It's good to be the king dictator

Obviously being a dictator pays pretty well these days. Castro was furious last year when he made the list so he's going to go ballistic this year, showing up with a cool $900 million. There were always rumors of Arafat owning a small fortune as well though Castro's fortune is hardly chump change. I've never understood how these so-called leaders of poor nations could sleep at night with such luxury while their people lived so poorly. It's no wonder they work so hard to keep people looking elsewhere or else they would take notice of the discrepancy between words and action. Even Dear Leader in the US does the same to a degree but at least the US is not listed among the poorest in the world.

One of the other lowlights on the list is Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea who was recently invited by Condi to the White House where he was praised. This charming fellow has a cool $600 million fortune while his country ranks among the poorest 10% in the world.

The so-called communist president of Angola is another great guy who is swimming in cash while his people live in absolute poverty and escape to poor neighboring countries in hopes of finding arable land or fishing rights that haven't been sold off. Angola is a US preferred trading partner, elevated to that status under Bush for reasons which no doubt have nothing to do with its oil reserves.