The Libyan government has stooped to an abysmal low by allegedly paying young Africans (names of countries have not been released) up to $30k each to carry out the dirty work of hitting and killing protesters in the streets of cities like Benghazi. Al Jazeera English has also been reporting that a number of Libyan students in the US were allegedly called by their embassy in Washington and coerced to participate in pro-Gaddafi rallies in the US Students. Their scholarships would be called off if they fail to show up. If anyone still have the slightest of doubts why Arabs are fuming (peacefully so) with anger lately, here is yet further evidence that many Arab countries are ruled by mercenaries, not political leaders. What kind of legitimate government kills its people and then pays people to rally on its behalf? This is exactly the kind of baseness and contempt that Arabs are revolting against. Yes, it is about jobs, about better health care and education, but it's also about restoring dignity and respect for the individual.  I've read too many articles in Arab and Western newspapers, including reports by some excellent reporters like NYT's Anthony Shadid, in which Gaddafi and the rich kingdoms of the Gulf are deemed safer regimes than in Egypt and Tunisia because they have big oil revenues to buy off their small populations. Well, the fact that we're seeing these protests extend to richer and seemingly more stable places is precisely the point I'm making here. What binds Arabs in these protests is a new kind of a social bond that is different from Arab nationalist slogans we've heard before. The new slogans are about equitable distribution of wealth, defeating nepotism and corruption, freedom of expression and assembly, all of which are rights meant to restore self-respect and render to people their due sense of dignity. If there were any surprise in this revolution, it's only how it was instigated by the self-immolation of young man in Tunisia, but the root causes have been known for decades and it was just a pot boiling slowly.