.....who our MP's have been trying to emulate.
A revolving gold statue, pink champagne and a "Pleasure Brigade" of nubile retainers all feature in Times Money's list of history's most decadent dictators. While their people suffered, these men - and sometimes their wives and children - agonised over how best to spend their ill-gotten gains...
1. Kim Jong-il, "Dear Leader" of North Korea since 1994. The son of the communist state's "Great Leader", Kim Jong-il has super-expensive tastes, with 17 palaces and collections of hundreds of cars and about 20,000 video tapes. On one state visit to Russia, he reportedly had live lobsters airlifted daily to his armoured private train. He is believed to spend around $650,000 a year on Hennessy VSOP cognac and maintains an entourage of young lovelies known as the "Pleasure Brigade"
2. Ferdinand Marcos, President of the Philippines, 1965 - 1986. The Second World War freedom-fighter turned kleptocrat secreted billions of dollars in overseas accounts. His wife Imelda, however, was the big spender, leaving 888 handbags and 1060 pairs of shoes in the Malacanang presidential palace when the family fled mob justice after Marcos was deposed. Her pricier purchases included the $51 million Crown Building and $61 million Herald Centre in New York and art by Michelangelo and Botticelli
3. Nicolae Ceausescu, President of Romania, 1967 - 1989. The "Genius of the Carpathians" was congratulated (by telegram) by Salvador Dali on his excesses, which included his use of a kingly sceptre. Despite an official salary of just $3,000, he found the cash for 15 palaces, a superb car collection, yachts, fine art and bespoke suits. Tens of thousands of homes were demolished to make space for his 1,100-room, 480-chandelier Palace of the Parliament in the capital, Bucharest
4. Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan, 1990 - 2006. The President for Life and "Turkmenbashi", or Father of all Turkmen, was at the centre of an awesome cult of personality. His vanity projects included a £6 million revolving gold-plated statue of himself in the country's capital, Ashgabat. He shifted around £3 billion to overseas accounts, renamed the month of January (after himself), banned beards and ordered that his musings be displayed alongside the Koran in mosques
5. Idi Amin, President of Uganda, 1971 - 1979. The "Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea", "Emperor of Uganda" and "King of Scotland" awarded himself the VC, or Victorious Cross, and CBE, or Conqueror of the British Empire. He also spent millions on a super-lavish lifestyle - maintaining a reported 30 mistresses as well as five wives and fathering at least 43 children. A typically mad-capped project was the creation of a personal bodyguard of bagpipe-playing 6ft 4in Scotsmen
6. Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, 1922 - 1953. The "Gardener of Human Happiness" and "Brilliant Genius of Humanity" was celebrated in his lifetime in thousands of stylised statues and monuments erected across the Soviet Union - many of which were moved or destroyed in later "de-Stalinisation" drives. He also had a taste for palaces, booze and cigars and preferred to travel by armour-plated private train with a Tsarist-style entourage
7. Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Persia, 1941 - 1979. The "King of Kings" and "Sun of the Aryans" spent a reported $100 million on celebrations for the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian monarchy in 1971, serving breast of peacock on Limoges china to dignitaries in a 160-acre tent city at Persepolis - close to poor villages. His superb collection of sports cars can be seen at the National Car Museum of Iran, alongside custom models by Mercedes-Benz and Porsche for his son, the Crown Prince
8. Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq, 1979 - 2003. The Baathist leader with a fondness for gold-plated bathroom fittings, and Kalashnikovs, rebuilt Babylon on kitsch rather than authentic lines, stamping each brick of the "reconstruction" with his own name in the manner of Nubachadnezzar, the ancient Babylonian king and conqueror of Jerusalem. His playboy eldest son Uday, meanwhile, kept a private zoo with lions and cheetahs at his Baghdad residence and owned a collection of 1,200 luxury cars
9. Mobutu Sese Soku, President of Zaire, 1965 - 1997. Siphoning his country's wealth into Swiss bank accounts was a speciality of the "All-Powerful Warrior", whose personal fortune was estimated at $5 billion in 1984 - then equivalent to Zaire's national debt. Mobutu's extravagances included palaces and pink champagne, yachts and shopping trips to Paris by chartered Concorde. His second wife Bobi Ladawa rivalled Imelda Marcos as a compulsive spender - with a reported 1,000-dress wardrobe
10. Suharto, President of Indonesia, 1967 - 1998. The former bank clerk embezzled more money than any other leader in history, according to Transparency International. In 1999, Time Asia put his family's wealth at $15 billion. Playboy son "Tommy" was the biggest-profile spender - lavishing money on cars and clothes and buying a majority stake in Lamborghini before a conviction for murder in 2002. Suharto's daughter "Tutut", meanwhile, spent $100,000 on one shopping flight to the US
H/T DML
Friday, 22 May 2009
The 10 most decadent dictators................
