This week it was revealed that Michael Jackson could be placed in a glass coffin and put on public display.

This is what ex-Soviet bloc leaders used to do after they kicked the bucket. Back in the days of the Soviet Union, the remains of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin used to be a major drawcard for tourists to Moscow. While his mausoleum still exists near the Kremlin, it's drawing smaller crowds these days. Mao Zedong, the founder of Communist China, is enjoying better success than his Russian counterpart as, unlike in Moscow, the Communist Party is still in power. Therefore, his embalmed remains are a must see for visitors to Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

Michael Jackson, though, is not a dead ex-Marxist-Leninist dictator but a deceased capitalist entertainer. To continue the comparisons, though, he was built up by the giant multinational music company propaganda machine to be the 'King of Pop'. He was mobbed by fans who were made to believe that MJ was a great musician (although some would beg to differ on this point).  Jackson's propagandists, like their Soviet and Chinese counterparts, attempted to keep his dark side hidden. And just like those two great dictators who lie in open view, Jackson's alleged crimes and misdameanours have come to the surface too.

But as is the case with both Lenin and Mao, posthumous propaganda efforts continue in order to rehabilitate Michael Jackson. The latest example of this is the Jackson rehearsal footage studded effort This Is It. The motion picture aims to show Jackson as an alive, adept and competent performer as he prepared for his London shows which never went ahead. Most importantly the film (which I haven't seen yet) seeks to portray Jackson as a human being and not as the nutcase that the media portrayed him as.

However, this latest idea to put Jackson's corpse on permanent public display is just nutty. Having said that, I can the see the rationale for this move as it would really befit the singer who was eccentric to the point of being (as one of his song titles summed it up) off the wall. Being originally placed in his casket minus half his brain seemed to sum this up at a symoblic level. While it is true that this was done so that toxicology reports could be written to determine cause of death, I really wonder as to whether the pathologists also did this to find out what really made MJ tick. Strangely enough, Lenin's brain was subjected to the same treatment by Soviet scientists who wanted to know how his ticked too. In Michael Jackson's case, we would all be curious to know the answer!

In the meantime (if the reports are true) then Los Angeles could be preparing for the opening of a new tourist attraction to rival Disneyland, Sunset Boulevard and the Hollywood sign. After all, California's latest celebrity governor Arnie Schwarzenegger has spent the last year fending off a serious financial crisis in his state. Given that Jackson was a worldwide phonomenon, millions of extra tourists could flock to see him and, in the process, improve the state's economy.

Right now, if the story is true, the Jackson family will be calling Beijing and Moscow to ask for either Lenin or Mao's embalmers. It seems like they could be doing good business in LA very soon!

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