Politicians you trust/admire/respect etc

sufi

lala
my default position on politicians is that i hate them, cos they just seem unable to open their mouths without lying,

but, gracious as i am i will give credit where it's due, admittedly there may be the odd decent apple amongst em, tho they usually seem to get rotten as soon as they get a whiff of power or publicity...

so, in luka's immortal words, draw attention to the ones you hate too. :D
 

sufi

lala
My Nomination - Samora Machel (1933 - 1986) First President of Mozambique

We used to have a poster in the office i worked in at Heathrow, i remember it from my first day there 10 years or so ago.


Samora Machel (1933 - 1986) First President of Mozambique said:
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"The emancipation of women is not an act of charity, the result of a humanitarian or compassionate attitude. "The liberation of women is a fundamental necessity for the Revolution, the guarantee of its continuity and the precondition for its victory.
I found that most inspiring
He was Nelson Mandela's 2nd wife's 1st Husband, killed in a plane crash which she maintains was an assassination, he continues:
"...The main objective of the Revolution is to destroy the system of exploitation and build a new society, which releases the potentialities of human beings. .This is the context within which women's emancipation arises."
he said some other cool things too:
International solidarity is not an act of charity: It is an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains toward the same objective. The foremost of these objectives is to aid the development of humanity to the highest level possible.
Unity and victory are synonymous.
"And you say Marxists don't have style!"
 

Backjob

Well-known member
I gotta say that I don't know if I trust or admire him, but I sure as fuck respect
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Senior Minister (former Prime Minister) Lee Kuan Yew

For those that don't know, Lee Kuan Yew is the man who led Singapore to independence and was its prime minister from 1959 until 1990 and remains a dominant political force here.

Basically he's your textbook benign dictator. Political dissent was utterly squashed and the country was run according utterly to what he thought was right for the people. Human rights and democracy were negligible considerations.

But what he achieved is to turn a small island of 3 million people with no natural resources (not even fresh water) and take it from undeveloped colonial status to one of the richest countries in Asia. And not only that but to create a state where violent crime (or crime of any sort) is virtually non-existent as is poverty and homelessness. A state where despite having Asia's worst climate and highest energy consumption, air quality is among the best in the world and where the healthcare is amazingly high quality and available to all. Where anyone can own their own house through the government CPF system, and where all pensioners get a decent level of support due to the same program. A state where three separate races coexist relatively (but not completely) harmoniously.

Singapore is not utopia, but it has to give you pause for thought to think what can be achieved, firstly if you only have to govern a small city-state. And secondly what one man can do with a vision if he's not hampered by the mechanisms of bureaucracy.

So I reckon, if you believe in any shape or form in leadership and responsibility and paternalism in politicians (and I dunno if I do or should, but we are saying "if" here) then you have to respect LKY...
 
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sufi

lala
LKY = Bandung Generation, like Machel
kinda scary dude tho :eek:are you allowed to post here?
(put that illegal durian away quick!) :cool:
 

Backjob

Well-known member
A friend of mine did some work for Singapore narcotics bureau and they told him that there are between 5 and 6 thousand drug users in the city and they know the names of 70% of them but don't arrest them because they don't consider them a threat to social order. Occasionally an opposition politician gets arrested for oral sex or a french chef gets busted for coke dealing but otherwise low level dissent is pretty tolerable.

They certainly aren't worrrying about a few internet posts and a one-off grime night attended by 15 people, put it that way!

Linkage
http://joeng.sangsara.net
http://syntaxfree.org/blog
 

Woebot

Well-known member
sufi said:
my default position on politicians is that i hate them, cos they just seem unable to open their mouths without lying,

but, gracious as i am i will give credit where it's due, admittedly there may be the odd decent apple amongst em, tho they usually seem to get rotten as soon as they get a whiff of power or publicity...

so, in luka's immortal words, draw attention to the ones you hate too. :D

hang on! didnt you meet tony benn and think he was quite imprssive? ive always thought tony benn was a bit special.

ken livingstone gave me his parking ticket/voucher once in camden in the early nineties (wilderness years). there was about 25 minutes on it, which was enough time to pop into rhythm records. since that day ive always thought he was quite wonderful, the cheapest vote he ever picked.

also my uncle Paul Tyler is an MP for the Lib Dems in Cornwall. hes a lovely man and id be hard pushed to imagine him indulging in anything very cynical. (though of course some may scoff hes "structurally evil" whatever the **** that means)
 

sufi

lala
wedgie benn - good egg

well yes
wedgie's particularly a favorite of my mum.
however, my gran says that she knew him as a lad and he was a bit of a sickly weed :(
 

rewch

Well-known member
that's a pretty poor selection i'd say...1 revolutionary leader with vision & 1 benign dictator...doesn't really say much for political history does it? tony benn...hmmm...oh sorry & one new zealander...not sure i can come up with any really...ummm...always quite liked tam dalyell...at least for his independence...& find qaddafi pretty interesting...at least for his revolutionary ideas & committal to non-alignment...though no doubt he's a darkside corruptist & apparently has his blood changed once a month...
 

luka

Well-known member
oliver craner is a big oona king fan. and she has done good work by all accounts, on a pragmatic level, rather than a lets hold hands and change the world together brothers and sisters level.

i don't know much about her myself though.
 

