‘No selfie-respect’ – so right
This photo caused a firestorm on the internet and will, tragically, remain the most memorable image of Mandela’s memorial service, long after other visual impressions have faded away.
People will recognise it for years to come.
‘Oh yes, that’s Cameron and Obama fooling around with the Danish prime minister while Mrs Obama controls herself for an explosion back at the hotel room.’
The Sun has covered Mrs Obama’s face with a block of text, but you will by now have seen the original picture.
Why did it strike a chord internationally? Well, largely because those three look like overgrown six-formers rather than middle-aged people in charge of countries, at a memorial service.
But most particularly because it confirms the received wisdom, borne out by many people’s experience the world over and in all cultures, that men’s better judgement deserts them in certain situations (otherwise known as behaving like idiots) while lots of women make the strategic long-term error, for short-term triumphal pleasure, of spiting other women by deliberately doing things to cut them out of the equation and monopolise male attention (otherwise known as behaving like manipulative bitches).
This is an especially stupid and short-sighted move when the women you are cutting out are living with the men you are monopolising, as the Danish prime minister is about to discover. No White House invitations for that one.
As I always say, the best and most effective strategy for any woman is to ignore the men beyond basic civility, good manners and civilized conversation, and charm the women instead. Women control everything. Once you’ve made an enemy of somebody’s wife or girlfriend with your stupid behaviour, that’s it. This is not because the wife or girlfriend is ‘jealous’. It’s because she holds you in contempt and correctly interprets your behaviour as malice towards her rather than interest in her husband or boyfriend.
The Danish prime minister would now be a lot better off if, instead of bringing out her phone to snap a picture of herself with Barack Obama, she had leaned across him to engage Mrs Obama in conversation until finally a tried and tested Barack Obama said ‘Look, shall we swap seats?’
But the most important thing, of course, is meaning it – because other women can always tell when you don’t, and when you’re only using them for a way in.
Here’s another famous one caught on camera and laughed at in France.
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That same Chirac incident is what my French friends immediately remembered with the current Memorial moment footage.
She’s got previous as a star-struck sixth former:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnx4NUQsTGA
And she’s married to the son of Neil and Glenys Kinnock.
Hi, I’m the Danish Prime Minister.
Who?
Has anyone asked Stephen Kinnock what he thinks of his wife’s behaviour?
Wow, this piece is spot on.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-12-11/news/publication-of-mintoff-writings-in-the-malta-independent-out-friday-3420749826/
So he got himself a stove. I bet he insisted on finishing the work himself, which he didn’t.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/courtandpolice/Mintoff-biographer-renounces-case-in-attempted-murder-20131210
You couldn’t make it up.
Looks like the sickle is mightier than the pen.
Well, one thing is obvious. Certain members of the female species (including you) can never achieve what the Danish PM achieved.
[Daphne – And then they say the minds of men are more logical than those of women, Don C. How many prime ministers are there in the world? Count them, get hold of the figure for the total world population, then deduct the former from the latter. And there you have it, the number of people – men and women – who can never achieve what the Danish PM achieved.]
The weaker sex?
Which one is that?
The Sun is right of course, but same goes for the readers of the Sun – I mean look at what other stories make the front page on the same day.
They did switch seats…..http://nypost.com/2013/12/10/michelle-annoyed-by-obamas-selfie-at-mandela-memorial/
I would agree that the ‘men’ here are acting foolish, but I would disagree with what you say about her! Is she doing that deliberately, strategically and to manipulate someone? I don’t think so, the Danish PM is also acting foolish and her act is not any different from that of a teenage senseless girl.
http://news.sky.com/story/1180685/selfie-fury-or-a-mass-sense-of-humour-failure
Putting the selfie in perspective.
I don’t see what the big deal is here.
It is just men behaving like men.
If I had a chance to get photographed in proximity to a Candice Bergen look-a-like then I would do it too.
Hardly the sort of behaviour one expects from world leaders during that sort of state funeral. How inapproriate and disrespectful.
Candice Bergen didn’t have such a big chin (“faqma”), but that’s hardly the issue here, is it?
