Some of you may have noticed during the royal rumble that ensued in the Japanese Parliament late last week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quietly slipped out while members of his party continued to fight back a horde of angry legislators so that they could usher in changes to the way the constitution is understood. At first, I wondered why he would duck out at such a moment, but then I remembered: it’s his biiirthdaaay♪
Yes, on 21 September, Japan’s fearless leader turned 61. Unfortunately his age is really starting to show in his lack computer savvy. We already know the PM has his own Twitter account after Abe revealed that he pays his Twitter fees just like the rest of us. But apparently he still hasn’t grasped how to use the “@” symbol properly when a message of thanks to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi accidentally went to the wrong guy, who also just happened to help develop Twitter.
It all started when PM Modi sent a tweet out to PM Abe whom he had met with earlier this month for talks. It was a very pleasant and thoughtful gesture.
[tweet https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/645791656407465984 align=center]Also touched by this sentiment was the @AbeShinzo Twitter account which sent back an equally cordial reply. However, rather that inputting the Indian PM’s account @narendramodi, it read “@Narendra Modi.“ Apparently someone mixed up their Twitter and Facebook “@” symbol syntaxes along the way, and as a result the Japanese PM’s message of thanks went to Narendra Rocherolle, the CEO of the photography website Webshots.
Rocherolle had also worked on Twitter in its more formative years and says that he had come up with the idea of “retweeting.” One of the perks of such involvement was getting his own name as his Twitter handle “@Narendra.” The other perk is getting random thank-yous from heads of government when you least expect it. That’s sure to brighten your day.
[tweet https://twitter.com/narendra/status/646139791461867520 align=center]Ironically, rather than make use of his own invention, Narendra Rocherolle simply linked to the message of an apologetic Japanese citizen in his own tweet.
[tweet https://twitter.com/denco_chan/status/646105510232526848 align=center]The good-natured Rocherolle shrugged of the misfired tweet as a mere mistake. Actually, he had received numerous other mislabeled tweets a few days before which just happened to be Modi’s own birthday of 17 September.
[tweet https://twitter.com/narendra/status/644362026710466560 align=center]Meanwhile, I can only imagine the real Narendra Modi was sitting in his bedroom listening to Taylor Swift and constantly checking his Twitter notifications for a reply from Abe that would never come. This would be the second time he got snubbed, having only received a fraction of his expected birthday tweets a week before.
He then may have dialed up his Minister of Defence Manohar Parrikar and said: “Hey Manny, you know that one nuke we have but couldn’t decide who to point it at? Yeah, that one. Well, I was thinking…”
Also, the very next day, Modi tweeted another birthday greeting, this time to the Chief Minister of Sikkim State, Pawan Chamling. It seemed a little more enthusiastic and kind of made Abe’s birthday wish pale in comparison.
[tweet https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/646161111314665472 align=center]The @AbeShinzo account had since deleted its earlier mistake and about a day later put up a new message correctly addressed to @narendramodi containing the exact same wording as the original.
[tweet https://twitter.com/AbeShinzo/status/646235677345095680 align=center]A fake Narendra Modi account replied to Abe with poor grammar, and managed to snag 14 retweets and 101 favorites in the process. A full list of those who clicked favorite couldn’t be seen but the Prime Minister does not appear to be among them.
[tweet https://twitter.com/ModiNs495223/status/646330992723017730 align=center]The real Modi made no comment over Twitter in response to Abe’s updated thank-you. Of course as the leader of one of the world’s most populous countries he’s probably just busy. Then again, the words of the immortal bard Taylor Swift may still be echoing in his ears.
‘Cause baby now we got bad blood
You know it used to be mad love
So take a look what you’ve done
‘Cause baby now we got bad blood
Source: Twitter/@AbeShinzo, Twitter/@narendramodi, Twitter/@Narendra (English) via Huffington Post Japan (Japanese)