National Geographic magazine has released a list of their picks for history’s 50 most influencial leaders. Drum roll, please:
|
Alexander the Great Atilla the Hun Benazir Bhutto Bilqis, The Queen of Sheba      Simon Bolivar Napoleon Bonaparte Kim Campbell Catherine de Medici Catherine the Great Charlemagne Chiang Kai-shek Sir Winston Churchill Cleopatra Charles de Gaulle Elizabeth I Fu Hsi Indira Gandhi Genghis Khan Hannibal Emperor Hirohito Adolf Hitler Isabella of Castile Empress Jingo Julius Caesar John F. Kennedy |
William Lyon Mackenzie King Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Abraham Lincoln Sir John A. Macdonald Nelson Mandela Moctezuma I Benito Mussolini Jawaharlal Nehru Nero Pericles Eva Peron Chief Pontiac Ramses II Romulus Franklin Delano Roosevelt Shanakdakhete Joseph Stalin Raden Suharto Suleyman the Magnificent Margaret Thatcher Getulio Vargas Queen Victoria George Washington William the Conquerer Mao Zedong |
I think maybe National Geographic should just stick to photo-essays on big shiny bugs and painted tribespeople.
Where did they find this list? Shanakdakhete is such an obscure name that it almost gives the game away. She was the first female ruler of ancient Nubia. Kim Campbell was the first female prime minister of Canada. Neither has much else to recommend them except “first female.” But I can’t find an online list of first women where they got these names from.
Reportedly, Kim Campbell won’t even comment on it. She’s really was a good, qualified person shoved into power as a sacrificial conservative after the Mulroney balloon burst. She accomplished nothing, through no fault of her own. I suspect she’s a little embarrassed by the whole thing.
Well it does seem to include the biggest *butchers* in world history. Was this paid for by the “National Cannibal Rights Foundation”? You know their slogan, of course. “Human, the Other Other White Meat”
It’s strange that Nero is on that list. A lot of the other butchers were effective in quelling revolts, but he was so incompetent that the “playing fiddle while Rome burns” line is known throughout the world.
The 6 or so that I’d agree with would be disgusted with the company kept on that list.