In case you missed it, Muammar Qaddafi really outdid himself at the United Nations on Wednesday. His rambling rant lasted 75 minutes longer than his allotted 15 minutes. After being introduced by one of his aides as the "king of kings of Africa", he proceeded to ramble on about the causes of the Korean War, a conspiracy theory involving the the Kennedy assassination, he questioned whether the swine flu had been designed in a laboratory and tore up a copy of the United Nations Charter. His speech had at least one casualty. After struggling with this incoherent rambling for 75 minutes, Qaddafi's personal translator shouted into the microphone, "I can't take it anymore." - in Arabic. One of the UN's official translators relieved him and finished translating the speech. He was given the next day off for his efforts. Another one of the UN's official Arabic translators wrapped it up in an understatement, ""He’s not exactly the most lucid speaker."
On Thursday, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech led to a major walk out by delegates from the US, Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Denmark, France Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, and others (mainly EU countries). Canada and Israel had boycotted the speech from the beginning. Ahamdinejad ended up speaking to a half empty hall.
Quite a 24 hour period at the United Nations!
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you should see the snl sketch about Qaddafi's speech. it is pretty funny
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip, Michael. I found it at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/27/snl-premiere-moammar-gadh_n_301096.html
It was hilarious if you saw any of the original speech. It is funny even if you didn't.