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| Gadhafi's tent in Villa Pamphili, Rome |
As a follow-up to
Bill's post on the Italy-Libya connection, we offer an example of the ruthless dictator's bizarre behavior: his insistence on putting up a large tent in Rome's largest park - Villa Pamphili (
see post on the park). Gadhafi has done the tent bit in Italy more than once, but the first time - and his first visit to Rome - was in June 2009, when he came to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the historic agreement with Italy that involved reparations (as described in the earlier post). Apparently the tent stunt is to acknowledge his bedoin heritage (tho' he sleeps in the palatial buildings near the park, we're told). On some of those occasions he was accompanied by "Amazonian bodyguards" and 30 Berber horses. Crazy is as crazy does.
Berlusconi's "slavish" attention to the Libyan dictator has been roundly criticized of late, of course. I suppose shutting down Rome's largest park was minor in the scheme of things.
Bloomberg had a good piece on Berlusconi's kow-towing to Gadhafi, and its repercussions. Watch the company you keep.
Dianne
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