Big Daddy Xi, Putin the Poisoner

Bid Daddy Xi was the name commonly used in the PRC press for the Chinese leader until 2016 when it was officially abandoned, with the argument that one did not want to establish another personality cult in China…. Putin the Poisoner is the name Alexei Navalny gave to the Russian President after being condemned to his most recent jail sentence in 2021.

You determine what happens to your nation

not by free speech and democratic election

but by incarceration and defenestration

envenomation and other forms of execution:

murder by another name

You hold to the conviction

that democracy’s strengths are a fiction

that in this and future centuries

will dominate the autocracies

contemporary history tells a different tale

Democracies are far from perfect

recently many have suffered serious neglect

they need large-scale reform

as for any socio-political construct is the norm

but they have a capacity for renewal that autocracies do not

Do you really think that a government that seeks to control

its people’s choices – political, economic and moral

can command the support of a population that however seemingly obeying and subdued

feels fundamentally screwed

this is to fly in the face of experience

You can beat your drums

you can sound your guns

but it is clear that your writ

is to stay on the job until you (non-violently) die in it

your peoples will eventually challenge this course

You Vlad, you Xi

this is a plea

for you to recall your Marx

and what he had to say about how information and its exchange

are the key factors driving social change

These are your Achilles’ heels

challenging the ideals

on which rest your power, suggesting all Is well

between you and your clientele

it isn’t and you know it

Your days are numbered

your sins will be remembered

you can seek refuge in an African chateau

but your legacy your peoples will know

and hold in contempt for generations to come