Why do libyans eat with right hand

In the summer, business is normally conducted between the hours of 7. During the rest of the year, business hours are usually from 8.

The weekend tends to be Thursday and Friday or Friday and Saturday. Structure and hierarchy in Libyan companies In this strongly hierarchical society, an awareness of social status and the vast power-distances between people is essential.

Respect for social position, family name and profession is key to successful business in Libya. In Libyan companies, delegation is rare. Generally speaking, there is one owner or person in authority who is responsible for all those involved in the business and held responsible for all key decision-making. Working relationships in Libya Personal relationships built on trust form the basis of all business practice in Libya.

Therefore, it is vital that you allow time for cultivating a solid business relationship with your Libyan counterparts. Despite the strong emphasis placed on respect for social status in Libyan culture, in the Libyan business environment it is not uncommon for all members of an organisation to have equal access to the most senior person in charge. As a result, you may find numerous employees interrupting business meetings with their individual concerns.

Libya business Part 2 - Doing business in Libya: Business practices in Libya A vital part of all business introductions in Libya is the exchanging of business cards. You should have all business cards printed in Arabic on one side and in your native language on the other side.

It is customary to reserve the initial part of a business meeting for general conversation. Engaging in small talk before you enter into business discussions with your Libyan associate is vital for establishing a successful relationship.

Mutual trust and compatibility are key requisites for doing business in Libya and therefore getting to know your Libyan counterparts in this way is essential. Negotiations play a central role in Libyan business culture. The process of negotiating is often more valuable to your Libyan counterparts for gaining honour and respect than the end result and is often a slow and drawn out business.

One of the main and most popular dishes in Libya. A traditional, and probably neolithic, dish made of dough and sauce. The dough is kneed into a semi spherical ball and placed in the middle of a large bowel, around which the sauce is poured, making the dish look like a rock island surrounded by water. The Dough : the first stage is to prepare the flour which then can be stored for up to two years and used when needed: roast the grains in an empty frying pan until golden brown; grind into fine flour; sieve well and store away in a jar.

To prepare the dish, take about one kilogram of flour from the mix, boil about third litre of water in a large deep saucepan, and then as the water is boiling keep adding a bit of flour with your hand while mixing with the other hand, using a large wooden ladle. Once you start this, do not stop, just keep adding flour with one hand while mixing in a circular fashion with the other, until the dough becomes hard to stir and the mixture solidifies into dough. Remove the saucepan off the ring, take out the dough, place in a larger bowel, and while wetting your hand with a bit of water because the dough retains heat start kneading the mixture into consistent dough, just as you kneed bread, and shape it into a ball, and finally place in the middle of a large bowel and pour the sauce all around.

It is eaten by hand by breaking a small bit with your fingers, pulling a small bit down into the sauce and kneading it with the sauce, before eating. Doughing: making the dough. The consistency is solid and thick, where a bit of force is required to push your fingers through the finished dough.

It is nothing like bread. And if you want a really tough bazin you need to visit Nafousah Mountain say Jado and ask for mountain bazin - tough and hard to drive the fingers through. This stiff consistency is achieved by boiling the final dough after it has been prepared as described above. Although in the above photo the cook is using one hand to mix the dough, usually women sit on the floor, wrap a thick cloth around the hot pan, and hold the pan between their feet, while both hands holding the wooden ladle aghenjay to mix the dough with their full strength - something many modern women cannot do, or instead they use white flour wich produces light and soft bazin, instead of the traditional wholemeal flour which yields hard dough, we call " mountain bazin ".

The dough then is shaped into a solid dome and placed in the middle of the plate - looking like a mountain down the plain. The Sauce : any kind of sauce can be used with this. Normally a simple meat and a couple of vegetables are used as follows: fry two large onions, add garlic, turmeric, chili powder and tomato puree, then throw in the lamb chops or beef or fish , a bit of salt and water, and then cook until the meat nearly done.

