There is a definite stylistic thread, a dictator chic, if you like. And dictator chic is about the display of wealth and power in every possible form. Firstly, there must be gold, lots of it. There should be ornate French furniture. Reproduction is preferable, being shinier than the antique stuff. Shiny, whether it be marble floors or planet-sized chandeliers, is a key element of dictator chic. There must be animals, abundant murals, and the cornerstone of dictator chic: "things in one's own image." But as dictators fall, there are odd reminders that they are human, too. Discovered in the compound were family photo albums (one, curiously, devoted to Condoleezza Rice). Yesterday, as a 10-year-old boy struggled with his loot – including a suitcase, replica gun and satellite television receiver – a soldier reportedly shouted at him to stop. “Let him take what he wants,” came the response from other Libyans. “It belongs to him.”
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