Who is your favorite current world leader

This should be the right board for this thread. I'm curious to see who everyone's favorite current world leader is. I like to see how my fellow ATS members view the world through their eyes and views on politics. There's two leaders who I look up to right now for there transforming politics in their countries and around the world.



Snippet from Time.www.time.com...

When Brazilians first elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva President in 2002, the country's robber barons nervously checked the fuel gauges on their private jets. They had turned Brazil into one of the most inequitable places on earth, and now it looked like payback time. Lula, 64, was a genuine son of Latin America's working class — in fact, a founding member of the Workers' Party — who'd once been jailed for leading a strike. By the time Lula finally won the presidency, after three failed attempts, he was a familiar figure in Brazilian national life. But what led him to politics in the first place? Was it his personal knowledge of how hard many Brazilians must work just to get by? Being forced to leave school after fifth grade to support his family? Working as a shoeshine boy? Losing part of a finger in a factory accident? No, it was when, at age 25, he watched his wife Maria die during the eighth month of her pregnancy, along with their child, because they couldn't afford decent medical care. There's a lesson here for the world's billionaires: let people have good health care, and they'll cause much less trouble for you. And here's a lesson for the rest of us: the great irony of Lula's presidency — he was elected to a second term in 2006 and will serve through this year — is that even as he tries to propel Brazil into the First World with government social programs like Fome Zero (Zero Starvation), designed to end hunger, and with plans to improve the education available to members of Brazil's working class, the U.S. looks more like the old Third World every day. What Lula wants for Brazil is what we used to call the American Dream. We in the U.S., by contrast, where the richest 1% now own more financial wealth than the bottom 95% combined, are living in a society that is fast becoming more like Brazil.

This article is from Time as well. www.time.com...

Right now, China, the most populous, economically dynamic and politically intriguing nation in the world, is on everybody's mind. As the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing draw nearer, China's role as industrial park to the world has been highlighted, brought into focus by product-safety scandals, environmental disasters and trade disputes. How can this infinitely complex nation be led? And what do we know about the man who leads it, Hu Jintao? Not much. Hu, who became General Secretary of the Communist Party in 2002 and President of China the following year, has never granted a free-ranging interview. Nor has he cultivated the kind of flamboyant style with which his country became well acquainted in larger-than-life leaders from Chiang Kai-shek to Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. But politics in China has changed since the time of such giants. Competition within the Chinese leadership and a distrust of one-man rule have meant that Hu has had to lead by consensus. The fact that he is said to be patient and less ego-driven than his challengers has conferred on him a certain advantage. As the Chinese aphorism puts it, Tall trees attract wind. Someone who was more overtly ambitious might have lost his cool over challenges, but Hu has managed to convey an air of composure, the better to maintain a semblance of accord between fractious leaders. So we would miss something important about Hu's leadership if we were to simply assume that his restraint was a sign of weakness. In reality, the way Hu has negotiated a difficult situation says much about him as a person and about his evolving and distinctive political philosophy. Even though China's revolutionaries spent decades trying to expunge "feudal" culture, Hu has ended up as something of a closet traditionalist whose sense of a political true north derives as much from the Chinese classics, to which he has turned in search of models of concord, as it does from Mao and Marx. In February 2005, for example, Hu quoted Confucius to party officials, declaring that "harmony is something to be cherished." He and Premier Wen Jiabao regularly proclaim an aspiration to hexie shehui, or a harmonious society. And they often use another slogan, heping jueqi, or peaceful rise, a phrase designed to soothe foreigners worried about the double threat of China's fireball economy and rapidly modernizing military. Such traditional-sounding rhetoric about harmony and peace — the antithesis of Maoist phrases about class contradictions and anti-imperialist struggle — has been spilling from party propaganda organs. Weary of struggle and strife, contemporary Chinese react almost autonomically to such rhetoric, which evokes the datong, the great harmony, a utopian ideal from the ancient Book of Rites. Hu hopes to attain a latter-day datong through what he calls a "scientific outlook on development," or a pragmatic refocusing on the challenges of poverty, social justice and the environment. Much of his political demeanor seems to suggest a yearning for leadership in the style of a Confucian junzi, or gentleman — one who governs by virtuous example and thus radiates benevolence throughout society. How, in practice, Hu can use such classical nostrums to help him rule China is far from clear. Rebranding the office of the party General Secretary through rhetorical associations with the past is not guaranteed to help deal with Sudan, Burma, Taiwan and the U.S., never mind China's domestic challenges. Hu, says Yale historian Jonathan Spence, "uses a language that preaches caution and the avoidance of extremes, but seems to have little sense of how to implement changes that will boldly address China's formidable problems." Indeed, just beneath Hu's exhortations about harmony, peaceful rise and benevolent leadership, old Maoist structures remain. Far from wanting to weaken party control, Hu would like to reinforce it, to inspire officials to live up to the old ideals of "serving the people." And it is important to remember that China's early philosopher-kings were not democrats. Indeed, the majority of them shared with Leninists a veneration for authority, discipline and orthodoxy. Confucius hoped that leaders would study the past to make the existing order more effective and fair, just as Hu would like to return China to some of the better ideals of socialism. Sipping at the well of the classics is a way for him to add a mantle of traditionalism to his rule and remain indelibly Chinese while avoiding any unsettling political reforms, much less a Western democratic path. Trying to fully understand Hu, then, is like reading tea leaves. When once asked by an overseas journalist why he chose to remain so enigmatic, Hu said simply, "It's not fair to call me mysterious." But, mysterious or not, Hu, with his modesty, reserve and ability to balance contending forces, is, for now, serving China well.

