Libyans race to be ‘part of the new world’
Posted: Monday, August 31, 2009 12:17 PM
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On Assignment
By Tom Aspell, NBC News Correspondent
TRIPOLI, Libya – The Egypt Air supervisor boarding our flight from Cairo to Tripoli waved a sandwich in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other. It was shortly after sunset and devout Muslims were breaking their Ramadan fast for the day after going without food or water for 14 hours. Our flight was departing on time, he said, and we should hurry aboard.
By the time we arrived at the Tripoli airport it was nearly midnight, yet the Libyan capital’s streets were jammed with cars. Restaurants and coffee shops were crowded and shops were doing a brisk business. During the month of Ramadan countries in the Middle East work shorter daylight hours and do most of their business at night.
It was quickly apparent that Tripoli has changed quite a bit since my last visit in the 1990’s. Many of its old houses and shops are being torn down and replaced with modern high-rise apartment buildings.
Awash with money from its rich oil reserves – the largest in Africa and the ninth largest in the world – Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi has embarked on an ambitious modernization program.
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| Imed Lamloum / AFP - Getty Images |
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Libyans walk past festive lights and pictures of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Friday ahead of celebrations for the 40th anniversary of his coming to power in Tripoli planned for Sept 1. |
Gadhafi has opened up his country to foreign investment. The rush is being led by oil companies, but breathtaking construction contracts have also attracted foreign developers as Libya hurries to make up for decades of sanctions which left Tripoli looking like a desert version of Eastern Europe before the fall of communism.
Its buildings were crumbling, its sewer systems were leaking and its roads were potholed tracks. But now, accepted back into the fold, Libya is rushing to catch up to the outside world.
‘Treasure to be made here’
Housam Abuzeid is a Libyan computer engineer in his 20’s anxious to get in on the ground floor of the change sweeping the country.
"There is treasure to be made here now," said Abuzeid. "I want to make mine now and start my own IT (information technology) business."
He explained that he has already persuaded his boss to offer computer systems to Libyans investing in construction so they can inventory their equipment, hardwire buildings for IT systems, and link security cameras to their sites.
"Many of the old guard in Libya still control the economy because they know which levers to pull in the ministries and government departments," said Abuzeid. "We show them how to simplify the jobs their companies are involved in."
"My father is a ticketing supervisor for Libyan Airlines," he explained. "I bought him a laptop computer and showed him how to use it at home. When a computer system was first introduced at his office he was well ahead of younger people working there, so they gave him a bonus. This is how it should be for everyone in this country. We want to be part of the new world and we don’t want anyone to be left behind."
Later in the evening we met Abuzeid and some of his friends at a coffee shop. They are all in their 20’s and working in the IT sector. Their conversation, punctuated by pauses to suck on water pipes of sweet tobacco, was almost exclusively about computers. They all carry i-Phones and frequently paused to exchange videos and music they had downloaded from the Internet.
Two of them had just returned from a 10-day visit to the United States, part of a student exchange program which will soon send nearly 2,000 Libyans a year to American colleges.
"At the Philadelphia airport, when passengers in the baggage area found out we were Libyans, they moved their children back because they thought all Libyans were terrorists," said Hussein Abuzeid, Housam’s younger brother. "But we were amused rather than offended."
"I found Americans very nice and very open, very willing to share with us," he said. "I hope to go back and study there for two years when I graduate here."
Marwan Arebi is 27 years old and works as an IT manager at the shipping company Aramex.
"Libya is on the threshold of great change," he said. "But I am concerned we don’t lose any of our traditions, especially our religion."
Attitudes changing
The welcoming back of Libya by the outside world has been made possible by a change in the Libyan government’s attitude. Experts agree the catalyst was probably the start of the U.S.-Iraq war in 2003. Many believe that Gadhafi saw the writing on the wall – that being a rogue state doesn’t work in the global world. He suspended Libyan research into weapons of mass destruction and started paying compensation to victims of Libyan terrorist operations, most prominently the bombing of a Pan Am passenger jet over Scotland in 1988 in which 270 people (in the air and on the ground) were killed. The death toll included 180 Americans.
A Libyan man, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was eventually convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the bombing. However, his recent release by Scotland for what it said was compassionate grounds because he is suffering from terminal cancer, sparked outrage, especially in the United States.
Nevertheless Gadhafi, now in his mid-60’s and after 40 years in power as the region’s longest-serving leader, wants to see Libya become the gateway to development in Africa.
The United States apparently agrees with part of his vision. American companies are major players in the oil industry and development projects which will try to transform this desert nation into a modern state within the next ten years.
John Rainard is the Chief Operating Officer of AECOM, a Los Angeles-based engineering firm running a $10 billion project here to rebuild Tripoli and other population centers in Libya from the ground up. Housing, roads, water and electrical systems will form the backbones of the new country.
The scope of this project is huge, according to Rainard.
"Any costs we estimate, the Libyans are expecting to add another three zeros to," said Rainard, explaining the large scale of the work.
Have there been any problems with payments so far?
"A few minor hiccups when we first started, but that changed pretty quickly. The Libyans are learning very fast."
AECOM is making sure Libyans are trained alongside the 250 Americans the company has working here.
"They eventually have to run everything so we want them in early," said Rainard.
AECOM’s offices have charts and maps of the country pinned on the walls. One of shows a ring road around Tripoli studded with interchanges, the biggest of which will cost $50 million.
Tourism is also part of Libya’s new order. Italians and neighbors from other North African states make up the bulk of the numbers coming here to visit Libya’s Roman ruins and its unspoiled beaches.
"We like it here," said one man visiting from Romania who we met in a Tripoli market where he was examining gold trinkets. "The people are very friendly and we are glad we came."
Foreign companies, especially in the oil sector, appear to agree.
