Comments

You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

UN translators let Ahmadinejad down

2010-09-22

al Jazzera has a unique take on events during Short Round's UN speech yesterday.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, has addressed the UN General Assembly on the second day of the world body's millennium development goals summit. But it is not what he said on Tuesday that has made the news but what happened during the simultaneous translation of his speech, which has caused controversy.
so far, so good.
Right from the start, his speech was overshadowed by technical problems, as the president was heard saying: "There's no translation". These problems continued to cause confusion two minutes into his speech. All this was followed by an ominous announcement: "The interpreters would like to state that they are reading from a written text translated into English". With that, the translation stopped altogether.
Other reports shed a little light on what actually happened and have nothing to do with "technical difficulties". Mahmoud announced there would be no translation and launched into a 2 minute Farsi ramble about the glory of Iran as a world leader. Any non-Farsi speakers had no idea what the goof was saying. Then the headphones kicked in with translators immediately declaring that they were reading from a prepared printed speech provided by Iran and were not actually translating anything pencil neck was saying. No "technical difficulties", just the usual theatrics. Mahmoud is likely to be quite upset at having his carefully choreographed moment of dramatic spotlight as "technical difficulties."
the rest of the article goes on to cover the security precautions afforded Mahmoud and other topics touched on during the session.
Despite all the technical issues, Ahmadinejad managed to communicate his message that there is a need for an overhaul of what he called "undemocratic and unjust" global decision-making bodies.

The much-anticipated speech has now left many wondering what actually went wrong as the Iranian president's speech ended the same way as it started, without any translation.
Nothing went wrong. His "speech" went exactly as planned.

Not really. He didn't get to send one message to the Farsi-speaking part of the Ummah, and another to the English speaking world, which had worked so well for Yasser Arafat. Also, the word must have gone round the UN immediately, and he is now a laughing stock there, and with anyone paying attention.

Ahmadinejad, who arrived in New York on Saturday, told the Associated Press news agency that "the future belongs to Iran," and challenged the US to accept that his country has a major role in world affairs.

He can't even manage a simple con. Clearly he isn't capable of a major role in world affairs.

US officials have made it clear that there are no plans for Barack Obama, the US president, to have any contact with the Iranian leader in New York this week.

Slap an L on his forehead for loser, if he can't even get a meeting with President Obama, who recently announced his willingness to negotiate with Iran if only they would be open to it.

Posted by:Swanimote

#3 Technical difficulty, is that like a wardrobe malfunction or was he just not tall enough to use the mic?

Someone missed a golden opportunity to pipe Monty Python or Benny Hill music through the audio translation systems.

Posted by: swksvolFF 2010-09-22 16:26

#2 A better headline would have been: "Ahmadinejad Plays Fool on World Stage"

Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-09-22 14:40

#1 US officials have made it clear that there are no plans for Barack Obama, the US president, to have any contact with the Iranian leader in New York this week.

That gives Bumbles more time to practice his bowing in front of the mirror.

It takes skill and talent to bow really, really, low.

Posted by: CrazyFool 2010-09-22 11:36

00:00