Today the world awakes to the news that one of the last tyrants has died. Kim Jong-Il was famous for many reasons: Most favorite to me, and my warped humor, was his strange fascination with Hollywood and of course the highly amusing portrayals of him in Southpark - he appeared nothing more than a strange old Asian dude. Unfortunately, the facts are less endearing. For many he was simply a ruthless despot, a nasty little piece of work intent on resisting market economy, starving a large portion of his people, and achieving absolutely nothing for them other than the scorn and ridicule from beyond the Hermit Kingdom.
While I’m not the poet type, his appellation, Dear Leader, constantly reminds me of a Walt Whitlam poem, which I’ve bastardised below to befit the occasion. O’ Leader, Dear Leader is a spin on Walt Whitman’s famous poem of similar title:
O Leader! Dear Leader! your fearful trip is done;
The train has weathered every track, the prize you sought is none;
The port is bear, the shops are scarce, a nation in confinement,
While follow eyes the broken keel, the vessel grim and silent:
- But O hoorah! hoorah! hoorah!
O the clenched fist to the chest,
Where on the train my Dear Leader lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
Poor Mugabe must be feeling quite isolated these days. Given my deep concern on this matter I thought I’d play a Nando’s advert, “Last Dictator Standing,” in his honour:
