Africans remember Gadhafi as martyr, benefactor Options

[machpunch777]

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Moammar Gadhafi's regime poured tens of billions of dollars into some of Africa's poorest countries. Even when he came to visit, the eccentric leader won admiration for handing out money to beggars on the streets.

"Other heads of state just drive past here in their limousines. Gadhafi stopped, pushed away his bodyguards and shook our hands," said Cherno Diallo, standing Monday beside hundreds of caged birds he sells near a Libyan-funded hotel. "Gadhafi's death has touched every Malian, every single one of us. We're all upset."

While Western powers heralded Gadhafi's demise, many Africans were gathering at mosques built with Gadhafi's money to mourn the man they consider an anti-imperialist martyr and benefactor.

Critics, though, note this image is at odds with Gadhafi's history of backing some of Africa's most brutal rebel leaders and dictators. Gadhafi sent 600 troops to support Uganda's much-hated Idi Amin in the final throes of his dictatorship. And Gadhafi-funded rebels in Sierra Leone forcibly recruited children and chopped off limbs of their victims, many of them innocent civilians.

Some analysts estimate that the Gadhafi regime invested more than $150 billion in foreign countries, most of it into impoverished African nations.

"Gadhafi was a true revolutionary who focused on improving the lives of the underdeveloped countries," said Sheik Muthal Bin-Muslim, from the Gadhafi mosque in Sierra Leone's capital that was built with Libyan funds. Muslim worshippers were planning an all-night vigil in honor of the slain Libyan leader.

In Bamako, the capital of the desert nation of Mali, one huge Libyan-funded mosque was built right next door to the U.S. Embassy.

And in Uganda, Gadhafi built a mosque that can host more than 30,000 people. Libyan-funded companies — everything from mobile phone companies to cookie factories — are valued at $375 million and employ more than 3,000 people in the small East African country. Schoolchildren and Muslim supporters lined the roads, waving Libyan flags, whenever Gadhafi visited.

"Gadhafi was a godfather to many Ugandans," said Muhammed Kazibala, a head teacher at a Libyan-funded school in the country's capital.

The Libyan leader also built a palace for one of Uganda's traditional kingdoms. It was a fitting donation for a man who traveled to African Union summits dressed in a gold-embroidered green robe, flanked by seven men who said they were the "traditional kings of Africa."

Gadhafi used Libya's oil wealth to help create the AU in 2002, and also served as its rotating chairman. During the revolt against Gadhafi, the AU condemned NATO airstrikes as evidence mounted that his military was massacring civilians.

Gadhafi's influence even extended to Africa's largest economy: The Libyan leader supported the African National Congress when it was fighting racist white rule, and remained close to Nelson Mandela after the anti-apartheid icon became South Africa's first black president.

Current President Jacob Zuma also was one of the most outspoken critics of the NATO airstrikes in Libya, and he told reporters he thought Gadhafi should have been captured and tried, not executed.

The ANC Youth League described Gadhafi as an "anti-imperialist martyr" and a "brave soldier and fighter against the recolonization of the African continent."

For many of Gadhafi's supporters, the military operation to oust him was another example of the Western interference and neocolonialism that he railed against.

F. Mbossa, 52, a school teacher in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, said she was shocked by the "arrogance of the West" in carrying out the NATO airstrikes.

"It's clear that France and the others never truly wanted an independent Africa and that is why they never hesitated to kill all those who advocate for a strong and unified Africa," Mbossa said with tears in her eyes. "But for Africa, Gadhafi remains a martyr."

In Central African Republic, Gadhafi sent troops to support a government confronting coup attempts and an insurgency in 2001. But he also fomented instability. He funded rebel movements that committed some of the worst human rights abuses on the continent, including the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone. Gadhafi also supplied arms, training and finance to rebels in Liberia and Gambia, and invaded Chad from 1980-1989.

Historian Stephen Ellis called Gadhafi's World Revolutionary Headquarters, just outside Benghazi, "the Harvard and Yale of a whole generation of African revolutionaries."

In the 1980s, they included Charles Taylor of Liberia and Foday Sankoh of Sierra Leone, as well as former Congolese President Laurent Kabila.

While Gadhafi won praise from some for not fleeing Libya, others chastised him for failing to see how it all would end.

In Zimbabwe, businessman Daniel Musumba said Gadhafi had been trapped by his own ego.

"For a man who was telling his people they were rats and cockroaches to end up in a drain. Who is the rat now?" he said. "But the rat needed to be captured alive."

___

Larson reported from Johannesburg. Associated Press writers Godfrey Olukya in Kampala, Uganda; Michelle Faul in Johannesburg; Clarence Roy-Macaulay in Freetown, Sierra Leone; Louis Okamba in Libreville, Republic of Congo; and Gillian Gotora in Harare, Zimbabwe contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/africans-remember-ga...-170646254.html

[KraterosHellas]

there is a saying: the good people perish, the wicked live on in abundance...
anyway i truly hope that libya and africa will one day realize their true potential and the vision that gaddafi stood for.

[Hugham]

^
I'm agree with you.

I hope for it too.

[samnang]

why did my gaddafi thread get moved out of c-chat, but not this one?

[Mauser]

why is this topic in china chat?

There was a previous thread on Libyan rebels openly discriminating against Chinese companies.

[fireplant]

chinese chat is the logical place for world affairs.

