Tuesday 31st December, Tripoli: I wish I had a tape recording of the noise here. From about 4pm to about 9am there is more or less continuous firing of weapons—mainly pistols, I think, but there are plenty of shotguns and machine guns too. This racket lends a very circusy air to the town. It is not so continuously noisy as the carnival in Chiapas, Mexico, but that was the sound of exploding firecrackers and sky rockets, not weapons being fired. The psychological effect is quite different.
It is impossible for me to get a full night’s sleep here. Someone fires a machinegun in the street outside my door and I’m wide-awake! Maybe the residents sleep through it, but I doubt it. More likely, they get up, shoot their own guns a few times and then go back to sleep.
Why? I am told that the area where I am living, Old Tripoli, is ”off limits” to the police. Ain’t that odd? The constant noise of weapons serves to remind the local cops that the citizens are awake, armed and ready, so they had better not intrude. Second—constant use keeps the weapons in good repair so the owner is sure of his equipment.
Perhaps these people like the exciting sound of guns firing since it might add a bit of color to their bleak poverty-stricken lives
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