Eastern Category -- Ferdinand Marcos of the Phillipines
This guy was a crook, a tyrant and a murderer of thousands of people.
His wife had a lot of shoes.
That's the first thing I think of when I hear his name. Imelda had a lot of shoes. What the hell? I don't think I'm alone in this either. There was some interview in the 80's when he was still in power, I think it was on 60 Minutes, and they mentioned that she had 5000 pairs of shoes, and that was what we in North America took out of it. That was the big story to come out of the interview.
Some Fun Ferdinand Facts:
- He took part in the Bataan Death March (as a marcher, not a marchee)
- the 1970's were basically under martial law, and he killed many of his enemies (the killing wasn't confined to the 70's though)
- He was tight with Reagan, and received asylum in Hawaii when the people of the Philippines grew tired enough of the plundering and killing to chase him out
- He had Lupus, a disease that Canadian synchronized swimming sensation Carolyn Waldo was strongly opposed to
- Imelda was a stone cold fox when she was younger, there is no doubt about it
- Every Filipino guy I know is good with the ladies and I have a theory that it has something to do with Imelda being hot -- the theory goes something like this: Filipino guys grew up knowing that a skinny little weasel named Ferdinand ended up with the hottest girl in town and all the country's money and figure if that guy can do it, so can they. It's a confidence booster, and it's all about confidence.