I had decided to put the Gaddaffi matter to rest but it’s one of those things that just won’t go away. People are still debating whether he should or shouldn’t have been killed. Allow me to voice my opinion.

In every war, there are casualties and fatalities and in this specific war, we have to admit that Gaddafi asked for it. I wish the same voices calling for investigations into his death and those of his loyalists had spoken as loud all the time he was murdering civilians and his opponents.

The guy had a pistol and if he hadn’t been shot, somebody else would have been. It was a battle for crying out loud! As for what is left of Gaddafi’s family, I again find it hard to sympathise with any of them because the entire gang has caused immeasurable suffering to Libyans one way or another. Those who didn’t commit atrocities are wanted for financial crimes and if I were them, I would be glad I got away.

I had hoped that we would learn something from Gaddafi’s death – corpse in a meat cooler spectacle and all, and by we, I mean leaders across the world. With security forces still clamping down on protesters in Syria and Bahrain, I doubt we have, or will any time soon.

Nobody wants to leave power and it’s not just in Africa. Didn’t the Argentine former first lady just win a second term? Had her husband still been alive, he would have stood for the presidency.

Matters of the state have now become family business. Russia’s case is not that different. With Putin and Medviedev taking turns at the presidency and Premiership at will, it makes you wonder if they’re not related.

Then there’s Equatorial Guinea where the president’s son’s assets have been frozen. Mansions, private jets, sports cars and the largest collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia as the rest of the country languishes in poverty.

How do these people sleep at night? But there’s hope. Tunisia just showed us that and I hope we will see the same progress in Libya, Egypt and the rest of the region. The kind of progress where the electoral process is transparent, free and fair and where losers take defeat in stride as opposed to picking up arms.

I’ve been thinking about Somalia too. I wish there was a way we could get all the nice people out of that country and then deal with the extremists and pirates.

I just read about a South African couple who were abducted by pirates a year ago.

They asked for 10 million dollars at first but have since reduced the amount to 4 million dollars, which is still a lot of money. The captives’ families opened a trust fund but they’re still a long way from raising all the money.

The South African Government won’t help because they ‘don’t negotiate with lawbreakers’. That stand is so insensitive when two people’s lives are at stake. Now I understand why Israel went ahead with that very unfair prisoner swap. Every person’s life matters.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all Turks who lost loved ones and their homes after the earthquake. But I’m not happy with the Turkish authorities which first declined help from the international community only to accept it belatedly.

Who knows how many people would have been saved if rescuers had gotten to them on time? I’m not surprised 17 trucks carrying aid facilities were looted. People must have become impatient waiting for help from the government and decided to help themselves.

Ends