Dictator Island
With tyrants falling like dominoes (Qaddafi seems next), perhaps it’s time we dreamed up the next reality TV show. Bravo could call it Dictator Island and assemble all the aging, exiled strongmen in villas spread out across one of those nuclear-ravaged atolls in the Pacific.
Let the likes of Baby Doc and Mubarak conspire for control over the island. Or better yet, put them all under one roof, and watch them kvetch, celebrity housewives style, over not being appreciated.
Surely someone has already thought of this?
Yes, somebody already did – the guy was named Voltaire, and the book was titled ‘Candide’ – it occurs when Candide and Doctor Pangloss visit the Carnival in Venice and entertain several deposed Crowned Heads of States – this seems to be a Seasonal Things, occurring somewhat like the fabled nineteen-year locusts – there was a wave of candidates after 1789, after 1918, 1945 and 1989, for example – but Voltaire names enough [real] names to show that there was no dearth already in 1758 when the book came out.