Names and Dictators

Putin

Xi

Hitler

Trump

Mao

Lenin

Stalin

What are the common things among them? They will throw you 'in' more often than not, for criticising them.

50 People Who Messed Up The World- Book Review

 

The authors, Alexander Parker and Tim Richman are South Africans. Aided by a cartoonist, they have compiled a pretty good list that contain some surprises. I won't give it away, but it includes a musician, a couple of magazine editors, a big sports cheater, a social media founder, and a good number of mass murderers. The musician (a teen heart-throb) is accused of spoiling our taste.

Written in a humourous style, it makes for an easy read, one or two chapters at a time. The chapters are well-researched, and show more than just a passing acquaintance with the history of the places and people they write about. The lessons to be learnt are also summarised well, to caution us not to let History repeat itself..but of course, it always does.

Naturally, they excel at the African dictators and Diamond merchants, being so close geographically. But the Pol Pot and Mao chapters are no less instructive. So is the Father of the Atom Bomb, Oppenheimer. Ponzi king Bernie Madoff is also given pride of place in a chapter. And Kim Kardashian. In other words, they are unsparing, and don't talk about political animals alone.

A great read, and I am glad I bought it. Worth every penny.

Crime and Punishment- Executions

There is a headline going around the net that North Korea has executed a number of people for watching TV. Though I have not read the details, I think it should have been the other way. Producers of ghastly TV shows (and films?) should be shot, and people watching such clap-trap should get our sympathy, ad should be counseled at state expense. The poor guys did not know what they were doing, and deserve to be forgiven.

But seriously, don't governments have better things to do than this? Why is it that every dictatorship lives in mortal fear of the media? More importantly, does this strategy work? In a world of democratic media (largely, except where the net is banned or censored), does it matter what you control in the mass media? Even in olden times, there were underground pamphlets and stuff like word of mouth going around, bypassing attempts to muzzle the free flow of information.

The lesson may be, first, not to be a dictator, and second, make your money and leave to enjoy it, rather than stay and face an inevitable loss of life (the dictator's), or get jailed. Really, times have changed. No one takes dictation any more. Wake up, smell the coffee.

Diary of a Dictator

Many people write diaries. This could be what a dictator's diary might be like-

Oct 1: Ordered three beheadings. They were very irritating. They kept saluting me all wrong.

Oct. 7th: Don't like today's date. Ordered my soldiers to catch the first 7 people they find on the street and throw them into a vat of boiling oil.

Oct. 10th: Broke the back of a silly politician advocating people's rule in our country. What good is that? When the people already have a perfect rule-mine.

Oct.25: Forcibly married 32 women I picked out of my poor subjects. Threw some people out of their houses to accommodate the new wives. The people protested, so my soldiers escorted them deep into the forest, and left them there.

Oct. 30: Had some fun today. Watched lions and alligators killing some men and animals.

Read Hitler's book again. What a genius!