Football in Libya

Football in Libya is the number one sport in terms of practice, popularity and history. Libyans played football in Tripoli after the Italian's occupiers of their country engaged in the game and the emergence of the first pure Libyan team goes back to 1919.

In 1944 two teams Al Nahda and Al Shabab were united into one team and the chosen name was Al Etihad. After that the game became active, especially after the defeat of Italy in the Second World War.

Many clubs and teams were founded before reaching the mid-twentieth century. Football became the most popular sport in the biggest cities of Libya. Then the game evolved and the national team was formed.

The Libyan team was able to play at a good level in recent years, but so far did not provide what is required by the Libyan public. The historical record of the Libyan's national team is not known by its achievement.

The team also participated in the Africa cup of Nations twice in its history. The first was in 1982 which was held in Libya, and the second in Egypt in 2006. The team's best performance was in 1982.

This is a summary about the football teams and the game in Libya. We hope in the future that this game develops because all the people in Libya love it.

Written by: Mohamed

Transportation in Libya

If we want to write something about transportation in Libya, we should talk about the history of transportation.

The History of Transportation

In the past there were various ways or types of transportation. More than 100 years ago the fastest transportation system was horses, camels and donkeys. Messengers rode along important roads from one city to the next. This was usually a distance of tens of kilometers. At that time there were small boats that used to carry people and goods from place to another.

About 60 years ago things really started to change when the telecommunication revolution began. By that time, a few people had own car and there were public buses and taxis.

Transportation Today

Today a lot of people own cars and there are a lot of buses and taxis in the larger towns. You can negotiate the price.

There are many ports and harbours; Zuwara, Khoms, Brega, Tripoli, Musrata, Tobruk, etc.

Transportation Problems

The total distance of the highways is nearly 83,200km. 47,590km of them are paved and 35,610km unpaved. The most important is the coastal road between Ras Igder and Amsaad.

What are the problems faced by road transport in Libya?

Road transport here in Libya is facing a number of problems, like the following:

1. There have been no operational railways in Libya since 1965.

2. Buses are not comfortable, expect some of them. On international roads buses are particularly good, with air conditioned vehicles and a good service.

3. There is very little attention of road safety and application traffic law.

In the Future

1. We hope to make a huge railway network between cities.

2. We hope people will pay more and more attention to a road safety and traffic laws.

Written by: Nihad

Arms Chaos in Libya

The Libyan revolution has cost Libya greatly. Now the arms problem in Libya is causing national and international concern because it may cause a problem for democratisation in Libya.

The arms trade in Libya is a real danger to people’s lives and it’s considered the biggest challenge that Libya is facing right now. Arms in Libya are also considered to be the main source to organized crime, especially Al-Qaida.

There are no statistics about the amount of arms that have been lost in Libya during and after the war but the predictions are very high. The numbers of arms smuggled outside Libya to the neighbouring countries are also high.

The Libyan government has to collect and control the arms as soon as possible all over the country and combine the revolutionaries with the national army or police forces to solve this serious problem.

Written by: Ahmed

(Above) Revolutionary graffiti art in Tripoli

The English Language in Libya

English language was taught at public elementary schools as a foreign language many years ago.

In the eighties, learning English was stopped from being taught at public schools for about eight years due to the political views of the dictator Gaddafi.

In recent years English language has been taught at primary schools. There are many private institutes in Libya that teach English language for children and adults.

I think after the revolution many people knew the importance of learning English to communicate with the world, and some charities have been giving English language courses for a small amount of money, to help and encourage people to learn foreign languages.

There are many people who speak good English in Libya, especially the youth who have been affected by the American media.

Using the English language in Libya was restricted for many years, but now there are some Libyan newspapers published in English and a few English speaking radio stations have started as well.

Written by: Samar

The TV

TV is a type of media, we can watch for entertainment programmes, series and movies. Nowadays everybody can watch TV during the week. Some people watch TV for fun, for the news, or to benefit when studying.

            

Mr Fladimer Zworykn invented the TV between 1923-1924. A French channel started the first programmes in 1935. In Libya we have lots of channels. They talk about politics and the Libyan revolution, but they don’t have programmes for entertainment yet. Maybe in the future they will make some good programmes.

When we're watching TV we lose a lot of time without moving. That's why I think watching TV for more than 2 hours a day isn't healthy.

