Sexist and homophobic too...

[tcpip]

We had a parting luncheon for Senior Advisor Ambassador Kaldir from Malaysia. Our esteemed Noble peace-prize winning Minister, Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta opened his speech to the assembled staff with the words.

"Don't cry. Crying is for gays and women".

(1pm, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, June 5).

Honestly, why do I even bother?

Comments

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

Gah! (that's the sound of me choking in surprise and disgust).

What a fucking great beside manner that man has. No really, the more I hear about him, the more I wonder how the fuck he got that Noble peace-prize.

Oh shit...... it wasn't for some diplomacy related thing was it......!!!!

[angel80.livejournal.com]

Just keep in mind that they gave a Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger and you'll get the general picture. (Jose is a considerably nicer guy!)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well that's certainly true.

For his many and various crimes against humanity, participation in military coups, installation of terrorist regimes etc, Henry Kissinger can't step foot in most European states without being arrested.

Re:

[angel80.livejournal.com]

Couldn't happen to anyone who deserved it more!

[patchworkkid.livejournal.com]

Wow. How sensationally depressing is that?

And yet it's also so blackly comedic to get these occasional behind-the-scenes vignettes of what these world figures are really like. I've read Ramos-Horta's pieces in The Age, and found them food for thought. His stories of personal loss through war gave me pause with regard to my stance on Iraq. He seems reasonable and measured and thoughtful when he appears on television (and I'm sure he is in reality as well). But then you hear something like this, and it removes this figure from the austere realm of print and television and slaps him down, warts and all, right in front of you - and you realise that, yeah, the world's being run by people as common and flawed and real as the smelly old guy that runs the greengrocer down the street. And that all the pomp and posturing is sadly ludicrous. And we may be in some very real, three-dimensional shit.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I'm sure he is in reality as well

From all accounts, no, he isn't. From what I've been told, he has the standard corporate bully style of behaviour, that is, charming and reasoned on the public side, but a bully in private meetings. Or as some Chilean women say about their husbands; "A Che at work and a Pinochet at home".

I must confess with the private meetings I have had with him I haven't seen this, but mainly because he's been grovelling for technical assistance.

I guess his little comment was an example of a classic Freudian slip... Saying what he really thinks when he guard is done with the chummy demeanor.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Should introduce him to my boss some time.

"Let's just hope they don't find the bomb in my luggage, eh?"

- Brien, to me, as we walked out onto the tarmac, painfully close to airline staff. Sun Valley Airport, Idaho, USA, September 14th 2001.

It was his idea of a joke.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Oh, whacko.

My plane trip here was on September 11. Something about people not wanting to catch a plane on that day.

What?

[cvisors.livejournal.com]

Deary me...

I honestly thought he was better than that...


Benjamin

Tch! If you are going to quote, you should at least get it right!

[francarr.livejournal.com]

"Crying is for babies, little girls and men who have just had their ears ripped off." Oobi-Do Ben-Oobi

Re: Tch! If you are going to quote, you should at least get it right!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

OK, that's way too obscure, especially for me. Where's it from?

Must say it brought a smile to a visage that has otherwise been rather grim this afternoon.

Re: Tch! If you are going to quote, you should at least get it right!

[francarr.livejournal.com]

Glad I could do a little to help : ) The quote is from "Thumb Wars" a "Star Wars" parody where the actors are thumbs, and the story is ever so slightly skewed. Oobi-Doo Ben-Oobi is the man with the silliest name in the galaxy, (his full name is Oobi-Doo Scoobi-Doo Ben-Oobi), and he is the mentor of Loke Groundrunner and teaches him in the Way of the Thumb...it gets worse after that...

Re: Tch! If you are going to quote, you should at least get it right!

[horngirl.livejournal.com]

Good lord... that brought back some vague semblance of a memory. I think I've seen that!

[ktwhoopi.livejournal.com]

"Don't cry. Crying is for gays and women".

are you serious? did he really say that??

how did he win a nobel prize? i guess you can be super intelligent and still a useless wanker *shrugs*

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

are you serious? did he really say that??

Well, as an employee of the Ministry and a foreigner I must refrain from any political commentary. Thus, in the public arena, I can only express empirical observations based on the facts.

On livejournal however, under the cloud of relative anonymity. Yes, he said it. It was his opening lines. And I'm seething...

How did he win the Nobel Peace Prize? Oh tireless diplomatic efforts at cocktail parties to achieve recognition for self-determiniation for East Timor I suppose.

[ktwhoopi.livejournal.com]

did anyone comment after he said that? laugh? get up and walk out in disgust?

*shakes head* wish i could have been there!!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

There were a couple of stunned looks. Most of the staff are in fear and awe of him however.

But not this little black duck.

(You may have guessed from previous posts that 'fear' and 'awe' are not really in my lexicon)

One moral giant, one moral pygmy

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine just emailed: "I guess that means that Xanana was either gay or a woman in September 99".