NEW YORK, NY - Who is Robert Mugabe? To any educated, informed individual it may seem a simple question with an obvious answer, but, as we in the rest of the West have long known, the average American is neither informed nor educated.
Apparently they possess a limited threshold for shame as well, as was demonstrated on a recent episode of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, when the host, filming live in New York's Times Square, asked a number of passers-by to correctly identify Robert Mugabe.
Answers ranged from "one of those soccer players over in England" to "the dude who ended apartment in Africa, duh!", but an overwhelming majority of those interviewed were quite certain Mugabe is an African distance runner of some sort.
"He is the guy who won the Boston Marathon this year, isn't he?" offered David Hincks, Professor of Political Studies at UNY.
"Well I been watchin' the news pretty close lately on account of the Olympics comin' up, and I think he's that really good marathon runner who says he don't want to run in Beijing because of the pollution," offered Betty Davis, an avid fan of Americans who compete in the Olympic Games.
All told, it was yet another blatant display of American ignorance, as none of those interviewed could correctly identify Mugabe, who I'm pretty sure was the guy who co-starred with Leo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond.
