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Libya's leader reveals the story behind his country's extraordinary transformation from a rogue state to "a key player in the war against terrorism."
In 2004, the international embargo and sanctions that had been imposed on Libya for more than a decade were lifted by the UN Security Council when Colonel Muammar Gadaffi announced that Libya would give up its nuclear weapons. Further, Gadaffi agreed to compensate the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing and the attack on the TWA flight that occurred in the late 1980s. This remarkable gesture showed Gaddafi's commitment to seeing Libya rejoin the international community. In the sprit of reconciliation, Prime Minister Tony Blair flew to Tripoli, declaring that Libya was now an ally in the fight against global terrorism. How is this reversal explained? Born from conversations between Gaddafi and political expert Edmond Jouve, this book retraces the Libyan leader's political and ideological journey.
219 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2005
23 people are currently reading
664 people want to read
About the author
Muammar Gaddafi
15 books235 followersمعمر القذافي
Muammar al-Gaddafi
معمر محمد أبو منيار القذافي
Muammar Al-Qaddafi
The de facto leader of Libya since 1969 although he hasn't got an official title he is often referred to as "Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" and "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution"
His policy is reffered to as an mix of Pan-Arabism and Islamic socialism. Although nowaday he calls for Pan-Africanism as well.
His politicial philosophy is outlined in his booklet the "Green Book"
On august 2008 Qaddafi has been titled Africa's king of kings by an council of 200 kings of Africa in Libya.
Muammar al-Gaddafi
معمر محمد أبو منيار القذافي
Muammar Al-Qaddafi
The de facto leader of Libya since 1969 although he hasn't got an official title he is often referred to as "Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" and "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution"
His policy is reffered to as an mix of Pan-Arabism and Islamic socialism. Although nowaday he calls for Pan-Africanism as well.
His politicial philosophy is outlined in his booklet the "Green Book"
On august 2008 Qaddafi has been titled Africa's king of kings by an council of 200 kings of Africa in Libya.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 19, 2020
The title could be misleading, Gaddafi did not write this book. The book is divided into multiple chapters, with the author discussing his interest on Africa, then Libya, his studies as a professor, how he visited Libya and interviewed Gaddafi. At the end, there is the green book, the green charter for human rights, African union declarations, and finally conversations with Gaddafi's daughter, Aïcha.
Interesting discussions as they give a deeper understanding of Gaddafi's motives and philosophy, and how he became a friend of us and Europe after being a pariah for so long (it's about money and interests, forget the human rights crap story the media served in 2003).
The book also shows how much integrity Gaddafi and his daughter had, something that couldn't be said about Gaddafi's killers.
Interesting discussions as they give a deeper understanding of Gaddafi's motives and philosophy, and how he became a friend of us and Europe after being a pariah for so long (it's about money and interests, forget the human rights crap story the media served in 2003).
The book also shows how much integrity Gaddafi and his daughter had, something that couldn't be said about Gaddafi's killers.
October 13, 2022
More of a brief biography and interview than an actual book by Gaddafi. There are several documents included in the end of the book. I would recommend "Escape to Hell" for more of a view into Gaddafi's thoughts. The Green Book is more of a political course of action.
April 6, 2024
"My Vision by Gaddafi, Muammar, Jouve, Edmond (2005) Hardcover" by Muammar Gaddafi is a bold and provocative manifesto that offers readers a glimpse into the mind of one of the most controversial and enigmatic leaders of the 20th century. Originally published in 1975, this book outlines Gaddafi's vision for Libya and his radical vision of political, social, and economic transformation.
What sets "My Vision" apart is its unapologetic idealism and uncompromising commitment to Gaddafi's vision of a utopian society governed by the principles of direct democracy and Islamic socialism. Drawing on a mix of Islamic teachings, Arab nationalism, and revolutionary socialism, Gaddafi presents a vision of a society free from the shackles of imperialism, capitalism, and traditional forms of governance.
Central to Gaddafi's vision is the concept of "Jamahiriya," or state of the masses, in which political power is decentralized and vested directly in the hands of the people through popular committees and people's congresses. He envisions a society in which citizens participate actively in the decision-making process and have a direct stake in the governance of their communities.
Moreover, "My Vision" offers a scathing critique of Western imperialism and neocolonialism, as well as traditional forms of authoritarian rule in the Arab world. Gaddafi advocates for a radical departure from these oppressive systems, calling for a revolution of the masses to overthrow the old order and establish a new social order based on justice, equality, and solidarity.
In addition to its political themes, "My Vision" also delves into Gaddafi's views on a wide range of topics, from economics and education to culture and foreign policy. He advocates for the nationalization of key industries, the redistribution of wealth, and the promotion of Arab and Islamic identity as a bulwark against Western hegemony.
