What it's like in Tripoli

Message received this week from an Englishwoman who lived in Tripoli until very recently, now in Tunisia:

The vast majority of people in Tripoli have been besieged in their houses since the protests there began on 20th February. Every small street is guarded by armed people, so they can barely leave their houses, let alone protest, to let the world know how they feel. The pro-Gadaffi people on TV are often families of the massive secret police, who have been indoctrinated in cult-like ways their whole lives. There are others, not rocket scientists, who are waving green flags because they've been given huge sums of money and cars to do it! Gaddafi is throwing money and stuff at people (not that it's his to give away!); I have absolutely no doubt that the vast majority of Libyan people are very very happy that they're being helped by the coalition.

A lot of the people patrolling the streets are orphans, now teenage, who were brought up in govt institutions and brainwashed from childhood - a bit like child soldiers in some countries.

I do see a lot of TV channels from BBC world to Al Jazeera, and I see some politicians talking as if the coalitions forces are just to save the people in Benghazi and the east, but there are millions of people besieged and terrified in their homes in Tripoli, Miserata, the other towns in the west, including the Berber region in the western mountains, which are 100% anti-Gaddafi. They're waiting to stand up.

We manage to speak to friends in Tripoli most days. They confirm that the coalition attacks haven't hit civilians. They are terrified and dream of escaping. One told us that the families of murdered protesters are too afraid to go to the cemetary, so bury the bodies in the gardens, or, in apartments are keeping them in rooms with several air-conditioners on to preserve them. If the soldiers see there is a protester in the family, they'll take all the men.

Hope it'll be days rather than weeks before the regime falls.

Counting the days

A census for the 21st century? Consider this. We are a family of four, two of whom are students living away from home in termtime, one an academic living away from home in termtime (all three in different cities), and one person holding the fort at home. An initial reading of the questions suggested that we should all complete full details on the home questionnaire, and basic details on the other returns for those of us with second addresses. Seems logical, and the online process seemed to promise that we could each fill in our own bits. (Ten years ago it was easy, as we all sat round the kitchen table, but times, and lifestyles, have changed.)

However, closer examination of the guidance at the back of the form revealed that those employed away from home had to enter their personal details on the home form, but those who were studying away from home had to do so on the return for their secondary address. Apparently it is logically impossible for someone working away from home to 'usually reside' in two places (or, incidentally, for a child of separated parents to do so), but a student is expected to achieve this feat - perhaps they all should study quantum physics.

So that's clear(ish). Now to complete the form. I volunteer to make a start online, using the convenient 20-character access code. I list my partner as Person 1, since she is basically running the household in Wales while the rest of us swan around England. I immediately find that I'm not allowed to enter our sons' full surnames because they are too long, so enter as much as I can and make a note to invite them to go back and amend if they wish. I complete the household information and then move on to my personal questions; but I can't, because my partner's now have to be entered first. So I email the rest of the family to report progress, but first I think I'd better check that it will be possible for our sons to go back and amend their surnames. It won't. There's no going back. Nothing can be changed once it's entered – no errors corrected, no oversights rectified. What's done is done.

So much for the online form. We will now try, I guess, to complete the manual form by correspondence, in the few hours that remain to us; but there seems no way to prevent the online form being harvested next week, although it's only partially (and possibly wrongly) completed.

So, two questions. If a household bursting with academic qualifications is confused by these questions and instructions, how many others are going to get it wrong or give up? And if this is the best Lockheed Martin can do with an online questionnaire, why should anyone trust their planes?