Gaddafi, The Man Who Came to Dinner

Gaddafi was providing a life for Libyans that most Americans would strongly approve of.

(NEW YORK The Nation) - John Swinton, the doyen of the New York press corps, upon his retirement , made the following speech:

“

There is no such thing, at this stage of the world’s history in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dare write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my papers, before twenty four hours, my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting of an independent press? We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes. (Speech from 1880 John Swinton)

”

I do understand that you have to eat like all of us and therefore must keep your mouth shut. You are Jewish and so am I. (Sephardic).

For the sake of truth, I will give you here another side to the Libyan story. Just imagine a country where there is no electricity bill. Electricity is free to all its citizens. There is no interest on loans, banks were state owned and loans given at zero percent interest by law. Having a home was considered a human right. All newlyweds received US$ 50 000 from the govt to buy their first apartment and to help them start a family. Education and medical treatments were free. Before Qaddafi, 25 % of the population were literate. Today this figure is 83 percent. Should Libyans want to take up farming, they would receive land, a farmhouse, equipments, seeds and livestock to kick start their operation, absolutely free of charge. If citizens could not find the education or medical facilities they needed, the govt would fund them to go abroad, free of charge, and would get some US$2,300 per month for accommodation and car allowance. Cars were government subsidized to the tune of 50%. Fuel prices were $0.14 per litter. The country had no external debt and its reserves amounted to some $170 billion, now frozen globally plus some 27 tons of gold, which the new regime found safely in the National Bank. Any graduate unable to find a job would get the average salary for the profession, as if he/she was employed, until employment found. A portion of oil sales were credited once a year to every citizen bank account. A mother who gave birth, immediately got some $5000. Forty loaves of bread cost $0.15. 25% of citizens have a university degree. An immense project bringing water from aquifers in the south made it available all over the country, free of charge.

That is what that “tyrant” Qaddafi gave to his people. There are some 150 tribes in Libya and a strong hand was necessary if the country was to remain in one piece. Every citizen was in possession of a military weapon. Qaddafi was not frightened of his own people. The so called rebels who took over, so we are told, would not have lasted a few days without NATO air power, British and French commandos and thousands of mercenaries. Those are the winners.

Now another Karzai has been installed in Tripoli, and the country can be plundered at the victors’ whim and fancy. It takes $1 to extract a barrel of Libyan oil and today’s price is over $100. Total the French company has already grabbed some 30% of the Libyan state oil company. BP is starting exploration. And of course massive contracts for the reconstruction of Libya will be handed over to US and European companies. Of the sovereign fund, only some 1.2 billion have been released out of the $170 billion. With the state of the European economy, I doubt very much if Libya will see the rest any time soon. Now Libyans are free as you say, but as Janice Joplin used to say…freedom is just another word for nothing else to lose, as Libyan queueing for funds at their bank’s door are finding out. Qaddafi is gone and so are the perks. What will be left is a terrible civil war. The price of democracy!

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Art Bethea February 19, 2013 5:20 am (Pacific time)