However, while "My Vision" offers insights into Gaddafi's ideological worldview and his aspirations for Libya, it is also a controversial and polarizing work that has been widely criticized for its authoritarian tendencies and human rights abuses. Gaddafi's vision of a utopian society often clashed with the realities of political repression, corruption, and violence that characterized his regime.
Overall, "My Vision" is a thought-provoking and challenging read that offers valuable insights into the mind of Muammar Gaddafi and his vision for Libya and the Arab world. While his ideas may be controversial and divisive, they nonetheless provide a window into the complexities of power, ideology, and governance in the modern world.
What sets "My Vision" apart is its unapologetic idealism and uncompromising commitment to Gaddafi's vision of a utopian society governed by the principles of direct democracy and Islamic socialism. Drawing on a mix of Islamic teachings, Arab nationalism, and revolutionary socialism, Gaddafi presents a vision of a society free from the shackles of imperialism, capitalism, and traditional forms of governance.
Central to Gaddafi's vision is the concept of "Jamahiriya," or state of the masses, in which political power is decentralized and vested directly in the hands of the people through popular committees and people's congresses. He envisions a society in which citizens participate actively in the decision-making process and have a direct stake in the governance of their communities.
Moreover, "My Vision" offers a scathing critique of Western imperialism and neocolonialism, as well as traditional forms of authoritarian rule in the Arab world. Gaddafi advocates for a radical departure from these oppressive systems, calling for a revolution of the masses to overthrow the old order and establish a new social order based on justice, equality, and solidarity.
In addition to its political themes, "My Vision" also delves into Gaddafi's views on a wide range of topics, from economics and education to culture and foreign policy. He advocates for the nationalization of key industries, the redistribution of wealth, and the promotion of Arab and Islamic identity as a bulwark against Western hegemony.
However, while "My Vision" offers insights into Gaddafi's ideological worldview and his aspirations for Libya, it is also a controversial and polarizing work that has been widely criticized for its authoritarian tendencies and human rights abuses. Gaddafi's vision of a utopian society often clashed with the realities of political repression, corruption, and violence that characterized his regime.
Overall, "My Vision" is a thought-provoking and challenging read that offers valuable insights into the mind of Muammar Gaddafi and his vision for Libya and the Arab world. While his ideas may be controversial and divisive, they nonetheless provide a window into the complexities of power, ideology, and governance in the modern world.
November 20, 2022
This book has been sitting on my shelf for quite a few years. I picked it up on the street in Kano, where the extremely long red traffic lights are perfect for ambulatory booksellers. My interest in Gaddafi (I'm using the spelling of this book) spans several decades. My dearly departed brother Jack advised his family, and i was priveleged to hear some incredible first hand accounts of his meetings with The Guide. I believe, had he done so, Jack would have written a better book than Edmond Jouve; but he didn't. Jouve, a French academic, had the good fortune to meet and interview the Libyan leader on more than one occasion, and presents the Colonel's complicated but well-considered thoughts on everything from communism and capitalism to African unity and equality of the sexes.
Annexes include Gaddafi's Green Book - his guide for society, as well as an interview with his daughter Aïcha.
It would be quite a stretch to say that I agreed or even understood some of Gaddafi's thinking, but it has been clear to me for a long time, and this book only helped to solidify these thoughts, that Gaddafi was ahead of his time, and his brutal honesty was too much for most, including those on the traditional left as well as those on the traditional right. Niether Washington nor Riyadh wanted Libya to succeed. Former AU commissioner Jean Ping's Fallait-il tue Kadhafi sheds more light on why, even after the Libyan leader had come around to appeasing the West, the Americans still wanted him dead. Dead men can't talk.
Annexes include Gaddafi's Green Book - his guide for society, as well as an interview with his daughter Aïcha.
It would be quite a stretch to say that I agreed or even understood some of Gaddafi's thinking, but it has been clear to me for a long time, and this book only helped to solidify these thoughts, that Gaddafi was ahead of his time, and his brutal honesty was too much for most, including those on the traditional left as well as those on the traditional right. Niether Washington nor Riyadh wanted Libya to succeed. Former AU commissioner Jean Ping's Fallait-il tue Kadhafi sheds more light on why, even after the Libyan leader had come around to appeasing the West, the Americans still wanted him dead. Dead men can't talk.
