Peter Kenyon

Although the battle is still raging in Libya, the people in the eastern part of the country are already making plans for the new society they hope to have if and when Moammar Gadhafi falls. But after 40 years of dictatorship, there is a steep learning curve. NPR's Peter Kenyon takes a look at how younger and older generations are approaching the problem.

As the conflict in Libya drags on, economic conditions for Libyans on both sides of the country are growing tenuous.

In the rebel-held east, cash supplies are dwindling, shortages are emerging, and prices are rising as officials scramble to hold the economy together and fund a revolt against a much stronger army.

The Same On The Surface

How does an economy work when the government vanishes? As long as the money holds out, on the surface things can appear much the same.

Rebel fighters in Libya say forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi unleashed a fierce rocket attack on the besieged western city of Misrata on Sunday. The rebels have stubbornly held out against a sustained military attack as thousands of people wait for rescue ships to come from Misrata's only lifeline — the sea.

A car ferry, the Ionian Spirit, leased by the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, has been pressed into emergency service, plying the Gulf of Sirte to save thousands of civilians from their life-threatening situation.

Much of the news broadcast from Libya these days features the ungentle sounds of war. But even in the throes of the Libyan uprising, oases of calm can be found.

One of these is Cyrene, looming over the Mediterranean on a limestone plateau in the lush Jebel Akhdar, or Green Mountains, of eastern Libya. Historians consider Cyrene one of the most impressive Hellenic ruins outside Greece.

Ali Tarhouni shocked his University of Washington students when he abruptly left his faculty job to try to help wrest Libya from leader Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year grip on power.

Then, Tarhouni, who became the opposition's finance and oil minister, startled even his rebel colleagues by getting on a fishing boat last week and sneaking into Misrata — a western city under siege by Gadhafi's forces.