I have been following the events in Libya in the past 24-48 hours. It sickens me how every 30 minutes BBC, CNN and others play the footage of a bloodied and dead Gaddafi. Don’t get me wrong I think the Libyans are better off with out him but a brutal death of someone is not something I take pleasure in.

There is another thing that caught my eye – after all the gore on TV the first thing that the politicians in the US, France and the UK are interested in is when will the output of oil from Libya get up to speed. When the protests started in Egypt I wrote a post called Is Oil the Spice of our world? In it I argued that as long as the oil flowed the west did not want to be involved in any turmoil. It reminded me of a book I read. I wrote:

 The parallels between the fictional world of Dune and countries in the Middle East are too numerous to count but what it boils down to is this: the cheap oil that we need to keep the price tag of our lifestyle low comes mostly from a world that is currently in turmoil. You can see the mixed feelings in the face of the western politicians – the uncertainity, the careful way with which they comment this subject. Until today few dared to speak out against the rule of Mubarak and others in the region although the issues have been there for a long time. I believe that while the western powers do want freedom and a higher quality of life for the Middle East, they want stability and a constant flow of cheap oil even more. In Dune the Fremen did gain control of their homeworld again and held the universe hostage with the Spice.

The death of Colonel Gaddafi completes what the Libyan people wanted to achieve. Now what? Will they indeed establish a stable country in North Africa that will follow the west? Will they go their own way? It is up to them to decide.

The dependence of the West on cheap oil from the Middle East and North Africa is going to come back and bite us in the ass. It is one more reason to move ahead with more sustainable solutions to our energy needs.