Is it him?
I’d like your views on this, because it’s really bothering me and I don’t know whether I’m just imagining things or what. But my gut reaction to the last three ‘public appearances’ of Muammar Gaddafi as shown on Libyan state TV was ‘That isn’t him’.
I reacted instantaneously, without thinking: “That’s not Gaddafi.” And then reason set in and my ‘conscious mind’ took over and I listened to the coverage as though it was Gaddafi.
But that umbrella scene – I don’t know. I was left with the feeling you get when you see somebody you are fairly sure is X, at a shop for instance, but don’t know whether to say hello because while you’re fairly certain it’s her, at the same time you are not quite certain.
The Gaddafi outline and body language couldn’t be more familiar to Maltese people of my generation and upwards, so maybe some of you had that same reaction too, especially when – in his bombed-out former home and on the city battlements – he made that two-fists-in-the-air gesture that we so know and…..love.
The thing is, it wasn’t the gesture we know. It seemed somehow limp and unconvincing, almost effete.
The face isn’t the bloated, collapsed, wrinkled and jowly one of his most recent press images – the face of a raddled 1960s rocker who’s taken the high-rolling too far over five decades – but flat-cheeked with well-defined bones. So maybe he’s had cosmetic surgery as he apparently planned on doing, according to reported anecdotes, but he can’t have had it since he met the Maltese prime minister less than three weeks ago. And the photos of that encounter show somebody jowly and bloated.
Maybe it’s just the terrible picture quality of Libyan state television? It really is hard to tell with that Canadian trapper’s hat he has been wearing lately, even when he met Lawrence Gonzi (it had its first outing, as I recall, when he visited Paris three years ago).
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjNAGyMCEik
Gaddafi on……Larry King Live.
It must have been the first time he was faced with American democracy in the form of challenging questions, even if they were only of the Larry King variety (and still they’re pretty good). Look how defensive and irritated he is – dying to demand that King be taken away and killed.
In this interview, it was the first time that I could analyse his eyes closely. His eye movement is very peculiar.
The bit where Larry King asks about the Iranian President is bizarre. Gaddafi’s short answer was that he did not have a view, but the translator keeps talking. You can see that Gaddafi gets agitated at this point.
So sometimes, besides wondering whether it is him, I also wonder if the translators are really translating what he is saying.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150183410673496&set=a.10150143919668496.341183.224768103495&comments
I could not find an entry from Malta, It would not let me post one. I think you have to “like” first.
In the “umbrella” picture, he looks more like somebody from Vladivostok than the Gaddafi we are accustomed to.
Saddam Hussein was supposed to have had decoy-doubles. Maybe this one does, too.
http://news.makemeheal.com/celebrity-plastic-surgery/muammar-gaddafi-plastic-surgery/
Is he on drugs?
Most certainly.
This guy is a master of ‘double takes’. Your point is well-taken.
When I saw the umbrella I thought “It’s Steve McClaren”.
What I found so weired was the absence of any of his sons by his side. But I think this is the real McCoy. He uses his double on other occasions, such as touring some military compound or opening a new facility.
His double might imitate his walk, but not his talk.
Saddam’s double used to impersonate him on walks through the towns and what have you, but he never uttered a word.
Speech impersonation is not easy.
Earlier – much earlier, I had said that Gaddafi has ten doubles and you never really know who the “real” Gaddafi is.
Two of Gaddafi’s speeches, analysed and translated by expert C O’Brien:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaKGJUhkTvI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XxkNZzofLU
Josephine,
Iva, Gaddafi ghandu mhux double imma hemm xi 4.
It’s like an “Elvis” syndrome.
I have long suspected that Gaddafi uses doubles. At the same time wen I saw you on the Times of Malta video I could not help thinking ‘what the hell was she thinking when she wore that jacket?” I am no fashion guru but I have learned that what looks good in adverts and/or other people/ mannequins does not necessarily look good on me. You are middle aged. Stick to sensible clothes.
[Daphne – It is precisely because you are no fashion guru that you don’t understand that cardigan (not jacket) was designed with somebody like me in mind, as opposed to somebody short, small, teenaged or fat. Cardigans are eminently sensible for middle-aged ladies like me. Now had I been wearing low-slung tight leather pants or a revealing Lycra dress, or the sort of clothes favoured by a certain magistrate who is exactly my age but rather unfortunately shaped, then you would have a point. But then perhaps I never had to learn the hard lessons you had to learn about what looks good in adverts and/or other people/mannequins not necessarily looking good on your, because I was mannequin-sized and mannequin-shaped for most of my life and that kind of spoils one. It is precisely because I had such a good run that you won’t find me hankering after Lycra now, as so many of my deluded contemporaries do. So it’s woolly cardies for me, even if you don’t like them.]
Stick to giving people serious stuff if you want to be taken seriously and don’t criticise people (who are not fashion gurus) for what they choose to wear if you don’t want to be criticised back.
[Daphne – Oh, I don’t mind being criticised, Dery. I’ve had at least two decades of it. The mystery to me is that there are people who, despite the long-running evidence to the contrary, still believe I care what they think about my clothes or appearance or anything else for that matter. I wouldn’t care even if I respected them and their opinion, ahseb u ara when I really don’t. Maybe they think I’m an insecure 16-year-old or beset with an inferiority complex and a need for acceptance like them. As for giving people serious stuff if I want to be taken seriously, that’s the ‘Italian intellectual’ mindset which also besets some Maltese. I was raised on British culture, in which wise men play the fool and are more effective for that.]
I find it ridiculous that you attack a male politician for the colour of his shoes or tie and then you go out wearing that sheep thing. You still looked like a wooly sheep whether you think you have a mannequin body or not. Take it from a man who is into women but not into ‘fashion’.
[Daphne – Ah, but the thing you don’t understand is that I am quite happy to look like a woolly sheep and occasionally, even like a tiger or leopard. I find it rather perplexing that you should assume that women go to anti-Gaddafi demonstrations dressed to be attractive to men. Perhaps this is your definition of being taken seriously. Now please, on to the matter in hand, or we shall begin to think that you are not a serious person.]
Dery, are you by any chance Galliano? Shooting your mouth off?
Dery can’t be Galliano – he’s into women. He could, however, be Berlusconi.
[Daphne – Perhaps he’s into women in the way that some men who aren’t into women are: what they’re wearing and other details. In my extensive experience over some 30 years, heterosexual men never notice what women are wearing unless it is utterly revealing, but only whether they look good or not.]
I see you’ve set aside this special place to humiliate yourself in public.