Africa // Current TV

Rwanda Diary: Hannah’s free advice for traveling to Africa edition

MY SNUGGIE WAS THE SINGLE GREATEST THING I PACKED. No lie. I use it every night and it... more

hoosierdaddy
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Young boy in Ghana makes beats with his teeth

Seven-year-old Nana Kyei demonstrates why he’s known as “Mr. Rhythm... more

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Get off my Planet: Happy Birthday 7 Billion

To mark the world’s population reaching 7 billion on Halloween 2011, WORLDbytes... more

worldwrite
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7 months ago
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The Crimes of Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi

Gaddafi's Real Crimes

Throughout his reign, Gaddafi insisted on a much larger (and fairer) share of his country's oil profits than multinational oil companies were used to accepting. Indeed, in a 2009 talk given to students at Georgetown University, Gaddafi threatened to kick Western oil companies out of Libya altogether by nationalising its oil and natural gas.

What is beyond dispute is that Gaddafi used his nation's oil wealth to turn Libya into the most progressive and modern of all African nations. In a 2007 African executive magazine it was noted that Libya, "unlike other oil producing countries such as Nigeria [where major Western oil companies have a stranglehold on the government], utilised the revenue from its oil to develop its country."

Gaddafi was also instrumental in establishing the African Union. He invested heavily and generously, to the tune of $6 billion, in many other African nations. Throughout Africa, hospitals, schools, hotels and roads bear Gaddafi's name as a sign of gratitude to the 'brutal dictator'. Libyan investments have helped to connect most of Africa by telephone, television, radio broadcasting, etc. Many major African companies, in which Gaddafi had invested via the 'Libya Arab Africa Investment Portfolio', now face financial ruin as Libyan oil money is diverted to the West under Libya's new rulers.

But undoubtedly the greatest threat posed by Gaddafi to NATO warmongers was his efforts to fast-track the creation of an African Monetary Fund and an African Central Bank and to establish the gold dinar as a pan-African currency (Libya has 144 tons of gold with a population of just 6 million, no external debt and $150 billion in cash reserves).

Gaddafi's idea was that African and Muslim nations would join together to create this new currency and use it to purchase oil and other resources to the exclusion of the dollar and other currencies. While a Russia Today report called it "an idea that would shift the economic balance of the world", Gaddafi's plans for a radical financial overhaul of African economies would undoubtedly have sounded the death knell for IMF looting of African economies, not to mention the 'CFA Franc', a colonial currency tied to the Euro and the French central bank and used in twelve formerly French-ruled African countries (hence the unbridled enthusiasm with which the French government joined the fray).

Writing in April 2011 for the London Evening Post, writer Jean-Paul Pougala had this to say about Gaddafi:

"For most Africans, Gaddafi is a generous man, a humanist, known for his unselfish support for the struggle against the racist regime in South Africa. If he had been an egotist, he wouldn't have risked the wrath of the West to help the ANC both militarily and financially in the fight against apartheid. This was why Mandela, soon after his release from 27 years in jail, decided to break the UN embargo and travel to Libya on 23 October 1997.

Mandela didn't mince his words when the former US president Bill Clinton said the visit was an 'unwelcome' one: "No country can claim to be the policeman of the world and no state can dictate to another what it should do." He added, "Those that yesterday were friends of our enemies have the gall today to tell me not to visit my brother Gaddafi, they are advising us to be ungrateful and forget our friends of the past."

Writing in September this year in the Guardian, Julian Borger and Terry Macalister pointed out that Western oil companies had planned to carve up Libyan oil before the so-called 'revolution'. Are we surprised? Is it mere coincidence that the NATO bombing campaign began on the 8th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq? The Egyptian uprising was more or less legitimate based on the psychopathic policies of a real 'brutal dictator' - Hosni Mubarak - who had brought millions of Egyptians to the brink of starvation. And take note how Mubarak was dealt with in comparison to Gaddafi. But no such conditions existed in socialist Libya.

The plain truth is that there was no widespread popular revolution against Gaddafi; there were only ever hired mercenaries, a well-orchestrated Western media campaign, which played out a script dictated to it from start to finish, heavy infiltration by military intelligence agents of the US and European countries, and NATO bombs. Lots of NATO bombs.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/236679-Naked-Bloody-Imperialism-or-We-Came-We-Saw-He-Died-Gaddafi's Real Crimes Throughout his reign, Gaddafi insisted on a much larger... more

maasanova
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Should Africa Repay its 'Odious' Debts?

