Sorta. Kinda. Maybe.
Sorta. Kinda. Maybe.
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He's only mostly dead!
No, as Gerald Vanderleun points out, 'e's just resting.
He is dead. There are three reasons they're not admitting it:
1) Muslim death customs require burial within 24 hours of death, IIRC. They're not going to declare him dead until they've sorted out his burial.
2) There is currently something in the area of $4billion he's stolen from the PLO sitting in his Swiss bank account, and it's not clear who (if anyone) has access to it.
3) It's still not toally clear who's going to be in charge now, though it'll probably be Abbas.
Dude is dead.
Arafat's Liver has failed
Other than that his condition is not improving.
Of course he is not improving. He is dead. For Yasser Arafat you can't improve on that.
What do you make of the reports of his having AIDS?
I think he has AIDS.
I discuss it here. With linkage to previous discussions and other sources.
The purple splotches on his face(possible Karposi's Sarcoma) and a lack of official diagnosis I think are telling points. Not definitive.
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What is the difference between Franco and Arafat?
Franco is still dead.
Here's a quotation that may or may not be apropos, Joe, from Hilaire Belloc:
"Here richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician's corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintances sneered and slanged,
I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged."
--Epitaph on the Politician Himself
M. Simon: "I think he has AIDS."
Then somebody had better let Adam Shapiro know, because they probably shared a needle.
#8 Bob Harmon -
Here is my dead Arafat poem. Maybe we should compile a whole volume of Dead Arafat Poetry and start a new genre.
Arafat may really be dead now.
According to the Google "News" [of the moment], an unnamed Palestinian delegate declared "he is dead". The French have said "Arafat has slipped into a deeper more serious coma", and "his lower body is not working" [i.e. from the neck down, since it wouldn't mean 'from the belly-button, anus, or knee-caps' down]
I've also heard that they will try to keep Arafish going "officially" until the end of Ramadan. Symbolic gestures are all. Might as well stuff him and mount him as per a hunting trophy. "Ah, yes Wilcox ... bagged that one on its way -- amazingly! -- out of a French hospital."
GoatGuy
This "he's dead," "he's alive" thing has been going on for long enough that I think we may be dealing with Schroedinger's Arafat.
How do you say "he's really most sincerely dead" in French?
Fascinating intrigue overnight with Mme. Arafat. Who inherits the estate? And more to the point, how much of the Palestinians' collective wealth is in his wallet? The probate-court discussion could be very interesting.
The French have said "Arafat has slipped into a deeper more serious coma"
According to my wife's doctor, there is no such thing as a "deeper coma". It isn't like sleep - you're either in one or you aren't.