In Tripoli, Blaring Horns and Shouts of Joy
I was walking down one of this city’s largest thoroughfares on Thursday with my eldest son, 17-year old Hyyan, after the news — at that point, still unconfirmed — broke that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi had been killed.
We heard the sounds of different firearms exploding around us as people celebrated. Hyyan provided commentary in the authoritative tones of an expert: “that’s an R.P.G., that’s a 14.5 mm., that’s a 24.” We chuckled when we heard the sound of a rifle amid the heavier artillery — in Libya, the rifle is hardly considered to be a serious weapon anymore.
Hyyan had been living with his maternal grandparents in nearby Zawiyah in August when the revolutionaries entered the town and the Qaddafi forces began their indiscriminate shelling, and it became impossible to get him home for a while.… Seguir leyendo »