Social & Urban Observations (mostly in Tripoli)

MoEl Serial expat

876POSTS

15 years ago

1) Real Estate: real estate, in Tripoli in particular, is unreasonably expensive. A combination of high birth rate; impaired, often nonexistent urban planing; and a growing influx of expats all drive demand far ahead of available supply. Non-Libyans are prohibited from owning real estate. And I wouldnt recommend sinking valuable cash in Libyan properties. A $1700/mo rental apartment in the Silicon Valley peninsula in California cannot be had in Tripoli for twice the money. Libyan citizens are a HUGE turnoff for landlords.

2) Construction and reconstruction: Everything is inefficiently and impractically constructed from cement and concrete. And it seems that one in every five Libyan households is remodeling something if not completely adding a third or a fourth floor to their house to accommodate the marriage of one of their thirty sons. The result is constant noise of sledgehammers breaking down concrete walls, or the more common hammering of nails into construction wood. And if youre lucky you can even get heavy construction machinery operating right next door.

3) Jasmine: from early March until November, any half-decent residential street would have many flowering jasmine trees. Makes my morning. Beautiful!

4) Form over Function: aesthetics is the name of the game in Libyan consumer goods, automobile and real estate markets; otherwise you would have to be quite shameless to sell a 30LYD iPod Nano knock off in your store. You would have to be even more shameless to actually buy it. It seems to me that, to most Libyans, furniture, cars, and buildings are merely there for gawking. Spend sometime in Tripoli and your glutei maximi would confirm this, especially in regards to furniture. Libyan retailers would go out of their way to add convoluted decorative details to their shops only to inconvenience shoppers without realizing it.

5) Groupthink: in all aspects of Libyan life. From social traditions and habits to business deals to shoes. When a trend is on, it is ON!

The Tripoli expat guide

Comprehensive and free

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Mudman Serial expat

893POSTS

15 years ago

I'm gonna wait for the usual well reasoned arguments of:

"Well if you don't like it here, leave" or "It's better here than <>"

Clansman Serial expat

554POSTS

15 years ago

Mudman wrote:
I'm gonna wait for the usual well reasoned arguments of:

"Well if you don't like it here, leave" or "It's better here than <>"

Yup only a matter of time, the thing is they forget that Mo is Libyan . Some of the people that are the most reasonable here are actually Libyan (Expatlibyan for example). people who have travelled and realise that for all it's good points (and their are quite a few) Libya has a lot of growing up to do.

MoEl Serial expat

876POSTS

15 years ago

justice4pal wrote:
Urban planning "often" non-existant?

Try never existant.

After all they do have some bolts sticking out of the ground of sidewalks where street lights should have been installed. You gotta give them credit for that.

Horizontal Harry Contributor

143POSTS

15 years ago

Things that get me about construction here.

Taking up half the road with sand and bricks regardless of the inconvenience to road users then leaving a mess in the road once complete.

Digging up a perfectly good road surface to connect a property to a power source on the other side. (Check out the recently resurfaced beach road in Gargaresh)

Setting up illegal speed bumps.

MoEl Serial expat

876POSTS

15 years ago

6) Cheap Labor: e.g. it is cheaper to hire several laborers from the street to move a heavy object than to get a forklift. There is heavy reliance on hard labor as opposed to tools and machinery in doing things I never thought could be done by hand. This is great! Here is what 50LYD can get you: two guys who would dust down, sweep, mop, and clean every corner of an unfurnished 12000sqf home, water the few trees there are, take out the trash, then go around telling all the neighborhood how awesome and generous you are.

7) Low, Low Thread Count: that's IF you can find all-cotton bed linens. In the whole of Sebha, there was only one shop that carried %100 cotton linens. Price for a sheet that felt a lot rougher than Wal-Mart's 90 thread count? 55LYD!! I could probably go to Elance.com, get a concierge in NYC to drive all the way to Metro Center Macy's in Washington DC, buy me a decent 500 thread count set, have him/her drive all the way back to NYC, and Aramex the whole thing to Tripoli for less than what they charge for the rubbish sold here. And I'm not even considering Amazon or Ebay for price and quality comparison.

8) Power and Water Cuts: get used to them. A surge protector is mandatory if you care about your computers.

yadayadayada Active member

29POSTS

15 years ago

Clansman wrote:
Mudman wrote:
I'm gonna wait for the usual well reasoned arguments of:

"Well if you don't like it here, leave" or "It's better here than <>"

Yup only a matter of time, the thing is they forget that Mo is Libyan . Some of the people that are the most reasonable here are actually Libyan (Expatlibyan for example). people who have travelled and realise that for all it's good points (and their are quite a few) Libya has a lot of growing up to do.

We don't forget that Mo is Libyan ...he just rubs us the wrong way... cuz we hate that he's right and that he's so god damn articulate

Goksu Member

19POSTS

15 years ago

Ahh. another good tread where you have a good time reading and learning about the country.
Good observations all around.

