h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Although it sounds odd in the context of chronic fatigue, I sometimes suffer from insomnia. Last night was one of those nights... In a fit of exasperation I groped around in the dark and switched the bedside radio on, wondering what time it was. It was just before 3am and the presenter said 'there are reports that Gaddafi has been captured hiding in a drain.' Suddenly I was wide awake. A few moments later the 3am news bulletin started with the news that he was, in fact, dead. My thoughts were:

1. That is great news for Libya.

2. I'll always remember where I was when I heard the news - tucked up in a nice comfortable bed.

3. I'll get points for this one in the Celebration of Life/Deathlist game. Hurrah!

Then I fell asleep and slept soundly until the normal getting-up time.

Now, at the other end of the day, I'm having thoughts about the validity of the old platitudes about not speaking ill of the dead. If a madman has terrorised his people and occasionally other parts of the world for more than four decades, it's pretty hard to find something positive to say about him. (Snazzy uniforms? Nice use of the colour green?) Sometimes we can only speak ill of the dead, or say nothing at all. I'm hoping it won't be long before he's consigned to oblivion.

I'm also thinking about Libya. The 20th century was not kind to Libya. Indifferent Turkish rule, Italian colonial rule, the battles of the Second World War which put 'Tobruk' just behind 'Gallipoli' in the Australian military psyche, further colonial-lite administration by Britain, a bogus monarchy, then the dictatorship of a madman. I hope this century is kinder to the country.

Mostly, though, I'm thinking about the media. While some people - Libyans, mostly - would have had a need to see this bastard's corpse to be sure that he was genuinely dead, I'm not convinced the rest of us needed to see it. Some media outlets here are getting quite pious about this. Unfortunately for their credibility, these are the same outlets whose websites offer video of a two-year-old Chinese girl being run over twice and ignored by passers-by. This poor child has now dies. That video is essentially a snuff movie. Yet the sanctimonious indignant noises about the sight of a dictator's corpse goes on.

The dictator is dead. A small child is dead. Hypocrisy lives. But despite the vibrant liveliness of hypocrisy, the world is a better place than it was at this time yesterday.

Ivan.

swl made the good point that if you show a picture of a cat being put into a bin, people over here are up in arms but show a picture of a dead man with severe head wounds and people are cheering. There's a rather disturbing double standard there.

I'm glad he's dead and I'd never let someone's death stop me from hating them, but I find pretty disgusting to see photos like that.

Haven't seen the photos, don't intend to see the photos. It's enough information for me to know that he is dead. He certainly made my early life a misery - the whole world is a better place without him.

It's not often that I agree with SWL, but I think he has a 100% valid point there. (I wish I could remember who it was who said, about a century ago, that if the British saw a starving shepherd-boy guarding starving sheep, they'd go out of their way to find something for the sheep to eat.)

Fizzy, trust me, you don't need to see the photos. A man who sponsored violence has died by violence, which is something like justice I suppose. It's just a pity it didn't happen in the early 70s.

I am so glad I'm not watching TV this week (I didn't know about the girl).

I haven't see the pictures, nor do I want to. The man is dead and his country now has to be stabilised.

The African continent is a melting pot at the moment. It's all going to get rather messy.

I sincerely hope it doesn't happen like that. I'm rather more optimistic about the state of Africa. There are a couple of festering sores - Somalia, Zimbabwe - and a bit of chafing - Egypt, while it's being run by the military - but on the whole it's looking better than it has in years.