Global conversations
Today is International Women’s Day – a day to celebrate women and their achievements. It is also opportunity to reflect on what more can be done to empower them, so that girls and women across the world are able to enjoy the same political freedoms, economic opportunities and fundamental individual rights as boys and men. This year’s celebration is particularly poignant for the women of Libya. The last twelve months … Read more »Celebrating the women of Libya
Last weekend the British Embassy in Tripoli organised for Pavol Demes, a renowned civil society activist from Slovakia, to visit Libya. In case you’re wondering what the connection is between Slovakia and Libya, it turns out there are several – both have small populations (Slovakia about 5 milllion; Libya about 6 million), both experienced forty years of one-party, dictatorial rule (the Slovaks under Communism; the Libyans under Qadhafi and his … Read more »Learning from Slovakia: creating a strong civil society in Libya
Last Friday marked one year since the start of the Libyan revolution. It was impossible to forget the date: for the last six months I – and many proud Libyans and other enthusiastic foreigners inspired by events in Libya – have been wearing a red, black and green bracelet with 17 February written across it. Nobody knew quite what to expect from the first anniversary. Some people were nervous that … Read more »Lift your head up high, you are a free Libyan
Although I was only nine at the time, I remember the Lockerbie bombing very well. My bedtime was eight thirty pm but by that time on 21st December 1988, reports had begun to break of an airliner that had come down over southern Scotland. The ten o’clock news came around and I suppose the whole nation tuned in along with my parents and me but it wasn’t until the next … Read more »Truth and Reconciliation
Last week I organized the visit to Tripoli of our Minister for the Middle East. The second day of the programme was thrown off course when a demonstration in the centre of town snarled up the traffic. Thousands of people had gathered to protest against the militias. These groups of young men defy easy categorization. They are mostly brigades of revolutionary fighters associated with a particular commander or region. Some … Read more »Turning Swords into Ploughshares
Guest blog by Karen McLuskie, Political Officer at the Embassy. I arrived at our Embassy in Tripoli last week and the last thing I expected to be doing with my first afternoon was dancing at a St Andrew’s day celidh. With fifty men and only a handful of women to make up the sets, my dance card had been marked before my plane arrived and my mutterings about getting down to … Read more »Libyan Smeddum