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Total blackout in Tripoli, 200,000 views update

It’s no secret that the electricity in Libya is terrible, the company who is supposed to provide electricity to Libyans failed doing the one job it was supposed to do, the only thing they could do is make up excuses for failure..




Failure of the GECOL


In the last couple of years all they do is posting on Facebook saying how many hours of outage to expect, calculating Libya’s electric production and deficiency. These programmed power outages are meant to stabilize the power grid and to prevent blackouts. Many cities refuse programmed power cuts to stabilize the grid, so Tripoli takes most of the power cuts in the summer and in the winter, as if that wasn’t enough, some protesters closed a main gas line that fuels a major power station, threatening a blackout on most of Libya.

The blackout

We could tell this was different, usually the electricity goes off instantly, after 5 years of misery you start to get used to the outages, this outage on the other hand faded slowly, like a circle of darkness closing down on the center. As soon as the power went out communications said farewell, the dwindling Wimax service went down immediately and Libyana struggled to get a signal. Since it was night time, I decided to go up stairs and see the range of the outage, since controlled outages usually leave some places with power while turning off others, and there were some places that were “untouchable”, unaffected by the outages, so I looked for these first, but what I saw was completely different!!

I could see the stars! 

Stars usually disappear because of the city lights, but they were visible clearly that night (I haven’t seen stars this clear since the 2011 uprising when the power went off for 11 straight days). Darkness was all over the city, with some scattered spots of light here and there, I could tell right away that they were generators.


The nights stars are clearly visible thanks to the blackout


Why did it happen?

We learned that while trying to operate one of the power stations that was off, a huge power surge caused a blackout on most of Libya, even cities unaffected with the programmed power cuts, and while the power returned since dawn to most cities, Tripoli doesn’t have power,I’m using what’s left of the battery power to write these lines before the laptop goes into slumber.



Final words

The winter is still pretty cold, people are dying each day of cold and sickness in this cruel winter, when will this misery end?

On a brighter note, my blog reached 200,000 view, what a way to celebrate it, let’s put off a candle, or the whole country to celebrate!


Too soon?

Please share this post on social media, let everyone know what’s it like to live in Tripoli, and I use the word “live” loosely..

Winter in Tripoli with power cuts

The cold season is here, and with the cold season comes some unpleasant things.
Flu seems to be taking the population by storm, everybody is forced to get it at least once *sniff, and I’m no exception.


For the German version of this post, please check this post translated by Mrs. Angelika Gutsche

Electricity, again!

Another sad phenomenon that comes with winter is long power cuts, it’s funny that an oil producing country isn’t able to provide electricity to power up the capital, but that’s how it is.
Notice how I said the capital and not the country, other cities don’t have this issue, it’s just Tripoli.

Which is very stupid – if I’m allowed to rant here- because Tripoli has all the services: Banks, ministries, and communication companies, which means that when you cut the power off of Tripoli, you are shooting yourself in the foot, basically.

It gets colder every year!

This winter is very cold, I know that every winter seems to be the coldest ever, but this one is really cold!
And the lack of electricity means the lack of heating and hot water! Actually water in general, because the pumps that are used to lift the water are electric.

“Alternative” ways to keep warm

I pity those who were forced to leave their homes in this cold due to the on going conflict in Libya, it’s a terrible time to be outside, and I can’t imagine how does it feel not to have a place to go to, a harsh reminder to always be grateful of what you have, amen!

With the lack of electricity we had to improvise, we pulled an old grill and turned it into a makeshift fireplace, or what we call in Libya a “Kannon”, it uses coal for warming up the place.

كانون فحم ليبي
A makeshift fireplace, Kanoon.
Maybe thats the only good thing about the power cuts, having the families get together around the fire, the wind howling outside, telling old tales and sharing a good laugh as the fire clacks and hisses.

A fair warning tho, keeping the “Kannon” in a closed room may cause suffocation, and many people over the years died of carbon monoxide suffocation, how many died this year because of the cold and suffocation? Who knows? I know who to blame tho! #GECOL.

Sadly after writing this bit I learned that 7 people in the mountain city of Ghryan has been admitted to the hospital due to suffocation, and over 200 people with Pneumonia, seven of them who are seriously ill.  

Lack of house insulation

Another thing I have in mind is house insulation, we don’t have that, at all! Our houses are just blocks of cement that is extremely hot in the summer (we had the temperature go up to 50 degrees last summer) and really cold in the winter; the exact opposite of insulation!
Which means that we need to use electric heaters to keep the house warm, and those things consume electricity like hell!

A popular beverage makes a heroic comeback!

On a lighter subject, a popular winter drink has found it’s way into our kitchen, powdered millet, known in Libya and many Arab countries as “Sahleb.
كوب من السحلب
A glass of millet.
It’s a coffee like beverage made from: powdered millet, sugar, water and milk; served warm and it tastes very nice! It’s a good way to fight the cold.

