I have barely any time to write: I’m spending my days among the crowds. I would rather live the revolution now than write it  it’s still fresh, newborn, untainted by additions and blind custom. It is a Libyan-flavored revolution, a mixture of spice and salt and light that smells like the blessings that come from the lanterns of saints.

For years, I have run into old friends only occasionally, at the Friday market or at funerals, weddings and sporting events. Now, I meet with many of my childhood friends in the streets and alleyways of the revolution.

The walls have become murals, decorated with new slogans chanting the glories of the revolution and its martyrs, and denouncing tyrants and their terrorist ways. These phrases are full of terrible grammatical and spelling errors, but are nevertheless honest and artistic.

They were born with the birth of freedom and life, and these graffiti should never be painted over. They should be kept there until the sun’s rays fade them, although I doubt that the sun would erase such eternal markings.

I don’t want to speak of the massacres that have been committed in the last weeks by the regime: the world has been listening to and watching images of these brutal, gut-wrenching crimes. I want instead to speak of the people who have won, who have defeated death. The martyrs of this revolution have not just been young men and women; there have been martyrs of all ages, of all educational levels, of all social classes. Libya has risen in its entirety.

We are not copying anyone, but we must admit to having been inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. We cannot know happiness as long as the tyrant remains; how could we possibly visit Tunisians and Egyptians unless we can hold our heads as high as theirs, as high as those of all the free people of the world?

Libyans have been patient for a long time, but our patience was not cowardice. We waited for the moment of true inspiration, and now that it has come and the time is right, we have achieved our goal, with a courage and motivation that has astonished the world.