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Marc G. Wathelet's avatar

Usually, I like what you write but here I find your article unbalanced, biased. Sure Gaddafi was a dictator, that's the essence of power, there is no democracy anywhere in the world, at best the illusion of it, but the people were infinitely better under his rule than now.

Under him, Libya used its oil revenues to fund extensive social welfare programs. These delivered notable practical benefits, especially in the first two decades, transforming the country from one of Africa's poorest (with ~10-25% literacy and life expectancy around 50) into one with high human development indicators for the region.

Key Practical Social Benefits:

Free Education and High Literacy

Education was free at all levels, including university. The government built schools and universities, and funded students studying abroad. Literacy rose dramatically from ~25% (or lower pre-1969) to 83-90% by the 2000s. About 25% of Libyans held university degrees, with strong emphasis on female education (women made up over half of university students later on).

Free Healthcare

Universal free healthcare, including hospitals, clinics, medicines, and treatments. The government funded citizens to seek care abroad if needed (with stipends ~$2,300/month). Life expectancy rose from ~51-57 years to ~70-75. Infant mortality dropped sharply; diseases like malaria and tuberculosis were greatly reduced. Libya had one of Africa's better systems in terms of access.

Housing as a Right

Housing was declared a human right in The Green Book. The state built massive housing projects; homelessness was virtually eliminated. Newlyweds received grants (often cited as ~$50,000 equivalent) to buy their first apartment. Subsidies and rent controls helped affordability.

Subsidies and Direct Support

Heavily subsidized fuel (~$0.14/liter) and food (e.g., 40 loaves of bread for ~$0.15).

Zero-interest state loans (banks were state-owned).

Car purchases subsidized up to 50%.

New mothers received ~$5,000.

Unemployed graduates received average professional salary until employed.

Portions of oil revenues were sometimes credited directly to citizens' accounts.

Farming support: free land, house, equipment, seeds, and livestock for those wanting to farm.

Infrastructure: Great Man-Made River (GMR)

This massive project (one of the world's largest) piped fossil water from Saharan aquifers to coastal cities and farms. It supplied ~70% of Libya's fresh water for drinking, irrigation, and industry, reducing reliance on desalination and supporting agriculture in arid areas.

Broader Indicators

High GDP per capita for Africa (often >$10,000+ PPP in later years), low poverty in official stats, and HDI ranking (e.g., 53rd globally in some reports, highest in Africa). No external debt in some periods; reserves built up. Women gained legal equal pay, divorce rights, and workforce access.

Yes, it was thanks to oil sales, but he delivered for the people, didn't he? Who would not sign up for this? What country did better for its people?

esc's avatar

i don’t question that he cared for his people, nor do i say that he didn’t do any good. but whether he ‘delivered for the people’ is actually besides the point. the same powers which allowed him to do so, could equally be turned against those very same people.

Ubetcha's avatar

But he didn’t. He was taken out, precisely because he had a system that undermined the others. There is a critical

distinction between a benevolent dictator and a tyrannical one. In Libyas case the tyrannical killed the benevolent. At the end of the day someone is always “in charge”. Some rare ones are good, most are evil.

Marc G. Wathelet's avatar

Gaddafi fatal mistake was the "Golden Dinar", he started talking about it in the mid 2000 and with major pushes in 2009 while chair of the African Union. He advocated for three institutions, the African Investment Bank (Tripoli), the African Monetary Fund (Yaoundé), and the African Central Bank (Abuja). The idea was to have oil/resources priced in the new currency instead of USD... Libya (with ~143 tons of gold reserves) was to be a major backer/funder. You can imagine how that idea was received in Washington, DC... You can also imagine how Gaddafi’s proposed "Golden Dinar", explicitly designed as a challenge to the French-backed CFA franc in Africa, was received in Paris. France was the most proactive Western power in toppling Gaddafi militarily, even before UN involvement. The exact circumstances of his death remain murky, with persistent (but unproven) claims of French special forces involvement tied to protecting Sarkozy from scandal (Gaddafi financed Sarkozy campaign for election, illegal under French law).

Le despote éclairé, the enlightened despot, would not be inappropriate to characterize Gaddafi's reign, but a frontal attack on the USD and the CFA franc was a fatal blunder. Libya is now a hellhole, with open slave trade, down from the most prosperous nation in Africa.

Ubetcha's avatar

Exactly. Gaddafi attempted to step out from the control matrix that esc so eloquently describes in detail. There is an important distinction that should be made.

Being Bonnie's avatar

Indeed Ghaddafy's introduction of the Gold Dinar chilled the greedy blood of the Empire(s) but it was more than that. His inroads into economic equality and the development of infrastructure that elevated the lives of his people were disturbing to the Global Puppet Masters as their work was geared to the theft and enslavement of humanity far more than its uplift.

Rob Goldsack's avatar

From my youth I remember others saying the best form of government was the benevolent dictator. Unfortunately I believe "benevolent" and "dictator" are mutually exclusive

Eleanor's avatar

Perhaps substitute the word "dictator" with "ruler"... similar to Aristotle's idea of a "good monarchy"

John Day MD's avatar

"Philosopher king" better? ;-/ "Seek (Divine Guidance) and ye shall find."

Ubetcha's avatar

How do you “reply” instantaneously from from my text. Are you AI, reading as I am typing “Goldsackery”?

Rob Goldsack's avatar

Haha, no, I was replying to ESC comment. I must have pressed reply a micro second after you. I am RG not AI!

60Gigahertz2's avatar

Just brilliant! As always.

Once again, I was thinking about this topic the last month or so, because I came across a recent documentary about Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay - Under the Flags, the Sun (2026). His run was about 35 years, and he succeeded in concentrating land ownership for 80% of the land into 1.6% of the people.

Does anyone remember those African dictators who ended up living at the same old folks home?

And all of these regimes orchestrated in one way or another. It's sickening.

HappyHouse's avatar

As Marc describes, social conditions in Libya in 1976 were comparatively first class but, inevitably, external pressures after nationalization of the Libyan oil industry forced Gaddafi onto the defensive particularly as those foreign actors goaded tribal factions to resist central control and broke down trust within the Libyan Central Committee developing into a national paranoia which was then exacerbated by severe sanctions leading to food shortages within the country after false flag bombings in Europe. Then the Americans launched their first kinetic attacks in 1986 ....

Robin Eubanks's avatar

Have you seen Anthony Giddens' 2001 book <i> The Global Third Way Debate</i>? The then director of the Fabian Society, Michael Jacobs, was a contributor and the planned European Social Model is laid out in detail.

I tracked it because of the central role of education at every level to the Third Way vision for the 21st century. It all fits with what you are laying out. Capital and credit need to be centrally controlled, but so does information, even if what is widely believed is not true.

I look forward to the next installment

Robyn Loves Peace's avatar

I remember him claiming during his United Nations address in 2009 that the H1N1 swine flu virus was a commercial and military conspiracy. He suggested the virus was created in a laboratory and that capitalist companies manufactured it to sell vaccines for profit. Imagine that.

Mark's avatar

No virus required. The WHO hype a fake pandemic and Big Pharma peddles vaccine poison with no legal liability for death and injury.

Commercial and military conspiracy yes; virus no.

Robyn Loves Peace's avatar

They don't create bioweapons and call them viruses?

Mark's avatar

A psy-op weapon is only useful when shrouded in secrecy and prohibition, i.e. “rattled” and not deployed. The secrecy and prohibition also encourage fantastical doomsday mythology, helpfully stoked by Hollywood’s predictive programming. Human imagination is the most powerful weapon in existence, and the key to using it against others is to create catchy fake narratives about secret weapons programs that you may or may not have, and then let others convince themselves on your behalf that they are forced to follow predicted policies and incentives. Thus, tales of gain-of-function (GOF) viruses that are kept in secret biolabs are one of the most effective fake stories to ever “infect” the human narrative spaces.

Finally, I do not accept arguments “but they have all the secret science and secret research in secret biolabs in Ukraine etc.” There is no evidence of any working GOF, but lots of evidence of the PCR/DNA modeling bullshit used to generate virus fearporn and clickbait, both in peer-reviewed literature and on social media. {Sasha Latypova}

Robyn Loves Peace's avatar

What did people that I personally know (2 of them that don't know each other) (one owns a naturopathic clinic) who do not believe in vaccines and did not take Covid vaccines get sick with during the lockdowns where they were violently ill with respiratory issues and lost their sense of taste for almost a year? I have a hard time believing that the planetary madmen don't create bioweapons to make people sick to keep them in the Rockefeller cut, burn, and poison system from cradle to grave.

