This blog: http://tiny.cc/kggbmw
Below you will find a quick calculation to find out how high the oil revenues of Libya were in the past, and How much money Ghadaffi possibly stole from his people.
For me the calculation is too complicated.
But I can say this: he received about 30 billion $ per year in oil revenues.
That is per capita about 4000 US $.
We know that education and health care was free in Libya.
I think that the education and health care took already a lot of the oil revenues.
Then we read in a statement of Qfinance ( see red section below) that Ghadaffi was unable to contain corruption, and preferred that the money went directly to the people, and not end up with the rich upper class. ( The early supporter of Mandela and of the Palestinians does look a lot like all the western people who want to do good, it seems.)
This earned him a strong animosity among the leading class, and may have been the real reason why they collaborated quickley with the rebels, and left Ghadaffi.
Where did Ghadaffi put all the billions that he stole from the government ?
Population: 6.4 million
Unemployment: 30%
Else I read that only 1 million Libyans worked.
Most of the work was done by guest workers from other countries: 1,5 million of them.
Let's assume that the Libyans did not pay any taxes.
Let's assume that all the oil income was for Ghadaffi, and he gave part of it to the state and kept the rest for himself.
How much money did he receive , per year?
From 1985 to 2005 the price per barrel was about 25 $ per barrel.
From 2005 to 2010 it was around 70 $ per barrel.
In 2009 Libya produced around 1,2 million barrels per day.
365 day x 1,2 million barrels = 438 million barrels x 70 $ = 30.660.000.000 US $. per year.
Libya has about 6,4 million inhabitants, and about 1 million guest workers.
Per capita : 4.143 US $ oil income per year, in the good years ( after 2005)
The GDP per capita is around 12000 $ ( I take the mean between the two GPD's)
I have no idea if I can calculate from these statistics wheter Ghadaffi stole a lot of the oil money for himself, but I can have a try.
Q Finance says:
The Libyan economy depends primarily upon revenues from the oil sector, which contribute about 95% of export earnings, about 25% of GDP, and 60% of public-sector wages.
If 7,4 million people earn 12000 $ per year, this amounts to 88.800.000.000.
If 7,4 million people earn 12000 $ per year, this amounts to 88.800.000.000.
If 60% of this comes from the oil, that means 53.280.000.000 US $ .
But we saw that the oil revenues were around 30 billion,
I have no clue how to calculate this, but I see no signs of a Ghadaffi stowing away huge amounts of money.
Especially not if I read these quotes in this QFinance report:
The non-oil manufacturing and construction sectors, which account for more than 20% of GDP, have expanded from processing mostly agricultural products to include the production of petrochemicals, iron, steel, and aluminum. Climatic conditions and poor soils severely limit agricultural output, and Libya imports about 75% of its food.
The government dominates Libya’s socialist-oriented economy through complete control of the country’s oil resources. Oil revenues constitute the principal source of foreign exchange. Much of the country’s income has been lost to waste, corruption, conventional armaments purchases, and attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction, as well as to large donations made to developing countries in attempts to increase Qaddafi’s influence in Africa and elsewhere. Although oil revenues and a small population give Libya one of the highest per capita GDPs in Africa, the government’s mismanagement of the economy has led to high inflation and increased import prices. These factors resulted in a decline in the standard of living from the late 1990s up to 2003.
Muammar Qaddafi’s most recent economic plan for Libya is the Wealth Distribution Plan, in terms of which the government aims to eliminate the majority of Libya’s key ministries in favor of the direct distribution of oil wealth to the people. Instead of channeling oil revenues to the people through layers of bureaucracy, the idea is to streamline and transform the whole state apparatus. So far, despite efforts to diversify the economy and encourage private sector participation, there remain extensive controls on prices, credit, trade, and foreign exchange, all of which act to constrain growth and discourage private investment. Import restrictions and inefficient resource allocations by government departments and agencies have caused periodic shortages of basic goods and foodstuffs.
Although agriculture is the second-largest sector in the economy, Libya imports most foods. Climatic conditions and poor soils severely limit output, while higher incomes and a growing population have caused food consumption to rise. Domestic food production meets about 25% of demand. The Libyan government has announced ambitious plans to increase foreign investment in the oil and gas sectors, with the aim of significantly boosting production capacity from 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to 3 million bpd by 2012. The government is also pursuing a number of large-scale infrastructure development projects such as highways, railways, air and seaports, telecommunications, water works, public housing, healthcare, and hotels.
Video about the good things of Ghadaffi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D162BZ92SMM
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171 b. Amnesty International: Ghadaffi did not shoot on demonstrating people, no rapes, no viagra etc. June 2011
NZ Herald. This article: http://tiny.cc/sf4rfw
The government dominates Libya’s socialist-oriented economy through complete control of the country’s oil resources. Oil revenues constitute the principal source of foreign exchange. Much of the country’s income has been lost to waste, corruption, conventional armaments purchases, and attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction, as well as to large donations made to developing countries in attempts to increase Qaddafi’s influence in Africa and elsewhere. Although oil revenues and a small population give Libya one of the highest per capita GDPs in Africa, the government’s mismanagement of the economy has led to high inflation and increased import prices. These factors resulted in a decline in the standard of living from the late 1990s up to 2003.
Muammar Qaddafi’s most recent economic plan for Libya is the Wealth Distribution Plan, in terms of which the government aims to eliminate the majority of Libya’s key ministries in favor of the direct distribution of oil wealth to the people. Instead of channeling oil revenues to the people through layers of bureaucracy, the idea is to streamline and transform the whole state apparatus. So far, despite efforts to diversify the economy and encourage private sector participation, there remain extensive controls on prices, credit, trade, and foreign exchange, all of which act to constrain growth and discourage private investment. Import restrictions and inefficient resource allocations by government departments and agencies have caused periodic shortages of basic goods and foodstuffs.
