Brannan **GEOGRAPHY** __ Climate- __ On the coast the winter weather is cool with mild amounts of rain, but in the desert in winter it is cool and dry. The desert in summer is hot and dry. At night the desert can reach sub-freezing temperatures.   __Summary-__ Libya has a decent tourist economy because of the incredible Sahara desert as well as Roman and Greek ancient ruins. The landscape and soil of Libya are poor for growing soil so Libya could never rely on farming, but Libya’s grounds do hold large amounts of crude oil and petroleum, which are Libya’s two main exports. Libya containing a large amount of crude oils and petroleum has allowed them to have a decent economy and makes them able to import food, so this makes up for their poor growing soil. ** ECONOMY ** __ Currency- __ The Libyan currency is Dinar, the exchange rat is 1 U.S. dollar = 1.2283 Libyan Dinar. __ Natural resources- __Petroleum, natural gas, gypsum. __ Exports- __Libya mainly exports crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas, and chemicals. They export these products to Italy 37.65%, Germany 10.11%, Spain 7.94%, France 8.44%. __Summary-__Libya’s economy is currently on the rise. They are now ranked 69th in global economy of a country. Libya isn’t really economically powerful or weak right now; it is sort of sitting in the middle right now. Libya isn’t very reliant on other countries for imported materials but some other countries such as Italy are dependent on the petroleum they import from Libya. This doesn’t really give Libya and Italy a power struggle relationship, they just import and export materials and barely interact in any other ways. **CULTURE** __ Major language- __Arabic  __ Major religion- __Islam   __ Current form of government- __Libya right now is in a transition after their civil war and is being governed by Constitutional Declaration. They are expected to hold democratic elections April 2012 and develop a constitutional democracy by 2013. __ Education- __Education in Libya is free to everyone all the way from elementary level to college level. There are even mobile schoolsfornomads. Education is mandatory for people ages 6-15, but where preschools are available schooling can be started as early as 4. Females make up 49%  __Summary-__ Libya has generally had tense relations with the U.S. and it is mainly because of religious differences. The fact that neither country understands the others religion, and are mainly against the others views, it has caused large amounts of tension between the two countries. For the most part, the general population of Libya all believe in the Islamic faith and speak Arabic so there is no civil divide there. The main thing that divides Libya is political views, whether someone is pro Gaddafi or not, that very question just recently caused a civil war. ** HISTORY ** __ Historical enemies- __ Egypt is a historical enemy of Libya, in1977 there was a short war between the two countries. The attack that aroused the most anger in the country of Libya was on August 8, 1976 a bomb was set off in a Libya government office’s bathroom, injuring 14 people. Egypt and Libya relations have slowly repaired and now the two countries have good relations with one another. __ Current Conflicts- __Libya currently has tense relations with the U.S. after Muammar Gaddafi openly stated that he was pro terrorism against western superpowers.There is a current revolution going on in Libya. It started with a few days of peaceful protests but after security forces killed 14 protestors, there was a funeral held for them. During the funeral protestors began to throw rocks at officials and 24 protestors were killed. Months later after many more cashes between protestors and officials, rebel armies were formed. Soon the French, British, and Italian air forces got involved and \started a blockade of Libya. After they launched a series of missiles on Libya target areas, including a U.S. B-2 stealth bomber and dropped bombs on Libya air force bases. In the end rebel forces took over the city of Tripoli and finally ended the long battles. __Summary-__ Libya’s history of being led into constant bad situations by a power hungry dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, has caused the country to go into a huge revolution/ civil war. Also having no say in government for a long time has made the people of Libya crave a democratic government, crave it enough to start a war with, and eventually kill Muammar Gaddafi. The country, however, has learned from Muammar’s mistakes and is now trying to make peace with other countries. __ Bibliography- __[| http://www.noodletools.com/noodlebib/mybib.php]