Written by: Siraj

Libyan Media

Newspapers and magazines are a kind of way to express our opinions, to criticise or agree about what is happening in our country.

In Libya, before our revolution, there weren’t any honest magazines or newspapers because they made all the journalists talk about what the government wanted. Also there was no freedom of opinion and you couldn’t even criticise the government.

Now, after the liberation of Libya, many aspiring Libyans are forming private newspapers and magazines, for example, Libya Today and 17th Magazine. This is something we never expected to live and see happening, and we are so proud to take part in this media explosion.

Written by: Farah

The Libyan Wedding

Libya is a large country, so there are many differences in traditional weddings, but there are some similarities too.

The Libyan wedding is long. It almost takes 7 days, but regarding the preparation of food and clothes, it may take months! There is traditional jewellery made of gold and silver. Also there are special traditional customs for the bride, groom and guests. 

For the bride there are special customs for each day of the wedding like rosy badla, badla segara, badla kebra and jlowa.

The wedding in Tripoli takes 7 days. It starts on Tuesday morning when women from the bride's family and groom's family invite neighbours and relatives to the wedding. After that, the party continues every night in both the bride's house and the groom's house with special songs.

The families gather in order to make sweets and food (such as kusks and bazzen) for the guests. There is a special day for children called rabeea when children eat sweets and wear the traditional customs (like the bride and groom).

On Wednesday night (called najjma), some women from the groom's family go to the bride's house to celebrate and bring the bride clothes, jewellery and gifts. Henna is also applied to the bride.

On Thursday the bride wears a special dress (nowadays the bride wears a white wedding dress), and women from the groom's family take the bride in a special carriage to the groom's house to complete the part there. On Friday the bride wears jlowa and there is a party in the groom's house. After one week they celebrate again.

Nowadays most weddings in Tripoli are shorter - two or three days - because the long traditional wedding has become too expensive.

Written by: Ruida

(Above) A traditional Libyan wedding

Art in the Streets

I would like to write about buildings. We have three model designs:

Firstly, the old buildings built in the old city of Tripoli come from the Turkish period. The most important Turkish design is Saria Hamra Castle. It is a Roman building. They used some of old Roman columns to build the castle.

Secondly, some old buildings were built in the period of the Italian occupation like Omar Al Moktar Street, and 24 December Street.

Thirdly, modern buildings use new architectural designs, such as the high buildings, towers and shops. But we don’t have skyscrapers - maybe in future we will have them.

The problem in Libya there is no standard government architecture design. This causes an untidy view because we can see high buildings behind low buildings, different colours of paint and different designs of facade. It is very important to have a scenic view. We don’t have many gardens but we hope to increase this in the future.

After the revolution we saw drawing (graffiti) on the walls of the streets. We like it, because reflects the opinion of the revolutionaries. I hope in future the government will design buildings to make Tripoli like her name "Bride of Sea".

Written by: Rania

Libyan Music

Libyan music is considered some of the best music in the world. It is mixed between many brands such as following below:

a) Almalof

It is a kind of music that relates to groups of people who come from Al Andalus (Spain) a long time ago. The musicians of this band are around fifteen; divided into singers, drums, fiddlers, flutist, and the lead singer.

b) Azzokra

This is another sort of music which comes from the south west part of Libya. However, in this kind of music they often use drums and bagpipes and the number of musicians is usually three or five.

Nowadays, Libyan music is effected by Western music like Pop, Rock and Rap which are made in a mixture of Arabic and other languages. Therefore, music will remain as one of the languages that is shared by all the world. 

Written by: Suhil

(Above) Libyan bagpipe and drums

A History of Libya

History is a resource to see the life of people for many centuries. Many foreigners don’t know Libya’s history, except some information on the internet and in books. We want to give you a brief idea about Libya’s history with some pictures.

Ancient History of Libya

The Phoenicians were early Semitic peoples who arrived in parts of the coast of Africa, and established settlements on the coast of Cyrenaica (Shahhat), in the East of Libya, and at Tripoli, in the West. There were cultural and commercial contacts between Libya's population and the population of Egypt during the reign of the Pharaohs.

Greeks settled in the region, and they constituted a significant proportion of the population of Ancient Cyrenaica. Also the Carthaginians and Romans settled in the area and formed a large proportion of its population.