Backjob

Well-known member
Tommy Sheridan is a fuckin dinosaur but I admire him for his nuts and secondly for giving up all of his Scottish MP's salary that is above that of the wage of the average working man. That's true socialism, that is. I can picture him marching to Jarrow and protesting against means testing and stuff. Like a rootsman politician or something.
 

owen

Well-known member
yeah!
also on the dinosaur/rootsman tip, i have lots of time for dennis skinner...been v quiet of late but has quite a turn of phrase
benn is a trooper but that interview with saddam was somewhat dubious.....at least he's not as much of a preening stalinist as galloway.
 

sufi

lala
Sincerity

Sincerity is what they seem to lack these days :rolleyes: (at the risk of sounding like old fart)

Oona
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is a remarkable success, i reckon she is sincere but is a faithful party animal, far as i know, (jon's neck o the woods i think?)


Quadaffiy(sic)
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is just out there, in a class of his own: a most sincere turncoat secular tribalist arabist islamist nationalist pan-africanist jamhuriyist he seemed to turn on his heels prettydamfast following saddam's plummet? key freeper quotes from backintheday
qadaffi '86 said:
If Abu Nidal is a terrorist, then so is George Washington.
khadafi '86 said:
We are capable of destroying America and breaking its nose.
qadaffy '86 said:
American soldiers must be turned into lambs and eating them is tolerated.


tony b
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on the other hand seems on the up these times, ripe for secular canonisation: absoloutely no shortage of blossoming sincerity, tho somehow by now a little out of his time. an inspiring life...
All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

red ken
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& gorgeous george
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both have apparently come thu enormous media shitstorms with a certain amount of integrity, both have righteous agendas; i respect ken for kicking the drivers, and george for opposing the war (tho not shaking hands with saddam, either) but both seem to have a certain sleazy careerist streak & love of public adulation. having had the dubious pleasure of meeting gorgeous in the flesh i'd rate him low on the sincerity scale

Dennis 'skinup' Skinner & Tommy 'nutta' Sheridan i know little about,

Helen 'backflip' Clarke i also know zero....

luka, backjob, owen, please tell me more...

(more pictures please :D less tea, vicar:mad:
 

Backjob

Well-known member
Basically, Ol' Tommy started out in Militant Tendency, got arrested a couple of times for protesting outside Faslane nuclear power station. He got a bit more moderate and was extremely active in protesting the Poll Tax, getting arrested again for trying to stop a warrant sale. He got elected to the Scottish Parliament in '99 as Scottish Socialist Party member (I voted for him!) and immediately started causing a ruckus, boycotting the opening ceremony and tabling all sorts of motions that would never get passed calling for extreme wealth redistribution and the like. What I didn't realise is that he resigned last month. Oh well...

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He's the one on the left. Big up the old school...

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owen

Well-known member
one of the fun things with sheridan, and his ilk, is that they're extremely good at public speaking. a rather obsolete talent maybe, but i've seen sheridan speak a few times and been fully ready to man the barricades afterwards. that's what we need now, more agitators! ;)
skinner is an old left labour MP, has been around since 1970ish....i can't quote anything off the top of my head but always came across as being v cool for general rudeness and derision to tories and monarch...he's not allowed to be called 'right hon.' or something because of this...i also saw him speak once. a friend complimented him and asked why he was still in the labour party....response was along the lines of 'fuck off', which is less cool
 

sufi

lala
thanks backjob & owen...

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gaddaffi 4 rewch

here's an interesting article on gaddafi's past and future career( with astrological charts)

from: الجزيرة Gaddafi pays off the west
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"Yes I pay 3 Billion in order to solve my problems"

 

Backjob

Well-known member
My favourite gadaffi anecdote is of him demanding western leaders meet him in a small, traditional tent, which he would fill with fart gas throughout the meeting in order to unsettle them. Could be totally fictitious, mind.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
sufi said:
Oona [...]but is a faithful party animal, far as i know, (jon's neck o the woods i think?)

If you mean me, she's Tower Hamlets, not Hackney, but it is close. I think Oona is a bit of a mixed bag really - she is a "Blair's Babe" and seems entirely comfortable within the New Labour machine, but she is afaik way better than Diane "I'm sure the black parents of Hackney will understand why I have sent my son to a private school" Abbott.

I suppose it's trite, but you should never "trust" politicians, even those you admire or respect.
 
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