March 17, 2024
Gaddafi grew up living with his extended family including his parents and 60 or so cousins, uncles and aunts spread over four generations from forefathers to children. Gaddafi contrasts this way of life with the ‘dislocation of the families which is at the root of the crisis in industrialist society’. Interestingly, in ‘Manufacturing Consent’ by Hermann and Chomsky, the authors quote ‘Harvard professor and government adviser Samuel Huntington’ with reference to US strategy in the Vietnam war saying that the answer to wars of ‘national liberation’ is the ‘forced draft urbanization and mobilization...to produce a massive migration from countryside to city, this undercutting the... strategy of organising the peasant population’. The peasant population in the countryside at that time usually being related by blood, being extended family, clan or tribe.
Gaddafi likened Jew and Arab to ‘cousins’ as both had descended from Abraham and had lived together peacefully coexisting for thousands of years in the region. Referencing the European Jews who relocated to what was Palestine and now named Israel after being persecuted in Europe, Gaddafi said that the incompatibility derived from the ‘productivity inspired by European and American norms on one hand, and the management of time by the family or tribe on the other. It was not a question of beliefs but of the gulf which existed between the thousand-year-old customs and the frenzied life of the Western world’. Concepts such as being ‘industrialised’, focused on ‘immediate profitability’ and viewing ‘time as money’ as opposed to ‘giving someone time as a way of loving’ were perceived as being incompatible in Gaddafi’s view.
Gaddafi believed that that he had been ‘chosen by a higher authority’ as his destiny had been too exceptional. He said that ‘religion is a springboard to move forward. To exchange knowledge, to do favours, to provide mutual support and help’. As a Muslim, he regarded war as being the work of Iblis, the spirit of Evil, who enjoyed stirring up ill feeling between individuals. He also believed in the ‘existence of spirits with supernatural powers’.
In 2000, after a visit from a sage who reminded him of his Sufi uncle, Gaddafi expressed his wish to dismantle his entire programme of armaments including biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, under international supervision.
‘For a certain length of time {Gaddafi gave] aid to liberation movements: the IRA, African militias, SWAPO in Namibia, the ANC in South Africa and others’.
‘Gaddafi asked the UN for a special session of the General Assembly so that the world could agree on what was meant by terrorism and stamp it out so that we could live in a world without terrorism, a peaceful, cooperative and stable world, where humanity could live as one big family. But the suggestion was not taken up’.
Gaddafi considered women to be oppressed, in ‘Oriental societies as goods to be bought and sold for pleasure’ and in the West ‘transformed into merchandise, regarded as a means of production’. His daughter Aicha said ‘my father, alone among Arab leaders wanted to give women the equivalent status to that of men. If Libya was attacked, I would be capable of defending my country’.
‘Once the people have been armed, once governments and regular armies have disappeared, international peace and stability will reign. There will be no more Napolean to order armies to cross frontiers and attack other countries. There will be no more professional armies carrying out orders in return for wages’.
Gaddafi also talks about the wage earner as a type of ‘slave to a master who pays him’ and how ‘man’s freedom is lacking if somebody else controls what he needs’. In Libya at the time of Gaddafi there was free healthcare, free education and no rent paid on housing as accommodation was a necessity and so belonged to whoever lived there. According to Gaddafi there were no wage earners under his guidance, but members of the society were considered ‘partners’ as Libya was socialist by design. He wrote The Green Book as his solution to the problem of democracy.
Gaddafi gives a brief history of slavery in all different nations and feels that ‘Black people are consumed by a visceral hatred towards those who subjugated them throughout the preceding centuries. They seek vengeance’. He also says that ‘considering America is an imperialist power and treating her as such does not signify that Americans are by nature evil: they are merely conditioned by that stage in history which their country has reached’.
Gaddafi believed in the possibility of linking the whole of Africa with the same network of water and considered his greatest acheievement the Artificial River which enabled Tripoli to receive drinking water from the groundwater from the south of the Sahara.
In 'Psychic Discoveries, The Iron Curtain Lifted', by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, it states that the US Project Stargate employed psychics to hunt down Gaddafi when a NATO military intervention got involved with Libya. The Guardian reports in ‘Libya: Another neocon war’ by David Swanson that...
According to a Russian article titled 'Bombing of Libya – Punishment for Gaddafi for His Attempt to Refuse US Dollar', Gaddafi made a similarly bold move: he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar. Gaddafi suggested establishing a united African continent, with its 200 million people using this single currency. During the past year, the idea was approved by many Arab countries and most African countries. The only opponents were the Republic of South Africa and the head of the League of Arab States. The initiative was viewed negatively by the US and the European Union, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy calling Libya a threat to the financial security of mankind; but Gaddafi was not swayed and continued his push for the creation of a united Africa. […] If the Gaddafi government goes down, it will be interesting to watch whether the new central bank [created by the rebels in March] joins the BIS, whether the nationalised oil industry gets sold off to investors, and whether education and healthcare continue to be free."