[Mid-Night_Sun]

they shove a stick up his @$$ before they killed him apparently
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msj9C_Wad7U


i have an incredibly low expectation for the libyan rebels. they appear to be a group of rag tag peasants who have no clue how to actually run a country. i expect Libya will collapse into itself in a very short time.

This post has been edited by Mid-Night_Sun: Oct 25 2011, 04:08 PM

[Mauser]

they shove a stick up his @$$ before they killed him apparently
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msj9C_Wad7U


i have an incredibly low expectation for the libyan rebels. they appear to be a group of rag tag peasants who have no clue how to actually run a country. i expect Libya will collapse into itself in a very short time.

The rebels are even thinking about implementing Sharia Law. SMH...

[machpunch777]

The rebels are even thinking about implementing Sharia Law. SMH...

U.S politicians don't learn from history at all. It's the same routine of overthrowing an "oppressive regime" replaced by one that even more anti american and fundamentalist.

[Mauser]

U.S politicians don't learn from history at all. It's the same routine of overthrowing an "oppressive regime" replaced by one that even more anti american and fundamentalist.

The US politicians are shortsighted. They see oil in Libya, but they don't see who's going to control the oil.

[reutty]

they shove a stick up his @$$ before they killed him apparently
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msj9C_Wad7U


i have an incredibly low expectation for the libyan rebels. they appear to be a group of rag tag peasants who have no clue how to actually run a country. i expect Libya will collapse into itself in a very short time.

Libyans don't farm. Only in Egypt and very rural parts of Syria and iraq are there rates of peasants comparable to east Asia. Most Libyans are educated Professionals, like doctors, engineers, lawyers, they absolutely refuse to do manual labor and import Bengalis and blacks to do that

they have a high birthrate on purpose, it may seem as a surprise to some low IQ people, that educated people in other parts of the world like having many children

Only in east Asia and Europe is higher education linked to low birthrate.malot of Taiwanese women aren't even marrying, thy probably have sex with several boyfriends but abort the kids

[fireplant]

where has qadafi regime gone wrong?

many big ideas, little brains

[robot_devil]

Gadaffi was a stupid fool who got his face slapped after sucking up to the likes of Blair, Bush and Belusconi.

He actualy begged Belusconi via letter to end the bombing campaign back in August. lol. There are also alegations he begged for his life upon being offed. Just pathetic.

[fireplant]

part of it was he just dominated the country for too long, while he deluded himself into thinking he was just some spiritual guide while Libyans ruled themselves. If you listen to him talk, while he's a deep thinker in some respects, his mind is not really on the right wavelength to understand and lead people correctly. He was also wasteful with Libya's money (paying enormous amounts to UK for bombing victims while Libyans are much poorer than British), and arbitrary with doling out punishment. Libyans themselves were also not very well informed about their own country and probably suffered mass delusions about their government as much as Gaddafi had about his people. All this existed as a long exercise in failure; when someone lit a small flame, the failure just imploded.

This post has been edited by fireplant: Oct 26 2011, 02:55 AM

[Mid-Night_Sun]

Libyans don't farm. Only in Egypt and very rural parts of Syria and iraq are there rates of peasants comparable to east Asia. Most Libyans are educated Professionals, like doctors, engineers, lawyers, they absolutely refuse to do manual labor and import Bengalis and blacks to do that

they have a high birthrate on purpose, it may seem as a surprise to some low IQ people, that educated people in other parts of the world like having many children

Only in east Asia and Europe is higher education linked to low birthrate.malot of Taiwanese women aren't even marrying, thy probably have sex with several boyfriends but abort the kids

i have no interest in your fantasies. i can see with my own eyes the quality of the rebels. bunch of monkeys. in fact the whole arab world is a cesspool for archaic mentalities. without oil they wouldnt be relevant. they never will since they insist on a delusional religion that glorifies a pedophile.

you, as a virgin, dont need to worry about peoples birthrates. seriously.

This post has been edited by Mid-Night_Sun: Oct 26 2011, 05:07 AM

[thesecond]

Libyans don't farm. Only in Egypt and very rural parts of Syria and iraq are there rates of peasants comparable to east Asia. Most Libyans are educated Professionals, like doctors, engineers, lawyers, they absolutely refuse to do manual labor and import Bengalis and blacks to do that

they have a high birthrate on purpose, it may seem as a surprise to some low IQ people, that educated people in other parts of the world like having many children

Only in east Asia and Europe is higher education linked to low birthrate.malot of Taiwanese women aren't even marrying, thy probably have sex with several boyfriends but abort the kids

Of course Libyans do not farm. They just rely on those rich nature resource in their country and do nothing to change their life/country...........
Oh in your opinion, lazyness and low education is something we need to encourage?
Another solid evidence prove u r not chinese

BTW high birth rate doesn't mean high quality.

[thesecond]

you, as a virgin, dont need to worry about peoples birthrates. seriously.

OMG, he is a virgin???!!

[fireplant]

OMG, he is a virgin???!!

really, you thought you were the only one?

[thesecond]

and sorry I do not fit the typical feature of virgins here: obsess with fu@king and spreading their seeds.
But obviously u have those features, right?
So why not leave your computer and find a mail order bride for u(as the same to reutty)?

This post has been edited by thesecond: Oct 26 2011, 05:21 AM

[Mid-Night_Sun]

OMG, he is a virgin???!!

OF COURSE. theres no way a guy with his backwards view on women gets laid.


although...now im convinced hes arab. so basically hes in the 1 group where such backward thinking doesnt affect your chances of getting laid. so who knows.