The Sad State of Africa's Despots

It occurs to me that people have failed to digest the full significance of the demise of President-for-Life Omar Bongo of Gabon.

Mr. Bongo expired in a clinic in Spain on the weekend. It says a lot about a president-for-life when, after 41 years of unchallenged, absolute rule, he has to leave the country when he wants medical treatment, because in all those years he couldn't manage to build a single decent hospital. Even Kim Jong-il, the pint-size paranoiac who heads North Korea, has decent facilities for himself and his coterie of generals and hangers on, including grand palaces with water slides, according to recent reports. But not Bongo, who may also have worried that he couldn't entirely trust the actions of his own cronies once he was under the ether. As in: "Hey, what's this plug for?"