Wednesday 10 June 2015

Moore, Michael "Stupid White Men"

Moore, Michael "Stupid White Men" - 2001

In one of my challenges for this year there is one that says "A book written by an author with your same initials." Since I wanted to read this book ever since it came out, I thought it was about time to tackle it.

Michael Moore does not just share my initials and most of my political opinions, I also found out that he is an Eagle Scout. As are both my boys.

Anyway, now to the book. This was even worse than I thought. Not as in the writing but as in the contents. Some of the stuff is so unbelievable, you wonder why people still vote for that party. And, even worse, they are the ones who write the most negative stuff about others.

Having said that, Michael Moore doesn't just rant about the party he didn't vote for, no, he also writes down what those in the party he'd rather see in office did and do wrong. I like that, it means you are not just saying the other side is evil, you look at the while picture and maybe even accept that they might do something right from time to time, as well.

This book has kept what it promised. It gives you a good view over what is (was) going on in the so-called Land of the Free, and not just what you hear from friends who like to overshare their hate for the other party on Facebook.

Of course, the book dates from  2001 and was published even before September 11th, so it isn't current. But I think it even gains in retrospect because you can see that some of his fears were quite prophetic. We can see that a lot of the problems created in this world stem from that time.

I don't want to get into big discussion in this blog. So, if you belong to my friends who hate President Obama and loved President Bush, just scroll over this as I do over your numerous hate posts almost every day. Thank you.

"Stupid White Men" tells you everything you need to know about how the great and the good screw us over.

From the back cover: "It reveals - among other things - how 'President' Bush stole an election aided only by his brother, cousin and dad's cronies, electoral fraud and tame judges; how the rich stay rich while forcing the rest of us to live in economic fear; and how politicians have whored themselves to big business.

Whether he's calling for United Nations action to overthrow the Bush Family Junta, calling on African-Americans to place whites-only signs over the entrances of unfriendly businesses, or praying that Jesse Helms will get kissed by a man, Stupid White Men is Michael Moore's Manifesto on Malfeasance and Mediocrity.

A hilarious must-read for anyone who wants to know what the con is and how 'they' get away with it, Stupid White Men is only available uncensored because public pressure forced the original publishers to publish a book they felt was too hot to handle. Now it's time to find out why."

I know most of these leaders have changed in the meantime but I challenge any of you to name more than ten of the present ones without googling or checking Wikipedia or whatever.

List of Leaders of Fifty Largest Countries
(in order of country's size)

1. China - President Jiang Zemin
2. India - President Kocherit Raman Narayanan
3. United States - President George W. Bush
4. Indonesia - President Megawati Sukarnoputri
5. Brazil - President Fernando Henrique Cardoso
6. Russia - President Vladimir Putin
7. Pakistan - General Pervez Musharraf
8. Bangladesh - President Shahabuddin Ahmed
9. Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
10. Nigeria - President Olusegun Obasanjo
11. Mexico - President Vicente Fox Quesada
12. Germany - Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
13. Philippines - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
14. Vietnam - President Tran Duc Luong
15. Egypt - President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak
16. Turkey - President Ahmet Necdet Sezer
17. Iran - Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamemei, President Mohammad Khatami
18. Ethiopia - President Negasso Gidada
19. Thailand - Prime Minister Thaksin Chinnawat
20. United Kingdom - Prime Minister Anthony C. L. Blair
21. France - President Jacques Chirac
22. Italy - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
23. Congo (Kinshasa) - President Joseph Kabila
24. Ukraine - President Leonid D. Kuchma
25. South Korea - President Kim Dae-Jung
26. South Africa - President Thabo Mbelki
27. Burma - Prime Minister Than Shwe
28. Spain - President Jose Mariaaznar
29. Colombia - President Andres Pastrana
30. Poland - Presided Aleksander  Kwasniewski
31. Argentina - President Fernando De La Rua
32. Tanzania - President Benjamin Wiliam Mkapa
33. Sudan - President Lt. Gen. Omar El-Bashir
34. Canada - Prime Minister Jean Chretien
35. Algeria - President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
36. Kenya - President Daniel Arap Moi
37. Morocco - Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi
38. Peru - President Alejandro Toledo
39. Afghanistan - Mullah Mohammed Rabbari
40. Uzbekistan - President Islam Karimov
41. Nepal - King Gyanendra, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur  Derba
42. Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez Frias
43. Uganda - President Lt Gen. Yoweri Museveni
44. Iraq - President Saddam Hussein
45. Romania - President Ion Iliescu
46. Taiwan - President Chen Shui-Bian
47. Saudi Arabia - King Fahd Bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud
48. Malaysia - Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamed
49. North Korea - President Vim Jong Il
50. Ghana - President John Agyekum Kufuor

3 comments:

  1. I'm neither a Republican nor a Democrat, but I must say I find Michael Moore offensive. There was a time when I respected his opinion, but that was long ago in a country far away as they say.

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    1. Oh, I totally understand. I have only just read this book (because of the initials, no, I wanted to read it anyway) and don't know much about him as a person or what else he did. And I can see that he has a certain "quality" that I probably wouldn't like, either. But I know plenty of people who wouldn't go near his books because he writes about something they'd rather hide.

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    2. Sorry, meant to say good-bye and enjoy the day.

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