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Light News....
Air Force hero recalls World War II mission. Heroes one and all.
Humiliation for UK as Standard & Poor's downgrades our credit prospects over soaring public borrowing. Labour have wrecked Britain and must be held to account.
Complete half-wits! Council only fills in part of a pothole - because it doesn't own the rest. Typical public sector mentality.
'Stewardess, the plane appears to be leaking': Shocking picture of mid-air fuel leak on passenger jet. Ooops.
Gurkhas are "coming home" after famous victory on settlement. Great news. Now let's make sure they get the same pension entitlements as other servicemen.
Toddler buys earthmover on online auction site. Should have got her a Tonka Toy.
Teenage Somali 'pirate' pleads not guilty in US court. Should have shot him with the rest.
Mugabe suffers rare setback in power struggle with MDC. His power is seeping away.
Wind turbines 'killed goats' by depriving them of sleep. WTF!!!
MPs quit - and blame the voters. Bring on the election.
Don't swim here: 78 British beaches fail standards for clean water. Norfolk's passed.
Public millions fail to provide wells, schools and clinics in Afghanistan. No s**t.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
New Obama Vehicle.....
In a special news conference yesterday, Government Motors announced its new concept car...
The new GM (Government Motors) proudly introduces the 2010 Obama...
This car runs on hot air and broken promises. It has three wheels that speed the vehicle through tight left turns.
It comes complete with two Teleprompters programmed to help the occupants talk their way out of any violations.
The transparent canopy reveals the plastic smiles still on the faces of all the "happy" Democrat owners.
H/T Shelly
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Pic of the Day.....
...do other Regiments around the world have mascots like this?
Goat leaves the Royal Welsh Regiment
Appeal of the Day........from Murray
Bernie Shapiro was my lead scout in another life. These days hes doing stuff involving jeeps and the LRDG including a trip to the desert. He's asking for people who had relatives who fought in North Africa to give him details so they can take with the expedition. He'll be carrying the details of three of my great uncles and my grandfather, all of whom were clever enough to not get dead. Meanwhile this nutter (who I had to forcibly restrain from getting on a plane during Gulf War V 1.0) is asking for anyone else who wants to contribute;
We would be very honoured if readers could register their family links with the North African Campaign of 1940-1943 by listing:
Their Grandfather's or Father's Name
Their service number if known
Who they served with and when.
Where they fought and if they fell in action or survived.
This list will mean an enormous amount to K Troop members and the WDRG expedition as a whole, as it will be above all for the surviving family members that we are going to Africa to illustrate our forebears' sacrifices and conditions.
If we have names, contacts with the families, stories of Kiwis in the desert and your blessings we will carry these with us and go that extra mile for you. Where possible, we will visit cemeteries and lay wreathes to honour those who never made it home.
Linkage
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=96832328976&ref=mf
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=96832328976&topic=8392
http://www.wdrg.org
oelreddh AT paradise.net.nz
K Troop
4 Ash Street
Christchurch, New Zealand
I've added him as a sugested contact for your facebook as well to speed up information flow.
Additional info:
A New Zealand Contingent has been invited to travel across the Saharan Desert in North Africa in 2010 - but with period WW2 equipment and vehicles!
Christchurch's Poplar Lane has a new noise: WW2 engines and Big Band 'Swing' music emanating from New Zealand's only operating WW2 era Workshop.
A small group has accepted a challenge to raise money for both the UK's and NZ's Benevolent Fund: charities that help veterans affected by conflict.
However they are not going about it in the usual manner; they have answered a call from Britain much as their Grandfathers once did in 1940 and will be traveling to North Africa to relive the conditions experienced 70 years ago, joining with their British counterparts in an international adventure.
In 1940 a small group of Kiwis led by English officer Ralph Bagnold crossed the Sahara to operate behind enemy lines. They were so effective that only months later the British began to operate similar patrols to destroy and disrupt supply lines. They were the Long Range Desert Group and despite our pledge 'Lest we forget' New Zealand seems to have forgotten them after all.
