Blasting the wall of fear and silence in Libya!

Though Libyans had broken the wall of fear since the first week into the February revolution it is the images of the Libyan people flooding into Bab Al Aziziya barracks and the images of Tripoli residents celebrating in Martyrs' Square (which Gaddafi had rechristened Green Square) that has reinforced the message and finally reassured us that Gaddafi and his regime are down and that Libya has turned a new page.

Along with the wall of fear we are blasting the wall of silence and you know what it is not easy. The fear that wielded silence would prevent us from saying our true opinions except with a trusted number of people no matter what, because any mistake was not only costly to the person who made it but would incur punishment in one form or another on the whole family, and you don't want to be the person to cause that. That was a big part of the fear: hurting others.

I cannot predict how long we can talk freely in Libya and I don't want to be pessimistic, at least not just yet when freedom has been tasted but at least I am sure that we can now talk about the Gaddafi era without the fear of retribution and that in itself is a relief. Which is why I will grab this window of opportunity and take you back to December 2010...

When the riots in Tunis began, I dismissed them as the usual protest that our Tunisian neighbours took too when life gets too difficult, bread, price rise etc… I knew that they have problems because many Tunisians were working in Libya but that they also like to shop here in Tripoli because prices of commodities and merchandise was cheaper. I always wondered how come they could protest against these economic woes without being harassed by the government or without loss of life and praised their courage. But once the turn of events took a dramatic pattern I understood that the Jasmine Revolution was not your run of the mill food riot. I was getting worried about friends there and wondered if Tunisia could descend into warfare and how would this affect Libya?

Then the protest related to housing started in Libya in January and we wondered if that was going to be the spark and how would Gaddafi deal with it ? Well the government did deal with it and outwardly it felt like everything was still business as usual in the Arab world until Saturday 15th January.

I was meeting a business acquaintance for a coffee at one of the new hip restaurants in Tripoli and as we settled down after ordering, he asked me: "what do you think about Zein El Abidin leaving Tunis?", " when did that happen? I was very surprised; apparently the day before Zein had ran away to Saudi Arabia. Though I'd been following the Tunisian revolt, I missed that one important day because I had a social engagement and of course Libyan socializing is famous for being long. I was a bit embarrassed I think for being caught clueless but I found a nice reply. "Sorry, I don't really follow the news anymore, but hey this is much unexpected!" and I changed the subject. It was a bit suspicious to me this question out of the blue, and he seemed well connected so maybe he was not what he projected himself to be? ( remember fear and silence :P).

Zein was followed by Mubarak and the Libyans were ecstatic sending each other jokes and email memes about this and thinking deep down or loudly with trusted people if it could happen in Libya.

I remember a sister in law telling us one evening how she read on a web forum about someone vowing to hang Gaddafi in the Green Square, with a green rope, wearing green clothes and all I could think about is I hope she did not participate in the forum and put her life in danger especially she was using my ISP :P

Then we all saw the calls on Facebook for a day of anger in Libya on February 17 and another one for March 2. To be honest I preferred the March 2 date so that it would have a positive association for all Libyans. I was wondering how it was going to start ? We felt it was brewing for too long and the opposition has been too active lately so something was going to give and knowing Libya and Gaddafi it was going to be brutal.

It began two days earlier than planned on February 15 in Benghazi the fire did not stop there but caught on to the rest of Libya by February 16 the first martyr in the west of Libya had already fallen. and on February 16 I can confirm that protests did take place in Tripoli, I know because I was there and was trying to find a way to get home from a side street. At the same time there were pro-government rallies downtown.

So I knew these were going to be painful but exciting times ahead.

The next day February 17, I was getting my car out of the garage to go to work, it was still dark outside and I could hear voices and see neighbours coming out of the mosque across the street from the morning prayer and as I reversed the car out the headlight caught something scrawled on our wall. I was so scared that I stopped in the middle of the road, I was wondering why where the neighbours not paying any attention and I realised that either they had not seen it because it was dark or that they were purposedly ignoring it :P.

The large graffiti on the wall said in Arabic "Down with Moammar Gaddafi " it was the same on the house to our left and on the building opposite our house. Never before have I seen in Libya anyone dare to do such as thing - seeing it like this in my own street meant for me that really the fear and the silence has been broken down in Libya. I felt scared that Gaddafi's people would see it and harm us, I was sure that other areas in Tripoli had their own talking walls. The atmosphere was really electric.

On my drive into town I decided to check the TV/Radio station it was my barometer for seriousness of situation in Tripoli. As expected the military and anti- aircraft weapons were stationed there already.

As the day unfolded there were a number of anti government demonstration in some parts of Tripoli and notably near the courthouse, again I was planning which route to take back home.

Internet still worked normally on February 17 in Tripoli.

End of Part I