With the recent revolts in Arab states that have brought down tyrants like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Ben Ali of Tunisia, it is interesting to note that the list of dictatorships abroad is still comprehensive. And though both of those countries are certain to be succeeded by like-minded dictators, for a time we here in the west can swallow the placebo of hope and change. Today’s brutal massacre of civilians in Libya by dictator-for-life Muammar Gaddafi might be just the wake-up call we need.

For all the complaints we levy against our own government, and the hyperbolic vitriol of our attempts to help others as “neocolonialism”, the reality is that we have largely ignored the kind of repression, torture and violence that has had a permanent presence in dozens of totalitarian states for the past 30 years. The following is a list of current dictators in those states:

North Korea: 63 years, Kim Jong Il and Kim Il-sung (father and son)
Cuba: 52 years, Fidel and Raul Castro (brothers)
Libya: 41 years, Muammar Gaddafi
Iran: 31 years, Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei
Angola: 31 years, José Eduardo dos Santos
Equatorial Guinea: 31 years, Obiang Mbasogo
Syria: 30 years, Bashar al-Assad and Hafez al-Assad (father and son)
Cameroon: 28 years, Paul Biya
Zimbabwe: 23 years, Robert Mugabe
Sudan: 22 years, Omar al-Bashir
Kazakhstan: 21 years, Nursultan Nazarbayev
Uzbekistan: 21 years, Islam Karimov
Chad: 20 years, Idriss Déby
Tajikistan: 18 years, Emomalii Rahmon
Eritrea: 18 years, Isaias Afewerki
Belarus: 17 years, Aleksandr Lukashenko
Venezuela: 12 years, Hugo Chavez
Algeria: 12 years, Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Rwanda: 11 years, Paul Kagame
Ivory Coast: 10 years, Laurent Gbagbo

(Not included in this list are the monarchies that serve as hereditary dictatorships)