Death of a Dictator

So Colonel Gaddafi's dead and there are mass celebrations taking place across Libya. Freedom at last for people who have been ruled with an iron fist for forty years. So will Libya be transformed overnight into a flourishing democracy? I doubt it. Judging by the scenes surrounding the tyrant's final moments, I doubt it very much.

Whatever Gaddafi did when he was alive, by meting out the same horrific, barbaric treatment to him when he was lying helpless and injured, the mob showed that they had no more capacity for compassion than their fallen leader .It doesn't bode well for the emerging Libya to see scenes of a blood-soaked body being kicked and beaten to a chorus of  jubilant rejoicing, reminiscent of howling packs of hounds ripping a fox apart.

As long as we subscribe to the notion that someone 'deserves' to die like that there is no hope for a peaceful existence on this planet.

Time and time again I am reminded of my favourite quote:

                                           An Eye for an Eye makes the Whole World Blind.

Instead of one of my own poems, this week I have decided to share some beautiful  lyrics from a King Crimson song which are appropriate in view of the subject:

Peace - an End

Peace is a word Of the sea and the wind. Peace is a bird who sings As you smile. Peace is the love Of a foe as a friend; Peace is the love you bring To a child Searching for me You look everywhere, Except beside you. Searching for you You look everywhere, But not inside you. Peace is a stream From the heart of a man; Peace is a man, whose breadth Is the dawn. Peace is a dawn On a day without end; Peace is the end, like death Of the war.