The Romans managed to combine the areas of Cyrenaica and Tripoli into the Empire that formed the Roman state. It had a system of absolute rule, and has a distinctive cultural character, which we still witness today. Those settlements have formed important commercial centres on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. They collected goods coming from within Africa, including the country's exports to Europe

The Tripoli area was subject to the rule of the Vandal of the Goths who settled in Spain, after the demise of Roman rule. In the later stages Cyrenaica and Tripoli were together under Byzantine rule. This was resisted by the local population after the Muslim Arab conquest of North Africa, until the Byzantines were forced to leave

Leptis Magna (Lebda)

Lebda is a major ancient city, located on the Mediterranean coast at the mouth of the valley Libdeh. It is a natural harbor and lies 120 km east of Tripoli, the Libyan capital. The city was one of the leading cities of North Africa in the Age of the Roman Empire. In 1982 it was classified by UNESCO in the list of World Heritage sites.

Cyrena (Shahhat)

The city of Hammamet and the Greek Temple of Zeus, was founded in the fifth century. In the Roman period some modifications were introduced to the Greek buildings and many new buildings built including baths, a Roman theatre, a gallery of Hercules, a lot of temples and monuments, and the outer wall, which was built in the first and second centuries AD. There are also several churches from the Byzantine era.

Written by: Suhil, Siraj, Mohamed and Ala Eddin

(Above) The Libyan desert

Libyan Elections

Elections are the democratic competition between political parties. People have to choose the best parties to serve their country. Party politicians need to be well-qualified, honest and not corrupt, to be able to help this country during this important phase.

Why are these elections the most important in the history of Libya?

These elections are the most important elections in the history of Libya because they will produce the National General Congress, that will choose the new constitution for the new Libya. It will also choose a new government and prepare for the presidential elections. All this is happening in Libya for the first time.

Unfortunately it seems like the National Transitional Council are dealing with this new situation like it has happened before, and as if Libyan people know about elections and the consequences of this serious phase. The NTC and government should be more supportive of these elections to make them successful.

Written by: Ahmed, Ayman and Walid

Libya is changing

In the past Libya lived under the Gaddafi regime, which had full control. Gaddafi was a dictator for forty two years. He made everybody in Libya sad and poor, even though Libya has oil, gas, long coast, tourist sites, and metals.

On the 17th of February 2011 most Libyans decided to remove Al-Gaddafi. We took our freedom but at a great cost. Libya is changing now. We have got freedom of opinion and our future vision is changing. It is a rosy future, with new hopes and ambitions. In the future we hope to improve our economy. This will lead to a decrease in unemployment and poverty.

Libya needs all Libyans to stand with each other and gather their ideas to make proper plans to rebuild and develop it in all sectors. The first most important thing Libyans have to change is the Gaddafi regime culture. We have to overcome the issues which still exist from Al-Gaddafi governing times by caring about Libya's human resources. This will help to rebuild Libya properly.

We will have elections at June, which are the first elections of our lives. We hope that every Libyan will elect a good and suitable candidate.

God save Libya and we wish the best for all Libyans.

Written by: Rania, Ruida and Ashref

(Above) The second day of Eid in Martyrs' Square, Tripoli

Ten things you need to know about Libya

Welcome to our blog!

We are writing this article to talk about the most important things that you need to know about our lovely Libya:

1. Location: Libya is located in North Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria. Its southern border is with Chad, Niger, and Sudan.

2. Area: Libya is a large country. It’s almost 1.4 million sq.km.

3. The capital: Tripoli. There are a lot of traffic-jams, and a lot of hotels, restaurants, and most people are friendly.

4. Climate: in the summer it’s hot and sometimes it’s cloudy. In the winter it’s mild and it rains. In the autumn it’s windy and in the spring the temperature is moderate.

5. Population: the population of Libya is about 6.461.000.

6. Ethnic groups: There are four ethnicities in Libya. Most people are Arab, about 95 %. The Amazigh live in the mountains and others (Toubu, and Tuareges) live in the desert.

7. Religion: Sunni Muslim 99%, other 1%.

8. Economy: depends on oil petroleum.

9. Languages: everybody speaks Arabic, but some people also speak English and Italian.

10. Government: As a result of the Libyan revolution, that removed the dictator Gadaffi, now the NTC is governing. Soon we have elections to create a new government.


Written by: Farah, Samer, Huda and Nihad

(Above) Tripoli harbour