Evil Personified

Nelson Mandela inherited that glamour indeed, he personified it.

In fact, Russia s foreign policy is Putin personified the president decides and executes almost everything.

The rhetoric of personified evil is easily seen through American examples, but is hardly a uniquely American phenomenon.

The Jo'anna in question is not a woman, but a nickname for the South African apartheid regime, personified by the city of Johannesburg.

But China is about to experience something new South Korea s soft power, personified by Park, who represents a center right coalition, but defies the usual political labels.

In many ways, Bo personified the Chinese concept of meritocracy well educated, intelligent, sophisticated, and charming (mainly to Western executives). But, after his fall, a very different picture emerged.

De Gaulle s policy of detente towards the Soviet Union, coming years before Nixon and Kissinger tried it, personified France s desire to exist diplomatically on its own and to maximize its room for maneuver with the US.

Alexander Dubcek, the leader of the Czechoslovak communists and the symbol of the Prague Spring, personified hope for democratic evolution, real pluralism, and a peaceful way to a state governed by law and respectful of human rights.

For 25 years, the leaders of Solidarity personified the qualities needed to win Poland s struggle for democracy unbending courage in the face of the communist Leviathan and magnanimity and clear sighted determination during the transfer of power.

On the one hand, there s the safe pair of hands personified by Jean Claude Juncker, the veteran prime minister of tiny Luxembourg, who knows the ins and outs of the EU s political machinery and chairs the euro zone s ministerial set up.

Bo personified that risk. He embodied the so called Chongqing model of state capitalism that has been ascendant in China in recent years government directed urbanization and economic development that concentrates power in the hands of regional leaders and state owned enterprises.

Obstructed by the EU, they are also being pushed from their positions of privilege by a new elite that is more provincial, more religious, and less liberal, but not necessarily less democratic a cohort personified by the highly popular prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

That may not really really sum up what being an American citizen is, but for me, it really personified the fact that my nationality gives me privileges either that I have no particular right to, or that more ideally everyone else should have too.