a few words before I go

You know, you never really know what to expect from death - or as I like to call it, life. Because if I am not alive right now, it makes this communiqué downright creepy. Nevertheless, creepy seems an appropriate description for my current situation, wherein I find myself to be drifting in a golden space filled with dazzling bursts of light. I am relatively certain that someone slipped the taxi of Al Jadeeda into my Nescafe, for such is the way of the Libyan people.   The truth is, it is hard to find good bodyguards in the midst of a revolution. I had men who swore they would die for me, a fact which you might think I would convey with pride. But I don't, because in the end all you're left with is a lot of dead bodyguards and an angry mob that doesn't care whether you live or die. Allow me to restate that. They most certainly did care whether I lived or died, and they opted for the latter. 'Have pity, do not hit me' I pleaded, but they turned a deaf ear to me. I must admit, I was as proud of my people as the father of a newborn.   There is one clarification on the circumstances of my demise which I feel I must offer, lest the legend of the Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya be sullied by misinformation. I was not hiding in a drainage pipe. True, I was pulled out of a drainage  pipe, but I had stumbled into that quite by accident. I had been heading to my bunker and I must have made a wrong turn or something, I don't know, all I remember is realizing that I was in the wrong place and the next moment some rebel is shouting 'the dictator is hiding in the drainage pipe'. I realized that he was talking about me and tried to explain my mistake, but one thing led to another and then the next thing I knew I was dead.   Still, I've got to say that I came out no worse for the wear. I said that I would stay in Libya and die as a martyr, and once again, I have proven true to my word. I know that I will live on in the hearts of the Libyan people, although at the moment, these lights are making me dizzy, and the love of the people doesn't seem like that much consolation.