I'd presume three to be Buddhist: N. Korea, Thailand and China. I'd not venture a guess on the following: Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea I'd guess that the following are Muslim: Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekhistan No brainer that they are Muslim: Iran, Saudi Arabia I't great that our hemisphere is completely unrepresented. South and Central America have come a long way, baby! It sucks that they left off the guy from Belarus. Otherwise, no Europeans.
I'm shocked that Bush didn't make it. He's gotta be #1 with all that lying and warmongering and babykilling and killing innocent civilians and causing global warming and steering hurricanes into places where there are a lot of minorties and then not sending help and killing off all these species and....what else is there?
Cool! Considering our history, it is great that we're not represented now. That's one list we don't want to be in. I hope it remains that way. I wonder where Fidel Castro ranks. Certainly Cuba is still is a very restrictive society, but I guess whoever makes these rankings must believe he's loosened things up a bit in his old age.
1) Omar al-Bashir - Muslim 2) Kim Jong-Il - Atheist 3) Than Shwe - Buddhist (?) 4) Robert Mugabe - Roman Catholic 5) Islam Karimov - Muslim (or Atheist, he was/is affiliated with the Communist Party) 6) Hu Jintao - Atheist 7) King Abdullah - Muslim 8) Saparmurat Niyazov - Muslim 9) Seyed Ali Khamane’i - Muslim 10) Teodoro Obiang Nguema - Apperently has stated that he is a God
Yeah but the people who voted for him are just Jesus freaks and rednecks. They are all stupid and don't matter. They shouldn't evev have the right to vote. Gore should have won in 2000 anyway, Bush stole the election with his cronies in Florida and the US Supreme Court.
Dope Gore lost and besides that has a stupid bald spot on his head and now he is as fat as a small house.
The bald spot on his head proves he is an intellectual unlike the fill head of hair that Hitler & George Bush have. Well not Hitler now cuz it's just a shattered skull. And Gore isn't fat, he's inflated with his heart because he cares about everyone and Mother Earth. Bush is thin and evil and wants to kill and destroy the Earth.
Dictators 11-20 are linked to that page, they are: 11) Muammar al-Qaddafi, Libya 12) King Mswati III, Swaziland 13) Isayas Afewerki, Eritrea 14) Aleksandr Lukashenko, Belarus 15) Fidel Castro, Cuba 16) Bashar al-Assad, Syria 17) Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan (our good buddy) 18) Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia 19) Boungnang Vorachith, Laos 20) Tran Duc Luong, Vietnam http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2006/edition_01-22-2006/Dictators_11_to_20
I think the information presented in the article is not almost true ............. for instance take saudiarabia.................. 7) King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia. Age 82. In power since 1995. Last year’s rank: 5 Although Abdullah did not become king until 2005, he has ruled Saudi Arabia since his half-brother, Fahd, suffered a stroke 10 years earlier. In Saudi Arabia, phone calls are recorded and mobile phones with cameras are banned. It is illegal for public employees “to engage in dialogue with local and foreign media.” By law, all Saudi citizens must be Muslims. According to Amnesty International, police in Saudi Arabia routinely use torture to extract “confessions.” Saudi women may not appear in public with a man who isn’t a relative, must cover their bodies and faces in public and may not drive. The strict suppression of women is not voluntary, and Saudi women who would like to live a freer life are not allowed to do so. They were not allowing cellphone with cameras because of unappropriate use but when cell phones with cameras were allowed in the market, people began to use phones what the saudi authorities feared. By law, all Saudi citizens must be Muslims. Well its their country. whatever they wish. Every country has their rules and regulation. According to Amnesty International, police in Saudi Arabia routinely use torture to extract “confessions.” Who in the world doesnt Saudi women may not appear in public with a man who isn’t a relative, must cover their bodies and faces in public In reality saudi women hairs are seen from the scarf they wear and they dont wear their abaya properly and u could see their jeans or whatever they are wearing and the local police dont do a damn thing. Saudi women who would like to live a freer life are not allowed to do so. Saudi women are becoming doctors , pilots etc. How much freer do you guys want them to become. The only thing that they are not allowed to do is drive cars.
He is serious... Just shows the difference in mentalities. As much as we sometimes rag on the US, this list makes me very happy to be an American.
The study is somewhat accurate, although a bit biased, but still incomplete. The more complete study would have revealed the answer to "How many of those dictators would NOT be in power if it wasn't for the outside help from democratic countries."
These were my two favorites. This is a perfect example of why, if I am to believe the Bush administration's most noble purposes for the war in Iraq, ie to change the middle east, is so misguided. This guy, being on big soccer and being a traveler, is likely more sophisticated than the average in the mid east. And yet his ideas are still quite backwards. Imagine the mentality of the average man in the street in the heart of the kingdoms? Please. The Arab and much of the Muslim world has a long, long way to go to get to some remote degree of enlightenment. It's heartbreaking.
It makes me want to post a picture of a cute Southern gal in a belly shirt with AMERICA RULES underneath it. Islamic society is backward, period.
Maybe, maybe not. I do think Pakistan would be much closer to being a democracy or actually be a democracy again if the US didn 't find its military dictator useful.