to move up and down
Exception to the ruler
Stick to the script: Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator abandons improv to follow in the footsteps of filmic fanatics. (Illustration by Steve Murray)
Robert Mugabe’s supporters demand apology for Nando’s chicken chain’s ‘last dictator’ ads
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s youth militia has seen the South African restaurant chain Nando’s new “last dictator standing” ad, and they are not amused.
The commercial for its six-piece chicken combo depicts Mr. Mugabe reminiscing about his times with departed dictators to the song Those Were the Days.
He is shown having a water-gun fight with Muammar Gaddafi, making sand angels with Saddam Hussein and riding in a tank with Idi Amin, before awakening from his dream to find himself at a dinner table, alone at Christmas, The Associated Press reported.
Christopher Hitchens: If Saddam still ruled, there would be no Arab Spring
The most heartening single image of the past month — eclipsing even the bravery and dignity of the civilian fighters against despotism in Syria and Libya — was the sight of Hoshyar Zebari arriving in Paris to call for strong action against the depraved regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Here was the foreign minister of Iraq, and the new head of the Arab League, helping to tilt the whole axis of local diplomacy against one-man rule. In May, Iraq will act as host to the Arab League summit, and it will be distinctly amusing and highly instructive to see which Arab leaders have the courage, or even the ability, to leave their own capitals and attend. The whole scene is especially gratifying for those of us who remember Zebari as the dedicated exile militant that he was 10 years ago, striving to defend his dispossessed people from the effects of Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons.
