Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Libya Has New American Ambassador

The New American Ambassador To Libya

Yippeeeeeeee !! At long last Libya will have a American ambassador, 36 years in fact since the last one was here in Tripoli. Gene Cretz was confirmed as US ambassador to Libya on Thursday Nov. 21 , 2008 by the US Senate . Can wait to see if Americans like my friends and I , married to Libyans , will be treated better when he comes , by the new embassy , as apposed to the way many of us are just ignored now by the existing American consulate .Read more on this story as reported by the V.O.A.(Voice Of America ) .

8 comments:

Khedegah said...

Salam Ukhti,

MashaAllah that is excellant....when will there be an Irish one...let alone an Irish embassy grrrr....Hahahahaa....Alhomdolelah things are getting better .

Ma Saloma
Khedegah

Anonymous said...

he is ambassador like any ambassador in Libya !!!!!
treated better? ignored ? by whom? can you explain ?

Anonymous said...

Can wait to see if Americans like my friends and I , married to Libyans , will be treated better when he comes ???

treated beter from whom??? are you trying to intimidating the libyan society with USA AMBASSADOR?hahahah?

I cant understand your point!!

on the edge said...

As far as I know Mr. Cretz will be like any other ambassador . Same treatment ... hum , I think so , why not ?

There are American women married to Libyan men that have families and are living here in Libya .We / they on a general whole ( and this is to say that some , while not all, but the ,majority ) are mostly ignored by the what ever you want to call what we have here until now , be that a office in a hotel / or what not . We are never invited to any get together's or meet and greets that are given/ held for other nationality's , to come to including American business men ( read that oil), and that includes the American national day of 4th of July . We have been treated as 2nd class citizens in the past by employees of various American embassy's ( that would be Tunis , Malta , and Egypt) when trying to get visas for our spouses , renew passports , or registrar our children and acquire passports for them as well .It took me 2 years to renew my passport in 2000 and I missed my youngest daughters wedding in the States because of it .That was when the Belgium's where handling our affairs , but have to say this for the Belgium's , when they were in charge , we were invited to teas , coffees , and various get to gathers by them , even to be introduced to THEIR new ambassadors when they came here . I am waiting to see if the American government will extend the same courtesy to us when Mr. Cretz comes or will it be only for the ex pays Americans and the foreign oil/ business people here . I think that about covers things . Does that answer your questions ? If not let me know .I have more .Like one woman trying to renew her passport in Malta one year( in the 1990's) and a staff member told her she couldn't . She had made her bed by marring a Libyan , now lay in it .

Anonymous said...

I am a german women, married to a libyan - neverless I am treated the same way: no invitations, no get to gathers, no national holiday. Thats all only for the expat Germans and business men, so dont't expect too much of your Mr. Cretz!

Anonymous said...

ok, clearly you don't understand how Embassies work... Embassies don't exist to build relationships with people from their own country... they exist to build relationships with OTHER countries and citizens- specifically with the country they are in. Embassy events aren't parties for Americans, they are working events to build contacts that will help solidify the relationship with that country. That is done through business, science, the arts, etc. It is not being American that will get you into events- it is being someone who has important local contacts that will help America and (in this case) Libya get closer that will get you into events. As evidenced by the German lady's comment, this is true of all countries' embassies worldwide. If you think you can improve US-Libya relations by being at their events, then go to the Embassy's website, set up a meeting and tell them HOW you would improve the relationship. If you want to go because you think being American overseas qualifies you for fancy food and free drinks, then tough luck!! Embassies aren't party-planners- and would you really want your taxes paying for that anyway?? If you want to go to a fancy party, host your own!!

As for visas, passport renewal etc, I'm sure they do the best they can with the resources and facilities they have. I've lived in the Maghreb and I thought I heard that Libya's citizen services have improved a lot lately...

on the edge said...

Dear Anonymous 2,
Thanks for your input . It is now 2010 and things have improved greatly for American women married to Libyan nationals , living in Libya since the opening of the embassy .Things are better organized . We have an actual embassy , in it's own building .American's of all walks of life are treated with respect , as opposed to how it used to be before , when I wrote this post .

I would like to say here that BEFORE the US lifted the sanctions from Libya , one of the things that the US government did was to meet with American women like myself , to ask us about various things to do with living in Libya and /or doing business here .

Our input was instrumental in the decision as whether or not it was safe for American businesses and their employees to come into Libya once again . We had meetings with members of the US congress to discuss this and many other topics concerning security , business ,and the quality of life here in Libya . And the possibility of doing business with people like us.And , yes , if you are a American registered with the embassy , you are included in many of the events now .Things are much better . Thank you for your comments .

Anonymous said...

This is a msg 2 all the American women on here married to Libyan men (in particular "on the edge"), I'm just curious 2 know, do you know approx how many American women r married to Libyan men & r now currently residing in Libya? Do you all usually meet in the States while they r studying in college & then once married r taken bck 2 Libya? Was their initially hostilities frm both sides of the family 2 the marriage & move?
Do you have your own American wives of Libyan men social clubs? I presume most of you with families by these men have decided 2 stay on in Libya (rather than return 2 the States) despite the current political crisis within the country & the closure of the American embassy?
1 last question, I presume that the American TV series "Airwolf" was banned in Libya?