Major hit to productivity

I am struggling to get things done, I’m yet to adapt to this lack of electricity arrangement, and trying to sync my sleep cycle with it failed badly!
So much for productivity, I feel like I went back to the 19 century (and watching Sherlock wherever we had power made this idea more plausible).
How am I supposed to get anything done on 7 hours of electricity a day, if these seven hours are the same hours I’m asleep at?

Final words

Here we are in Libya, surviving barely, struggling to make a living when everything seems to be standing against us, with no money or electricity; I am not sure how long this struggle is supposed to last, I’m positive that it won’t last very long (as if we can survive like this for much longer).

This was my weekly post, I hope you are feeling warm and fuzzy reading this, wherever you are.

Please tell me of how you and your families face this freezing cold and power cuts, and share this post on your social media for more engagement.

My 2016 in depth

I had goals going into 2016, it wasn’t much but I’m glad I made some of them come true.

Things I’m proud of

To be honest, I don’t have much to show for this year, I’m thankful for what I have indeed, but it’s been this situation where nothing can be achieved, I guess staying alive is an achievement to be celebrated.



 
 The gift of life is not to be taken lightly, life should be celebrated always. It’s just this civil war situation that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon.
This year was a tough year, things are getting worse in Libya and it takes it’s toll on everyone, myself included.

1. New job

I got a steady job, the same job I’ve been struggling to get for the last three years as a teaching assistant, despite the need for new teaching assistants the government won’t sign them until the political dispute in Libya is resolved -isn’t that a bit silly?-

sadly now due to financial issues I’m not getting paid (and none of the teaching assistants got paid so far) which makes me wonder if this is better than sitting at home or working part time for startups and non government organizations?

2. Self discovery

I’ve also taken some steps on the path of knowing who I am, according to the MBTI chart I am an ISFJ, knowing that and reading a lot about the subject has opened my eyes on many things I didn’t know about myself, and answered some nagging questions I was desperate to find out, and never really knew how to formulate!

3. My blog

My blog has done very well this year, possibly better than all the past years put together! It’s either I was really bad before or that I got insanely good this year, it goes both ways!

I’ve written a lot less this year compared to 2015, it doesn’t have to do with my “new job”, it was a resolution I took in order to improve the quality of my writing, posting less but meaning more. Being my own worst critic I’d say that the quality of my writing has improved, but not as much as it should.

This leaves room for improvement, I still need to build my blog’s fanbase and newsletter, to be honest I haven’t put much work into that and it needs to be on the list!

I know that blogging has taken a backseat to other social media platforms, but I do believe that blogging will be great again!

4. Radio head

Some of my good friends kept suggesting I should be on the radio (not sure if they mean I’m ugly and I need to be heard not seen or something else), so I’ve decided to give radio a chance. I’ve started to contribute to WTSLTY “Wrestling talk show Libya”, and I’ve attended comi-con with them in a very special episode.

I’ve also taken an internship at t radio Alsa’aa 90.7, first starting as a guest on some of the shows, I learned some things about the business!

The gift of moving on

I tend to over think a lot of things in my life, mostly the past and it’s events specifically.
I’ve set a goal for myself last year to move on past all the things that trouble me and hinder my progress as a human being, did I manage to achieve this seemingly easy goal? Well to a certain degree.
Moving on isn’t as simple as pressing a button! It requires time and effort in order to be able to move on, luckily life keeps pushing new obstacles down the road, which helps letting go of the old!

Thinking about my past won’t change it, it would waste the time I should be living in.The gift of moving on, it’s something that shouldn’t be taken for granted!

I’ve also learned some valuable lessons in life that I might share in a later post, some of them seem like  basic things, while they truly mean so much!

A quick site update

  • My blog has reached 189,400 thousand views, just a tad bit shy of 200 thousand views!
  • I have removed Disqus from my blog, it didn’t sync old comments and it confused people! I haven’t received a single comment the whole time it was installed! 

What do you think of this post? Did you review your past year? And what are your goals for the year to come? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
For an Arabic version of this post, click here.

حصاد العام 2016

بعد القليل من التفكير قررت نشر هذه التدوينة باللغة العربية الفصحى، فمدونتي أصبحت تستقطب القراء الليبيين بشكل كبير بعد تغييري لتوجهها من الجانب التقني إلى الجانب المعيشي اليومي، كما أنني سأنشر نسخة منها باللغة الإنجليزية مراعاة للقراء الذين لا يتقنون العربية.

هذه السنة كانت سنة صعبة على كل الليبيين، كانت من أبرز سماتها أزمات الخدمات اﻷساسية كالكهرباء والسيولة وغاز الطهو والوقود، والكثير من الاشتباكات والحروب بما فيها الحرب على الإرهاب، نسأل الله أن يرزقنا اﻷمن واﻷمان في بلادنا.

