These characters are all the same
Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov on his horse. We got the Lidl version in a cheap shirt and a big belt buckle.
Straight out of The Dictator – I suppose we’re lucky that ours was bloody stingy and didn’t order the building of anything that cost money, while he stuck to ‘free’ sports like swimming off Smellimara and riding horses kept at the police stables.
Press Associaton – today
IT’S 50C ICE HOCKEY, BY STATE ORDER
Ice hockey is hardly the most suitable sport for a desert nation where temperatures can soar as high as 50C.
But Turkmenistan’s president has ordered state enterprises and departments to create a hockey league.
Turkmenistan has overcome the weather issue by using revenue generated from its natural gas exports to build costly indoor skating rinks.
Critics of the idea are unlikely to make their thoughts public in a country where government opponents face severe reprisals.
President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov has in recent months been busily preaching the need for his former Soviet Central Asian nation to become a sporting power and has personally led the way by showing off his active side.
At the weekend, he donned ice hockey garb and skated in front of thousands of people at a recently constructed indoor arena in the capital, Ashgabat. Afterward, teams played in the country’s first ever ice-hockey tournament – one of several events organised for the “Week of Health and Happiness” recently devised by Mr Berdymukhamedov.
Earlier that same day, the president unexpectedly took part in a time-trial car race, and won.
These displays appear to be part of a state-engineered design to project the president – who won presidential elections in February with 97% of the vote – as a man of action.
The ceaseless idolisation of the leader bears strong hallmarks of the cult of personality built by Mr Berdymukhamedov’s eccentric predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, who died unexpectedly in late 2006.
In previous outings, Mr Berdymukhamedov has been seen jogging, playing volleyball, riding horses, cycling, practising judo and taekwondo, and shooting at a firing range.
In the non-sporting field, state media has reported on Mr Berdymukhamedov, a 54-year old trained dentist, removing a tumour from a cancer patient and flying a plane.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120411/local/malta-returns-libyan-money.415026
The majority of the comments show that the Mintoff mentality is alive and kicking !
Did you see the timesofmalta.com poll question this week?
Do you consider Mintoff to be a)saviour b) a traitor c) none of the above
Hello, how about a very obvious third option: a villain.
Next time there is a referendum , we will leave it to The Times to formulate the question.
I cannot understand how some columnists fail to see their credibility shattered when describing Mintoff as a man of ‘misunderstood brilliance’.
If that is so, he wouldn’t have backed down when his ‘panache’ was needed most. What he did instead, was to appoint a puppet to bear the brunt of the economic disaster and face the thugs he had surrounded himself with.
Mintoff isn’t cool; trying to portray him as such is just the trademark of those who made money off his oppression.
“It is a testament to his multitalented, often misguided and misunderstood brilliance, as the most powerful, most controversial and consequential man Malta has seen yet and may never see again.”: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120408/opinion/Dear-Dominator-and-Iron-Man.414572
I should hope we never see again. The controversy and subsequent consequences did Malta no good, but only lined the pockets of the selected few, whilst holding back the multitude, a significant amount of who were too ignorant to notice
“All watches and clocks made must bear his portrait printed on the dial-face. A giant 15-meter (50 ft) tall gold-plated statue of him stands on a rotating pedestal in Ashgabat, so it will always face into the sun and shine light onto the city.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Turkmenistan
Flying a plane with one hand is no mean feat.
What’s the date today? Is it 1st April?
Funny that he happens to be a Tooth Fairy.