Oh my Libya

So I happen to be in Khoms, Libya, which seems to have surprised at least a few of my friends. So, uh, sorry. When I get back post Thanksgiving, I expect to be posting photos of said trip to Tunisia, Libya, and Greece, but for now we will all have to be content with second hand knowledge that I have garnered in my brief stay here.

I confess that I'm somewhat of an idiot when it comes to international activities. Like everyone else, I watch the news at night and get a feel for general large catastrophes, etc, and at some point I took a "History of the Middle East" class, wherein I learned tons of stuff about the Arab/Muslim world and then promptly forgot it. So though I knew that Libya was not on good terms with the US, I was hard pressed to explain why. I'm not really going to get into it here because books have been written on the subject, but for those of you who don't know, Omar Khadafi is and has been, the ruler of Libya since sometime in the 60s. He has written something called "The Green Book", which is a book of philosophies similar to one written by Mao Tze Tung. At any rate, he considers Libya to be one of the few truly democratic nations in the world. Whether or not you agree with this depends on whether or not you live in Libya. I highly suggest you google the man because I certainly don't have time to go into everything, but, like any dictator in history, he has imposed many restrictions and rules on his country. For example, it is illegal to put any other language on signs except for Arabic. Only recently was this lifted for tourist oriented locations only. In fact, in the 80s he made it illegal to teach any foreign language in Libya. As a result, anyone 40 and up is fluent in at least one language in addition to Arabic. Anyone in their 20s and younger is learning it. Anyone in their 30s speaks and reads only Arabic.

Ironically, Khadafi recently decided that tourism is the heart and soul of his country. So overnight the country opened up to the US (in 1997 I think). 2 years ago the sanctions were lifted and now the US has a "liaison office" here, but no embassy. Khadafi is frightened of corrupting the country with foreigners, even though Italy has had oil companies here for decades, but I digress. Turns out Libyans love Americans, loathe America. Big surprise, there. They blame America and the embargo placed on them by the US for the stagnation of their country. Of course, it was Libya's involvement in various international terrorist activities that prompted this embargo, but nobody asked me so I don't say anything. Women here most definitely still where the burka and I was instructed that wearing a t-shirt is fine, as long as I cover myself for the most part. When in Tripoli, I chose to wear jeans and long sleeved shirt, and still got tons and tons of stares, though everyone was polite when I spoke to them.

I'll write more when time permits, but I leave you with this idea: Libya has some of the most breathtaking ruins I have ever seen. North Africa was the Roman bread basket for centuries. There were tons of cities here that flourished because of trade and some that were buried and preserved by sand that have now been excavated. Except for the Coliseum, things I have seen here have smoked the ruins I have seen in other countries. I give you Lepcis Magna: http://www.alnpete.co.uk/lepcis/ Hooooooooly crap. I spent a few hours clambering all over that ruin today and woah. WOAH. I have many photos that I'll put up slowly if I'm not too lazy when I get back to the US. I have seen three amphitheaters already that were breathtaking. THREE. Eat that, Rome.