September 27, 2008

Asif Zardari in the US


Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistan President on his recent visit to the US made the biggest and historic blunder of flirting blatantly with his hosts. I guess he could have been given the benefit of doubt if he had stopped at his first remark to Ms. Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, when he said he found her 'even more Gorgeous than she had appeared on TV'.

He went on to put his foot in his mouth not once but repeatedly. Saying things like 'now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you' and shaking her hand without letting go after a decent interval was bad enough but doing so again for the benefit of camera crews and even mouthing a readiness to hug Ms. Palin were pure animal instint, Mr. Ten Percent, sorry Mr. President.

Asif Zardari is the husband of the slain Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who despite the fact that she was educated in the west and was highly modern in her outlook, was always seen in public with her head covered. She never shook hands with visiting dignitaries, forget embracing. In her personal life she was known to have many male friends but in the public perception she couldn't do any wrong because she realized that image was paramount for a woman in Pakistan politics.

She had the benefit of the training imparted by the Bhutto family to guide her on conduct in public life. Unfortunately Mr. Asif Ali Zardari had no such luck. I guess it was the training given to him by the friends he made in various Pakistani jails, mostly rapists and other assorted perverts, over the 15 or so years he spent there.

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