WASHINGTON – It’s a selfiethat shook the world — mostlythe tabloid and online world. Ananimated self-portrait (“selfie”in Internet argot) of USPresident Barack Obama andBritish Prime Minister DavidCameron taken by Denmark’sblonde leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt at Nelson Mandela’smemorial service on Tuesdaytitillated the prissy and theprurient across the world,before the photographer whocaptured the moment said it wasno big deal and trashed moderndayobsession with trivialities.It all began when within minutesafter the Mandela memorialservice in South Africa, photossurfaced of a grinning Obamaand Cameron on either side ofThorning-Schmidt, as shecheerfully took a self-portrait ofthe trio. The US president’swife, Michelle Obama, was nextto Obama, staring ahead stonefacedlyon what many saw as aserious occasion.