Boyce and Ndikumana, authors of 'Africa's Odious Debts', argue that... more

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Politics Michele Bachmann Apparently Doesn’t Know Libya Is in Africa

There comes a time in everyone’s high school (or junior high school) experience... more

joeeddy
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7 months ago
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Disease, Violence, Malnutrition, Pollution, Illiteracy - Five Scourges that Cripple the IQ of Sub-Saharan Africa

article seeks to explain the "environmental" factors that hamper Nigeria and... more

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7 months ago
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U.S. Must Kill LRA's Child Soldiers for Victory in Uganda

As the United States prepares to send 100 armed troops to Uganda to battle the... more

cornucopia3000
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8 months ago
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Rwanda Diary: what “America” are YOU talking about?

For starters, many Rwandans seem to believe there’s no poverty in America.... more

hoosierdaddy
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8 months ago
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Dr. Wangari Maathai, laid to rest in Kenya

Mrs Maathai was cremated in a casket made of bamboo, water hyacinth and papyrus so... more

JanforGore
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8 months ago
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2 comments

Nobel peace prize given to only 12 women in 110 years. Now it's 15

Three women who have campaigned for peace and democracy in Liberiaand Yemen have been... more

John_Doran
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8 months ago
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Trouble on the Land, September 27, 2011

don't miss this one, massive land grabs on a massive scale

frankpatton
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CNN Hero at Special Screening of Tapestries of Hope

CNN Hero Betty Makoni, who is leading a global effort to stop the rape of women and... more

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8 months ago
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Libya Finally Joins Ghana and Nigeria and Submits to the Will of NATO Countries

NTC rebels have apparently managed to do away with Muammar Gaddafi, and Ghana, among other African countries has, after a little hesitation, decided to do obeisance to the western powers by recognizing these anti-Gaddafi miscreants. The question now remains: does a post-Gaddafi Libya hope to become a land of milk and honey?

Believe me, that would be a very tall order because actually, whether you like Gaddafi or not, Libya, by all appreciable standards, had the highest standard of living in Africa, under Gaddafi. If western-style democracy was a yardstick for determining developmental success, Ghana, Nigeria and other countries in Africa would not be in their present predicaments. Let's take a look at some of the comforts and benefits Libyans enjoyed under Gaddafi and draw our own conclusions.

When Gaddafi took over, Libyans had an average annual income of about $60. His government brought Libya from poverty and debt to prosperity and debt-free status Education from the kindergarten stage through college was free. Health care was free as well. Under Gaddafi's oil-revenue-sharing program, each Libyan had $500 (five hundred US dollars) deposited into his or her bank account each month. After marriage, each couple was given as much as $60,000 (sixty thousand US dollars) to spend. Libya gave free land and seeds to anyone who wanted to take up farming as an
occupation.

Water and electricity were free in Libya. Petrol/fuel was sold at 75 cents a gallon under Gaddafi. There was virtually no homelessness as everyone was given a home. Undernourishment in Libya under Gaddafi was as low as 2% - a figure lower than that of the world center of "democracy," the USA. For any medical care or health treatments that were unavailable in Libya, the Libyan citizen's full expenses for travel, treatment and accommodation to wherever was required for treatment were borne by the Libyan government. Before Gaddafi, literacy in Libya was only 10%. Under Gaddafi's leadership, literacy has risen to over 80%. Unlike some Arab states, women in Libya under Gaddafi had equal rights; not only as a philosophy, but in practice......

Continue at:
http://news.peacefmonline.com/features/201109/68485.phpNTC rebels have apparently managed to do away with Muammar Gaddafi, and Ghana, among... more

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US Congressman Walter Fauntroy, Feared Dead in Libya, Returns Home & Shares His Story

Former U.S. Congressman Walter Fauntroy, who recently returned from a self-sanctioned... more

Schnookums
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9 months ago
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Rwanda Diary: never again?

And then you see the bones. Both Ntarama and Nyamata kept the bones. The skulls... more

hoosierdaddy
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9 months ago
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Postcard from Rwanda: Primus, Mützig and Banana Beer!

We also learned about a “holiday” called Umuganda (I actually arrived on... more

hoosierdaddy
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9 months ago
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Libyan rebels rounding up black Africans

Uh-oh, looks like a real humanitarian crisis has grown out of the fake humanitarian... more

maasanova
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9 months ago
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The strange entity Gino Foiro!!!!

People in Africa whispers some very bizarre stories! about the terrible times of the... more

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9 months ago
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African Union nations will miss Gaddafi's generosity

The Libyan government’s continent-wide investments in sensitive sectors such as... more

maasanova
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9 months ago
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