'The king of kings' holds forth at the United nations

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi made history by visiting America to attend the UN General Assembly. After being introduced in the General Assembly Hall as the “leader of the revolution, the president of the African Union, the king of kings of Africa,” Gaddafi violated protocol by giving a rambling speech for 90 minutes, instead of the allotted 15. Gaddafi, who brought his own translator as his chef de mission, said he would speak in a dialect of Arabic that only his personal interpreter could understand. Finally, he spoke in Arabic and the chief of the UN’s Arabic translation services had to pitch in because, exhausted after his speech, his translator reportedly shouted: “I can’t take it anymore,” and collapsed.

Gaddafi, once referred to by Ronald Reagan as the “madman” of the desert, embarked on a tirade about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and expounded the reasons for his call for a single-state solution called “Isratine”. India should know something about long UN speeches. The longest-ever UN speech was delivered by VK Krishna Menon, who spent nearly eight hours defending India’s position on Kashmir before the Security Council in January 1957. President Fidel Castro of Cuba once spoke for four hours. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, famous for his long speeches, said after Gaddafi’s performance: “I am not going to speak any more than Gaddafi. Gaddafi has said all there is to say”.