Benghazi, March 01: Cowed for four decades by Muammar Gaddafi’s oppressive rule, eastern Libya is now awash with cartoons and jokes about him, helping people shake off his personality cult and deep fear of his security apparatus.
In Benghazi, Libya’s second city, one cartoon on the wall of a state building portrays the Libyan leader as ” Super Thief” in a superman costume with a dollar sign instead of an “S” on his chest; another shows him in a dustbin labelled “history” .
Gaddafi’s quirky, eccentric style, his penchant for flowing robes, Ruritanian military uniforms and flamboyant women bodyguards, has given cartoonists and others a rich seam of material for mockery. On Benghazi’s seafront promenade, a youth dressed in a scraggly Gaddafi wig, aviator sunglasses and holding an umbrella paraded in an open truck, bringing traffic to a near standstill to hoots of laughter and blaring of car horns.
“We’re letting off steam, expressing ourselves. He didn’t just commit military crimes, but crimes against our minds, thought crimes,” said teacher Fatima al-Shaksy , 42.
Protesters have in the past week paraded with a Gaddafi stuffed monkey toy holding an umbrella, and a Gaddafi rat in a cage — Gaddafi has labelled his protester opponents vermin .
-Agencies