JERUSALEM // A YouTube musical clip mocking the embattled Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has become a hot hit in the Arab world, its Israeli creator said on Tuesday.
"Zenga Zenga", created by the Tel Aviv music journalist and blogger Noy Alooshe, shows Colonel Qaddafi in repetitious sequences banging his fist on a podium and raising it defiantly during a speech he made last week.
The modified music of "Hey Baby", a song by the US rappers Pitbull and T-Pain, blasts from the video, but words from Colonel Qaddafi's address have replaced the lyrics.
The Arabic word "zenga", which Libyans use for small neighbourhood, stood out for Mr Alooshe, who does not speak the language, and he made it the recurring theme of the clip.
Mr Alooshe said: "When I saw Qaddafi speaking it struck me that his cadence and his movements were perfect for a clip. It was so musical."
His original two-minute video shows a gyrating female dancer in skimpy olive-green underwear, a homage, he said, to Gaddafi's famed female bodyguards, either side of the Libyan leader as he delivers his speech.
Mr Alooshe said the clip had registered about 1.8 million views early on Tuesday and that he also created a version without the dancer after being told by some viewers the video was too risque.
He said he had received positive feedback on his Facebook page and by email from many viewers in Arab countries, even after they discovered from his details on the social networking site that he was Israeli.
"Of course there were those who hurled the usual abuse and I was even branded a Mossad spy, but I have many friend requests pending for my Facebook page," he said.
Mr Alooshe said he believed the popularity of the clip was proof that social networking sites were playing an influential role in the current political upheaval in the Arab world, which has seen leaders ousted in Tunisia and Egypt by popular movements.
The clip elicited hundreds of comments on the YouTube page, one of which, posted by "bhamdan11" read: "Great clip, I just hope one day we? can overthrow all of our dictators and live free."
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The Indoor Cricket World Cup
When: September 16-23
Where: Insportz, Dubai
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
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16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
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Zones
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1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
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THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
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Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
