Gaddafi on the Subject of the Internet

Amira Al Hussaini, the Middle East and North Africa Editor of 'Global Voices' has a blog that is anything but silly: Silly Bahraini Girl.  It was on that blog that earlier this week I found this translation from the Arabic of Colonel Gaddafi on the subject of the Internet. I am not going to comment on it. I invite you to enjoy it. It has all the makings of a classic:

This Internet, which any demented person, any drunk can get drunk and write in, do you believe it? The Internet is like a vacuum cleaner, it can suck anything. Any useless person; any liar; any drunkard; anyone under the influence; anyone high on drugs; can talk on the Internet, and you read what he writes and you believe it. This is talk which is for free. Shall we become the victims of "Facebook" and "Kleenex" and "YouTube"! Shall we become victims to tools they created so that they can laugh at our moods? We decide our destiny, based on facts and our needs. Besides, this is not the era of blood, of smoke, of burning, of knives and axes; this is the era of the people, and supposedly the era of democracy. Everything is by election and referendum, ie, through the people's direct authority, which is the people's direct democracy, and not through rumours, and Facebook, and YouTube, and the Kleenex and the cables of American Ambassadors. This world wide web Internet is laughing at us and damaging our countries; it is tearing up our clothes; and killing our children for it.
 

Photo Credit: openDemocracy (on Flickr)

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