A Hurried Man’s Guide to Muammar al-Gaddafi

In Italy, he told a room full of Italian women that he would help them find Libyan husbands

In Italy, he told a room full of Italian women that he would help them find Libyan husbands

After Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, there is speculation that the Libyan leader could be the next to fall to the latest in a series of uprisings that have rocked the Middle East. At the moment, though, after 41 years in power, he shows few signs of leaving peacefully. A couple of days ago, he had military aircraft bomb protesters. Normally this would be horrific, but it fits in well with his persona—of a man surrounded by foxy gun-toting women, of a man who took a leadership sabbatical from his dictatorship, of a man who attempted to fuse “19th-century French anarchist thought with the 1,400-year-old dictates of The Quran” to create a new ideology that would guide his people. Of a man who believed that Switzerland was a mafia paradise and should be split between Italy, Germany and France. And by the by, it was also a state sponsor of terrorism.

Gaddafi took power from the ruling family in 1969. He was helped by the perception that the family was corrupt. Upon settling in, he began encouragingly, paying heed to infrastructure and other projects that made Libyans feel they had turned a corner. How could they not, having moved from mud huts to suddenly having access to utilities?

Gadaffi then began to antagonise the West for no reason other than that he could. Frequently, the word that came to mind when commentators described him was ‘unhinged’. His outreach programmes often caused more discomfort than the statements he made from home. Touring Italy last year, he explained to a room full of young Italian women that he would help them find suitable Libyan husbands. This, remarkable as it seems, caused some anxious moments within Silvio Berlusconi’s ranks. But if the neighbourhood goings-on are any indication, international diplomacy will never be as interesting.

About The Author

arindam