Let’s Play, “Who Am I?”

“He was brought up with good manners. He matured as an extremely humble and very generous person. He insists on joining his comrades in every act. Very frequently he cooks for them and serves them. He lives a simple life in a small flat or in a shed and insists that his family eat simply and dress simply. Guess #1?

He is known to be strictly truthful and would never lie, but he is politically conscious and believes there is a room for political involvement even if you are a devout person. Despite being shy he has a dominating personality. He speaks very little and looks serious most of the time. He often appears with a soft smile but he seldom laughs. His followers see an aura about him and show great respect to him although is not really charismatic. He is not known for giving distinguished speeches, and there are very few audio or video recordings of him. Guess #2?

He is very educated (as an engineer and in business administration) and spends a good deal of time reading. He is fond of media monitoring and information gathering and research. There is always a data management team with him wherever he goes. Guess #3?

One of his outstanding features is his courage. More than once he has needed treatment in hospital for injuries resulting from bombings and explosions. Despite his courage he is very cautious person. He will not keep any electronic instrument close to his vicinity. He even avoids wearing a simple watch because he believes this might help in targeting him.” Final guess?

I’m sure by now that you will have guessed that the above is a description of Osama bin Laden, written by a journalist. When I first read this brief description of Osama the person, I found it rather hard to reconcile it with my perception of the world’s number one terrorist.

Before becoming Public Enemy Number One in much of the western world, bin Laden was a self-made multimillionaire. He was a construction company owner and his net worth was believed to be between $200-300 million.

Somehow, the man described above and the man who is portrayed in our media seems more like Jekyl and Hyde, than the same person. I guess personal attributes are often buried so far below the surface of the public persona or media portrait that we don’t ever think of words such as humble, generous and shy to describe a man like bin Laden!

I know I guessed wrong to the question of “Who Am I?”