Thoughts from abroad (Libya)

Been working in Tripoli, Libya these last few days.  It’s now Saturday morning as I write; the “Day of Rage” was scheduled for Thursday.  We have internet here with Facebook and Twitter et al.  The net is painfully slow by UK broadband standards and can be badly affected by sandstorms and other weather.  We also get BBC World and the like on the TV.  We have been using these media and local intel to monitor the situation as we need to be particularly careful about where we go and what we’re seen to be doing.  So we have been following the FCO advice; ‘stay away from all political gatherings and the like”.

We stay in Tripoli but in a “quiet” suburb some distance from the town centre where all the activity and expected activity takes place.

The news from the East in Benghazi has been a little unsettling, but, as reported by BBC and Al Jazeera, this region does not have a lot of love for the current regime.  All the street activity so far in Tripoli has been, reportedly, pro-government, and, as far as we are aware, there has been no conflict.  Twitter and Facebook, however, has been far more alarmist, but some of the sources are clearly trying to stir up things with false rumours. This limited and unconfirmed reporting is pretty unsettling, especially as the headline item in the main news agencies on TV is the deaths and violence in Libya.  This cannot be good reading for our family and friends back home. 

Yesterday, for a period, nothing worked, no phones, no internet.  Was it the weather or was it the authorities? We don’t know, but I can tell you it wasn’t a nice period.  Things came back on fairly soon thereafter, but went partly down again late last night.  Watching TV, the BBC and Al Jazeera world channels it is obvious that they cannot get good reliable reports from here, which in itself is unsettling.  Last night Twitter and Facebook went down, but are back today.

It’s Saturday lunchtime now, still the weekend for most Libyans, we wait to see what the day brings.