Word: esparto
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Black Prince. Part of Libya's touchiness grows out of its realization that it could not survive six months if the U.S. and Britain (which has given Libya $64 million) withdrew their support. Libya's meager exports of esparto grass (for paper currency), olive oil, nuts and camels pay for only a fraction of its imports, and U.S. grants total more than half Libya's annual budget. Rumors rife in Libya of local mismanagement of allied funds are small encouragement to pull out U.S. technicians and let the Libyans spend away on their own. Most...
...western border of Egypt sits the five-year-old desert nation of Libya, whose chief export is dried esparto grass, and whose income comes largely from giant British and U.S. air bases. Its people are so poorly educated that Egypt eagerly supplies it with teachers, professional men, even government officials...
Among native Libyans there is only one doctor and one engineer (the Prime Minister, who holds a degree from Alexandria University). Libya's only important export is dried esparto grass (used in making paper money); its per capita income is a wretched $35 a year. El Faki helpfully installed 500 Egyptian schoolteachers, sent out and paid by the Egyptian government, supplied Egyptians for every level of officialdom. Two members of the Supreme Court were Egyptians, so was the commander of the small army. Last week El Faki could boast that 1,800 Egyptians are working in Libya today...