Showing posts tagged Dictatorship

A must watch documentary concerning the current global monetary system! Especially, if you live in or come from the ‘third world’ like me, this is something you shouldn’t miss whether you think it’s just a conspiracy theory or you find important points in it that truly reflect what is happening in the world today. Questions raised include: What is the meaning of globalization from the viewpoint of corporations? How come world’s richest 1% own 40% of all wealth? How do Western governments, especially the US, twist the arms of most foreign governments without openly declaring war? Who are economic hit men, what do they do to corrupt or coerce foreign leaders, and what additional steps are taken when they fail their mission? Why are some countries heavily indebted? Does the federal reserve control the federal government of the United States? What is money? Is the current global economic system a modern form of slavery; is there an alternative to it? What would a global system without money, politics, or religion be like? If all can agree that the US is an empire, who is its invisible emperor? Is true democracy possible in a monetary-based economy? Is the US really a democracy, are Americans really free; if they are not, what has gone wrong, who are their invisible dictators? How do politicians and the corporate media manipulate or deceive the public? What will it take to change this corrupt system? Are humans inherently selfish or altruistic? Etc.

Posted 1 year ago

7 notes

Tags: Banking Systems, Corporations, Corporatocracy, Dictatorship, Economic Hit Men, Globalization, Inequality, Money, coup d'état, debt,

The Psychology of Dictatorship: Why a Dictator Clings to Power

Dictators may fight to the end because they don’t understand that any end is possible. Gaddafi should stand down before he loses everything; Mubarak should have left Egypt weeks before he resigned; Hitler could have brokered for peace; Saddam Hussein could [have] bargained for his life. But dictators are too strong militarily and too weak psychologically to bargain. That’s why they invite annihilation.

Muammar Gaddafi continues to hold tightly to power even as NATO bombs rain down on Tripoli. Syrian autocrat Bashar al-Assad has killed more than 1,000 of his own people in an effort to quash protests. In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has refused to step down despite months of unrest that has intensified into near civil war this week. The question is, why do all these guys fight so hard to keep power? Why not decamp to Saudi Arabia or Venezuela and live out their lives in luxury before being killed or held for trial like Hosni Mubarak?

”… To solve the present political stalemate of #Ethiopia, one prescription is for democratization to occur gradually and under the sponsorship of an authoritarian ruling elite. Various systems of power-sharing guaranteeing the interests of the ruling elite and of the opposition can be designed. The point is that the movement toward greater democratization begins, no more through the overthrow of a ruling elite, but through a formula of power-sharing and the building of trust among various elite groups. This type of democratization is not uncommon: the transition from authoritarianism to democracy is not only the trajectory of the Asian countries that applied the formula of the developmental state, but also of other countries, such as Turkey, Spain, Brazil, Chile, etc. The truth is that the birth of democratic states from an evolution of authoritarian regimes is no less a historical trend than the establishment of democracies as a result of the violent overthrow of authoritarianism.

Mesay Kebede, Ethiopia: Meles’s Political Dilemma and the Developmental State: Dead-Ends and Exit

Posted 11 months ago

Tags: Ethiopia, Developmental State, Politics, Meles Zenawi, Authoritarianism, Democratization, Ruling Elites, Regimes, Democracy, Dictatorship, Power-Sharing, Building Trust,

African governance league table 2011. Best and Worst countries.

THE $5m prize for “achievement in African leadership” created by Mo Ibrahim five years ago has at last found a new recipient. After two years of not deeming anyone worthy enough, the committee that picks winners on behalf of the Anglo-Sudanese telecoms billionaire chose Pedro Verona Pires. Never heard of him? He used to be the president of Cape Verde, deep in the Atlantic Ocean. Population—half a million; life expectancy—71 years. After two terms of office totalling ten years, Mr Pires allowed himself to be voted out last month. The prize committee praised him for helping his nation to become “only the second African country to graduate from the United Nations’ Least Developed category” and winning “international recognition for its record on human rights and good governance”. —More @Economist

Posted 7 months ago

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Tags: Africa, Ethiopia, Leadership, Dictatorship, Failed States, Promising African Countries,

ABC's Barbara Walters in Syria

Exclusive interview with the country’s tyrant.

One thing common among all dictators: they are so disconnected from reality, all swim in self-denial! They all talk about “distortion of reality” by so and so, they blame others, until they are eventually brought down.

Posted 5 months ago

4 notes

Tags: Syria, Arab Spring, Revolution, Bringing Down a Dictator, Dictatorship, From dictatorship to democracy,

Assad’s in-box: Alleged emails of Syrian dictator and wife give glimpse into inner circle

Yahoo News reports, pigs living in a “surreal psychological bubble” while thousands of innocent Syrians are murdered by their own army!

“The cocooned life of denial” as reported by the Guardian:

The emails appear to show how tens of thousands of dollars were spent in internet shopping sprees on handmade furniture from Chelsea boutiques. Tens of thousands more were lavished on gold and gem-encrusted jewellery, chandeliers, expensive curtains and paintings to be shipped to the Middle East. While the country was rocked by Assad’s crackdown on dissent, his inner circle was concerned about the possibility of getting hold of a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, or a new chocolate fondue set.

On 19 July 2011, Asma al-Assad [the wife of the dictator] could be found placing orders with her cousin Amal for jewellery made by a small Paris workshop. She requested four necklaces: “1 turquoise with yellow gold diamonds and a small pave on side” as well as a cornaline, “full black onyx” and “amethyst with white gold diamonds” of similar design. Amal replied that she would “launch” the order in mid-August with a view to getting it done “by mid-September”. On 23 July 2011 Asma said she didn’t mind the delay and added self-deprecatingly: “I am absolutely clueless when it comes to fine jewellery!” She signed off as “aaa” with: “Kisses to you both, and don’t worry, we are well!”

The emails suggest a woman preoccupied with shopping – but also with an eye for a bargain. She was eager to claw back VAT on luxury items shipped to Damascus, it emerges, and complained when a consignment of table lamps went missing in China. Emails sent from her personal account also concern the fate of a bespoke table, after it arrived with two “right” panels instead of a right and a left one. More than 50 emails to and from the UK deal with shopping.

Most jarring were the occasions when the world was hearing news of the worst incidents of violence and bloodshed and the Assad family could be found shopping or joking online, often using pseudonyms. An adviser to the Assad inner circle, Lamis Omar, appeared to acknowledge that the first couple risked seeming too detached and sent Assad a link to an article in the US magazine Businessweek that described the president’s “life in a cocoon”.

Assad himself kept up a flow of personal, loving emails to his wife using the disguised accounts, at times revealing a flippant attitude towards reforms he had promised the country earlier that year.

In July when she emailed that she would be finished at 5pm, her delighted-sounding husband replied: “This is the best reform any country can have that u told me where will you be, we are going to adopt it instead of the rubbish laws of parties, elections, media …”

Sometimes he searched the internet for video clips that impressed him, on one occasion sending her a clip from America’s Got Talent of “the best illusion of all time” – a man appearing to saw another man in half and then putting him back together again, to the delight of the judges David Hasselhoff, Sharon Osbourne and Piers Morgan.