Libya, The land of Omar Muktar

Its unfortunate to see Libya in such a turmoil today, my first impressions/memories of this place comes from the movie Omar Muktar-The lion of the Desert, the movie which I watched as a kid, it was a school trip to the cinema house and the movie was specially screened for us kids. It made a big impression on me. The old man Omar Muktar on a horse back with his rag tag soldiers taking on a mighty white imperial army. I don't know why they choose to show that movie, maybe they wanted to imbibe the feeling of freedom and the love for motherland in us. I did not understand who the white imperial soldiers were and where this Omar Muktar lived. All I understood was that it was a fight of good against evil., fight of the opressed against the opressors, fight of the people against their imperial masters. The movie made a big impact on me and I used to identify myself with the little kid who picks up the glassess of Omar Muktar after his public hanging, It was my mother I think, who was a teacher in the same school where I studied explained to me that the little kid would continue the fight even though Omar Muktar had died. Later on when I grew up, I realised that this was Libya where a man like Omar Muktar lived and the white imperial army was that of Italy. A country with such fighters who fought for its freedom is heading towards civil war which is very tragic.