GIFTS FROM THE PAST...❤️

For me, the best gift from the past is connecting with people I knew, liked or loved.

This has happened a lot recently, thanks to social media and writing a memoir...

The Innocence of a Refugee Child...

A little Syrian refugee girl offering a Hungarian policeman a cookie. It was her lovely and touching response to someone who was blocking her and her family from crossing the border...

These are refugees, not migrants looking for a better life. They are running from death and destruction, from Asaad, and from ISIS. They are Christians and Muslims...they are our fellow human beings and innocent, frightened children.

The Hungarians seem to have forgotten how the world reached out to help them in 1956 when they were refugees. And yet now, they treat these poor people who have walked hundreds of miles like criminals...

How long more is the world going to pretend to be blind? 

A Child's Memory of Libya...

Kfalik, sidik! I read "The Libyan." My heart still aches over your story, and the current plight of Libya. I thought it was a tremendous book. I was enthralled with your love affair and marriage. But what a let-down at where it went! I cried for you and your children. But I learned a lot about Libya. The book left me with sleepless nights over the tyranny of Ghaddafi's rule, how it separated families, and ruined and took away peoples' lives. Thank you for making it real to me. I could not put the book down until finishing it. I didn't want it to end.

I lived in Tripoli as an older child, '59 to '61. I remember Homs Road, and the stunning old ruins of Leptis Magna and Sabratha, and the Lady of Gharyan; Giorgimpopoli; the old palace in Tripoli on the water front, and the beautiful sea (all very vividly), under the pre-oil reign of King Idris, with the American military at Wheelus Air Base, where my father was stationed.

I remember the beautiful citrus farm we lived on, with it's endless groves of fruit trees, the lime tree outside the back door of the Italian villa we rented, with it's wonderful scent, bamboo that reached 40 feet high, huge poinsettia plants (anyway, that's what they looked like to me) that seemed to grow wild, acres of peanut crop, loquats, kumquats, date palms, and the irrigation pools that we splashed in, filled with pure well water. The farm bordered a road that came in off the desert, so we often saw caravans of camels passing by, laden with provisions. We children loved our Egyptian houseboy, Mohammed Homs Lumeidi, and how everybody was named Mohammed, Ali, and Fatima or Maria.

I have always wanted to go back again and visit. Your book especially renewed that interest. Now, at this time, I wish there were a way to help bring peace, democracy, and prosperity to a suffering, divided people. I want to thank you for your book. I feel blessed for having read it. God be with you and your family always.

THE DEATH OF HUMANITY...

Children washing up on beaches in the Mediterranean, families crossing seas in rickety boats, human beings dying by the hundreds every day...dying for freedom to escape death at home. 

While thousands of refugees die in the pursuit for freedom and a better life, most governments discuss the situation and just hope they don't have to deal with the influx of these poor souls in their own countries. Shame on the people smugglers, and on the countries who are not helping them. 

Kudos and heartening to see Germany...and German soccer fans,showing humanity in an inhuman world for migrants and refugees... 

Bravo Deutschland 👍

The Amazing Amazigh Heritage...

The Berbers, or Amazigh, are an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa. Their identity is based on a common language, ethnicity, geography, and an ancient history.
The Berbers have lived in North Africa for thousands of years, their presence recorded as early as 3000 BC from rock art found across the Sahara Desert...

THE LIBYAN PINTEREST
THE LIBYAN AMAZON

ANCIENT LIBYA

Click on the photo for more images...

     The Libyan landscape is rich with the treasures of ancient civilizations dating back thousands of years. Many are still in superb condition, particularly the more popular ones in Sabrata, Leptis Magna and Cyrene.
     There are numerous magnificent examples of ancient worlds in Libya,  perhaps not as superbly preserved, but definitely as historically and archaeologically awesome. Over the years, and especially during Gaddafi's time, many of these ancient treasures were ignored and neglected. My children played among the ruins of Sabrata when they were growing up, and never once did I see anyone else there besides our family, not even a guard. Sadly, the history of ancient Libya has not been taught in schools for decades, replaced instead with readings like the Green Book and praises of Gaddafi for 42 years.
     The sands of centuries has covered, protected, or eroded away some of the more ancient and untended settlements of Libyan history, but fascinating examples still stand stalwart against time, waiting to be noticed and treasured...

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GERMA. LIBYA...

Germa is located approximately 160 kilometres South-West of Sebha, Fezzan,  in southern Libya. The deserted remains were once the capital city of the ancient Berber Garamantian Kingdom of Fezzan, widely considered as Libya's first indigenous empire.