MoEl Serial expat

876POSTS

15 years ago

#10

yadayadayada wrote:
...cuz we hate that he's right and that he's so god damn articulate

Clansman Serial expat

554POSTS

15 years ago

#11

yadayadayada wrote:
Clansman wrote:
Mudman wrote:
I'm gonna wait for the usual well reasoned arguments of:

"Well if you don't like it here, leave" or "It's better here than <>"

Yup only a matter of time, the thing is they forget that Mo is Libyan . Some of the people that are the most reasonable here are actually Libyan (Expatlibyan for example). people who have travelled and realise that for all it's good points (and their are quite a few) Libya has a lot of growing up to do.

We don't forget that Mo is Libyan ...he just rubs us the wrong way... cuz we hate that he's right and that he's so god damn articulate

Mo you have registered with multiple user names now haven't you ?

MoEl Serial expat

876POSTS

15 years ago

#12

10) BE judged based on how you look: much of your experience in Libya will be determined by your appearance. I do mean the whole racial, ethnic and sexual profiling thing. Libyans lack no confidence in their view of the world and its peoples.

11) Classic, text-book case of passive-aggressive dudes: at nearly every store you walk into. This is not uncommon even at work. Of course it largely depends on point 10 above: are you a female who is attractive/slightly-attractive/non-attractive-at-all-but-flirty/non-attractive-at-all-and-not-flirty-but-can't-stand-the-heat-of-summer? or are you a hairy-faced, 30 year-old native of Fezzan? You're in for a tough communication-skills test if you are the latter. And it's a jackpot if you are an attractive, flirty, non-Arab white female with exposed blond hair, nice rack* and no male companion.

12- Guts! : still a LOT better than your average American small town. Perhaps due to a higher percentage of a younger, malnourished population in Libya. I have recently formed a theory that married men everywhere, and not just in the Midwest, are so maddened by their marriages that they believe a larger midsection protrusion aids in creating the illusion that they are handsomely endowed down there, thus establishing their superiority over other males, and deceiving young females into...well..I don't know really

...staring at their bursting belt buckles, maybe?

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* The high rate of flat-chested (or are they just "repressed"?) Libyan females makes for a challenging existence for the more voluptuous non-Libyan ones.

Edit: grammar

MoEl Serial expat

876POSTS

15 years ago

#13

Clansman wrote:
Mo you have registered with multiple user names now haven't you ?

Do you have the slightest idea how many mirrors I have to have at home?

Clansman Serial expat

554POSTS

15 years ago

#14

MoEl wrote:
Clansman wrote:
Mo you have registered with multiple user names now haven't you ?

Do you have the slightest idea how many mirrors I have to have at home?

I thought that was just for your bedroom

MoEl Serial expat

876POSTS

15 years ago

#15

Clansman wrote:
MoEl wrote:
Clansman wrote:
Mo you have registered with multiple user names now haven't you ?

Do you have the slightest idea how many mirrors I have to have at home?

I thought that was just for your bedroom

square Active member

25POSTS

15 years ago

#16

MoEl wrote:
10) BE judged based on how you look: much of your experience in Libya will be determined by your appearance. I do mean the whole racial, ethnic and sexual profiling thing. Libyans lack no confidence in their view of the world and its peoples.

11) Classic, text-book case of passive-aggressive dudes: at nearly every store you walk into. This is not uncommon even at work. Of course it largely depends on point 10 above: are you a female who is attractive/slightly-attractive/non-attractive-at-all-but-flirty/non-attractive-at-all-and-not-flirty-but-can't-stand-the-heat-of-summer? or are you a hairy-faced, 30 year-old native of Fezzan? You're in for a tough communication-skills test if you are the latter. And it's a jackpot if you are an attractive, flirty, non-Arab white female with exposed blond hair, nice rack* and no male companion.

12- Guts! : still a LOT better than your average American small town. Perhaps due to a higher percentage of a younger, malnourished population in Libya. I have recently formed a theory that married men everywhere, and not just in the Midwest, are so maddened by their marriages that they believe a larger midsection protrusion aids in creating the illusion that they are handsomely endowed down there, thus establishing their superiority over other males, and deceiving young females into...well..I don't know really ...staring at their bursting belt buckles, maybe?

-----------------------------------------------
* The high rate of flat-chested (or are they just "repressed"?) Libyan females makes for a challenging existence for the more voluptuous non-Libyan ones.

Edit: grammar

Totally agree with your "passive-aggressive dudes" observation.

The Tripoli expat guide

Comprehensive and free

Read it now

MoEl Serial expat

876POSTS

15 years ago

#17

13) Souq, Souuq: Libyans shop differently. As of January, 2011, there's only one or two places in Tripoli that fit the definition of a mall. When a store becomes successful you will soon see other stores selling similar products opening up around it. So, for example, to get your keys copied you'd have to go to one neighborhood in Tripoli, then to shop for a sofa you'd have to travel to another part of the city; for computers and their accessories, you'd have to go to yet another suburb of Tripoli.