From now until Christmas Eve, the Guardian will be asking people to nominate their heroes and villains of 2010. To kick off, the paper asked a nameless, dying Iraqi child, who lost his mother and father in the sectarian bloodshed of 2009.
'Eloquent, witty, literate, intelligent, knowledgeable, brave, erudite, hard-working, honest (who could forget his clean-through skewering of Mother Teresa's hypocrisy?), arguably the most formidable debater alive today yet at the same time the most gentlemanly, Christopher Hitchens is a giant of the mind and a model of courage,' argues the nameless child, who will not live for much longer. 'A lesser man would have seized the excuse of a mortal illness to duck responsibility and take it easy. Not this soldier. He will not go gentle into that good night; but instead of a futile raging against the dying of the light he rages, with redoubled energy (and concentrated power in his vibrant, Richard Burton tones) against the same obscurantist, vicious or just plain silly targets as have long engaged him,' the child continued, pausing only to sob uncontrollably at the thought of his dead brother, killed in an American air attack. 'But he never rants. His is a controlled, disciplined rage, and don't get on the wrong side of it,' argued the child, who has suffered almost constant psychological and physical ill health after prolonged exposure to depleted Uranium and white phosphorus, both used illegally by the Americans.
'Like Bertrand Russell, Hitch "would scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation". He laughs off the spiritual vultures eager for a death-bed conversion, and dismisses – but with unfailingly gracious courtesy – the many schadenfreudian prayers for his recovery. As Daniel Dennett said, in similar circumstances, "And did you also sacrifice a goat?"' stated the child, who, unlike Hitchens, was born into poverty and who will die there, having never having had the advantages of a public school/Oxbridge education, nor the constant attention of the world's media.
'I devoutly hope (not pray),' the boy continued, after wheezing and pausing for breath ''that we shall see realised the 5% chance of recovery that modern doctors (not ancient gods) can offer. And if it is not to be – if, in his own gallantly insouciant words, he has to leave the party early – he will bequeath us an example worth following for centuries to come.' The child then paused,before hobbling off to beg for change from the constant stream of passing Iraqis desperately trying, economically, to keep their heads above water, before he was lost from sight, as another power cut plunged the street into darkness.
“The enemies of intolerance cannot be tolerant." • "If it is an offense to justice to hold people who may have been victims of mistaken identity or of vendettas by other factions, then it is also an offense to justice to release psychopathic killers who believe that they have divine permission to throw acid in the faces of girls who want to attend school." • "Don't be such a lesbian!
”
