Arnold Schwarzenegger was detained at the Munich Airport when he arrived from the USA, because he had not declared that he was going to sell his watch. Imran Khan is said to have joined in the protest, because he too knows the pain of having questions asked about what is your own property.
Schwarzenegger, bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-politician, was auctioning off the watch at a charity dinner he was to attend in Munich. The proper thing to do was declare the watch, presumably so they could mulct him heavily for the proceeds. He didn’t declare it, and was nabbed for tax evasion.
Schwarzenegger is best known for the title role in The Terminator movies, though he earlier played Conan the Barbarian in the two movies about that. He was Austrian, and before becoming an actor had been a bodybuilder (when he won one amateur and three professional three Mr Universe titles, and seven Mr Olympia titles, not to forget medals for weightlifting in the 80+ kg class). After his acting career was more or less over, he went into politics, conservative politics at that, and became Governor of California in 2003, a year after the sitting Governor, a Democrat named Gray Davis, had won a second term.
He became Governor in a recall election, in which a referendum was held on the signatures of a proportion of the voters. The referendum wants the incumbent out and may give another name as a replacement. It’s like a vote of no-confidence, only in a presidential system, the voters decide themselves, not their representatives.
So Arnold got elected in the equivalent of a vote of no-confidence, the means by which Imran was removed. But that, the watches and sports (cricket, bodybuilding, same difference) is not the only way he resembles Imran. It’s not just his film connections (Imran not only has a large number of connections in the Indian film industry, but it seems he wants to revive the Pakistani industry singlehanded by innovative scripts, such as the use of rare Asiatic poisons to assassinate people, and the armed attack on his life).
They have also had women trouble. Both married upwards and late. Schwarzenegger was 39 when he married Maria Shriver, the niece of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy, and the daughter of the 1972 Democrat vice-presidential nominee. Imran was 42 when he married Jemima Goldsmith, the daughter of MP Sir Jimmy Goldsmith. Schwarzenegger had an affair with a married woman, Mildred Baena some years later. Well, that’s the one we know about because she had a son, who bears her husband’s surname, but who is Schwarzenegger’s. Imran is supposed to have a daughter out of wedlock, Tyrian White. While he has never denied her, he has never acknowledged her even though his ex-wife Jemima has been her guardian.
A major difference is that Schwareznegger acknowledges the son, who is also into bodybuilding too. The equivalent would be Tyrian getting picked for a women’s cricket team. Schwareznegger admitted to adultery, though he did not marry the woman after his wife divorced him. Imran is also facing an adultery charge, because his present wife, Bushra Bibi, had not completed her iddat from her previous marriage. And by the way, her first husband has charged Imran for alienating his wife’s affections.
The charity Arnold was auctioning his watch for was his own climate change initiative. Well, we all know Imran cares about the environment. The ‘Billion-Tree Tsunami’, you know. One thing Imran probably likes about Arnold is that he is older, and a role model, proof that age is just a number. Arnold has never used his famous line from the Terminator 2: “Hasta la vista, baby.” But if he did, Imran would probably like being called a baby. Schwarzenegger can do so, after all, for he’s three years older than Imran. Of course, the Terminator’s next action, shooting the T2 is not what Imran would want for himself.
That’s not all the Terminator said. “I’ll be back”. Said by the Terminator after being denied entry into a police station. The Terminator returns by driving a car through the front door and massacring the crew of the police station. Imran wants to repeat it. After all, if Nawaz had said this in 2017, he would be right today. So Imran would like to say it too. And maybe “Hasta la vista, baby” which Spanish for ‘until next time’.
