Idi-Osyncrasies
David Lange
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Idi Amin, whom we learned may soon be turning up daisies, was quite the megalomaniac.
In the summer of 1972 Amin paid a surprise visit to Queen Elizabeth in London, telling her size 47 shoes were difficult to get in Uganda and asking her where she got her husband’s shoes. Amin later went on to declare himself monarch of Scotland and “conqueror of the British Empire”.
Another of Amin’s eccentric quirks was to invite the children of foreign diplomats to compete against him in swimming races in the pool of the Sheraton Hotel –the children’s parents advised them to let the vain megalomaniac win.
Interesting footnote: Amin was initially on good terms with Britain and Israel, and in fact was trained as a paratrooper in Israel, who at the time was pursuing an African policy (wanting to pass on the lessons they had learned to Africans who were engaged in the same process of nation building). But relations between Amin and Israel grew sour when Israel saw his true colors, and refused to provide him with a squadron of Phantom jets with which to bomb Kenya and Tanzania.
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David Lange