Add potatoes and pumpkin pieces or other vegetable of your choice and return to heat until vegetables are done. Add more garlic usually two or three crushed cloves , heat for a further minute or two, remove from fire, then pour around the dough and serve hot - with a squeeze of lemon on top.

A simple version of white bazin made of white flour is normally cooked for breakfast, but eaten with olive oil and date syrup: instead of mounting the dough like a mound, spread flat across the plate, then sprinkle with a generous amount of extra-virgin olive oil and pour some date syrup in the middle or alternatively use honey or sugar. Another variant of the dish replaces date syrup with fenugreek powder - a bit bitter. It is eaten in a similar way: break a small piece of dough, mix thoroughly with oil, dip into the syrup, and Eat.

The sauce used for this one is made of tomato puree, turmeric, chili powder, potatoes, chicken and fenugreek seeds still visible at the top. The fenugreek seeds are really unique: strong in flavour and slightly bitter. The sauce used for this one is made of sour milk milk that tastes like yogurt and topped with fenugreek powder. Delicious, to say the least.

Again, this is an ancient dish, possibly neolithic. Z'ummeeta or zumita is yet another ancient Libyan dish. It is a doughy dish made of mixing water with flour until it is firm and doughy. It is eaten by dipping a small bit, taken by hand, in olive oil, and with the option of dipping in chili sauce. It is usually eaten for breakfast, but some times it is eaten whenever one is hungry, as it takes only few minutes to mix.

The flour mix is made of whole grain barley or wheat, a bit of coriander and cumin seeds. These are dry roasted in an empty frying pan until golden brown, then ground into powder, sieved and finally placed in clay jars and put away. Normally this process is done once a year, although the mixture can last for even two years. Whenever you need some z'ummeeta , just take some flour, add a pinch of salt, mix thoroughly with a bit of water, spread on a plate, and pour the olive oil on top - normally with a bit of harisa in the middle as a dip.

The mixture breaks in the hand nice and easy, and smells fresh with a hint of coriander and olive oil. The modern way of making it is to mix the oil with the mixture and serve it already mixed. Traditional couscous meal, covered with straw-made cover. Couscous is one of the most widely popular dishes in Libya and, for that matter, in the whole of North Africa. Its recent spread in Europe is a testimony to its unique qualities and special taste, rarely found in other dishes. The dish involves cooking two things: the couscous, made of wheat or barley, ground into coarse flour just like semolina but without the stickiness , and the vegetable and meat sauce to go with it.

The couscous: to start with, sprinkle some salt, pepper, olive oil and a bit of water over the couscous grains, then mix thoroughly by hand, from right to left, slowly rolling the couscous grains into larger balls. Keep mixing and adding a few drops of water at a time until the balls become round and about a third the size of a rice grain. Keep mixing in this manner until all couscous has been used.

Nowadays you buy it mixed and ready to steam. Place the mixture in a special saucepan called "keskas", which is like a steamer, or a saucepan with lots of holes, and cover with the lid. This steamer is then placed on top of the other saucepan containing the vegetable and meat sauce, so that the couscous will be cooked by the steam rising from the simmering sauce, thus transferring the flavour to the couscous itself.

The modern, commercial way of cooking couscous, by placing the ready-mixed couscous in a saucepan and covering it with boiling water for a few minutes, does not produce a proper couscous, but some tasteless stuff you buy in London's supermarkets.

Real couscous needs to be steamed over a good sauce for the flavour to soak in, and then needs to be thoroughly mixed with a bit of extra virgin olive oil to further enhance the flavour, before covering the couscous with the lamb and vegetable sauce. It seems supermarkets are there to make super money, and not serve top quality food at affordable prices.

Couscous with meat, vegetables, chickpeas, chips, and a fried, hot green pepper on top. Heat the oil, fry the onions until golden brown, throw in the garlic, the spices and tomato puree and mix for a few minutes, and then add the meat and about half a litre of water and cover the saucepan with the lid and cook for at least half an hour. Then remove the lid and add the vegetable and the chickpeas to the sauce, make sure there is enough water but not too much, so that the sauce comes out nice and thick, and place the steamer containing the couscous on top and cover with the lid and leave to cook for a further 15 or 20 minutes on a slow heat.

