Tuesday 13 December 2011

The torch passes

Gambian dictator president Yahya Jammeh declares that he can cure AIDS with herbs, make infertile women fruitful, that the murder of one of his critics that remains strangely uninvestigated doesn't matter because "other people have died in this country" and that he'll reign for a billion years.

Looks like Mr Jammeh is carrying on the tradition of barking mad African tyrants that I though extinguished after Colonel Khaddafi (he of many spellings) did the Mussolini two-step.

2 comments:

eon said...

OTOH, "Yahya Jammeh" (Why am I reminded of "John Yaya" in "Buckaroo Banzai"?) isn't nearly as demented a name as "Mobuto Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Waza Banga", which in most translations from Congolese works out to "The warrior who sweeps from victory to victory, vanquishing his enemies and leaving fire in his wake". His real name was Joseph Desire Mobutu before he renamed himself. No, really- he renamed himself.

Jammeh seems to be at least potentially cut from the same cloth. If he comes up with a grandiose name along the same lines, look for him to go full-on loony, probably in Islamist mode to judge from his Beeb interview.


cheers

eon

Sergej said...

Hm, there's crazy, and there's bat-guano crazy. Then there's the kind of crazy that makes actual bat guano tap its finger to its forehead and go, "you know, I suspect that this guy ain't all there!"