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Gaddafi's future to be decided by leaders of the coalition forces
by Joseph Ernest March 29, 2011
Newscast Media LONDON, England-- Leaders for the coalition forces descended upon London to discuss life without Gaddafi in Libya, and what direction the country takes after the ousting of the embattled leader. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the conference that coalition military strikes would not stop until Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, fully complies with UN demands to end violence against civilians.
British Prime Minister David Cameron promised a brighter future for a Libya without Gaddafi.
"Today I believe should be about a new beginning for Libya - a future in which the people of Libya can determine their own destiny, free from violence and oppression, but the reason for being here today is that the Libyan people cannot reach that future on their own," Cameron said.
The delegates included foreign ministers from 35 countries, and seven Arab states, who are meeting in the British capital, along with secretary-generals of the UN, NATO and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. They have so far agreed to set up a contact group to coordinate all international action on Libya. The British Foreign Office says the first meeting of the group will be held in Qatar, though it is unclear when this would be. The African Union has been left out, this is partly because of its failure to resolve the Ivory Coast conflict, and it is therefore obvious that they would not be able to make any progress in a country as complex as Libya.
As for exile, British foreign minister William Hague said he wasn't "in control" as to where Gaddafi chose to flee in exile. In an interview with BBC, Hague said,"I'm not going to choose Colonel Gaddafi's retirement home. Where he goes, if he goes, is up to him and the people of Libya to determine and we will not necessarily be in control of that."
Gaddafi's Legacy - The Great Man-made River Project
One undeniable fact about Gaddafi is that he embarked on the most ambitious man-made project the world has ever seen: The Great Man-made River Project. It is considered the "Eighth Wonder" of the world, and involves availing fresh water to the arid country, by extracting it from underground aquifers beneath the Libyan terrain. Gaddafi never gets enough credit for this project that very few have even heard, but one has to give credit where credit is due.
When engineers went in search for oil fields in 1953 in the deserts of southern Libya, they stumbled across several oil reserves, and to their surprise, they also discovered fresh water in huge quantities beneath the earth's crust that was thousands of years old. Among the newly-discovered water basin were: The Kufra basin, lying in the south east, near the Egyptian border, the Sirt basin, the Murzuk basin, south of Jabal Fezzan, and the Hamadah and Jufrah basins, which extend from the Qargaf Arch and Jabal Sawda to the coast. The water pipes are four meters in diameter to allow evaporation.
The project started in August 1999 through September 2009. The pipes are designed to last 50 years, and each pipe has a unique identification mark, so if anything goes wrong, engineers can quickly establish when the pipe was made. The water is used for drinking and irrigation, and the government employed 70 percent of Libyans for the project at the initial phase, and by the end of the project, it was almost entirely native Libyans who brought the $20 billion project to completion.
Upon completion, Libya established itself as a world leader in hydrological engineering, and aims to export its expertise to other African and Middle-Eastern countries facing the same problems with their water. Below is a video of the undertaking.
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