Gaddafi likened Jew and Arab to ‘cousins’ as both had descended from Abraham and had lived together peacefully coexisting for thousands of years in the region. Referencing the European Jews who relocated to what was Palestine and now named Israel after being persecuted in Europe, Gaddafi said that the incompatibility derived from the ‘productivity inspired by European and American norms on one hand, and the management of time by the family or tribe on the other. It was not a question of beliefs but of the gulf which existed between the thousand-year-old customs and the frenzied life of the Western world’. Concepts such as being ‘industrialised’, focused on ‘immediate profitability’ and viewing ‘time as money’ as opposed to ‘giving someone time as a way of loving’ were perceived as being incompatible in Gaddafi’s view.
Gaddafi believed that that he had been ‘chosen by a higher authority’ as his destiny had been too exceptional. He said that ‘religion is a springboard to move forward. To exchange knowledge, to do favours, to provide mutual support and help’. As a Muslim, he regarded war as being the work of Iblis, the spirit of Evil, who enjoyed stirring up ill feeling between individuals. He also believed in the ‘existence of spirits with supernatural powers’.
In 2000, after a visit from a sage who reminded him of his Sufi uncle, Gaddafi expressed his wish to dismantle his entire programme of armaments including biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, under international supervision.
‘For a certain length of time {Gaddafi gave] aid to liberation movements: the IRA, African militias, SWAPO in Namibia, the ANC in South Africa and others’.
‘Gaddafi asked the UN for a special session of the General Assembly so that the world could agree on what was meant by terrorism and stamp it out so that we could live in a world without terrorism, a peaceful, cooperative and stable world, where humanity could live as one big family. But the suggestion was not taken up’.
Gaddafi considered women to be oppressed, in ‘Oriental societies as goods to be bought and sold for pleasure’ and in the West ‘transformed into merchandise, regarded as a means of production’. His daughter Aicha said ‘my father, alone among Arab leaders wanted to give women the equivalent status to that of men. If Libya was attacked, I would be capable of defending my country’.
‘Once the people have been armed, once governments and regular armies have disappeared, international peace and stability will reign. There will be no more Napolean to order armies to cross frontiers and attack other countries. There will be no more professional armies carrying out orders in return for wages’.
Gaddafi also talks about the wage earner as a type of ‘slave to a master who pays him’ and how ‘man’s freedom is lacking if somebody else controls what he needs’. In Libya at the time of Gaddafi there was free healthcare, free education and no rent paid on housing as accommodation was a necessity and so belonged to whoever lived there. According to Gaddafi there were no wage earners under his guidance, but members of the society were considered ‘partners’ as Libya was socialist by design. He wrote The Green Book as his solution to the problem of democracy.
Gaddafi gives a brief history of slavery in all different nations and feels that ‘Black people are consumed by a visceral hatred towards those who subjugated them throughout the preceding centuries. They seek vengeance’. He also says that ‘considering America is an imperialist power and treating her as such does not signify that Americans are by nature evil: they are merely conditioned by that stage in history which their country has reached’.
Gaddafi believed in the possibility of linking the whole of Africa with the same network of water and considered his greatest acheievement the Artificial River which enabled Tripoli to receive drinking water from the groundwater from the south of the Sahara.
In 'Psychic Discoveries, The Iron Curtain Lifted', by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, it states that the US Project Stargate employed psychics to hunt down Gaddafi when a NATO military intervention got involved with Libya. The Guardian reports in ‘Libya: Another neocon war’ by David Swanson that...
According to a Russian article titled 'Bombing of Libya – Punishment for Gaddafi for His Attempt to Refuse US Dollar', Gaddafi made a similarly bold move: he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar. Gaddafi suggested establishing a united African continent, with its 200 million people using this single currency. During the past year, the idea was approved by many Arab countries and most African countries. The only opponents were the Republic of South Africa and the head of the League of Arab States. The initiative was viewed negatively by the US and the European Union, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy calling Libya a threat to the financial security of mankind; but Gaddafi was not swayed and continued his push for the creation of a united Africa. […] If the Gaddafi government goes down, it will be interesting to watch whether the new central bank [created by the rebels in March] joins the BIS, whether the nationalised oil industry gets sold off to investors, and whether education and healthcare continue to be free."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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June 19, 2017Interesting..He is a great patriot and visionary.
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February 21, 2019I have been looking for this book for quite long time; but finally got it.
thanks alot :)
thanks alot :)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews