In July 2004, the World Constitution and Parliament Association
organized and led a delegation of leaders of U.S. NGOs to Libya
These are 11 more photos from that trip.
We were put up in a five star hotel run by the
Revolutionary Committees Movement (who were our hosts). This is the
view of Tripoli from the balcony of my room.
We had several round table discussions with members of the
RCM -- about terrorism, about U.S. foreign policy and the international
situation, about the nature of democracy, etc. Our hosts were
very anxious for us to understand the important idea of "direct democracy"
as it exists in Libya.
Another of our discussions, which were intelligent,
courteous, well-informed, and lively.
One of the paintings on the wall of the discussion room was
this symbolic one of the Leader's young daughter who was killed by the
U.S. bombing raid on their country in which the attempt was made to kill
the Leader himself. The Leader, M. Quadaffi, is considered to
be the father of their democracy and a person of great wisdom and concern
for his people. Later we visited the building in the
Leader's Compound in Tripoli where the surprise bombing raid took place
and saw the room where this child was sleeping at the time. The building
has been preserved as a monument to U.S. aggression. No cameras were
allowed inside the Compound. We made a group statement,
shown on Libyan TV, about our reaction to seeing the bombed out building.
Traditional Libyan dancers at a lovely seaside restaurant
where we were treated to a wonderful dinner. No alcoholic
beverages are available in Libya. There is no drinking and
carousing as found in western bars, nightclubs, and restaurants.
There are no half naked dancing girls. The Libyans are a mature,
serious, Moslem and Arab people. Yet they have a wonderful sense of
humor and sense of fun as well.
Our Libyan hosts and delegation members at the long table
set up for our excellent meal on the veranda of this restaurant by the
Mediterranean Sea. Some couples were dancing on the veranda to
the music of the trio who played that evening.
We drove 70 kilometers to visit the nearest substation of
the great water project. This project, recently completed, was
another product of the genius and vision of the Leader. It is
one of the engineering marvels of the world bringing water to the coast
many kilometers across the desert, drawn from huge under Earth aquifers in
the south. Here we are treated to a Power Point presentation
about the Great Water Project.
Here we visited an orchard irrigated from the Great Water
Project. Much water for farms, the planting of trees, and for
the cities of Libya, now comes from the Great Water Project system.
Here I receive a beautiful insignia from the head of the
Teacher's Federation of Libya. We met with them in their
impressive headquarters in Tripoli and leaned about the advanced and high
quality educational system of Libya.
We visited the vast hospital center in Tripoli and saw many
ultra-modern intensive care units such as this one.
We visited a radio station and some of our delegates were
interviewed live. Here our host and friend Ibraham serves as
translator for the interview of James Latham, founder/manager of Radio for
Peace International in Costa Rica.
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