Ghost of a flea: Shashi Tharoor

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March 20, 2006

Shashi Tharoor

I was watching International Womens' Day proceedings on an United Nations broadcast carried by CPAC and was brought up short by Shashi Tharoor: Who is this god in human form?* Never has there been a more Flea-ish non-Flea**; in fact, more Flea than Flea. I hereby pledge that as soon as budget permits I shall have an accent and hair-style transplant.

Short chats with Tharoor hosted by the National Museum of Australia (Canberra) illustrate the point as does his World Chronicle interview with Michael Douglas (with apologies for the poor sound quality). But for the full Flea-effect, guaranteed to impress people in neighbouring cubicles, I recommend his USC Annenberg School for Communication*** lecture "Public Diplomacy: A United Nations' Perspective".

*That would be novelist, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Public Information and presumed international man of mystery.
**With the possible exception of Stewie Griffin.
***There is lots more in the Annenberg Video Archive for those left feeling insufficiently erudite.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at March 20, 2006 08:37 AM

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Comments

I don't know, the hand-on-chin "thoughtful" pose is straight out of 1999 web-poseur Central Casting. That doesn't seem very Flea-ish to me. Stewie Griffin, on the other hand...

Posted by: Chris Taylor at March 20, 2006 04:06 PM

Certainly the physical resemblance and politics are much closer to Stewie.

Posted by: Ghost of a flea at March 20, 2006 05:42 PM

I had to look up Stewie Griffin on Wikipedia, but "incredible intelligence..., sophisticated style, attitude and mannerisms" just about sums up this man. Stand still my beating heart! But "desire for world domination"? If only...! Many of us would love to see him as he next Secretary-General of the United Nations, and a lot of media speculation suggested he would throw his hat in the ring, but so far he has stayed aloof from the race. Can you folks introduce ST to STewie?
p.s.: new to your blog, but what on earth is a "flea" as you define it? A random search of your archives produced no answer.....

Posted by: Emzee at April 1, 2006 08:36 PM

The mystery of the Flea may be addressed (in part) by a look at the collections of the Tate Britain! :)

Posted by: Ghost of a flea at April 2, 2006 01:43 PM

I know about Blake's painting, and the Lew Griffin novel for that matter, but neither helps me understand what "Flea" stands for in the sentence "Never has there been a more Flea-ish non-Flea; in fact, more Flea than Flea." Help!

Posted by: Emzee at April 4, 2006 06:50 AM

So, de Saussure was right after all; context * is * everything!

Posted by: Ghost of a flea at April 4, 2006 08:04 AM