Mark's avatar

My position was COVID was faked with aerosolized chemicals.{Latypova}

Sue's avatar
Jul 26Edited

Seasonal flu causes severe illness in some people. In 2018, reportedly 80,000 Americans succumbed to flu/various respiratory illness. We know that these illnesses "disappeared" when con-vid came to town.

I agree with Mark that specific areas were also targeted with chemicals/bacteria that sickened people. The military has been conducting such "experiments" on the unsuspecting public, including commuters on the NY subways, since the 40s.

During con-vid, when life as we knew it came to a halt, cell tower construction/installation continued unabated. The RF radiation emitted from the towers can mimic symptoms of respiratory illness. Apparently each tower is individually controlled. 5G, emitted from telecom equipment, is damaging to all life.

Being Bonnie's avatar

Transmission of spike protein. (S Tenpenny)

Nobody's avatar

Are we doomed to be forever at the mercy of dickheads or is there a way to esc ctrl?

Douglas's avatar

In this earth life system, as Bob Monroe would say, a shift is happening so not doomed...Temporary by design.

Being Bonnie's avatar

I have to say I am choked up reading Colonel Ghaddafy's words here. He had a handle on the human condition and described perfectly the pitfalls and delusions under which most of the 'civilized' world operates. He clearly understood that the 'state' was the dictatorship. That formal governments based on the Anglo system were smoke and mirrors.

It was a terrible, terrible day for humanity when Muammar Ghaddafy was tortured, humiliated and murdered in the streets of Sirte- the city in which he was born and raised. His death will be avenged one day. His leading ANY joining together of African nations was not going to be tolerated. Africa would never belong to Africans and they certainly would NOT have their own currency- especially one backed in gold.

John Day MD's avatar

Gaddafi may have read Murray Bookchin's Libertarian Municipalism concept, as well as Marx. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-libertarian-municipalism-an-overview

Bookchin had a long conversation of letters with imprisoned Kurdish leader, Ocalan, whose followers follow that model fairly closely in "Rojava", or try to these days.

The attempt is to retain as much real-information as levels of simplification rise in hierarchy, but it is always an attempt.

Technocracy cares somewhat less for information rising, assuming adequacy, and focuses upon enforcement of compliance at ground level. Smartphones, biometrics and smart-digital money with social credit can do that...

Spiritually seeking and accepting and following Divine Guidance is the elegant choice and solution, "and few there be that find it".

Subo2's avatar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBRqqa7ZpeQ 23 Sep 2009 Muammar Gaddafi speech at United Nations General Assembly. I didn't know him personally so cannot comment with opinion or facts.

Peter: of Family Forrest's avatar

How about:

* is it freedom to accept classification from cradle to grave as a birth-certificated ''citizen'' of a corporation?

* is it freedom to exchange goods and services using ''credit'' counterfeited by private corporations secured under the deceptive, private ''legal societies'' that concocted the fraudulent systems?

* is it freedom to accept an 'education'' geared for wage-slavery under the same fraud?

And how can we ever be free when we live in ignorance of our Source, purpose and potential?

Here's Walter Russell giving us some clues as to the reasons for our delusions over millennia of beLIEf in govern-ment by the most deluded mindset on our beautiful world. In other words, the genuine science-philosophy-religion that can dismiss all the ignorance:

Walter Russell - The Secret of Light Part 2 Ch. IV - THE SOURCE OF POWER

God The Creator is POWER. There is no other power. All energy lies within the stillness of the One Magnetic Light of God.

God is Mind; the intelligence of the universe. In God’s Mind is One Idea, which God knows as One Whole Idea.

In God’s Mind is desire to give creative expression to that One Idea by thinking it into parts. Desire in the Light of Mind is the power quality of Mind. Desire is the soul of Mind; the will of Mind.

All product of God or man is the result of desire of Mind to create product.

The power to create product is in Mind. It is not in the product. Product has no power in itself to produce itself.

This assumption that product has power within itself to produce itself is another of man’s illusions that have deceived the sense of man during these early years of his unfolding. It is as though the architect gave to his cathedral the power of creating itself.

