Crime Watch - The Biography of Muammar Gaddafi (Muammar al-Qaddafi)
- 6 years ago
How can you adequately describe someone like Col Muammar Gaddafi? During a period that spanned six decades, the Libyan leader paraded on the world stage with a style so unique and unpredictable that the words "maverick" or "eccentric" scarcely did him justice.
His rule saw him go from revolutionary hero to international pariah, to valued strategic partner and back to pariah again.
Gaddafi developed his own political philosophy, writing a book so influential - in the eyes of its author, at least - that it eclipsed anything dreamt up by Plato, Locke or Marx.
He made countless show-stopping appearances at Arab and international gatherings, standing out not just with his outlandish clothing, but also his blunt speeches and unconventional behaviour.
He spent his life reinventing himself and his revolution: one Arab commentator called him the "Picasso of Middle East politics", although instead of Blue, Rose or Cubist periods, he had his pan-Arab period, his Islamist period, his pan-African period, and so on.
But even Gaddafi was not able to withstand the tide of popular feeling that had already swept away his two authoritarian neighbours in a momentous year for the Arab world.
Early promise
In the heady days of 1969 - when he seized power in a bloodless military coup - and the early 1970s, Muammar Gaddafi was a handsome and charismatic young army officer.
An eager disciple of President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt (he even adopted the same military rank, promoting himself from captain to colonel after the coup), Gaddafi first set about tackling the unfair economic legacy of foreign domination.
For Nasser, it was the Suez Canal. For Gaddafi, it was oil.
Significant reserves had been discovered in Libya in the late 1950s, but the extraction was controlled by foreign petroleum companies, which set prices to the advantage of their own domestic consumers and benefited from a half share in the revenue.
Gaddafi demanded renegotiation of the contracts, threatening to shut off production if the oil companies refused.
He memorably challenged foreign oil executives by telling them "people who have lived without oil for 5,000 years can live without it again for a few years in order to attain their legitimate rights".
The gambit succeeded and Libya became the first developing country to secure a majority share of the revenues from its own oil production. Other nations soon followed this precedent and the 1970s Arab petro-boom began.
Libya was in a prime position to reap the benefits. With production levels matching the Gulf states, and one of the smallest populations in Africa (less than 3m at the time), the black gold made it rich quickly.
Political theorist
Rather than persevering with the doctrines of Arab Nationalism, or following the glittering excesses of Gulf consumerism, Gaddafi's innately mercurial character led him and Libya on a new path.
Born to nomadic Bedouin parents in 1942, Muammar Gaddafi was certainly an intelligent, resourceful man,
His rule saw him go from revolutionary hero to international pariah, to valued strategic partner and back to pariah again.
Gaddafi developed his own political philosophy, writing a book so influential - in the eyes of its author, at least - that it eclipsed anything dreamt up by Plato, Locke or Marx.
He made countless show-stopping appearances at Arab and international gatherings, standing out not just with his outlandish clothing, but also his blunt speeches and unconventional behaviour.
He spent his life reinventing himself and his revolution: one Arab commentator called him the "Picasso of Middle East politics", although instead of Blue, Rose or Cubist periods, he had his pan-Arab period, his Islamist period, his pan-African period, and so on.
But even Gaddafi was not able to withstand the tide of popular feeling that had already swept away his two authoritarian neighbours in a momentous year for the Arab world.
Early promise
In the heady days of 1969 - when he seized power in a bloodless military coup - and the early 1970s, Muammar Gaddafi was a handsome and charismatic young army officer.
An eager disciple of President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt (he even adopted the same military rank, promoting himself from captain to colonel after the coup), Gaddafi first set about tackling the unfair economic legacy of foreign domination.
For Nasser, it was the Suez Canal. For Gaddafi, it was oil.
Significant reserves had been discovered in Libya in the late 1950s, but the extraction was controlled by foreign petroleum companies, which set prices to the advantage of their own domestic consumers and benefited from a half share in the revenue.
Gaddafi demanded renegotiation of the contracts, threatening to shut off production if the oil companies refused.
He memorably challenged foreign oil executives by telling them "people who have lived without oil for 5,000 years can live without it again for a few years in order to attain their legitimate rights".
The gambit succeeded and Libya became the first developing country to secure a majority share of the revenues from its own oil production. Other nations soon followed this precedent and the 1970s Arab petro-boom began.
Libya was in a prime position to reap the benefits. With production levels matching the Gulf states, and one of the smallest populations in Africa (less than 3m at the time), the black gold made it rich quickly.
Political theorist
Rather than persevering with the doctrines of Arab Nationalism, or following the glittering excesses of Gulf consumerism, Gaddafi's innately mercurial character led him and Libya on a new path.
Born to nomadic Bedouin parents in 1942, Muammar Gaddafi was certainly an intelligent, resourceful man,