Tripoli stories

In case you missed them or are curious, here are a few stories we did in Libya.

Libya part 2

I suppose I do have a unique job. Just last March I left Benghazi under the cover of darkness and headed for the safety of the Egyptian Libyan border. I'm now making my way back to Tunisia then on to Beijing having spent the last week and and bit in Tripoli. My how things have changed. The majority of people in Libya are now free to speak openly about the oppression that they have faced over the last 42 years. In March, when things could have go either way people were hesitate to give us their full names. Now people are over joyed that they can speak their opinion, give there name, and not face the torture at the hands of a truly bizarre character.

While in the Gaddafi compound that was heavy damaged and looted, many people were busy trying to salvage anything they could. Some just wanted to see inside. It was truly a pleasure to see people literally jumping for joy at the departure of a Tyrant. It was also heartbreaking to see the spot where more than a hundred bodies were discovered burned and locked in a shed. A few escaped, but most didn't and were burned beyond recognition. Truly the act of cowards and mad men. I guess they believe that the dead tell no tells. I guess we will have to wait and see. Even after the bodies had been removed, the smell is something that lingers. Not something I will soon forget.

What's next for Libya now is the hard part. Putting down the guns, putting aside differences and shaping Libya into what could be a leading African country. What ever happens to Gaddafi now will be anti climatic. He may go down fighting, be captured alive, take his own life, who knows? Many Libyans I have meet would like to see him placed in a cage and put on display. Left to bake or rot in the sun down by the port, or hung from Green Square. Most want to see him humiliated as he has humiliated them for the last 42 years. Death they say would be to easy for him.

Of the 50.000 deaths that are spoken of by CNN and others, most Libyans say that is the tax, the price they have to pay for freedom. It's a heavy price. Something I don't think most Canadians could ever get there head around. One gentleman I meet put it this way. "We use to be embarrassed to say we are from Libya, but now I'm proud to call myself Libyan. We may not have much, no food, no water, no money, but now we are free."