Gadaffi's green book misunderstood

Oct 26, 2011

Libya had embarked on the path of liberalization, moving away from socialistic that had been implemented with vigour in the late 1970s. Industries were nationalised, the government was the sole employer, families were limited to one home and restrictions were imposed on moving money abroad.

Libya had embarked on the path of liberalization, moving away from socialistic model that had been implemented with vigour in the late 1970s. Industries were nationalised, the government was the sole employer, families were limited to one home and restrictions were imposed on moving money abroad.

 
As part of the trade- off with citizens, the government provided free heath care, education, cheap bread, rice and some times gave subsidies on purchases of cars and television sets. 
 
These policies were based on Colonel Muammer Gadaffi’s Green Book which outlines his philosophical thoughts on issues ranging from the economy to football. Now the accepted wisdom is that the Green Book was misunderstood by some Libyans and there is no new way and time of reading it.
 
The original system of governance was kept on going by the income from oil which was unsustainable.” Part of the oil revenue was spent on the daily budget which meant money thrown into the sea because you just give salaries, ends up buying goods, consume them and that’s all”. 
 
And some of the oil revenue was put into capital projects which, unfortunately, came out to be unprofitable in any way. Call them white elephants and they include steel and even textiles.
 
Gadaffi had began overhauling the economy, state loans were being given to people who wanted to do business and those who wanted to invest in other parts of Africa. There was also crackdown on the black market for foreign currency. And the bureaucratic red tape was cut in order to ease the import and export of goods and services.
 
For many years, this emphasis has been on the public sector now it had been changed to the private sector to play apart in the development of the economy. Gadaffi’s emphasis to open up the economy was evident in Tripoli’s September first street named after the date of the 1969 revolution that brought Gadaffi to power, the street now has shops selling western manufactured goods which wasn’t there before.
 
True, there were problems of unemployment and with population of about 12 millon people and unemployment rate of around 40% really jobs were few and every one felt that and in addition Libya had about two million immigrants many of whom arrived after Gadaffis decision of opening up borders to other Africans who came from countries like Sudan, Chad, Tunisia, Nigeria, Egypt and Uganda. 
 
They hoped to find employment which they did not get. Some of them displayed their trade with paint rollers, buckets sponges, and water but it didn’t help but the government had tried to curb it and at least foreigners have small jobs to keep them going and that’s the importance to Gadaffi to Africa.
 
There was contradiction that the Libyan economy had high unemployment levels among the Libyans yet jobs were being given to foreigners. However this had been revived and all solutions to the problems had been got and solved so Gadaffi still needed more time to re-think his policies.
 
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