Welcome to 'A Flower for the Leader'

This blog documents the progress in assembling material for a book project called 'A Flower for the Leader'.  The aim of the book is to document our leaders and dictators and the flowers that have been dedicated to them.

It is a collaboration between Angela Groundwater and Hydra Projects.

Update: progress has been slower than expected as one of the main sources of flower dedications - the Singapore Orchid Garden is refusing to share their list of VIP Orchids (200+) which we fully expect to contain dedications to many of the world's most notorious leaders who will have visited the country over the years.  The have likened the list to a 'state secret' which has made progress thus far, slow, intriguing and just a little bit frustrating.

All powerful warrior with a hat to match

Mobutu was the President of Zaire (Now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Zaire means “River”. He made a law saying that TV in Zaire cannot mention anybody but him by name. He banned all leopard print hats from Zaire, except for his own. He commanded that all evening news begin with a scene of him descending from the heavens. He chose many names for himself, including one that translates in English to “the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and will to win, will go from contest to contest leaving fire in his wake.“ He jailed anyone who did not have an African name. He was overthrown on May 16, 1997 and died on September 7, 1997, of Prostate Cancer, in Morocco. Good riddance.
[Listverse.com]

I wonder how he would have reacted to country men wearing the Leopard Flower on their heads?

A little Voodoo for the Doctor

President For Life Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier was dictator of Haiti from 1957-1971. He once had a heart attack, and chose Clement Barbot, leader of the Tonton Macoutes,a paramilitary group, to become acting president while he recovered. When he was fully recovered, he accused Barbot of trying to take power from him. When Barbot tried to overthrow Duvalier in a coup, Francois issued a massive search for Barbot. When the police couldn’t find him, Duvalier believed he had turned into a black dog. He then ordered the death of all black dogs in Haiti. Eventually, when Barbot was caught and executed, Duvalier kept his head for Voodoo. In 1961, he ordered elections. He received 100% of the vote. He made Haitians recite a prayer every day, which went like this: “Our Doc, who art in the National Palace for life, hallowed by Thy name by present and future generations. They will be done in Port-au-Prince as it is in the provinces. Give us this day our new Haiti and forgive not the trespasses of those anti-patriots who daily spit upon our country…“. He once said that he controlled Lee Harvey Oswald to shoot JFK with voodoo. He finally died in 1971, and was succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, who was known as “Baby Doc”.

It's the Voodoo Lilly for you-hoo.

I may be wearing lipstick but I am singing

Niyazov was the President for Life of Turkmenistan from 1990-2006. He is most famous for naming months after himself, his family and his books. He renamed bread after his mother, and built a huge Ice Castle in the middle of Turkmenistan, a desert country. He banned make-up, gold teeth and lip syncing at concerts. He demanded that his book be given equal status as the Quran in Mosques, and all Turkmen currency his picture. All employees must memorize the book to keep their jobs, and you could not get a driver’s license unless you memorized his book by heart. Turkmenistan is a one-party state with (of course) no opposition. As he put it, ‘There are no opposition parties, so how can we grant them freedom?’.
[Listverse.com]

Given his love of lipsyncing and lipstick I'm sure he would have loved Psychotria Elata or Hooker's Lips

A problem for fishermen who use the word intellectual

Francisco Macias Nguema was President of Equatorial Guinea from 1968-1979, his reign ending after being overthrown by his nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who is the current dictator of Equatorial Guinea. Nguema (The Uncle) closed down hospitals in favor of his Witch Doctor Ancestry. He banned the word “intellectual” and banned fishing. He changed the national motto to “There is no other God than Macias Nguema.“ He killed the head of the national bank and hid all the money of the National Treasury in his house. On Christmas, 1975, he ordered 150 opponents executed in a football field to the tune of “Those Were The Days”. His reign of terror and insanity was finally over when he was executed by firing squad “101 times”, and was replaced by a slightly less insane, evil and strange dictator.
[Listverse.com]

I'm sure he would have liked the Guinea Flower.

Who you calling a threat to humanity?

Yahya Jammeh has been dictator of The Gambia since 1994, and has since claimed to have mystical powers. The Gambia sponsors Witch Doctors, who have abducted about 1,000 Gambians on charges of witchcraft. He intends to have a policy in The Gambia “Stricter than those in Iran”. His official title is “His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh Naasiru Deen”. He claims to have discovered the cure to AIDS/HIV (its herbal!). He claims that The Gambia was formerly the largest country in Africa. In his own words, this country is one of the oldest and biggest countries in Africa that was reduced to a small snake by the British government who sold all our lands to the French.”
[Listverse.com]

What better than the Gay Feather Flower for the man who called homosexuality a threat to humanity.

How can someone who wants to disolve Switzerland and who banned Italian men be all bad?

Muammar Qaddafi was the dictator of Libya. Qaddafi took power in 1969 in a revolution. After three years with the title “Prime Minister” he changed it to “Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution”. All his bodyguards are female virgins, and he claimed that Libya was run through a direct democracy. He had possibly the weirdest fashion sense of everybody here, for example when he wore a traditional Islamic dress with sunglasses. He blamed Osama bin Laden and drugs for the 2011 Libyan Civil War, and once claimed that he conquered the U.S. He banned all Italians from Libya in revenge for the colonization of Libya during WWII. He once gave a speech in Italy, to only women, on why Europe should pay him 5 Billion Euros. He also despised Switzerland, and wrote a UN resolution on why Switzerland should be dissolved. Also, on his relations with the UN, he once gave a speech for two hours, during which he expressed support for Somali Pirates. He claimed that Israel was responsible for JFK’s assassination (Yeah, right), and once called Barack Obama “My Son”. He was only allowed a 10 minute speech.
[Adapted from Listvers.com]

He apparently had a thing for Condoleezza Rice, even getting a well known Lybian artist to write a song for her called Black Flower in the White House.  This contains unforgettable lyrics like "you're like no woman I've ever seen before, I would put you in charge of my security core".  What better than a Black Dahlia.