I’ve spent more than 1,000 hours reading and writing about Libya. My judgment is that Colonel Qaddafi has been enormously misrepresented by western mainstream press. The anonymous poster, Snowleopard, who despises anonymous posters except for himself, claims that claims of Qaddafi’s good works have been refuted. I have many examples to support the fact that Qaddafi did much good, and here are just a few. In 2011, Cynthia McKinney, a former Congresswoman from Georgia, was in Tripoli before the city fell. One student told McKinney that it cost $9 to attend university for an entire year. Many sources—not just McKinney—point out that education, including college, was free in Qaddafi’s Libya. McKinney also notes that health care was free as well utilities, while housing, gasoline, and food were heavily subsidized. Qaddafi deserves praise for massively increasing the number of women attending college. According to Lisa Anderson, a scholar of Libya and the President of the American University in Cairo, few women attended college when Qaddafi led the 1969 peaceful revolution, but in forty years, women became the majority of Libya’s university students (Hadid). Besides noting the key elements of Libya’s generous welfare state under Qaddafi, Garikai Chengu, a fellow at the Du Bois Institute for African Research at Harvard University, also praises Qaddafi for advancing women: “One area where the United Nations Human Rights Council praised Mr. Gaddafi profusely is women’s rights. Unlike many other nations in the Arab world, women in Libya had the right to education, hold jobs, divorce, hold property, and have an income.” On top of that, women received “cash bonuses for children, free day care,” and “retirement at 55.” Chengu asserts further that “[c]ontrary to popular belief, Libya, which western media described as ‘Gaddafi’s military dictatorship’ was in actual fact one of the world’s most democratic States.” Chengu describes Libya’s tripart democratic institutions and then observes, as does the Oregonian Franklin Lamb, that Qaddafi lost votes. Chengu explains that Qaddafi “favored the suppression of schools in favor of home schooling. The People's Congress, however, refused to go along with this. [Qaddafi] also desired the distribution of all oil revenues income to the citizens and the Congress also refused.” Chengu states that Moammar proposed “on many occasions” to abolish the death penalty, but “ultimately the will of the People’s Congresses prevailed.” Qaddafi should be credited for enormous advances in longevity and literacy. When the Qaddafi period began, Libyans lived on average to 50 or 51. According to World Bank and CIA World Fact Book, by 2009, Libyans had a life expectancy of 75 or 77; average US longevity is 78. Literacy was 10-20% in 1969; under Qaddafi’s leadership, literacy rose to perhaps as high as 89%. Qaddafi accomplished many worthy ends, and those who deny this are dupes, mislead by imperialist propaganda, or propagandists themselves. Arthur F. Bethea Works Cited Chengu, Garikai. “Gaddafi’s Libya Was Africa’s Most Prosperous Democracy.” Posted on Libya 360° 14 Jan 2013 http://libya360.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/gaddafis-libya-was-africas-most-prosperous-democracy/ Corseri, Gary. “Cynthia McKinney in Conversation with Gary Corseri.” Posted on Libya 360° 21 Feb 2012 http://libya360.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/cynthia-mckinney-in-conversation-with-gary-corseri/ Hadid, Diaa. “Taboo-Breaking Women among Qaddafi’s Biggest Fans.” Associated Press article accessed via Yahoo News 8 Jun 2011

aliarif October 17, 2012 9:13 am (Pacific time)

Now its Iran then N.Korea - mission accoomplished

Saad Ahmed July 19, 2012 6:53 am (Pacific time)

truth is always bitter. "brainwashington" people will still regard him as 'tyrant'. No doubt, for Libyan people he was a benevolence leader. the end of Qaddafi-era is the beginning of "challenges" (as UN Secretary General said) and "problems"

Snowleopard April 26, 2012 1:58 am (Pacific time)

John Swinton, who wrote (or rather said) only the first paragraph of this column, did so in 1885 (he died in 1901). Hardly relevant. The rest of it is by an unknown contemporary speaker or writer who has lifted the "facts" about the good things Gaddafi did from various blogs - the points have been circulating since October 2011. Many of these "good things" Gaddafi and his regime did have been refuted, and what's not mentioned are instances of the cruelty and the suffering he imposed on his people. That included public hangings of students and other so-called "threats" to his megalomaniac rule. Be glad he's gone. The oil companies and bankers and even governments who will profit hugely from his overthrow all need to be excorciated, but not by trying to paint a mad, cruel tyrant as a saint.

Editor: When the 'rebels' you root for destroyed a British WWII cemetery a few weeks ago, which had always been cared for under the legal administration of this countrry, I knew we were right for carrying articles that told the truth about Gaddafi, one of our writers was in the area as this went down, we have many other contacts as well, our friends had passed through Libya a few months before and were treated well. Our information came from the front lines. Now among other things, the country is destabilized. Of course warmongers want this needless action to have been justified, but it was not, and some day I'm afraid Americans will pay the dues for these political visions of violence, have a nice day.

rebecca April 3, 2012 7:56 pm (Pacific time)

totally agree, gadaffi was in the way of corrupt wash. admin., lies and sabotage over the yrs convincing the american publicthat gadaffi was an evil doer who treated his people badly, but i think some of the americans knew better. usa, should have it so good!

Anonymous April 3, 2012 6:23 pm (Pacific time)

I must again, post and applaud this article..It is the truth that America needs to understand. Thank you salem-news.

Agron Belica April 3, 2012 5:21 pm (Pacific time)

Great post!

Anonymous April 3, 2012 3:44 pm (Pacific time)

Gadaffi would not go along with the central bankers..thus, his death...Its a simple as that. Same with Iraq, and Iran..Do what the bankers tell you, or they will sick NATO and the military industrial complex on you...this will come to a town near you soon...Watch and see. They care about America even less than they care about Iraq and the DU, etc. Tim King. I applaud you for exposing the atrocities thru out the world, but you never mention the root of the problems. Just saying.

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Gaddafi, The Man Who Came to Dinner

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