Middle-east-people-welcome - the shame of Gaddafi

[Hafiz]

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From: ArabJ...@aol.com
To: USQua...@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2011 12:25:52 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Comment on Farrakhan's Muammar Gaddaff's Death

Comment on Farrakhan's Muammar Gaddaff's Death

 

For the benefit of the reader of my article, and before I start my comment on Mr Farrrakhan's speech,  I will put below the web site address where the readers can go back and listen to it so they can make sense of what I say. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF78c2BNJXg&feature=player_embedded

There is no doubt that Mr Farrakhan is an extremely gifted orator, his deep voice is just as effective as Martin Lauther King.  I am sure he is saying what he believes to be right. However, our emotions and preconceptions occasionally block our reason; resulting in mixing reality with fiction.

And let me  start to explain where I might disagree with Mr Farrakhan.

Mr Farakhan stars with saying that" when Gaddaffi was caught he was wearing military uniform because he wanted to be buried in a military uniform". Gaddaffi  wore a military uniform to fight and kill his own people. He thought he is immotral and beyond retribution. He sacrificed his sons so he can cling to power. I do not know about a human being  or an animal that scarifies their offspring for their own survival.  Gaddaffi did. He refused the chance offered to him by President Zuma of South Africa to leave Libya with all whom and what he wanted to take with him.

He was arrogant enough to think that he is above his people and that because he overthrew king Idriss, that he can have the divine right to rule over Libya for ever. It turned out that he was wrong; and that the people whom he tortured and imprisoned  and called rats, had come to take  their revenge and to give him some of his own medicine; dragging him like a rat out of a sewer's pipe.

Had Gaddaffi has any vision or intelligence, he could have known there would be no need or excuse for foreign intervention in Libya if he left Libya for the Libyans. In a sense he invited the invasion.

I do not condone foreign intervention any where. But there is a time when the atrocities of the dictators will invite foreign interventions. Let me ask Mr Farrakhan about what is happening now in Syria. The Assad density has been there for over 40 years as well.. The killing of peaceful demonstrators is continuing with extreme brutality; the Arab countries have no spine to intervene while they are witnessing the massacres every day; simply because the heads of these nations are just the same like Assad.  

My simple question to our brother Farrakhan is : what does he think of a man who stays in power for 42 years?. How  can democracy materialises if one man stays on the helm for that long? .. It is unthinkable that  any one could support that claim. Worst, is that he, Gaddaffi, the king of kings, like other Arab dictators in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt were preparing their sons to inherit the mantel. 

 According to Mr Farrakhan, Gaddaffi ":was shaking hands with the Enemy, Secretary Clinton". i will add that Gaddaffi also  embraced the Arabs and Muslims worst enemy,Tony Blaire who killed thousands of Iraqis.  I have seen Prime Minister Berlusconi kissing Gaddafi's hand when he met with him in Tripoli to sign an oil deal. Gaddafi enjoyed the power Libya's wealth of oil gave him. Unfortunately, he was not aware that those high profile people were courting him for the interest of their own countries and for  the interest of their electorates. The king of kings  had no electorates. 

Farrakhan is talking about the "betrayal of inner circles" and it was not betraial of the inner circle; indeed it was the awaking of the inner circle's long lost conscious.  And most likely it was the realisation that the day of reckoning has come, and the people at last has woken up to the atrocities of the Gaddaffi regime. They  realised that  their end is approaching . In fact Gaddaffi is the one who betrayed his people.  Farrakhan's  claims that"Gaddaffi died in honour, fighting for the  Libya he believed in" is a false claim; Gaddafi died hiding like a rat for what he believed to be his exclusive right, that is; Libya is Gaddaffi and Gaddaffi is Libya. His fallacy of rejecting the title "President" in favour of "The Leader is the ultimate selfism.

I have been there. I witnessed first hand how people were frightened to even whisper. In a conference I attended in Libya before the uprising . I spoke to intellectuals, academics, business men, security personnel who were in charge of looking after us or watching  us. The message was clear. They all hated the regime; they hated the Leader.

I was only able to get the message because I speak the same language and share the same cultural background. My country of origin , Egypt, also  borders  Libya. It also shared /shares the same autocratic and dictatorial regime since Nasser came to power  and supported Gaddaffi's military coup.

Let me tell my brother Farrakhan,  had I not have  an English passport , I would never dared travelling to Libya because I always speak my mind. I am used to it in England. I travelled under the protection of my English passport. Ironically the countries who we are supposed to despise are those who protect our human rights and protect us where ever we were, if we carry their nationality

 If Mr Farrakhan travels abroad to a country that might infringe his liberty, the USA will fight to get him back as an American regardless of his political views or allegiance. Farrakhan is an American citizen hence he can speak freely rightly or wrongly about what he believes. He can hold different and opposing views to the American administration without feel of being imprisoned without trail. Had he  been a libyan, he  would not dare a word against the leader.  That is the difference. That is why we all left our home countries to live in the West. They respect our dignity , our human rights and our personal freedom regardless of occasional violations which can happen to native westerners. Look to what happened to a blogger in Egypt, they put him on trail by of a military court.

Mr Farrakhan said " we have witnessed what this man, Gaddaffi,  did for the Libyan people";  Regardless of what prosperity the leader brings to his people, or showers on his own tribe,  the lesson we learn through history is that, no matter what the ruler do for his people, nothing more precious than a democratic system that embraces and embodies the rule of low and the creation of civil institutions which empowers the people.

 Farrakhan said; "watch for the vultures of Britain, France,and others who are trying to rebuild the infrastructure that they perviously destroyed against international low", and my answer to him is simple; if Gaddaffi had the intellect or intelligence to know that democracy has to come one day to Libya and  that the Libyans had suffered enough for 42 years , he could have saved the 50,000 Libyans who were killed in this campaign. He could have saved the Libyan infrastructure, and above all, he could have saved this own sons from the gruesome fate that awaited them. The man was power mad he sacrificed it all for his own dream of ultimate power.

Let us talk about the Libyan wealth and where has it had gone.

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Libya in 2010 is estimated at a value of $90.57 billion (factCheck.org.] while the total population of Libya is under 6 million. The unemployment rate according to Inedx Mudi is 30%   and the GDP per capita is estimated at $14,000.  These figures speak for itself. A country with an estimated Gross Domestic Product of $90.57 billion and which had a population of 6 million had a Gross Domestic Product per Capita of $14,000.

The question which will pop up is where all these billions  of the Libyan wealth disappear?. We haven't seen an elaborate infrastructure in Libya, neither we have seen great public health service  or education service or growing industries to provide employment and consumer goods. We know however that billions had gone to the kings of Africa whom Gaddaffi made as  his clowns.  These billions should have been spent on improving the lives of ordinary Libyan citizens. Above all it is Libyan money and not Gaddaffi money.

Kelly Elshafey

Lecturer in HRM and

Organisational Change

Manchester Metropolitan University

United Kingdom

--
what was first, the hen or the egg ?