The Worst of the Worst

If anyone wants to know who the worst of the worst dictators are in the world today, one could do worse than to overlook these monsters (I dare not call them men or much less dictators):

Robert Mugabe.
If there is one person I cannot stand, it would be Zimbabwe's dinosaur ruler (he's held on to his position for 28 years!!). Here's just a small laundry list of things which have gone wrong to the nation since he knocked the British out of the picture back in 1980:
(1) Unemployment has been rampant (roughly 80% or so);
(2) The economy has been abysmal, especially in terms of inflation (which has skyrocketed to 8000%);
(3) Food supplies & other basic necessities have been hard to come by, even more so over the past couple years;
(4) Anyone who has a bone to pick with Mugabe, especially if it's one of the who knows how many opposition parties operating in Zimbabwe, faces plenty of repercussions later.

Believe me, & some of my posts on Mugabe are proof of this, he's not someone I'd want running the United States, much less his next door neighbor South Africa. He's run the country clear into the ground politically & economically & what's worse, chances are he won't give up his spot as president anytime soon...These are trying times back in southern Africa for sure.

Kim Jong-Il.
Not only does North Korea boast one of the most repressive dictatorships around (courtesy of Messr. Jong-Il); its repressive tactics also make North Korea one of the bleakest & most isolated nations around. As far as mass communication goes, forget it: the only communication which is supplied in spades is government propaganda. How about justice? Well, you'd be hard pressed to find any here: the system of collective punishment is harsh beyond the pale (3 generations of family members being punished for a crime only one of their own committed? Come on folks!!). Roughly 200,000 North Koreans are detained in labor camps & anyone who has plans to leave the country realizes that escape will be a major stretch.

Behavior-wise, Jong-Il reminds me of Idi Amin - he's right up there with that monster, in fact. If there is an extreme warning sign to look for in this man, it's the fact that he's allowing his mental health issues to color his political views & philosophies - one premise for why he's one of the more dangerous dictators around today.

more to come later...