Sorry about the large quote for Hu. He is very a complected figure to understand. Now I would love to see everyone's pick for their current favorite leader.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” The above speech by Nelson Mandela was originally written by Marianne Williamson who is the author of other similar material.”

I love Nelson Mandela.

Peace

EDIT: Failure on my part. Sorry. You said current leaders.

[edit on 20-7-2010 by zroth]

Originally posted by zroth

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” The above speech by Nelson Mandela was originally written by Marianne Williamson who is the author of other similar material.”

I love Nelson Mandela.

Peace

I agree with you. He was an amazing leader for the time. What about any current leader? You seem to like President Obama. I meet him in California when he was running for president.

[deleted - not very constructive]

[edit on 20-7-2010 by NewlyAwakened]

Hugo Chavez - hands down.

He liberated his country - kept the globalists and their banks under control; he is uniting South America, has huge popular support, has managed not to be attacked and invaded by the US, redistributed the countries oil wealth to help the countries poor, increased literacy rates massively, decreased poverty - basically, he is a fricken legend.

Also, managed to avoid being assassinated.

I have a 3-way tie actually.

Jose Mujica

In 2005, Mujica married Lucía Topolansky, a fellow Tupamaro fighter and current senator, after many years of co-habitation. They have no children and live on an austere farm in the outskirts of Montevideo, the country's capital. His humble lifestyle is reflected by his choice of an ageing Volkswagen Beetle as transport, his only asset. The Economist describes him as "a roly-poly former guerrilla who grows flowers on a small farm and swears by vegetarianism". He also donates a significant part of his salary to good causes.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

Since Lula began his term as President, he has attained numerous medals, such as the Brazilian Order of Merit, the Brazilian Orders of Military, Naval and Aeronautical Merit, the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit, the Order of the Southern Cross, the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle and the Norwegian Order of Royal Merit. He also received the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in 2003 and was the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebration in 2004.

One example of the foreign recognition Lula's government has received was Barack Obama's greeting at the G20 summit in London (April, 2009): "That's my man right there... The most popular politician on earth."

Lula was chosen as the 2009 Man of the Year by prominent European newspapers El País and Le Monde. The Financial Times ranks Lula among the 50 faces that shaped the 2000s. On 20 December 2008, he was named the 18th most important person in the world by Newsweek magazine, and was the only Latin American person featured in a list of 50 most influential World leaders. On July 7, 2009, he received UNESCO's Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. On 5 November 2009, President Lula was awarded the Chatham House Prize, awarded to the statesperson who is deemed by Chatham House members to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations in the previous year. On 29 January 2010, President Lula was awarded as a Global Statesman by the World Economic Forum, held in Davos, Switzerland, but could not attend the ceremony due to problems of high blood pressure.

In 2010, Time Magazine pointed Lula one of the most influential leaders of the world.

Evo Morales

His behavior contrasts with the usual manners of dignitaries in Latin America. For example, in January 28, 2006 he cut his salary by 57% to $1,875 a month. He is single and, before the election, he shared a flat with other MAS officers. Consequently, his older sister Esther Morales Ayma fulfills the role of First Lady. He has two children from different mothers. Morales is also an association football enthusiast and plays the game frequently, often with local teams.

