[update 13. Sept. 2011]
As I usually avoid watching TV News for I can't stand more than five minutes of it without raising a blood pressure, I was just about to turn the TV set off when my eyes caught the scenes from Gaddafi's tent.
I am always wary of what other idiotic statement the speaker is going to make about someone I respect so much, so my finger was still on the switch. Something stopped me though...
Although I quickly understood that what I am seeing are somebody's private moments and that I am violating their privacy by watching it, just like the News are violating it by broadcasting such material without their consent, I remained glued to the TV...
I guess what I experienced was a mixture of anger, sadness, disgust at what the media will do to sell a war, but there was also a feeling like something has clicked to it's place, a growing compassion, love and respect for Gaddafi the man.
It's as if everything I was saying to my friends and the readers of this blog these 6 months, is embodied in that simple picture of Gaddafi the family man, living in a tent, his small piece of desert in much hated city.
"The city is a fad, a shouting, a bedazzlement, stupid imitation, damned consumerism. making demands while not giving anything in return, a meaningless existence." 'THE CITY' Muammar al Gaddafi
You can see the sparse furniture, plastic chairs, heaters, a couch no European or American official would sit his 'respectable" behind on, and an office space with computer and a printer- in a tent.
You can see him playing with his grandchildren and letting them walk all over him.
You can see him feeding them at dinner, again in a tent, at what looks like rather cold evening, because children and all the adults, except Gaddafi, are wearing winter jackets and look rather cold. He seams used to it.
Again, we see plastic table and chairs, no fancy tableware, no crystal glasses, no alcohol, no caviar or salmon, just a simple meal shared with family.
I wonder what does the family meal between the Sarkozy couple looks like. Plastic furniture is out of the question for the first lady of France, I suppose...Not to mention the Emir of Qatari, Prime Minister Cameron or the easy target - Berlusconi.
I was thinking of actually comparing photos of Gaddafi family leisure time and those who are so loud in campaigning against them, but I don't want to lower myself to that level and soil this blog with photos of Berlusconi's parties or Sarkozy's romantic dinners with his heiress wife.
This is not about yellow press, and it seams to me everyone is forgetting that people are killed in Libya every day by the NATO, while we discuss Gaddafi's dressing style, or his son's relationships. There is a vicious campaign to make this a one man hunt, painting him in the darkest color, revealing his private moments so that they can be publicly dissected and widely commented.
However, it seams to me that this latest media empire attempt of humiliation has backfired at them, despite their intentions. Luckily for us, it looks like when waging between the potential to sell the exclusive video and possibly provoking sympathy for Gaddafi the man, the media moguls have risked the deliberately designed anti-Gaddafi campaign for the sake of profit and exclusivity.
Now, even those who never read anything written by the man himself, who never questioned the mainstream media attacks on his personality, who were raised on the 'dictator' caramel, can have a glimpse of the man behind it and maybe, just maybe, ask themselves, is this how a 'tyrant' and a 'ruthless dictator' would behave, is this how he would have lived if he could have anything he wished for?
"I began to melt within myself, as myself also began to melt within me. Each of us protected the other and we became one for the first time. Not because myself was not a part of me before, but because the hell on earth never gave me the time to spend time with myself, contemplate it, and commune with it. For we-I mean me and myself - were like dangerous criminals in your city, subjected to searches and surveillance. Even after our innocence was proven, and our identity became known, we were placed in prison guarded closely. Your purpose was always to prevent me and myself from coming together, so that you could sleep easily and contentedly. How beautiful hell is compared to your city! Why did you bring me back? I want to return to hell, and live in it. I would travel there without any passport, just give me myself so that I may go. The self I discovered had been disfigured by you, as you tried to corrupt its innocence. "
'ESCAPE TO HELL' Muammar al Gaddafi
Vultures over Libya -> http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2011/09/vultures-over-libya.html