How Many Leaders do you Know?

[bcholmes]

So I caught a bit of news, and saw Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (talking about Japan's role with respect to "comfort women") and I thought: "Japan has a new Prime Minister?" So, off to Wikipedia: sure enough, as of September 26th, 2006, Japan has a new Prime Minister.

Then I was thinking: how many world leaders can I recognize? I can at least recognize the leaders of the G8 countries (although I'd probably fumble the name of the Italian Prime Minister if he's out of the news for a bit). I'd also recognize (but might fumble names) for Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, John Howard, Jalal Talibani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, Rene Preval, and I'd fumble a bit before remembering Mahmoud Abbas' name. I knew that Vicente Fox and Ariel Sharon had been succeeded, but couldn't recognize or name their successors without looking them up. Nor would I have been able to name Mandela's successor of the last seven years. I could name Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, but not Prime Minister Balkenende.

I know essentially no African political leaders, few European leaders (especially in Eastern Europe), and only one South American leader. Hm.

Comments

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

The other South American leaders that I know for certain are Lula da Silva (Brazil) and Evo Morales (Bolivia). I know Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Bemba (Uganda, I believe), Idriss Deby (Chad) and Mbeke (South Africa) from Africa. I know that Poland as the Kascynski (sp?) twins as president and PM. I'd probably have to think for a bit the Czech leader, and probably still couldn't come up with it. And I know that Fox was succeeded by Felipe Calderon (in a contested, some say stolen, election) and that Sharon's successor is Ehud Olmert. And I'm surprised you didn't mention Hamid Kharzai (Afghanistan) in there, since he was in the news this week (when Cheney was targeted by the Taliban, as much as the US government tries to downplay that). Oh, and I think I could come up with most of the Middle Eastern leaders, like Mubarek, King Abdullah (one in Jordan, the other in Saudi Arabia), and Bashir Assad. But I think I'm in the 99th percentile of Americans who are aware of world leaders. Even George Bush didn't know many until after he became president. Remember that interview where he couldn't name more than two or three leaders during the 2000 primaries?

And Americans wonder why they're so despised around the world...

Oh, and I always try to call Kim Jong Il by his father's name (Kim Il Sung). The one name you mentioned that I couldn't place was Rene Preval, but I'd imagine he is the leader of Haiti?