I am an African working in Guyana- Region One (Mabaruma) as a volunteer. I think my letter expressing my views can help to change some people’s view of Qaddafi.
In recent times, news concerning the state of anarchy in Libya has dominated many global media.  The man at the centre of it all remains none but Col. Muammar Qaddafi, a man who has ruled Libya since he was 27 years when his successful coup d’état ousted  King Idris from power in 1969.  Unfortunately, many media houses have not brought out the other side of Qaddafi which curtails people from making informed judgements about the man.
However bad someone is, they at least hold something good in them and as a person, I find many good things in the ‘mad man of Africa’- Colonel Qaddafi that have not been brought out.
To begin with, Qaddafi is a true Pan Arabist/Africanist.  By the time he came to power in 1969, a barrel of oil was less than 50 American cents. Qaddafi started a campaign within the Arab oil-producing countries and this saw a rise in the price of oil per barrel. It is therefore unfair if Arab oil-producing countries do not appreciate the historical role he played.  He also contributed greatly to the liberation movements in  sub-Saharan Africa when the West never cared.  For example, in Uganda he helped the NRA with ammunition and funds to fight the dictatorial regime of Tito Okello Lutwa.
He has also played a pivotal role in funding the AU (African Union) sometimes up to 40% of its annual budget. Though critics may say he does this for recognition, we need to appreciate that some African countries are not in position to meet the AU financial requirements.
Qaddafi is one of a few secularist Arab leaders and because of that, women have been able to go to school and join the army.  This can be seen in part with his hallmark of female body guards.
Though a desert, Col. Qaddafi has encouraged tree planting in Libya. This shows his committed struggle to fight global warming when countries like the US, Canada and UK that have pumped carbon emissions in the atmosphere since the start of industrial revolution in the 1850s are merely dilly dallying with global warming.  Personally, I believe that Qaddafi’s cause of trouble is his failure to open up his country for exploitation from the world’s superpowers, Need for revenge from  King Idris’ kinsmen from the east (around Benghazi)  and fear from other Arab leaders whom he has constantly accused of selling their nations to the western powers. Otherwise,  under Qaddafi, Libya has become  a middle-income nation with a GDP of US $ 89.03 and unlike in Egypt and Tunisia where the youth rioted  due to lack of employment, equal distribution of resources among others, in Libya, Qaddafi has developed infrastructure; education  and health are free for all Libyans etc. There is no doubt that many foreigners have been working in Libya, a rare thing in the Maghreb states let alone, Arab countries without much discrimination.
I therefore condemn strongly the presence of Western powers in Libya. Western powers are only hypocrites. They have imposed a no-fly zone in Libya when there are many pro-western regimes such as   Bahrain where similar and or/ more atrocities than those happening in Libya have passed as if unnoticed. In Africa, Western countries have greatly undermined our growth. They have been involved in many inhumane activities such as the slave trade and   killing of many pro-people leaders; a case in point is Patrice Lumumba founding father of DR. Congo, formerly Zaire. Outside Africa, Haiti’s poverty and woes are a result of France’s reparation demands and the US’s indirect rule of that nation.  Western puppets are good for nothing. A country can hardly develop under Western control. It is no wonder that the countries that abstained from voting for the no- fly zone impositions on Libya have had strong minded leadership which helped them to spur to economic independence they enjoy today. For example, Brazil’s Lula da Silva, China’s Mao Zedong and USSR was industrialised under the leadership of Josef Stalin.
In Africa, we have far worse leaders than Qaddafi whereby, if the West was really concerned about human welfare and not wealth, they would have intervened a long time.  I recall one day in 1994, I had sneaked out of school with my friends and decided to go at the Nile River to watch birds. All of a sudden, bodies started floating past us and when I asked the guard, he told me they were probably a result of the Rwandan genocide.  At the time I was only 11 years old, but what I saw still looms in my mind. But, where was France, Rwanda’s former colonial master as more than one million people perished? Should we say Libyans have a different form of life from Rwandese? Or because Rwanda has no oil that France would steal? Besides, I see no difference between Qaddafi’s brutality and African leaders who rig elections which results in the death of thousands. The very Washington pounding Libya conducts business with Africa’s leading dictators like Equatorial Guinea’s Nguema Teodoro Obiang. What a charade? Another important thing to note is that a demonstration ceases to be peaceful immediately the rioters take up arms. Did the western powers expect Qaddafi to sit and watch?  Between Qaddafi and Bush, who has caused more bloodshed? Why didn’t the UN impose a no- fly zone in the gulf when US illegally attacked Iraq?
Finally, my fellow Africans should not be ecstatic with the West’s pounding of Libya. They should know that the West hates a united Africa because it is hard to exploit. That is why the British dismantled the kingdoms which were a unifying factor among people not only in sub-Saharan Africa, but also, in the north. Ironically, their monarchy still goes on in Birmingham palace. Time will come when those fighting Qaddafi will regret. Their goal may never be achieved since armed struggles hardly transit into democracies even when they get into power. The intention of the Western powers to oust Qaddafi will only create a power vacuum which will escalate into chaos. Look at what is happening in Egypt and Tunisia at the moment. Even in Libya itself, the rebels are divided.  The only way western powers should help Africa to change its leaders is by either working the way Mo Ibrahim is doing (enticing African dictators to relinquish power) or, ensuring that structures and systems are put in place that can result in peaceful free and fair elections but not the use of force or hypocrisy.