It is the intention of these historians and adventurers to remind us that they were not merely legends, but ordinary Citizen Soldiers from all walks of life who adapted to an environment so utterly alien it might as well have been on the Moon.
Thanks to the Mayor of Christchurch and the goodwill of local business property managers Lisle Hood and John Webb, "Kiwi" Troop has occupied a Warehouse and is currently restoring a fleet of WW2 vehicles to take with them to Cairo. From there they will head off across the Qattara Depression into Libya and the Dune Sea, returning to the battlefields of Tobruk and El Alamein on ANZAC Day 2010 for a solemn dawn service.
A film unit will travel with them to document the event in which participants will emulate the same living standards as the LRDG [with modern back-up SatNav and GPS]. The object will be to provide a rare insight to the conditions our Grandfathers experienced yet never talked of to their families; proceeds from the doco will assist veterans from NZ and Britain.
The "Western Desert Reconnaissance Group" is a 45 man strong expedition segregated into three parties. K Troop, B [British] Troop and H [Heavy] Troop: the supply and recovery patrol.
Major Gary Wallace [British Army] is the Expedition Leader and sees the unique project as 'A slice of living history, with flies, real discomfort and dangerous risks' - a world apart from normal re enaction where the public can go to view period articles in a safe environment. "The only thing missing from this trip are the threats from Axis Aircraft."
But why would a normally sane bunch of people want to put themselves through such a punishing trip?
"Our World War Two Veterans are disappearing incredibly quickly," says K Troop team leader Bernard Shapiro, "and in the next two to three years there may not be anyone left. We need to thank them, ask them how it was and to gain some measure of understanding for what they endured. It's only through ignorance that history repeats itself and time is running out. Our intention is to take our promise "Lest We Forget" and cement it back into living memory. When we at last stand on the battlefield of El Alamein, dirty and exhausted from the desert, to lay wreaths on the Memorials in the dawn of ANZAC Day 2010, we want to finally be able to say "We now remember them"."
"The message is simple - that any soul is capable of the deeds of our grandfathers, that they were essentially no different to us today and that NOTHING is impossible."
"It's the Kiwi habit of hitting above our weight and succeeding every time; a steadfastly unique trait. What we need now are people to believe in this vision; to get behind us and help. I hear a lot of complaining about the wayward youth of today but very few people do anything more than that. Here's our chance to prove beyond any doubt that we're still ANZACs, capable of anything. Let's give the younger generation a cornerstone to believe in."
Recently a documentary "Lost in Libya" featuring New Zealander author and historian Brendan O'Carroll was broadcast with exceptional archival footage and facts about the LRDG.
"We'd like to salute the producers, film unit, Kuno Gross and Brendan O'Carroll for their efforts. They have made a good documentary about what was achieved, but we feel it hasn't quite touched on the real grit of the chaps in the LRDG: what they went through and how they got around. O'Carroll and his group travelled in Air Conditioned modern vehicles to provide us with a glimpse of where they went - no small feat on its own!
They've provided a marvellous introduction to the 'Who' - we'd like to provide the more uncomfortable 'How'."
K Troop is now seeking funding and material assistance from fellow New Zealanders, especially those whose forebears served in the North African Campaign of 1940-43. Once the vehicles are finished they aim to tour schools and clubs taking their message of Real Kiwi Ingenuity into the community.
"Without the backing of New Zealanders we'll never have this educational resource - its a chance of a lifetime to make a difference to our perceptions of ourselves, of our history, and to fortify our national values. If we received .50c from every grown Kiwi in NZ, we'd fund the whole trip, British included - that'd give the Brits something to think about!"
Interested parties can read the progress of K Troop at http://wdrg.org/blog/ or make donations to The LRDG Kiwi Expedition Charitable Trust via BNZ banks.
Parliament today......
Brown is using the Band Aid trick to hoodwink the electorate into thinking he is making changes. The give away is his retention of the Red Squirrel in his Cabinet and the fact is that Notareargunner, along with all ex thinking servicemen, will not all the plaster to be wrapped round his eyes.
How can you think of keeping the one measure that is outraging every decent person in the land, the mortgage interest fees? MP’s get paid and get well reimbursed for a job that is not even slightly taxing (sic). Not only does the average moron in Westminster get his (or her) easily earned £67K, they get the equivalent of another £50K in pension rights. If MP’s really want to know what it is like to slum it...continue reading
Next on the agenda............from Rico
I'm looking at a "Califohnia" bailout to be the next item on Obama's "I break you, I OWN you" agenda. 