الغلاء وشح الموارد كان من أبرز معالم السنة، مع الكثير من التقلبات السياسية التي لن أخوض غمارها، لأنني تناولت هذه المواضيع بالتفصيل في تدوينات سابقة خلال هذه السنة.

تحقيق اﻷهداف

الغرض من هذه التدوينة هي كشف حساب السنة الماضية وتقييم مدى تحقيق اﻷهداف المحددة خلالها، بالنسبة لي لم أحدد أهدافًا كبيرة، لمن يعيش في مناطق الحروب والنزاعات تصبح الحياة بوتيرة يومية أكثر، ويصبح التخطيط للمستقبل إحدى الرفاهيات التي لا تتوفر لمن يسكن مناطق الحروب.

لأن أهدافي كانت صغيرة وغير قابلة للقياس (بعضها معنوي ونفسي) لم أتمكن من تحديدها بشكل كامل، أمل أن أتمكن من تغيير هذا السنة المقبلة.

 الصعيد المهني

إحدى أهم اﻷمور التي حققتها هي الحصول على وظيفة أخيرًا، قبل أن تطالبني” بالزردة” عزيزي القارئ تذكر أن الدولة غير قادرة على سداد المرتبات، وحتى اليوم لم أستلم أي مرتب والحمد لله، أواجه صعوبة في إقناع نفسي أن حالي أفضل من العاطل عن العمل، لكنني أعتقد أن هذا الشعور مؤقت لا غير.

تجربة جديدة على الصعيد العملي هي خوض غمار العمل الإعلامي، بداية مع فريق عمل برنامج مصارعة حرة بالليبي كمعد ومقدم، وأيضا كضيف غير دائم على أثير راديو الساعة، هي من التجارب التي استمتعت بها وأطمح إلى تكرارها قريبَا.

 التدوين

المدونة شهدت العديد من الزيارات هذه السنة والحمد لله، ثم أتوجه بالشكر إلى القراء الليبيين الذين منحوني ثقتهم وأثرو مدونتي بزياراتهم وتعليقاتهم، وباﻷخص حول موضوع الجوازات. أطمح إلى أن أزيد جمهور المدونة وأصل بها إلى مستوى أعلى من المشاهدات على المستوى المحلي والدولي.

كنت قد وضعت لنفسي هدفًا أن أدون بشكل أقل هذه السنة، وأن أضع تركيزي على النوعية أكثر من الكمية. أعتقد أنني وصلت إلى هذا الهدف وإن كانت مهاراتي في الكتابة بحاجة إلى مزيد من التطوير.

كما حققت وعدي لقرائي بتكثيف المحتوى العربي في المدونة، وأصبح هنالك نوع من التوازن بين اللغتين في النشر.

تخليت عن اسم النطاق الذي اشتريته من شركة ليبيا للاتصالات والتقنية لأنه ليس الاستثمار الذي أبحث عنه في هذه المرحلة، ولم يحقق لي اﻷهداف المرجوة من اقتنائه، بالعودة إلى النطاق القديم أخذت خطوة للخلف لكنها في الحقيقة كسحب السهم قبل إطلاقه نحو الهدف، سأقوم بشراء نطاق لنفسي بعون الله في المستقبل وسيكون لشيئ أكبر من مدونة شخصية إن شاء الله.

على الصعيد الشخصي

على المستوى الشخصي فإن محاولتي الدؤوبة للتحسن والتطوير من نفسي لن تتوقف بعون الله، وكتابة هذه التدوينة هي جزء من عملية التحسن المستمر، كما أن ترك الماضي خلفي والمضي قدمًا يشكل أكبر التحديات الشخصية التي أواجهها، كيفية التفريق بين دروس الماضي وأحداثه، لكنني سأترك الحديث عن هذا الموضوع حتى أشعر بالراحة الكافية لمناقشته مع القراء بشكل واضح ومفهوم (لا أحبذ الحديث عن نفسي في المدونة كثيرًا).

 ختامًا

بالنظر إلى كل الظروف المحيطة بهذه السنة كانت سنة ناجحة إلى حد ما، وأسأل الله أن تكون السنة المقبلة أفضل على بلادنا، وأن تحل فيها أزماتنا وتلتئم جراحنا، ونجتمع لنبني وطننا، اللهم أمين.

ما تعليقك على هذه التدوينة؟ هل قمت بوضع قائمة لأهداف السنة المقبلة؟ مالذي تود تحقيقه من العام المقبل؟
شاركني رأيك في قسم التعليقات باﻷسفل.

للنسخة الإنجليزية من المقال (تقريبًا) اضغط على هذا الرابط.

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