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List of 10 most decadent dictators
revealed
London:
Following is the list of the world's ten most
decadent dictators, according to The Times. 1. Kim
Jong-il of North Korea: Has super-expensive tastes,
with 17 palaces, and collections of hundreds of cars
and about 20,000 videotapes. Loves to eat live lobsters
and drinks 650,000 dollars worth of Hennessy VSOP
cognac a year, besides having an entourage of young
lovelies known as the "Pleasure Brigade" 2.Ferdinand
Marcos, Philippines President from 1965 to 1986:Secreted
billions of dollars in overseas accounts. 3.Nicolae
Ceausescu, President of Romania, 1967 - 1989: Despite
an official salary of just 3,000 dollars, 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: Was at the center of an awesome cult of
personality. Vanity projects included a six million
pound revolving gold-plated statue of himself in the
country's capital, Ashgabat. He shifted around three
billion pounds 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 self-styled "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: Was
celebrated in his lifetime by thousands of stylised
statues and monuments erected across the Soviet Union.
He also had a taste for palaces, booze and cigars
and preferred to travel by armour-plated private train
with a Tsarist court-style entourage 7.Mohammed Reza
Pahlavi, Shah of Persia, 1941 - 1979: Spent a reported
100 million dollars 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, had an estimated
personal fortune of five billion dollars in 1984.
His extravagances included palaces and pink champagne,
yachts and shopping trips to Paris by chartered Concorde.
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
dollars.
-Sept 9, 2008
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