Moammar Gadhafi’s compound in Tripoli, a place formerly connoted with fear, pain, and punishment, has been changed to a market area ever since the local markets moved location, to Gadhafi’s former palace. Now, the palace is associated with freedom, people, and the market. Hundreds of people walk freely about the compound, where stands with a plethora of different items draw the public’s eye. This very public display of freedom is in part to show that “the people will always prevail,” and the Tripoli public are taking full advantage of the abandoned compound. Among the many things being sold at the market are dogs and birds, which make people even happier because of dogs’ low status in the society, so they agree that being able to sell such lowly animals within the Gadhafi compound is wonderfully ironic. The former dictator’s palace has turned from a looming structure inspiring fear to a public market, where even dogs are sold.
Marion Gibney
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/09/141185482/in-tripoli-gadhafis-palace-becomes-peoples-market
No comments:
Post a Comment