Dictators.......................

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

I'll eventually move this to Pol/Reli but for the time being I figured it'd be funny to see what people posted up concerning countries and the dictators that run them.

Ladies & Gents I present to you


Turkmenbashi

After the USSR broke up in 1991, the Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan became an independent nation but had no identity of its own. Enter Turkmenbashi.

BACKGROUND

Turkmenistan had been under the control of Russia for more than a quarter century when it was declared part of the Soviet Union in 1924. In 1991, after the fall of Communism and the USSR, the country found itself independent for the first time in a hundred years. The new president, Saparmurat Niyazov, was the obvious successor – he’d been the Communist Party’s puppet governor since 1985. But easing a country of five million people into a new era of self-sufficiency and autonomy was not the highest item on Niyazov’s agenda. He was more concerned that decades of Soviet control had left Turkmenistan with no national identity. So, in 1993, Niyazov took it upon himself to create the country in a new image: his own.

First, he took the name Turkmenbashi (Leader of All Ethnic Turkmen) and declared himself President for Life. Since then, he’s undertaken scores of self-aggrandizing – and bizarre – measures to make Turkmenistan a very unique place:

› The airport in the capital city of Asgabat was renamed … Turkmenbashi.

› Dozens of streets and schools across the country are now called … Turkmenbashi.

› In 1998 a 670-pound meteorite landed in Turkmenistan. Scientist named it … Turkmenbashi.

› The name of the large port city Krasnovodsk was changed to … Turkmenbashi.

› The New president also renamed the months. January is now called … Turkmenbashi. April is called Gurbansoltan edzhe, after his mother. (Bread, once called chorek, is now also called gurbansoltan edzhe.)



The image of Turkmenbashi’s face is used as the logo of all three state-run TV stations, and is legally required to appear on every clock and watch face as well as on every bottle of Turkmenbashi brand vodka.




In 2001 Turkmenbashi wrote a book – a combination of poetry, revisionist history, and moral guidelines – called Ruhnama (Persian for “Book of the Soul”). It is now required to be prominently displayed in all bookstores and government offices, and next to the Koran in mosques. Memorization of the book is required to graduate from school and to get a state job or even a driver’s license. Schoolchildren spend one entire day every week reading it. Since all Soviet-era book have been banned, most Turkmen libraries have only the Ruhnama and other books written by Turkmenbashi. In 2006 Turkmenbashi made reading the Ruhnama a requirement for entry into heaven.


There’s a 30-foot Ruhnama in Ashgabat, not far from a 50-foot solid-gold statue of Turkmenbashi.




Not surprisingly, Turkmenbashi recently “won” the Magtymguly International Prize, honoring the best pro-Turkmen poetry, which is awarded by … Turkmenbashi himself.

MORE STRANGE ACTS OF TURKMENBASHI

› In 2004 Turkmenbashi banned newscasters from wearing make-up. Why? He said he couldn’t tell the male and female news readers apart and that made him uncomfortable.

› After he quit smoking in 1997, he banned smoking for everybody else, too (but only in public places).

› In 2006, to mark Turkmenistan’s independence day, Turkmenbashi gave each female resident a gift of 200,000 manat (about $3.


He banned gold tooth caps and gold teeth, and suggested that tooth preservation could be more easily accomplished by chewing on bones.

› In 2000 he ordered that a giant lake be created in the desert along with a huge forest of cedar trees, which, he said, would help to moderate Turkmenistan’s climate.

› In 2004, he ordered that a giant ice palace be build in the middle of the same desert, the Karakum – the hottest location in central Asia. It will include a zoo with penguins.



Now if you don't find humor in that shit I don't know what will make you augh.

[The Truth]

I hope Chavez never reads this. He might end up doing the same thing in Venezuela.

[Kabuki]

I've always wondered how crazy people end up leading nations. I thought North Korea's leader was crazy....Turkmenbashi is a real nut.

[BeardedOne]

I've always wondered how crazy people end up leading nations. I thought North Korea's leader was crazy....Turkmenbashi is a real nut.

Though it is still a puzzle how some maroons end up at the helm (Case in point: Shrubya), it is often scary how well they perform at the beginning of their tenure.

Hitler united and motivated a broken nation and brought it to (At that point in time) a world power status, before disgracing it and running into the ground. Castro led Cubans out of a corrupt state only to drive it into a restricted dictatorship (With, at the beginning, the full support of the people).

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

In what position does that place God?

[Coroner]

He´s crazy, no doubt. But show me the man that takes Bush´s show away......

[praetor]

Fidel DeadBody Castro, Insane Dictator of Cuba; Hugo Goofy Chaves, from Venezuela and the Evo Cocaine Morales, from Peru.
Rgrds

[Coroner]

Fidel DeadBody Castro, Insane Dictator of Cuba; Hugo Goofy Chaves, from Venezuela and the Evo Cocaine Morales, from Peru.
Rgrds

Bullshit

[tonkatoy]

thats right! Bush is a dictator, thats why the dems control both houses and all the news channels here are going on and on about the 08 election. It is fair to criticize Bush, but to say he is a dictator is a little dramatic.

[praetor]

Fidel DeadBody Castro, Insane Dictator of Cuba; Hugo Goofy Chaves, from Venezuela and the Evo Cocaine Morales, from Peru.
Rgrds

Bullshit

VIADO QUA QUA QUÁ, THATS ANDRESSA USE TO SAY.

[JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel]

as of this morning with the majority of the Republicans running for president turning their back on him I think it's safe to say he's not even close to being a dictator.............

I'd go as far to say that if he gets his own library it'll get burnt down by a patriotic citizen