Leaders & Important People in History

noirua said:

Zimbabwe - formerly Southern Rhodesia
Morgan Tsvangirai - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Tsvangirai

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is a Zimbabwean politician and trade unionist and the leader and founder of the Movement for Democratic Change, the opposition party in Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai was born into the Shona ethnic group in the Gutu area in central Zimbabwe, the eldest of nine children and the son of a carpenter

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Zimbabwe Govt moves to counter "Western propaganda"
The Zimbabwean Government is setting up a new radio station to counter what it calls Western propaganda against the President, Robert Mugabe.

The Information Minister says the country is under siege and its people are being bombarded by broadcasts from the Western media. The short wave station will become Zimbabwe's fifth state-run radio station and will cost $48 million.

It is being partly funded by the Iranian Government. Meanwhile, South African President Thabo Mbeki said he wants to move swiftly to ensure free and fair elections in Zimbabwe next year.

Mr Mbeki was appointed last month by regional leaders as mediator between Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after a Government crackdown on opposition leaders.

Mr Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF has put him forward as their candidate for the presidential election in 2008.

The opposition has said it may boycott the polls unless authorities guarantee they will be free and fair. "In reality, we don't have much time ... the Zimbabweans have got 11 months to do everything that is necessary to ensure that those elections are free and fair and that the outcome of those elections is not contested by anybody," Mr Mbeki said.

Mr Mugabe's Government drew furious protests from Western nations last month after Zimbabwe police arrested MDC leader Morgan Tsvingarai, who said he and other opposition members were severely beaten in detention.

Mr Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980. The MDC and other groups have protested against Zimbabwe's crippling economic crisis, which critics blame on Government mismanagement. The MDC also accuses Mugabe's Government of stealing a series of elections since 2002.

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As a founder and former member of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN), Ramos Horta served as the exiled spokesman for the East Timorese resistance during the years of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor (1975 to 1999). While he has continued to work with FRETILIN, Ramos Horta resigned from the party in 1988, and has since remained an independent politician.

He was actively involved in the development of political awareness in Portuguese Timor which caused him to be exiled for two years in 1970–71 to Portuguese East Africa. It was a family tradition as his grandfather had also suffered exile, from Portugal to the Azores Islands, then Cape Verde, Portuguese Guinea and finally to Portuguese Timor.

A moderate in the emerging Timorese nationalist leadership, he was appointed Foreign Minister in the "Democratic Republic of East Timor" government proclaimed by the pro-independence parties in November 1975 [in exile]. When appointed minister, Ramos Horta was only 25 years old. Ramos Horta left East Timor three days before the Indonesian troops invaded to plead the Timorese case before the United Nations.

Ramos Horta arrived in New York to address the UN Security Council and urge them to take action in the face of the Indonesian military onslaught which would result in over 200,000 East Timorese deaths between 1976 and 1981. Ramos Horta was the Permanent Representative of Fretilin to the UN for the ensuing ten years.

In 1993, the Rafto Prize was awarded to the people of East Timor. Foreign-minister-in-exile José Ramos-Horta represented his nation at the prize ceremony.

In December 1996, Ramos Horta shared the Nobel Peace Prize with his fellow countryman, Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. The Nobel Committee chose to honour the two laureates for their "sustained efforts to hinder the oppression of a small people", hoping that "this award will spur efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict of East Timor based on the people's right to self-determination". The Committee considered Ramos Horta "the leading international spokesman for East Timor's cause since 1975".

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1971 was a turning point for Gusmão. He completed his national service, his son was born, and he became involved with a nationalist organisation headed by José Ramos Horta. For the next three years he was actively involved in peaceful protests directed at the colonial system.

It was in 1974 that a democratic coup in Portugal resulted in the beginning of decolonisation for Portuguese Timor, and shortly afterwards the Governor Mário Lemos Pires announced plans to grant the colony independence. Plans were drawn up to hold general elections with a view to independence in 1978.

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Sodapop said:

Mustapha Kermal Attaturk anyone??? Any other countries named after their presidents???

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( Ataturk was otherwise known as Mustafa Kemal - lol he wanted to be called "Oz" after Gallipoli, but they gave him "Ataturk"....)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Kemal_Atatürk

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With the passage of surname law on November 24, 1934, he asked to acquire the surname "Oz", but presented by the Turkish National Assembly with the surname "Atatürk" (meaning "Father Turk" or "Ancestor Turk"), hence Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.[1] He is revered by the people of Turkey as the Father of the Nation. .....

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2020hindsight said:

chicken and egg I guess - this from a post on Anzac thread


what came first, the father or the son ?

heck if they'd called him "Oz", then maybe there'd be an "Ozkey" instead of a "Turkey"

(just a light comment ... the islander saying "thank goodness they renamed us Hawaii instead of the Sandwich Islands - otherwise we'd be called Sandwiches instead of Hawaiians"
But you're right , I can't think of anywhere named after someone. (other than Rhodesia maybe ? - past tense )

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Aussie2Aussie said:

Sodapop and 2020

Please tell me you are joking about Turkey being named after Ataturk.

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With the passage of surname law on November 24, 1934, he asked to acquire the surname "Oz", but presented by the Turkish National Assembly with the surname "Atatürk" (meaning "Father Turk" or "Ancestor Turk"), hence Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.[1] He is revered by the people of Turkey as the Father of the Nation. .....

On 25 April 1915 (Anzac Cove), he met the enemy in the hills, held them, and retook the high ground. Largely owing to him and his command, the Australian and New Zealand forces were contained and the landing force failed to reach its objectives.[2] Mustafa Kemal said to his troops: I don’t order you to attack, I order you to die. In the time it takes us to die, other troops and commanders can come and take our places.[2]....

Mustafa Kemal became the outstanding front-line commander and gained much respect from his former enemies for his chivalry in victory. The Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Memorial has an honoured place on ANZAC Parade in Canberra, Australia. Mustafa Kemal's commemorating speech on the loss of thousands of Turkish and Anzac soldiers in Gallipoli stays at Anzac Cove.

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Turkey, a developed country, is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic whose political system was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I.

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Now here's that theory (of mine) ... that he ended up in Palestine, (no question) , and was beaten (arguably) by the likes of Lawrence of Arabia. (unproven that he even met Lawrence, but it seems to fit the jigsaw at first glance, IMO)...

So if that is correct, then a man who is pretty much a lone ranger in white robes, whose only strength is the fact that he trusts Arabs / Palestinians / etc, and in turn is worshipped by them ... that this man wins in the end over the mighty Ataturk, when the combined Anzacs ,poms and French couldn't at Gallipopli ? (just a theory)

PS as that discovery channel youtube concluded - it was as much the terrain as anything that beat the Anzacs at Gallipoli. - No amount of courage or leadership could have won there .

PPS "T. E. Lawrence was the second of five illegitimate sons ?? (lol) of Sir Thomas Robert Tighe Chapman, Bt., an Anglo-Irish landowner. Lawrence's mother had originally been hired to care for Chapman's four daughters by his ex-wife, whom he left because she had a "religious madness" and made his life impossible."
- interesting origins there Lawrence sounds like the classic dysfunctional family they have on the TV sitcoms, lol.

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