Heredity Dictators

I have been a little lazy this week in seeking out stories to discuss, partly because I have been very busy at work (keeping the wolf from the door ..... just).

Stalin And Son Yakov Dzhugashvili

This got me thinking about what life must be like if your daddy rules the world, well at least your part of it, and you are just waiting to inherit it.

First case study: The Hussein boys Uday and Qusay. All was going well, Daddy was a monster and the two boys were just your average Arab socio psychopaths. Uday was one sick little puppy, with stories of his violence legion. Maybe the most famous of which is the one about when Uday murdered his father's personal valet and food taster, Kamel Hana Gegeo (allegedly at the request of his mother).

He is reported to have performed the murder before (we assume, shocked) guests at a party in honour of Suzanne Mubarak, wife of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in October 1988, when a very drunken Uday, bludgeoned Gegeo with a cane, reputedly administering the coup de grâce with an electric carving knife.

For this little jape, Uday was sent to Switzerland (where he was eventually expelled for threatening to kill someone), he went on to torture Iraqi athletes and footballers ...... he survived an assassination attempt by relatives of a girl he raped, only to die with his brother at the hands of US forces in 2003

Qusay was not completely insane like his older brother, but he also enjoyed daddies patronage ... he helped crush the Shia uprising in 1991, and drained the famous Arab marshes, all but destroying the habitat for good.

Maybe that's a bad starting choice.

Next up Yakov Dzhugashvili aka Stalin's son. I can't imagine that being Stalin's son was a very happy experience, and a quick glance at Yakov's life shows this to be true. Yakov even tried unsuccessfully to kill himself with a bullet. While Yakov's stepmother tended to his wounds and sent for a doctor, all Stalin said was, "He can't even shoot straight" .... however before we feel too sorry for him, being the son of a dictator allowed him to carry out his own little vendetta's.

He met Yulia Meltzer, a Jewish dancer from Odessa, and then rowed with her second husband, Nikolai Bessarab, and so he arranged her divorce (against her wishes) ..... Nikolai Bessarab was was later arrested by the NKVD and executed ..... no reason for this arrest, but a trumped up charge and quick death.

Yakov was captured by the Germans during the war, and his father turned down a offer by the Germans to swap him for a German Field Marshall with the words "I will not trade a Field Marshal for a Lieutenant". He died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, possibly in a suicidal bid to escape.

Then there was another of Stalin's sons (Stalin also had an adopted son and a claimed illegitimate son), Vasily Iosifovich Stalin Dzhugashvilire. As soon as his father died, he effectively lost any authority in his military post, and after being refused command of the Moscow area, resigned turned to the bottle, becoming an alcoholic, and even spending time in prison. He died an alcoholic.

Well, not very happy tales, so lets look elsewhere.

The Mugabe brood: Bona Mugabe is studying at the University of Hong Kong, because her father has destroyed Zimabwe's previously fine education system. There is little information on Robert Peter Jr Mugabe and Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, but they needn't worry because according to reports the Mugabe's have virtually ransacked their country and stashed millions of dollars away, for their final get away.

OK, not great, so how about the Dr Bashar_al-Assad: Now this is more like it, no violence (apart from the regime) and proper training as a surgeon and apparently (some) liberal western values, but after he assumed the heredity Presidency of Syria, and after a very brief thaw, he resumed the security crackdowns that his father had instigated .,,, its assumed that he will use extreme violence to retain the power bequeathed him.

Hmm, nearly a success, but then turns into a dictator given half a chance, so lets move on.

The heredity succession of North Korea has still not been determined, and the regime too secretive to allow me to discuss the merits of the candidates, but it will remain firmly in the family.

Right lets turn to 'the daddy' ...... Yes it can only be the Gadfather himself, who has seven sons to find useful employment for. Muhammad al-Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi, Al-Saadi al-Gaddafi, Moatessem-Billal Kadhafi, Motassim Bilal (Hannibal) Gaddafi, Saif Al Arab and finally Khamis.

They are mixed and disparate bunch ......... but again for the penchant for violence seems to run in a thread of the family. "Hannibal" Gaddafi and his wife were charged with assault (not for the first time), in a rampage through Europe. While Moatessem-Billal Kadhafi attempted a coup to remove his own father, but has now been 'forgiven'.

But the rest are all more or less behaving themselves (apart from a penchant for rape), as 'president of this, or head of that' (no career progression required here, just straight to the top!) However nothing is smooth in dictator land and the Gadfather has recently appealed for a job for Saif.

Luckily one was quickly found, "coordinator of social and popular committees". A post which sounds nondescript but it gives Saif al-Islam "authority to oversee the parliament, government and security" – making him in effect, the second most powerful person in the land.

Now this more like it ........ a dictator who knows how to get the most out of his heredity successors.