Many summers ago – in 1975 – I spent ten days in the French Alps with a group of volunteers building anti-avalanche barriers to protect villages in a deep valley. The team stayed in a tiny hut with a big tent at about 2000 metres, reached along a narrow track that could be used by motorbikes and tractors. There were some slogans written on the walls of the hut, including:
Les cimetières sont pleins de gens qui se pensaient indispensables.[1]
This pocket philosophy made a big impression on me as an 18 year old and I’ve often thought of the fatalist wisdom that is conveyed by the message.
It’s at the high levels of political systems that these words are particularly accurate. A survey of presidential palaces around the world reveals that there are many strongmen who are way past their sell by dates. Here’s a sample of the worst of the world’s anti-democrats, many of whom claim to have been freely elected by the toiling masses, while most appear to enjoy beating up, torturing or killing their opponents, buying assorted arsenals of mass destruction, spreading lies through state controlled media, accumulating obscene wealth, etc.:
- Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus, abusing power since 1994 (29 years)
- Bashar al-Assad, Syria, since 2000 in his father’s footsteps, a dynasty since 1971
- Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua, revolutionary leader from 1979 to 1990 and since 2006 (17 years)
- Denis Sassou Nguesso, Republic of Congo, 1979-92 and since 1997 (26 years)
- Fauré Gnassingbe, Togo, since 2005 in his father’s footsteps, a dynasty since 1967
- Hun Sen, Cambodia, ex-Khmer Rouge, head of state since 1985 (38 years)
- Isaias Afewerki, Eritrea, since independence in 1993 (30 years)
- Kim Jong Un, North Korea, since 2011 in his grandfather’s and his father’s footsteps, a dynasty since 1948
- Paul Biya, Cameroon, since 1982 (41 years, believe it or not…)
- Paul Kagame, Rwanda, behind the scenes as RPF leader since 1993 and president since 2000 (23 years)
- Vlad Putin, Mafia boss of the Russian Federation and assorted occupied territories since 1999 (24 years)
- Yoweri Museveni, Uganda, since 1986 (37 years)[2]
In addition to these 12 terrorists – the label they like to use to describe any dissenters – there are various communist party leaders, priests, military men and suchlike to complete the picture. It’s an ugly panorama, with much bloodshed and vicious repression by the police and “security” (sic) forces. Street protests, insurgencies and international condemnation seem to have little effect on these guys, who are very good at learning from each other how to run dictatorial states most effectively (i.e. by maximising fear). That’s why I’m repeating the information, for the miserable record.
The upshot of these regimes tends to be measured in numbers of gravestones; as a group of Iranians underlined with pictures of the dead on little tombs at a demonstration in front of the Danish Parliament in June 2023. The holy leaders in Tehran have specialised in killing children and teenagers in particular.
[1] Graveyards are full of people who thought they were indispensable.
[2] Some strongmen like Xi Jinping are not in the sample, as I’ve applied a fifteen-year minimum “in power” limit. I’ve been a resident in one of these countries (Nicaragua), have had working assignments in two others (Cambodia and Uganda), visited another (Togo) and been in transit a couple of times in Moscow (in the days of the USSR, pre-Russian Federation).
Mike´s Caravan 