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Even Translator Can't Take Gadhafi's Ramblings
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 25, 2009
Modified Sep 25, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 25, 2009
Modified Sep 25, 2009
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It turns out even Libyan government employees have a hard time dealing with their wild boss: Moammar Gadhafi's translator apparently collapsed during his 95-minute rant on Wednesday! The translator's last words before giving up: "I just can’t take it any more."
The Post reports that the translator managed to cover 75 minutes of the speech, and then "the U.N.’s Arabic section chief, Rasha Ajalyaqeen, took over and translated the final 20 minutes of the speech." Another interpreter said, "His interpreter just collapsed - this is the first time I have seen this in 25 years." And apparently Gadhafi's personal entourage of interpreters was unusual—he said he was speaking in "a special dialect only they would understand, but staff interpreters said he actually spoke standard Arabic."
Gadhafi was less rambling but just an "unscripted" at a chat held at the Council on Foreign Relations. According to the Washington Post, "He scolded a questioner from Human Rights Watch for not understanding his Third Universal Theory of society. He called accusations that his country once supported terrorism a 'fallacy.' And he denied involvement in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland." Yeah, on that last point, even though Libya paid billions to the victims' families, Gadhafi said, Libya was never indicted as the culprit or the one responsible," Gaddafi said. "We never acknowledged any guilt"—just because the government accepted that a Libyan citizen was involved "that does not mean the state is responsible for those actions."
Tagged
libya
lockerbie bombing
Moammar Gadhafi
translator
united nations
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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