Did Al Gaddafi Mismanage Libya's Oil Wealth?

international | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Tuesday June 04, 2013 14:08

by An Draigneán Donn

Answering the claim, by a certain Liberal, that Muammar al-Gaddafi wasted Libya's oil wealth.

Did Al Gaddafi mismanage Libya's oil wealth?

In relation to your question, we have to consider the criteria by which these commentators are judging mismanagement. These commentators are Neo-Liberals. As far as they are concerned, profits from oil should be used to push up share prices in multi-national corporations. To spend oil profits on feeding hungry children, or giving them free housing or free food is gross mismanagement. Such dastardly behaviour pushed down property prices, and makes it very difficult for property speculators to make a quick buck.

Another case of gross mismanagement was when Al-Gaddafi decided to spend 40 billion of oil revenues on building the Great Man Made River. Sure, it gives Africa as much water as the Nile flowing for 200 years. Sure its, by far, the biggest engineering project of all time. Sure, it's, by far, the greatest humanitarian project of all time. But, where is the profit for private investors??? Al-Gaddafi was giving the water to poor farmers at discount prices. No profit at all. He was giving the water to people to drink for free. The damned scoundrel. And the worst part of it all - he built the entire project without borrowing one single penny from the international banksters. How can you build anything without giving the banksters their cut??? This man was a dangerous terrorist. He had to be stopped.

And, as if that wasn't enough insanity, Al-Gaddafi stock piled 140 tons of gold in Tripoli to be the basis of an African Central Bank, with a pan-African currency, the Gold Dinar. No longer would the USA be able to buy African oil and mineral resources with Monopoly Money - that is simply printed at will. Africa would have to be paid with real value. The IMF and World Bank vultures would be kicked out, and the 25,000 children, who die every single day from drinking dirty water, would have clean, fresh water to drink, and food to eat. Can you imagine more obscene mismanagement of Libya's oil money?

It's on a much smaller scale of mismanagement, but, Al-Gaddafi also used Libyan oil money to support freedom struggles in places like Ireland, the Basque Country, and Palestine. Al-Gaddafi, the fool that he was, didn't understand that freedom only means the freedom of the rich to profit. He had silly ideas about nations having dignity and honour and sovereignty.

Not only that, but, instead of putting the oil money into the hands of a tiny Libyan elite, along with Anglo-Saxon oil companies, as King Idris had done, Al-Gaddafi built roads and hospitals and mosques in many African countries. This was money that rightfully belonged to the Libyan business and landowner class.

We see that Ireland is an excellent example of good management. When times are good, the rich become incredibly rich. When the greed of the rich destroys the whole economy, the poor pay for the crimes of the rich. That's what these commentators consider to be good management, and that's what their "revolution" has now brought to Libya.

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Comments (3 of 3)

well said

by serf

Tue Jun 04, 2013 15:53

Hear hear to that.

Who was responsible for the fall of Colonel Gaddafi?

by W. Finnerty

Wed Jun 05, 2013 09:10

Al Gaddafi's life was one of brilliant achievement

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?

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Did Al Gaddafi Mismanage Libya's Oil Wealth?

Comments (3 of 3)