Although agriculture is the second-largest sector in the economy, Libya imports most foods. Climatic conditions and poor soils severely limit output, while higher incomes and a growing population have caused food consumption to rise. Domestic food production meets about 25% of demand. The Libyan government has announced ambitious plans to increase foreign investment in the oil and gas sectors, with the aim of significantly boosting production capacity from 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to 3 million bpd by 2012. The government is also pursuing a number of large-scale infrastructure development projects such as highways, railways, air and seaports, telecommunications, water works, public housing, healthcare, and hotels.
Video about the good things of Ghadaffi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D162BZ92SMM
======================================================
171 b. Amnesty International: Ghadaffi did not shoot on demonstrating people, no rapes, no viagra etc. June 2011
NZ Herald. This article: http://tiny.cc/sf4rfw
Amnesty questions Libyan mass rape
By Patrick Cockburn
Human rights organisations have cast doubt on claims of mass rape and other abuses perpetrated by forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, which have been widely used to justify Nato's war in Libya.
Nato leaders, opposition groups and the media have produced a stream of stories since February 15 claiming the Gaddafi regime has ordered mass rapes, used foreign mercenaries and employed helicopters against civilian protesters.
An investigation by Amnesty International has failed to find evidence for these human rights violations and in many cases has discredited or cast doubt on them.
It also found indications that on several occasions Benghazi rebels appeared to have knowingly made false claims or manufactured evidence.
The findings appear to be at odds with the views of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who two weeks ago said "we have information that there was a policy to rape in Libya those who were against the government. Apparently he [Colonel Gaddafi] used it to punish people".
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week she was deeply concerned that Gaddafi's troops were participating in widespread rape. "Rape, physical intimidation, sexual harassment and even so-called virginity tests have taken place in countries throughout the region," she said.
Donatella Rovera, senior crisis response adviser for Amnesty, who was in Libya for three months after the start of the uprising, said "we have not found any evidence or a single victim of rape or a doctor who knew about somebody being raped".
She stresses this does not prove mass rape did not occur but there is no evidence to show that it did.
Liesel Gerntholtz, the head of women's rights at Human Rights Watch, which also investigated the charge of mass rape, said: "We have not been able to find evidence."
In one instance two captured pro-Gaddafi soldiers presented to the international media by the rebels claimed their officers, and later themselves, had raped a family with four daughters. Rovera says when she and a colleague interviewed the two detainees, aged 17 and 21, alone and in separate rooms, they gave differing accounts.
"They both said they had not participated in the rape and just heard about it," she said. "They told different stories about whether or not the girls' hands were tied, whether their parents were present and how they were dressed."
The strongest evidence for mass rape appeared to come from a Libyan psychologist, Seham Sergewa, who says she distributed 70,000 questionnaires in rebel-controlled areas and along the Tunisian border, of which more than 60,000 were returned.
About 259 women volunteered that they had been raped, of whom Sergewa said she interviewed 140.
Asked by Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International's specialist on Libya, if it would be possible to meet any victims, Sergewa said "she had lost contact with them" and couldn't provide documentary evidence.
The accusation that Viagra had been distributed to Gaddafi's troops to encourage them to rape women in rebel areas first surfaced in March after Nato destroyed tanks advancing on Benghazi. Rovera says rebels started showing journalists packets of Viagra, claiming they came from burned-out tanks, though it is unclear why the packets were not charred.
Credible evidence of rape came when Eman al-Obeidi burst into a hotel in Tripoli on March 26 to tell journalists she had been gang-raped before being dragged away by the Libyan security services.
Rebels have repeatedly charged that mercenary troops from Central and West Africa have been used against them. Amnesty found there was no evidence for this.
"Those shown to journalists as foreign mercenaries were later quietly released," says Rovera. "Most were sub-Saharan migrants working in Libya without documents."
Others were not so lucky and were lynched or executed. Rovera found two bodies of migrants in the Benghazi morgue and others were dumped on the outskirts of the city.
She says: "The politicians kept talking about mercenaries, which inflamed public opinion and the myth has continued because they were released without publicity."
Nato intervention started on March 19 with air attacks to protect people in Benghazi from massacre by advancing pro-Gaddafi troops. There is no doubt civilians did expect to be killed after threats of vengeance from Gaddafi. During the first days of the uprising security forces shot and killed demonstrators and people attending their funerals, but there is no proof of mass killing of civilians on the scale of Syria or Yemen.
Most of the fighting during the first days of the uprising was in Benghazi, where 100 to 110 people were killed, and the city of Baida, where 59 to 64 were killed, says Amnesty. Most of these were probably protesters, though some may have obtained weapons.
Amateur videos show some captured Gaddafi supporters being shot dead and eight badly charred bodies were found in the remains of the military headquarters in Benghazi, which may be those of local boys who had disappeared.
There is no evidence that aircraft or heavy anti-aircraft machine guns were used against crowds. Spent cartridges picked up after protesters were shot at came from Kalashnikovs or similar calibre weapons.
The Amnesty findings confirm a report by the authoritative International Crisis Group, which found that although the regime had a history of brutal repression, there was no question of genocide.
It adds that "much Western media coverage has from the outset presented a very one-sided view of the logic of events, portraying the protest movement as entirely peaceful and repeatedly suggesting the regime's security forces were unaccountably massacring unarmed demonstrators who presented no security challenge".
Independent
By Patrick Cockburn
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