She is not “Desperate Dan” faqma and no man would throw out of bed for that reason. We males all wanted to make out with Ms Murphy Brown in our fantasy .
http://images2.corriereobjects.it/methode_image/Cassetto%20Redazionale/Nazionale/Ghiacciaia/Esteri/Foto%20Gallery/a88d455a89068929450f6a706700b045_MGzoom.jpg?v=20131211093057
No, I guess no White House invites.
Never underestimate the power of woman.
Why do you ALWAYS get every observation right D?
Move over Private Eye, we have Daphne.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-12-11/news/mixed-reaction-to-proposed-monuments-to-former-leaders-3438313472
Sciortino would never get lost in detail on a bozzetto, what mattered was plasticity or its inverse.
And may one ask why Heritage Malta decided to approve proposals missing their base? Surely these ‘artists’ can manage a composition?
As for the standards dropping, one has to see why Maltese sculptors flourished early last century.
These proposals are nothing more than pasturi, even their gaze is fixed on the looker from below. Not to mention grouping them together like some Christmas offer.
Tabone’s painfully sprained sausage hands lifted from the latest tribute to Bibendum in Mosta, albeit the late Freddie Micallef.
If these are the purveyors of good taste, I’m a rock star.
How right you are. Fucking pasturi. Wonky proportions, giant heads on 7/10 scale bodies, thick-framed glasses, 1970s shit suits, big belt buckles, shit poses, all for rather insignificant people. It’s the illustrations from Id-Denfil in 3D.
Really, I hope Malta fucking sinks back into the abyss from whence it came, because I can’t take much more of this ugliness.
You have to admit it, they make great Neapolitan-style Christmas crib figures. Maybe that was the inspiration.
Denfil people had rubbery sinewy fingers, shoes invariably ‘ta’ Clarks’, and dogs a wispy coat down their backs.
Up next, Grajjiet Malta and the artist’s obsession with faceless subjects clad in rags.
Bring on Manara.
Ah! A connoisseur of the art of visual titillation, I see. I think we might have met, Jozef. Art exhibition, ages ago. That sister of yours was real stunner, what.
Wait a minute, you can’t just look at an image (in a tabloid) and make so many assumptions. It was a four hour event with people laughing, dancing and singing. It was meant to be a celebration. Regarding Mrs Obama, the photographer himself said that she was laughing and joking for most of the event. In fact, later on Obama swapped places with his wife and she and the Danish prime minister were seen talking and getting along.
Its a little immature for a politician to be taking a selfie in general, granted, but its not like they were taking it during a funeral or a sombre event.
I know this has nothing to do with the subject but is there any news about the homeless man in Dublin ?
As expected, the question was put to Cameron at PMQs.
It was made in a humorous vein and he responded along the same lines.
It was British humour at its best.
Nevertheless the point was made.
It was a rather frivolous thing to do in the circumstances.
Yes, he made the point that the lady in question, apart from being the Danish prime minister, is the daughter-in-law of Neil Kinnock, former leader of the British Labour Party.
A Kinnock-era headline in the Sun (the most famous of all time maybe?): WILL THE LAST PERSON TO LEAVE BRITAIN PLEASE TURN OUT THE LIGHTS.
I bet our Prime Mininster would have just loved squeezing in beside President Obama or Prime Minister Cameron. He would really have felt included then. Thankfully he was wise enough to keep his distance this time.
“Muscat poses for selfie with Obama and Cameron in the presence of Mrs. Obama.”
Wisdom has nothing to do with it. He would have been sitting in Cameron’s lap, snarling ‘Kerhaaaaaa’ at the Danish PM, given half a chance.
Muscat would have loved to be between Obama and Cameron but have my doubts if he would have loved to have the Danish prime minister next to him.
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
Oh, what the heck.
While I was reading this piece, I thought that now we are surely going to see a barrage of selfies from our PM & team. And a series of speeches dedicated to equality and human rights. Such an international event would have surely inspired Malta’s young prime minister.
Within minutes, The Malta Independent ran an article about Dr Muscat’s non-compromise towards inequality towards homosexual members of our community, especially referring to adoption.
Sorry no English translations, ‘b’has-soltu ihallat il-hass mal-bass’.
Child adoption laws should be treated as separate from adults’ union/marriage acts, in my opinion.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-12-11/news/i-will-not-compromise-on-my-principles-pm-3443720192/
One of those moments when you don’t know whether to laugh… or to cry.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/11/turns-out-michelle-obama-loves-selfies-too/