The start of a new beginning in politics - week 7 - Romina Vanhove

Hello Everyone!

We ended up in Libya today… Although, our government has an advise against unnecessary travels to this country, we did choose to take a risk and visit it. Well, let’s just hope we won’t die.. (Haha!)

I can assure you that we are going to be very careful here in Tripoli. I think you already know that Libya recently was in a state of civil war. Official the war has ended on 20^th October 2011, but here and there, there still are some fights. We can’t help noticing these fights, certainly at night. During the day it is quite save here, but at night it’s better not to visit anything. Our government advices that we don’t change a lot of place in this country, because of the danger that lays ahead. 

In August 2011 the Gadaffi government has fallen, due to this civil war. Ever since then Libya has a Transitional National Council, you can call it an interim government. While visiting Tripoli we talked a guy that is 19 years. He told us that you have to be 18 years old to go voting, we said that in our country we have the same law. Normally in April there will be elections, he said. I think we can be glad that we are visiting Libya now, because I’m afraid that later on this year, the amount of riots will rise again due to the elections.

The war is never very far away, while traveling in this country you can see a lot of destroyed buildings and here and there you can see men with guns. If you want to know more about the economics or the culture (or what’s left of it) I suggest you read the blogs of Anou and Anneleen… They will tell you all about that!

So my time is up, I’m going to “enjoy” our moments in this country, but I will sure be glad to be back in a country without war. 

With love

Romina

Sources: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5425.htm
http://diplomatie.belgium.be/nl/Diensten/Op_reis_in_het_buitenland/reisadviezen/afrika/libie/ra_libie.jsp?referer=tcm:314-96119-64