Bin Laden dead, at least to most people

Just a few seconds ago, fireworks went off near my flat. I don’t know if it’s because of yesterday’s football match or because of Bin Laden.

It was a pretty dull Sunday (honestly, are Sundays ever anything but dull? In my city they are and forever will be dull…). After watching some random TV shows, including the really cheesy, dumbing down, low-quality local late night Sunday show on RBS called “Tele Domingo”, I found out that “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was showing on another channel. I decided to watch part of the movie for the 115th time before calling it a night. I was ready to turn in, gathering some things for this morning’s class, when for some reason I switched to CNN. Sunday night is usually when they show something related to sports, so I almost never watch it.

The funny thing is how you deal with something unexpected. Everything happened in a fraction of a second, I mean, 3 fractions of a second. First I see Obama speaking and the first thing I thought was, “did he give a speech today?” I don’t know, something on economy, health care, birth certificate, whatever. Then, I see it’s a live speech, and I think, “what the hell?” The last thing I see on the screen (should have been the first) is the caption: “Osama Bin Laden is dead”. I’m like, “what?” “WHAT?” “Oh my God!!!”

So, at this point it’s almost 1a.m. and I’m at home yelling “what?” and firing up the computer, which takes about 20 minutes to load, still not believing what had just happened.

So, this morning my students and I obviously talked about it and they basically focused on the fact that Obama was able to pull off something that W didn’t for almost 10 years. My co-workers, on the other hand, were more skeptical. First, they want to see pictures (pulling a birther. A “proofer,” maybe?) and I don’t blame them, I’d like to see it too. I remember when Saddam was hanged, Sky News showed the footage almost on repeat mode (it was Sunday morning and I was working at the cafe in London). Then, they tell me that they don’t believe the convenient burial of the body at sea. Then they went on to question the sheer existence of Bin Laden! Well, I don’t think I’m with them on these matters…

But keeping alive the tradition of dead people helping out the living in this world, such as Ayrton Senna helping Brazil win 1994 World Cup by deviating Baggio’s penalty, president of Peru decides to say during an inauguration speech that Pope John Paul II helped out on the killing of Bin Laden. Well, I don’t care if it was the late Pope or the SEALs that got the guy, only that he’s gone for good and the magazines and newspapers covers will be historic. As well as Obama’s speech.