After that, take the couscous out of the steamer and pour into a large bowl and leave to cool for a few minutes, then sprinkle some olive oil and mix again, breaking the congealed clumps into fine soft grains of couscous, and place back in the steamer for a further few minutes.

To serve, put the couscous in a large bowl if the whole family eating from one bowl or serve small portions into plates, cover with the vegetable sauce using a good ladle , place a piece of tender lamb on top of the sauce, then finally fry some finely chopped onions until golden and mix them with a bit more of cooked chickpeas and sprinkle the mixture on top of the sauce and the meat. Some people further place peeled boiled eggs between the pieces of meat, or more recently home-made chips.

Finally, do not forget to eat. Sacks of dried beans, nuts, seeds and roots in a local market. Dried beans and grains are also a fundamental part of food in Libya. Chickpeas are soaked in water for a few hours, then cooked with tomato and meat sauce for couscous or added to pasta sauce. Broad beans are cooked in tomatoes sauce and eaten with bread. The initial preparation of this dish takes a number of days for the meat to dry in the sun , but after it was made in large quantity it is stored for the whole year and used when needed.

Portions of fresh meat are cut into long strips, spread along the washing line, sprinkled with chili powder and salt, and left to dry in the sun for a good few days, until the outside becomes hard.

The sanctions increased in severity through the s. Then, Libya was essentially isolated from the developed world in when the UN imposed sanctions due to the destruction of a Pan Am airliner over Scotland. The US intervention in the civil war in , which resulted in the downfall of Gaddafi, at first led to a power vacuum but has led to a recent relief of sanctions. Recently, the travel restrictions to Libya have been lifted. Since , the new unity government, headed by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj took authority over the country.

However, there are administrations in Tripoli and Tobruk who are reluctant to acknowledge the authority of this new government, though the political situation is more settled than it has been in recent years. However, there are still some concerns over the rise of Islamic extremism in the country. The major language of Libya is Arabic and the major religion is Islam. The strong religious background of the country means it is a deeply conservative society in many respects.

However, the young like to have an enjoyable social life — with young men driving fasts cars through Benghazi, with tinted windows. While there are no nightclubs or bars, with little or no popular music, there are shisha cafes and shawarma joints — where people gather. There is no alcohol sold in these establishments. Marriages tend to be arranged, and weddings can last up to three days, with lots of singing and elaborate costume.

The history of Libya, with its turbulent record of invasion and colonisation, has left a varied cultural legacy. There are some spectacular ancient ruins dotted along the coastline — well preserved, mostly due to the lack of tourists in recent years. Lepsis Magna has cobbled streets, Severan Arch, marble and granite lined baths, a basilica and a large amphitheatre.

There are the ancient fertility temples in Cyrene. There is also the Temple of Zeus and a Roman stadium. There are also some Byzantine mosaics in Qasr Libya and the beautiful Akakus Mountains, which form the border with Algeria.

The cliffs of these mountains feature some of the most vivid examples of prehistoric art in the world. Culturally, Libya is not geared towards beach life. Instead, the local population prefer picnics. However, there are opportunities for great fun with desert driving and dune surfing.

Companies offer the opportunity to drive four-wheel drive vehicles across miles of dunes and some allow you to ride snowboards down the highest dunes. Libya is a Muslim country. Therefore, it is important to dress modestly, especially if you are a woman. Upper legs, arms, shoulders and cleavage should be covered.

It is also advisable to wear a head scarf, which becomes essential if visiting a mosque, cemetery or any site with religious significance. Libyans believe in dignity, honour and the good reputation of the family, demonstrated through their conduct.

Why do Libyans eat with right hand? Is Libyan food healthy? Why did Libya change their flag? What country flag has only one color? What is the simplest country flag? Does any country not have a flag? How many countries do not have red in their flag?

Do all flags have red?