Monday, February 18, 2008

Who are the world's worst dictators?

Parade Magazine has come out with its annual list. If you want to find out more details about these despots, then click the link. If you are in a hurry, here you go:
  1. Kim Jong-Il - North Korea
  2. Omar al-Bashir - Sudan
  3. Than Shwe - Myanmar (formerly Burma)
  4. King Abdullah - Saudi Arabia
  5. Hu Jintao - China
  6. Robert Mugabe - Zimbabwe
  7. Sayyid Ali Khamenei - Iran
  8. Pervez Musharraf - Pakistan
  9. Islam Karimov - Uzbekistan
  10. Isayas Afewerki - Eritrea
My quick observations:

All the countries are located in either Africa (3) or Asia (7). Of the 10 dictators, 6 of them lead Muslim countries, with the other countries being either communist or formerly communist. The average age of these men is 70 years old, with the oldest being 84 (King Abdullah) and the youngest being 62 (Afewerki). That is quite a group of grumpy old men!

The best part of this Parade feature is that my 8th graders are currently studying the concept of all-powerful vs. limited governments as part our lessons on the Constitution. This list of dictators and descriptions of their evil misdeeds will be required reading tomorrow for all my 8th graders - many of whom are unaware that the whole world is not like the United States.

Good Day to You, Sir

6 comments:

W.R. Chandler said...

You might want to read up on Robert Mugabe's politics.

Anonymous said...

I have, and there is no way you can describe him as communist. But then, realistically, there is no way you could compare Hillary to Hitler.. but hey, it has been done.

W.R. Chandler said...

Mugabe was the head of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). This is a description of ZANU from Wikipedia:

"The Zimbabwe African National Union was a militant Marxist organization that fought against white minority rule in Rhodesia, formed as a split from the Zimbabwe African People's Union. While ZAPU was more pro-Soviet, ZANU was more Maoist and pro-Chinese in the wake of the Sino-Soviet split. ZANU won the 1980 elections under the leadership of Robert Mugabe, and eight years later merged again with Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU to form ZANU-PF, the current governing party of the country."

If you don't trust Wikipedia as a source then look up ZANU yourself and start rethinking your stance that Mugabe is not a communist. Why is it so important to you that Mugabe not be considered a communist?

Don, American Idle said...

I was surprised that the liberal educators couldn't influence Parade to put George W. Bush on the list. Jorge Smirnoff would.

Law and Order Teacher said...

Once again communism is proven to be a bankrupt ideology. I found it interesting that Mugabe has presided over multi-thousands per cent inflation. That's an impressive record. Once again a communist, and he is a communist, has given proof of the fallacy of communism.

The Vegas Art Guy said...

My first thought was 'what no George Bush?'

lol

Actually I was surprised that ole Fidel didn't make the list.