The cathedral is an expression of the desire of the architect to give form to the idea of his knowing. The power to create the idea is in the knowing. The idea of the cathedral already exists. The eyes of the spirit can see its spiritual image as clearly as the eyes of the body can sense it in stone as product of his knowing.

The expression of power to create the idea as product, lies in the electric idea of thinking idea at rest in the Light of the Mind into the two lights of waves of motion, which stimulate that idea.

As servant of Mind, electricity gives moving form to the idea by performing the work necessary to produce it. The power to thus produce does not lie in electricity or in motion. It lies in desire of Mind only. Without that desire Creation could not be. Without desire of Mind in man, his power to create would not be.

Mind is light at rest. Desire of Mind is expressed through waves of light in motion. The expression of power in waves is not power. All of the power of the ocean is in its stillness. Whether expressed or not. Like wise all of the power of Light is in the stillness of its knowing; whether expressed by light waves or not.

All expressions of energy spring from rest, seek a point of rest and return to a condition of rest. The power of a moving lever is not in the lever nor in its motion. It is in the stillness of the fulcrum from which it borrows its ability to manifest the power of its fulcrum.

God is the fulcrum of man, and of the universe. Neither man nor any moving thing in the universe has any power within himself to do anything. All power expressed by man must be extended directly from the Father in heaven to His father-mother lights of earths and heavens which manifest Him.

Clearly, ''the devil's in the detail'' :-))

Crashedproof's avatar

His mother was Jewish therefore..

Binra's avatar

Any rational systemic representation of a living organism will be set on assumed predicates.

Often persisting or extending already accepted currency of thought.

Any social critique can then itself be critiqued, as a source of variants or new strains of fusions of thought.

Your own critiques are mostly 'footnotes to history' - that is describing what is happening in the frame of its happening - as a system-capture. By this I mean the mind we think in, is often already framed by the thinking that produces it.

i know there is a difference in individual and collective consciousness, but as an individual (expression of life), how does your system apply?

Individual contributions to a collective reality are qualitative and not simply quantitative. The discernment of qualities is outside the scope or remit of structured control set in rules and filters of validation and permission to think, see, and respond, as a system is by definition closed or bounded by the frame of its predicates. Yes I know 'open and fluid' systems are the goal for 'on the fly' adaptive responses to multiple vectors of 'risk' - as defined and weighted by the system parameters.

But a 'closed system' mindset is rooted in replicating the physical expression - as a world of competing for depleting resources that frames life as war. Scarcity and war have ancient associations and the projections of scarcity as a basis for pre-emptive war is where all else is subjugated or subverted to serve war by stealth and deceit,

The systems capture that you show in frequent and abundant examples of organised information is of war by deceit. But where exactly lies the ruse?

How do you validate identity, permit to run or insist on running, as currency of thought that frames a selective perception to 'your' response?

This is addressed to all of us. to look at our own 'governance' in the act - and not in the post-processed frame of self reinforcing or 'self-saving' presentations to our self and to others.

Blame does not belong in this process, because guilt is the 'operating system' of control.

That of course is my claim, but anyone can observe for themselves - with whatever free awareness allows, that a closed and defended - or masked and distanced - mindset will block, attack, deny or reframe as a basis for the need to control.

The drive to 'save' or perfect the world can operate many threaded regional variants. But nothing is really isolatable from its larger context. Nor are concepts separable from the reality they may seek to represent, but cannot ever Be.

The abnegation of responsibility lies in taking on what is NOT ours, suffering the result and seeking to resolve it or escape the entanglement of masking guilt taken in as existential fear.

Our first responsibility is to let love in. I put it thus because we are not created as we have made ourselves, and our true or original nature stands prior to our nurture, runs masked beneath our self-in-the-world, yet abides as unconditional support for the freedom to 'experience'. For our experience OF anything is the fruit of the word we are giving.

the results are valid feedback by which to know the predicates on which they are set.

True recognition is a resonance within wholeness. the mind may then seek to frame the insight in its terms, but then the mind is framing what is freely given for the renewing and healing of the mind. there is no 'system' by which to live, but there are stepping stones of transition from the outsourcing of responsibility to a 'technologism of thought'.

Moebius Infinity's avatar

Mind:blown.

I need more time.. life is to short.