He also aroused much interest in his choice of dress after being pictured often in his striped sweater with world leaders during his world tour. Some speculated that he would wear it to the official inauguration, where he actually dressed in a white shirt without tie (itself unheard of in Latin America in modern times for a head of state at their own inauguration) and a black jacket that was not a part of a conventional suit. The sweater (in Bolivian Spanish, a chompa, from the English word jumper) became his unofficial symbol and copies of it sold widely throughout Bolivia. Some accounts described Morales's signature sweater as alpaca-wool; others reported that it was actually made of common acrylic, because native materials had become too expensive for most Bolivians and were sold mostly in the tourist trade.

Additionally, Morales is an outspoken supporter of the iconic Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, who was executed by CIA-assisted Bolivian soldiers in 1967. At a ceremony in Vallegrande, marking the 42nd anniversary of Che's death, Morales remarked that "Guevara is invincible in his ideals, and in all this history, after so many years, he inspires us to continue fighting, changing not only Bolivia, but all of Latin America and the world." As an additional sign of admiration, Morales has had a coca leaf portrait of Guerrillero Heroico installed in the presidential palace.

Strange how they all come from Latin America?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/28915f86d75e.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8501c6b98347.jpg[/atsimg]

Although both are crazy and not good leaders, they are my favorites because they dont take any crap from anyone, and both remind me of cartman.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


Jesus is my favorite
current
world
leader

reply to post by Amagnon


You beat me to posting ole Hugo.
He's done a hell of a lot in his country.
I admire the guy.

Putin. Why? Because one he's a player. Two he hunts without a shirt on in the Russian wilds.Three he manages to be both the President and Prime Minister even if he isn't technically President. That takes skill.

Originally posted by rangersdad
reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

 

Jesus is my favorite
current
world
leader

oh really..?


Well, can't wait until your world leader gets assasinated - for a 2nd time...

Obama and his cronies are a bunch of pansy morons hands down. I'm gonna have to go with Benjamin Netanyahu as my current favorite. As far as I'm concerned he would be the only decent political official alive right now. Sad but true.

Originally posted by Beach Bum
Obama and his cronies are a bunch of pansy morons hands down. I'm gonna have to go with Benjamin Netanyahu as my current favorite. As far as I'm concerned he would be the only decent political official alive right now. Sad but true.

I would prefer Kim Jong-Il before that huge waste human life!

tenzin gyatso of the country formerly known as tibet. a very kind man.



Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

I add Fidel Castro, somehow he and his country survived all these attempts to destroy them. I respect their system and way of life.

Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales are next, the people love these two guys. Chavez, because TPTB tried to kill him in some dank cell after a failed coup. Extra points seeing TPTB run away frightened in the end, looting the presidential palace of gold and valuables, and extra humiliation for the TPTB who stayed behind as propaganda sacrifices who were exiled instead of killed by Chavez. Morales, because he's one of the people, not one of the Illuminati family bloodline. Morales is like sunlight to TPTB vampires. They hate this guy.

Ahmadinejad, because he always manages to make his enemies look bad.

Originally posted by nastalgik
Putin. Why? Because one he's a player. Two he hunts without a shirt on in the Russian wilds.Three he manages to be both the President and Prime Minister even if he isn't technically President. That takes skill.

sounds like Chuck Norris to me ! i vote for Putin and Hugo !

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


Gaddafi, have you seen his bodyguards?

There are no world leaders. Just world-class criminals.

This thread of communist trash proves that!

reply to post by mike_trivisonno


You sound like an angry person. Do you have many problems in your life? Can you tell me from your logic what is Communism? I already know what Communism is in facts.

Oh, it's definitely Putin.

He might even be manlier than Old Spice guy.

Love to go to the Russian site and see him eating lunch in cafeterias with the common people and then helping workers on site with his shirt off....

then he like fishes and hunts with his shirt off showing off his rather handsome bod.

but you know..you just know...that he'd send someone to poison your butt in a heartbeat if you looked at him funny or messed with him.

And he has actually done a pretty good job combating terrorism and problems there. If ya haven't noticed, Russia is doing FINE. It wasn't that long ago - BP - before Putin - that Russia was limping like a 3 legged dog.