Albright Sends 'Clone' To Sing
Updated 10:26 AM ET July 28, 1999
By Carol Giacomo
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - After spirited performances two years running, Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright again produced the unexpected for a closing dinner skit at an
Asian leaders conference -- a drag clone of herself.
Albright actually had to leave Singapore early for Rome so she could visit Kosovo
Thursday and Bosnia Friday for a summit on Balkans stability.
So Tuesday night's U.S. musical review at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) annual dinner featured a stand-in: Assistant Secretary of Defense Kurt
Campbell.
He was dressed as Albright singing a spoof called "Lone Superpower" to the tune of an
old American classic, "Home on the Range."
In a taped video message that opened the skit, Albright apologized for not being there
herself.
But she said "American technology can achieve miracles ... Before leaving Singapore, I
had myself cloned. And I have left behind Madeleine II... who combines the modesty of
(ex-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger with the shyness of Madonna -- me."
Campbell, posing as Albright and wearing clothes similar to hers, proceeded to playfully
exult about American hegemony.
Hegemony is something the United States is often faulted for in the post-Cold War era,
including an unexpected attack on this very point Tuesday by the Chinese foreign minister
during the formal (and serious) part of the ASEAN conference.
"Lone, lone superpower/From Pristina to Port Au Prince Haiti," reads one verse of the
song, in which Campbell was supported by a chorus of other U.S. officials.
"Some countries complain/We feel their pain/But we're sticking with hegemony."
As always with the performances during Albright's tenure, the Americans make fun of
almost everyone -- themselves included -- and the verses often contain more than a grain
of truth.
Some other verses:
"Oh, give me a home/Where the peacekeepers roam
"And the tariffs are lowered each day
"Where the people can vote/And the currencies float
"And the countries all do what we say "I've met for some time/With the sheriff from China
"Our positions they sometimes conflict
"But we don't come to blows/As our soccer team knows
"We resolve things with penalty kicks"
"To my old friends in Asia/From Japan to Malaysia
"I dedicate this cowgirl song
"And to old North Korea/We really don't fear ya'
"Cause your missile is called the No Dong"
For many years, the U.S. skit at the dinner was decidedly uninspired. But In 1997 when
she became secretary of state, Albright infused originality into the task, winning rave
reviews for a performance based on the musical "Evita."
In 1998 she teamed up with then-Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov for a spoof
on the musical "West Side Story" re-named "East-West Story."
U.S. officials briefly considered doing something with the Chinese this year but given the
state of their relations, neither side seemed ready for that.
>>>I thought the song was in bad taste. Could be taken for gloating
>>>over lesser powers. |
