The Fall Of The Giant, The Mourning Of The People.

On a fateful day in February, the people of Benghazi long time enemies of the Geddafi regime took encouragement from the uprising of the people of Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt and staged a demonstration calling for the fall of the 42 year rule of Muamar Geddafi. It was met with a furious reaction from the strong and arguably Africa's most authoritative leader. He commanded a crack down of the perverse cocroaches and rats who he said were being incited by Aqaida elements. These statements and the subsequent actions by forces loyal to the Libyan Leader led to hasty meetings pushed through by France, England, Germany, America and other countries who will go for whatever the west commands. Today, six months down the line, with NATO bombing from the air and rebels sweeping on the ground, the cocroaches and rats have invaded the lion's den trapping his three sons. Geddafi surely is fallen, but the wounds of Libya will take centuries to heal.

Many people have blindly supported the rage spelt on Libya by the West under the guise of protecting civilians and enforcing a UN resolution. The reality is that, the UN resolution has killed more people than those killed by Gedaffi's forces. The NATO acted like a referee who instead of officiating was shooting into the goal post and at the same time whistling for fauls. Two months after their campaign in Libya, the nation no more had a war plane to boast of. Not a single one. So the no-fly-zone which captioned the UN resolution was supposed to be over. All their millitary barracks and bases have been brought to crumbs. The city of Tripoli's infrastructure has been completely destroyed. Many oil installations have been destroyed. Geddafi and his forces did not also leave major cities like Misrata and Benghazi untouched. Many lives have been lost and all commercial and indusrial activities brought to a stop. Geddafi contributed greatly to this destruction for being adamant to leave power after all the warnings.

Geddafi's Libya, which hitherto was one of the countries in Africa whose citizens never rushed to other countries for economic reasons is now going to be slaves for years before it will recover from this shock. The only country in Africa where no one used second hand cars except for farming. The only country where government took all the health bills of his people. The place where a government built houses for his citizens which they paid for without interest. The only African country when one received $10,000 at the age of 18 to start life with. The place where foreign company are under obligation to make Libyans members of their board of directors and executives before it could be awarded a contract. The only country where you are obliged to employ a percentage of your workers from its citizens. In short, Geddafi, inspite of all the evil he has been accused of, always placed his citizens first and this is why I can't stop sobbing for his fall. I wish he had reasoned more wisely by just saying its enough. 42 years is enough.

I was in Liberia in the nineties amd I saw the ruin from the war. A year ago, I met somebody who had just returned from Monrovia, and I asked him how the city was looking now. He showed me pictures which made me hate war. The wholes drilled by bullets were still in some walls. Fallen houses and bridges were still in their state. The country was still loking like a country in war after close to 10 years since the end of the war. Another good example is Iraq. The people are worst off than they were under Sadam. More Iraqis are suffering now than those days. In fact some of them I meet in Europe here say the West especially Ameruca has destroyed their country. I don't remember any of them accusing Sadam for the state of Iraq today. The beautiful Libya is now in ruins. When will NATO and the West finish taking thier share of the oil revenue for the thousands of bombs they have launched? How much oil will pay for the soldiers they brought there. When will the need for oil of France, Germany, America and Britain end? When will the bellies of these hungry rebels and their leaders be filled? When will they finish paying for the assistance giving to them? When will all those millitary bases, barracks, hospitals, roads, buildings and other assets destroyed be replaced?

The rebels, the CNN and NATO may be full of smiles today, but Libyan people will mourn for years for these six months of full time destruction. I think the world could have done better than encouraging this destruction. Geddafi has worked in vain. All his achievements have been destroyed by this bad decision he took at the end. The rebels have worked in vain because what they are going for is not the freedom they are crying for. It is a new colonial rule, everything will be dictated to them like the other African countries, which was impossible under Gedaffi.

Gedaffi is fallen, but Libyans will mourn him some days to come.

Noah Dugubrame Asare.