Did Al Gaddafi Mismanage Libya's Oil Wealth?

by serf Tue Jun 04, 2013 15:53

Hear hear to that.

by W. Finnerty Wed Jun 05, 2013 09:10

"All the tragic and haunting episodes of his life (Colonel Gaddafi's) point to only one truth: That Gaddafi was a hunted man. And because he was a hunted man, Gaddafi never had the time or the leisure to do anything but run. His parting shots were true essence of his compassion and generosity - a gift of a soccer stadium to Pakistan, a plan to gift thousands of computers to schoolchildren in neighbouring African countries, and dollops of oil aid to poor Arab countries."

The above excerpt is from the following www location:
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/28-11-2012/...fi-0/

Related Link:
"Who was responsible for the fall of Colonel Gaddafi? ..."
http://tinyurl.com/nxuye2q

by An Draigneán Donn Wed Jun 05, 2013 15:04

"All the tragic and haunting episodes of his life (Colonel Gaddafi's) point to only one truth: That Gaddafi was a hunted man. And because he was a hunted man, Gaddafi never had the time or the leisure to do anything but run. His parting shots were true essence of his compassion and generosity - a gift of a soccer stadium to Pakistan, a plan to gift thousands of computers to schoolchildren in neighbouring African countries, and dollops of oil aid to poor Arab countries."

I can see that the above was written with a good heart, but it is simply untrue. Yes, Al Gaddafi lived his life in the cross hairs of assassins like Reagan and Obama, but lets consider some of his achievements. While those Western Leftists who criticize him have spent the last four decades attending tiny meetings with their cult followers, and back stabbing other Leftists, Al Gaddafi has been busy DOING Socialism, and changing the lives of millions of people:

1/ In 1969 Libya had the lowest standard of living in Africa. By 2010, it had the highest in Africa, and was higher than Saudi Arabia and Russia.

2/ In 1969 Libya had one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, within a decade of Al Gaddafi coming to power, it had one of the lowest in the world, and the lowest in Africa.

3/ In 1969 about 90% of Libya's population was illiterate. Now literacy is about 90%.

4/ In 1969 the vast majority of Libya's population lived in tents. Within a decade of Al Gaddafi coming to power, every family had been given a brand new brick home - free for most families.

5/ Al Gaddafi built the greatest engineering project of all time - The Great Man Made River, which now supplies Libya with as much fresh water as the Nile flowing for 200 years. He intended to share this miracle with all of North Africa, revolutionizing the peoples ability to feed themselves.

6/ African countries had been paying 500 million dollars a year to European satellite companies for its communications. For a single cost of 400 million, Al Gaddafi launched an African satellite, which has already saved Africa billions of dollars.

7/ Al Gaddafi founded the African Union in Sirte, in 1999. To make the AU could be a real force for the protection and development of Africa, he founded the African Investment Bank and the African Monetary Fund, to drive the genocidal World Bank and IMF out of Africa.

8/ The Jamahiriya had stockpiled 140 tons of gold in Tripoli to be the basis of an African Central Bank, which would have given Africa a real possibility of financial independence. In September 2011, Al Gaddafi had planned to launch the Gold Dinar, to replace the Petrodollar in Africa. Africa's use of US Monopoly Money - simply printed at will - costs hundreds of thousands of African lives every year - mostly childrens lives. Al Gaddafi intended to put an end to this Holocaust.

9/ According to bourgeois economists, in 2010, Libyan Workers were the best protected in the world. Every family, whether working or not, received a social salary from the oil money. It was not dole, it was a salary from the people's own oil. According to bourgeois economists, Libyan Workers have a job-for-life mentality, and are not bothered by competition. You will have noted that these "rebels" were always seen driving new 4x4s and wearing designer clothes. In the Jamahiriya, if you wanted to buy a new car, the state paid 50% of the cost. Petrol was 13 cents a gallon. Is it any wonder that over a million people filled Green Square to support Al Gaddafi - even under the threat of NATO bombing?

I could go on, there are many more great achievements, the least of which would be beyond the wildest dreams of the Western Left. I could also mention how Al Gaddafi funded the training of tens of thousands of moderate Muslim clerics, all over Africa and Asia, who have done outstanding work in trying to resist the sectarian madness of the Salafist \ Wahhabi clerics being funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Muammar al-Gaddafi, like Kwame Nkrumah before him, dreamed of an Africa united and strong, able to protect its own borders and provide a decent living to all its people. To this end, Al Gaddafi had challenged the neo-liberal dogma of private property, by showing Africans that massive state enterprise could achieve far more, and in far less time, than private enterprise ever could. All over the African continent, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya invested public funds in everything from roads to hospitals to schools to agriculture to hotels to communications. These brilliantly successful state enterprises exposed the neo-liberal dogma for the scam it is, and let it be known to the world that there is a better way to live.

So what was the reaction of most of the Western Left to this life of incredible Socialist achievement? Of course, it was jealously and spite. So much so, that when the Libyan socialist state was under attack from racist lynch mobs and sectarian grave robbers, most of the Western Left gladly supported the racist lynch mobs and grave robbers. Is it any wonder that most people regard the Western Left with absolute contempt?