Bashar al-Assad
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria is a rather strange person to my mind - and not just for his striking physical resemblance - to the 'Big Bird' in Sesame Street.
No, the reason he's strange is that while he's clearly a very educated and intelligent person - a medical doctor by profession who finished his training London - President Assad chooses to ignore the evidence of his own eyes and ears.
Depressingly, Assad is the product of another yet another Arab dynasty - where family ties, tribal allegiances and religious prejudices - seem to overcome the rational side of a person's personality.
But then I suppose he wouldn't have become the President in the first place - if he were his own man - like father like son in that respect.
Yet in one country after another the established order is being challenged - because society in so many parts of the Arab world is typified by feudal, religious and tyrannical regimes - of one sort or another.
And as there are plenty of people who do well out of supporting these regimes - it follows that there are many willing to fight to preserve the old, established order - the status quo.
I listened to a speech President Assad made the other day - in which he railed against the Arab League for not coming to Syria's aid.
The Syrian President compared the situation in his own country to the 'plight' of Colonel Gadaffi in Libya - as if the regime in Libya was not the cause of its own downfall.
But no, President Assad insisted that Colonel Gadaffii and his murderous family were deposed by terrorists and an organised international conspiracy - not the Libyan people.
Which few people believe in the Arab world - or anywhere else - except maybe Robert Mugabe and a few other like minded despots.
The peace monitors sent in by the Arab League have not been able to end the violence - some were even attacked in the process of doing their jobs - while Syrian government officials and the army looked the other way.
Innocent civilians are killed by government forces on a daily basis - and just the other day a French reporter was shot dead by a sniper - presumed to be from the government side.
So there seems little option for the civilised world to turn up the heat on Syria - via the United Nations.
By imposing tough trade sanctions and further isolating President Assad and his government - as far as possible - within the rest of the Arab and wider world.
The key aim - as always - is to prevent one tyranny being replaced by another - because power sharing is a very difficult concept - in a world where God is allegedly taking sides in the conflict and speaking directly to the head of state.
