Reposed at a Hanging = gangsters among saints

Come my people come see a hanging.....


The disturbing images taken of Mr. Hussein before his hanging is something the world should feel a bit tarnished by. Somehow, despite all that he may have done to others outside of the glare of cameras showing him being led to his death did not achieve what it was set up to do. The use of a phone camera to bring the world more private imagery from the scene also lent an air of the perverse on top of the existing perversity.

On a day when the former president of the United States, Mr.Gerald Ford, and the Godfather of Soul, Mr. James Brown held the worlds' interest with their deaths, it was very disconcerting to see Mr. Hussein also make the headlines, in a way, stealing the thunder from arguably outstanding individuals. This is one of the amazing ironies of life, gangsters among saints, everyone reduced to a soundbite at the end of the day. But what really struck me was that yet again in 2006, a different perspective on an orchestrated event was caught on a tiny phone. This has huge repercussions for what we have come to call reality television. This is in some ways 'more real' than reality.

I also wondered, many years ago with the death of Princess Diana, many clamoured to keep her last images away from the public eye. Now many years on, with this public hanging, are we not pretending that we have standards? Just when you think that the bar is a limbo dance, the bar goes lower. Why do we want to see such tragedy, and moreso, paid for by comercials interspersed between each vouyeristic morsel. The only difference here is that we are not standing in a public square screaming 'heretic.' The camera phone shall continue to have a great deal to tell us about ourselves, our news and our reality. The very serious issue here is whether we can turn back the hands of bad taste now that nothing is sacred. - Adele


Death fascinates those who are not at the foot of the bearer