I'm back !!!!!

So much has happened .......

Still alive in Libya on my 10th anniversary

Thank you all that still read me for sending emails. I am well just very busy surviving in Libya post Freedom. It's very hard trust me and very confusing. I will try to update but no promises there is  just so much stuff going on.

I do miss my blog , ten years and 2 months ago I started blogging. Cannot believe the time has passed so fast.

H

From 2011 to 2013

This is what I wrote in February 2011.

"I am terrified that when all the ashes from the uprisings that are consuming us settle down we become blinded by the celebratory mood and find ourselves having exchanged one agenda for another whose nature would be like an octopus: soft but with many slippery tentacles.This is not me being a conspiracy theorist, but those familiar with my writing know that I am a big fan of the Realism school in international relations where national interest and security reign king probably with large dollops of personal interest ( that's my addition to the theory :P ).
I don't want to dampen anyone's euphoria but I'm afraid that we will rush in where angels fear to thread. Everybody is feverishly planning and we should not be caught unaware. So to all those involved in state building or re-building; can you please watch out for the wolves in lamb clothes." [source]

 What do you think ? how does it look with hindsight?

Travel advice to Libya: catastrophic

The latest travel advice to Libya makes even me who live there to be scared to travel in Libya

"We advise against all but essential travel to Tripoli, Zuwara, Az Zawiya, al Khums, Zlitan and Misrata, and the coastal towns from Ras Lanuf to the Egyptian Border, with the exception of Benghazi. We advise against all travel to all other areas of Libya, including Benghazi."

You can read the rest here . 

The current situation in Libya

One very smart young lady who had to flee Libya AFTER it became free has summarized the situation superbly well for us.

"while fighting each other and calling each other Jerdan & Tahaleb, (the crocodiles-Islamist) were so busy in organizing their selves, attacking cities or kidnapping people and call them Tahaleb so Rats will celebrate their achievement, and now the Crocodiles are dominating Libya, not because Libyans voted for them, but because they have weapons, in Libya now the power for the people who have weapons , thus there is no democracy, it is chaos" [source]


I urge you to read her post if you want to know what happened after we had been declared a liberated land.

My friend Iraqispirit once said back in November 2011 but you are now a country where extremist  will run free; and I told him no Libyans are not like that we do abhor fundamentalists and do not want dictatorships especially of the religious theocracy kind. But I sincerely believe given all the manipulations, egos, selfishness shown by many Libyans especially those who have been dreaming for decades to get to power that we are on the brink of the Islamic Emirate of Libyastan with the world's blessing and help as long as oil flows....I can't blame anyone but Libyan complacency. Any one trying to stop this train is being pushed under the railway tracks.

I endured 40 years of Gaddafi and did not want to leave my country, I did not want to be  a refugee during the war and now it breaks my heart that I may have to consider the option of leaving because I may not have another 40 years to live and wait for better times. It will be so unlike Highlander to do so but trust me it is easier to reason with Gaddafi it seems then with the new masters :)

Hoping 2013 will make the great promise glimpsed at the end of 2011 true

Signing off
Highlander

Decades of Missing Libyans and History

Now that Gaddafi is gone we are free at last to probe for all our missing and to ask questions about numerous panes of Libyan modern history shrouded in mystery because of decades of gagging by the dictator. Since Gaddafi took power Libyans took part in at least 3 conflicts at his orders : Egypt 1977, Uganda 1978, Chad 1980-1987.

The information about how many died, disappeared and were wounded is non-existent, anything Libyans know is hearsay from survivors and a few deserters who made to CIA headquarters in the US. I bet the CIA knows more than us.

These 3 wars need to be recorded and thought in schools as they directly affected generations of Libyans psychologically and sociologically. The Chad war has especially affected family make up and prospects in Libya making a generation of Libyan females unable to find partners.

To add to these 3 conflicts Libyans have been missing in action in Iraq after the US invasion, in Lebanon during the civil war, in Afghanistan since the fight to oust the Russians and now in the Syrian insurgency against Bashar Assad.

There are thousands of Libyans missing for their activism of whatever form against the Gaddafi region as well.

Recently we have to account for the Libyans missing and dead during the 2011 conflict in Libya and post conflict violence.

I'm hoping this project can help, and I'm hoping someone will get on with writing our history before it is lost.

We deserve answers, we deserve to know where are our friends, family and loved ones. We had so much trauma and still have it and we deserve closure - we still don't have closure even after Gaddafi's death.

Obama's second term and the "Arab Spring"

Many non Americans sighed with relief today when they woke up to the news of Obama's reelection; it's because of the 'devil you know' syndrome :P mostly I believe.

My opinion has not really changed. The Arab world also followed the elections because of the foreign policy.

I do hope that Obama will get Israel  to finally commit to something positive and tangible but I believe this will not happen.

However, now that he does not have to worry about elections the testing ground should be Syria. I can't believe no one is being able to twist Russia'a and China's arms at the UNSC. There is something totally wrong about having allowed a proxy war in Syria. At least 40,000 have died since last year and there a senseless destruction going which I have never seen anywhere else in the world not even Iraq or Lebanon.

The country is on its knees and that just smells of a conspiracy theory to me. It just does not make sense.

Why YES for Libya and NO for Syria, Bahrain and Yemen? what's the difference ?


UPDATE 18-11-2012 :  I am always right :P

Obama: 'Israel has right to defend itself' [ref]