TGIF: Dictators Beware

Most people view the arrival of Friday with relief because it’s the end of the work week. Friday announces the weekend with time for fun and relaxation. Fridays are good days in the Arab world as well. For Tunisians, Friday is the end of the work week, however in other Arab countries the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Thus, according to my personal convoluted logic, Thursday = Friday and Sunday = Monday. So Friday may have slightly different meanings.

It’s not just because Friday is the day Muslims attend the mosque that makes it important. It has taken on new significance: Friday is the day huge events happen. Minimally, strikes and protests increase in intensity on Fridays and recently, it has become the day of revolution in the Arab world. In Tunisia, Ben Ali fled after a general strike on Jan. 14th—a Friday. In Egypt, Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 25th—a Friday, and in Libya, Tripoli rose up on Aug. 19th—a Friday, and was liberated the next day.

         Needless to say, I have been glued to either the TV screen or the computer screen and sometimes both at the same time for the past several weeks. Because of Libya’s proximity to Tunisia and the effect the Libyan revolution has had on Tunisia at economic and humanitarian levels, I have closely followed the news from Libya for the last six months as the revolution gained steam. I do not mean to be trite when I say that this has played out like J.R.R. Tolkien’s (and Peter Jackson’s) Lord of the Rings, with battles of epic proportions and with good people, ordinary people, standing up against profound evil. Tolkien, after all, wrote the trilogy during a period of extreme world violence (WWII). However, the LOR analogy allows me to point out one major difference. Victory has not depended on one person or a small group of heroes.  The hero of the Libyan revolution is “the people,” and especially the Libyan youth.

         After 42 years, the Libyan people stood up and said “No! No more fear.” They have paid a terrible price, for what family has not been touched by tragedy? The number of deaths remains unknown—probably in the tens of thousands for a small population of six and a half million. Equally disturbing are the stories coming out about Gaddafi’s massive campaigns of arbitrary kidnapping, coercion, brutal torture, and executions. Unfortunately, an old torture was refined, which I will call “institutionalized gang rape.” Gaddafi’s dead soldiers were found again and again with Viagra in their pockets and POWs have confessed to being ordered to participate in such atrocities against girls and women. Once Libyans understood the punishment, villages and towns emptied as men sent their women and children to safer areas, especially to Tunisia, which took in approximately 900,000 refugees. And to give an idea of the magnitude of arbitrary punishment: An estimated 60,000 prisoners were held in death camps or disappeared in Tripoli, while the general population suffered electricity blackouts, shortages of water, food and fuel (no way to cook and nothing to eat anyway), and loss of property—all this when temperatures shot up over 100 F. (40 C.).

How can one not be affected? Already I have four pieces on the drawing board, or more accurately, boiling in my head. One I have finished.

Revolution 2011: Order and Disorder (41.5"x46", 105cmx117cm). I previously showed this as a work in progress (as in, a ten-year WIP), but I knew it had to be completed for the occasion of the liberation of Tripoli. To celebrate the victory of good over evil.  

The central panel is by hand, done with needle-turn appliqué. The  outer squares (top and right) represent an order that disintigrates into disorder, yet there is a flow, there is hope. However, the black borders represent rupture and the possibility of chaos. The green and blue fabrics of the arc behind the maze are frayed suggesting an unraveling of society, of stability, of things we take for granted.

Unfortunately, Gaddafi, wanted for crimes against humanity by the ICC (International Criminal Court), has not been caught yet. The power of his billions of dollars (stolen from the people of Libya) would allow him to cause further trouble and chaos in the region. We pray that he will soon be apprehended to face trial.

I salute the people of Libya for their courage, their sacrifices, and their steadfastness, and for their faith in God and humanity.

And say a prayer next Friday for all those battling tyranny.