Recently, this happened:
You might recognize those two people as William and Kate, the royal couple who got married on April 29th. It was a wonderful event celebrating the love between two people. It received international news coverage and was in everybody’s hearts and mind.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Libya had reached possibly as high as 30 000 (10 times the number of people that the 9/11 attacks killed). Gaddafi has continued to shell citizens in an attempt to gain control of the city of Misrata, killing indiscriminately between innocents and rebels. When the aid ship Red Star docked in the harbor of the city to evacuate refugees, it came under heavy shelling, killing 5 people. Two of whom were children. There are at least two sniper nests near the heart of the city who are reportedly “…in addition to attacking civilians, are targeting doctors, nurses, and the injured in hospitals.“. Gaddafi has even gone so far as to use cluster bombs, weapons banned in most parts of the world. But these powerful weapons were not used against the rebel bases, they were instead fired into the middle of residential areas, killing and wounding untold numbers of people.
And amidst all of these horrors, the National Transitional Council is planning for the foundation of a new country. They plan to draft a new constitution and put it into a referendum, to be accepted or rejected by the people of Libya. Once Gaddafi has been defeated, the council plans to hold public elections and even now is asking the UN to oversee municipal elections shortly within the liberated areas under their control.
The city of Misrata
And what were people talking about last Friday? That’s right, the royal wedding.
