Ode to Christopher Hitchens

While 2011 may have been a year of confusion and economic difficulty in Europe, nothing beats the very interesting outcomes for a number of despots. I am certain that nobody would have guessed that Muammar Gaddafi, Zine Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak are no longer leaders and some barely alive. And one would think that the troubles facing Syria's Bashar Assad and Khalifa's of Bahrain would be enough for the year and yet another strong arm leader, Kim Jong Il,  with no respect for life and political opinions has passed on in North Korea.

And yet to be philosophical about it, the latter passed on on the same date as Christopher Hitchens, an unapologetic advocate for reason and vociferous defender of the right to free expression. There is no better way to tie all this together than to refer to this fantastic piece by Hitchens on life in North Korea. In there, he talks about his visit to North Korea and the experience with the effects of aggressive ideology and the use of conflict to organize all society. Most interesting is the fact that the separation of the Koreas and the racist nationalism of the North exists side by side with the fact that the average citizen of this totalitarian regime is six inches shorter than those of south Korea. I agree as well with the statement that nothing is more totalitarian that "racist nationalism".