It’s been over a month since my last update!
At the end of May, I had my first rest and recuperation
break and got to spend 10 days in New York, which was fantastic. It was wonderful to spend time with Charlie
and the kids without working. There were
many highlights from the trip. Being
able to cheer Sho at his last soccer game of the season was one of them. The team needed to win by 2 points or more in
order to advance to the next level in the league. I was jumping up and down when Sho scored two
goals in a row in the first half. The
team worked amazingly well together and ended up winning 5-1! I also got to accompany Saya on her school
field trip to a gymnastics place. It was
wonderful to see Saya and her friends tumbling around and having a great
time. Charlie and I also celebrated our
15-year anniversary! We had a wonderful
day, full of celebration, which included a picnic by the Hudson and a very nice
dinner. I also managed to catch up with
some friends – thanks to all of you who came out for drinks.
This time around, it was much harder for me to say goodbye
to Charlie and the kids. I think it was
because I had just spent 10 days with them without having to worry about
work. The kids on the other hand, did
remarkably well saying goodbye to me.
Actually, it was helped by the fact that they had a major
distraction. My oldest brother, Aki, had
a business trip to New York from Japan, and by coincidence, he arrived the day
that I was departing, in the same terminal at JFK. We greeted him, had lunch together at JFK,
then I took off. The kids love their
uncle, so they were very excited to see him, which made for a really nice
distraction. It was still super hard for
me though. : (
On to Libya! As many
of you may know, elections for the National Congress will be held on 7 July. There
will be 200 seats. There are 2,500
candidates running for the 120 seats reserved for individuals, and over 1,200
running for the 80 seats for political entities. Of the over 600 female candidates, most are
running with political entities, as the entities are required to alternate male and
female candidates in their list. The campaign
period for the elections officially kicked off on 18 June, and we started to
notice campaign posters in town. I’m
hoping to attend an event in support of women candidates on Monday. It has been remarkable to see how the Libyan
electoral commission has managed to organize these elections well, despite the
fact that the country has not really experienced democratic elections. The mood seems to be cautiously
optimistic.
On the other hand, there have been increasing tensions. A number of local conflicts flared up in the
last few weeks. These conflicts were mostly between some towns
and minority communities, many of them accused of being pro-Qadhafi. While the central government generally has
the will to intervene, it often does not have enough capacity to do so
effectively. Another worrying trend has
been an increase in attacks against international presence, particularly in the
East.
 |
| Outdoor dining with view of the arch and mosque |
Despite all of this, in Tripoli, life continues to feel
fairly normal. In the last few weeks, I
went out to dinner with colleagues a couple of times. The first was to celebrate a colleague’s
birthday. We went to a beautiful
restaurant by the Marcus Aurelius Arch (a Roman ruin in the Old City). We ate outside, with the view of both the
arch and a nearby mosque beautifully lit up.
They also had live jazz music. It
all felt a bit surreal to me, to be enjoying dinner in such beautiful
surroundings – this certainly wasn’t what I expected when I first came to
Tripoli. The second dinner was also in
the Old City, in a boutique hotel with traditional furnishings. The decoration and ambiance were very nice. This
was a Thursday night (which is the evening before the weekend), and on the way
back, we saw many families enjoying picnic dinners on lawns, taking strolls and
having fun at a seasonal amusement park.
All of it felt so ‘normal’.
 |
| Workshop participants |
Yesterday, I attended an all-day civil society workshop in
Zuwarah, in the West. I had actually
visited this town back in April, shortly after I arrived. One of the participants recognized me from
that earlier trip and came up to say hello to me. The
workshop was organized by our Human Rights section, and the goal was to help
civil society groups organize themselves and identify priority projects to work
on. It was a really inspiring
occasion. There were about 50
participants, and about 90% of them were women.
The issues they were dealing with included children’s rights, rights of
the disabled, women’s rights, torture, peace and reconciliation etc.
 |
| Poster calling for religious tolerance |
One group of women represented family members of ‘martyrs’
(those who died in the conflict last year) calling for a proper justice system
and an end to torture in detention centers.
Through an interpreter, I spoke to one of the women. She had lost her son last yeare He had been tortured and killed. Later, she found out that the man responsible
for her son’s death was in the hospital and that he was being beaten up by a
vengeful group of men. She intervened to
stop the beatings, and is advocating justice through legal means. She told me that she could not forgive, but
she did not believe in vengeance. I was
in awe of this woman, who calmly spoke to me about the importance of a
functioning justice system, and how torture was wrong, no matter who the perpetrators or victims.
Throughout the workshop, there was a buzzing energy. The enthusiasm of the participants was
infectious and it gave me huge optimism.
I couldn’t help but think, ‘This is what it’s all about’. That this is where change is happening and
how this society will be rebuilt. It
felt so much more tangible than any of the ministerial level meetings that I
have attended in Tripoli.
That’s it for now. I
hope to update sooner next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment