The “pop” Lady: between lust for power and victimhood

Imagine a country emerging from a long colonial period. That same country was also a battleground for the Second World War.

After the War and the Colony, a General and his council govern the country through a Nationalist and Communist movement. The General and his council gather in long meetings where they talk of elections, democracy, modernize the country. Sooner or later. After the meetings.

Another General one day kills his rival and takes power. This General is rather hard. He does not do meetings where he speaks of elections, democracy, modernize the country. University students who want Coca Cola and switch to the American model – supported by monks – do many rallies because they want the General to resign and they want to govern.

Meanwhile, the dead General’s daughter is living abroad, where she married a foreigner, has two children and makes her life as bourgeois upper middle class. I’ll call her from now onward “The Lady”. In the TV news she sees that the situation in her country is not safe, there are clashes and police shoots.

One day she comes to know that her mother is sick and is in hospital. Then she leaves behind her husband and children, takes the first plane and come back in her country.

While she is there the university teachers and other intellectuals come to her and say that she must become the new “democratic leader” and govern the country. The Lady (who was the daughter of the dead General and therefore hates the living General) accepts and stays to hold the demonstrations, demanding that the General resigns, so that she can rule instead.

The husband and the children reach her for a short period but for political reasons (of the wife) are expatriates. The Lady stays to her native country regardless of husband and children.

The Lady is put under house arrest, with the condition that she can leave the country whenever wants and get together with the family. But she does not care. She wants to rule.

The General, under international pressure, then decides to call for elections. The people can choose between two parts: A General shooting on protesters and a “pop icon” under house arrest. The Lady wins with 96% of the votes. But she cannot become Prime Minister because she is married with a foreigner and the local law does not allow to take public office if you have a foreign spouse. The elections are invalidated.

The following year The Lady receives the Nobel Peace Prize, as her previous and subsequent “colleagues” Henry Kissinger, Mother Teresa, Gorbachev, Mandela, Arafat and Obama.

Finally the house arrest penalty was revoked but she still did not reunite with her family, fearing that after she would not be allowed back in the country. She even didn’t return to her husband when he was diagnosed with cancer and later he died. He died alone, leaving alone the children. The two sons grew up without a mother, for her political ambition and lust for power. With the older son she had virtually no more relations since then, the second son had a troubled life, mostly made of excesses and alcohol. In return, The Lady has chosen 51 million “children”: the people of her country, as she likes to remind.

This chronicle will be followed by a honorary degree from the University of Bologna, the US Congressional Gold Medal, songs of the U2, REM and Coldplay, the “MTV music award” (why?), a film by Luc Besson. …and the rest is present history.

If you still don’t know who I’m talking about: