18 November, 2009

Ghaddafi: the meaning of greatness




The story has been out a couple of days now but I can’t help being intrigued about Colonel Ghaddafi and the flower of Italian womanhood. First is the industrial size of the order: Ghaddafi’s office phoned a single company and asked them to send round 500 ‘hostesses’. The company, said by the Corriere della Sera to be Hostessweb.com seems to have complied readily. I mention their name in case any of my readers has a similar requirement.

The second thing is the diplomacy issue. We have all been taught that one word out of place in diplomatic behaviour can be disaster, that discreet comportment is all. Now imagine Gordon Brown turning up in a foreign capital for a meeting on food aid and, when asked if he had any special requests on his visit to the city saying he would like to pitch a large tent inside (even Rome can be a bit chilly in November) a woodland villa, ‘Oh yes, and send some escorts round – a few hundred should meet my needs’. Ghaddafi lectured them on Islam, but it would be no more bizarre if Gordon had addressed them earnestly on quantitative easing.

The girls’ treat was not to end there, however, for it was to be a three day gig. The 200 who were most attractive and conservatively dressed got to listen a fair bit to the great man. One even declared herself a convert (not so easy, one would have thought, to ply her trade in a burqa, but you never know). And there was a question and answer session, during which Ghaddafi was asked what he thought of Berlusconi’s little parties in Sardinia and in the Palazzo Grazzioli. The great man, who has an all female bodyguard with matching lipstick, put his finger to his lips. Too diplomatic to say anything, you see?

At the FAO meeting (remember that? it was the purpose of the visit) Ghaddafi spoke for only ten minutes, thought by some to be the shortest speech of his life (he is normally a two hour man at these set piece occasions). Probably tired.

For another example of such an altruistic vocation in a world leader, we have to turn to the 19th century British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, who worked tirelessly with fallen women, often walking the streets late at night. It is this sort of consideration for others which Ghaddafi has and which so many other leaders – Ghandi, for example – lacked. Food for thought, indeed

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