The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost



Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

It Couldn't be Done
Edgar Guest

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But, he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn't" but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, as he did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that;
At least no one we know has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he'd begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle right in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That cannot be done, and you'll do it

'Give the man you'd like to be a look at the man you are' - Edgar Guest

On the demise of Gaddaffi...

The internet is awash with the brazen way in which Col. Muammar Ghaddaffi was captured and killed. Video clips of his victors celebrating over his dead body have made many a person wince while others have justified this in equal measure. The UN has called for an investigation into this killing although the demise of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden in similar extra judicial or after botched judicial proceedings has not raised any significant response.

I have argued elsewhere that however controversial they might be, there are laws governing the treatment of prisoners of war. The development of international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict and the law in war- jus in bello- was meant to deal with the situations we saw online today(http://rt.com/news/mutassim-gaddafi-alive-dead-463/).

While some of us might choose trash these laws at our convenience on grounds that we were not fighting -in Libya- or that we did not lose relatives, we risk falling into the trap of selective application of the law (while at the same time criticising the alleged excesses of the dead Libyan Leader). If the people who killed Gaddaffi behaved just like him, then we have arguably just replaced one form of evil with another. Does that make us (read humanity) any better? The Geneva Conventions are the standards that humanity -however controversial that might sound- has chosen to be judged by. Lets not side-step them now. Excusing our actions or the actions of others because of what others have said was 'rage, emotion and vengeance' makes one wonder what form of humanity we espouse - if we espouse it at all anyway -

Therefore, those of us who talk about law - envisage laws that should be neutral in application. Laws that discriminate against perceived criminals are simply put , bad laws. Everyone - even those perceived to be guilty or evil, should be subjected to the criminal processes that various societies have deemed fit - in the current case, we should not excuse breach of the laws of war based on 'longevity in power' etc. Two wrongs do not make a right - inspite of the fact that Machiavelli's ''end justifies the means'' argument is plausible

To re-iterate, once people take up arms, they should be expected to abide by the laws of war - that is why the use of land mines, cluster bombs, nuclear weapons -which inter alia caused indisciriminate killing are prohibited - in the same way that mistreating of civilians and Prisoners of War are.

As succinctly put by Michelle Maiese,

''... when soldiers (and i contend that the victorious Libyan rebels fall in this category), attack non-combatants, pursue their enemy beyond what is reasonable, or violate other rules of fair conduct, they commit not acts of war, but acts of murder.International law suggests that every individual, regardless of rank or governmental status, is personally responsible for any war crime that he might commit.If a soldier obeys orders that he knows to be immoral, he must be held accountable. War crimes tribunals are meant to address such crimes. See http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/j/justwar.htm; and L.C. Green, The Contemporary Law of Armed Conflict. (Manchester, Canada: Manchester University Press, 1993), 17.

Such are the dictates of humanity - the humanity which - inter alia - requires the wronged to act better than the perceived culprit and makes us wince at the sight of fellow human beings dancing on the corpse of another - regardless of who the deceased might have been.

I humbly submit

....

On Libya and the Libyan Spring

Giving a prisoner all luxuries of life does not stop him from desiring his freedom. As long as such prisoner feels he needs to be free, its a useless venture. Reminds me of the kids whose parents lockup at home with all kinds of luxuries and they end up either escaping to dance halls at night or sleeping with the househelps. That is the stark reality of what happened in Libya. A Country that was praised of having one of the best standards of living in Africa but this was with limited freedoms for the people

Humanity is a complex 'thing' to deal with. When one thinks that they are doing good for all, let one be mindful of the fact that that there is no ''silver bullet'' solution to humanity's needs and desires. ''The circumstances of the world are so variable that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one''. ~William H. Seward


So,

Whereas i might not agree that the jubilations on the streets of Libya reflect the fact that people all Libyans were tired of Khaddaffi (having read Henrik Ibsen's 'An Enemy of the People' and recalling that from our own experience that Ugandans jubilate WHENEVER change of governement occurs -

NOT forgetting that fighting in Libya and among Libyans, went on for 8months),

AND

Whereas I do not entirely agree that the 'Libyan Spring' was generated solely by the West, and

Whereas I do criticise the West -to a certain degree- for supporting the rebels,and

Whereas the killing of Khaddafi was wrong, and

Whereas i acknowledge that Machievelian principles of end justified the means applies, and

Whereas i do not expect Libyans to ''get better'' in a flash, and

Whereas i think 'Libyan Spring' has -probably- sent the country four decades back (if not more),

I concede that it was time for Khaddaffi to leave.

''EVEN THE BEST DANCER HAS TO LEAVE AT ONE POINT'' African Proverb....not forgetting that the dance styles and moves keep changing too anyways

My two cents ...