Weak

Heydar Aliev is everywhere in this country, despite the fact that he is dead. His son, the current president, is also quite ubiquitous. Their faces grace posters and bilboards along virtually every stretch of highway, on many government buildings, and inside most every classroom. They smile down on their beloved citizens, or pat soldiers on the back, or benevolently pat children, or sternly consider the path of their country.

And they're quite revered. Plenty of well-educated, intellectual, Western-looking folks will tell you that Heydar was a true democrat, and that although "a few irregularities" might have occurred during Ilham's election, it was certainly not the massively corrupt debacle that most election-observing officials would have you believe. Heydar made his country strong, and stopped the wicked Armenians from taking any more of Azerbaijan. Ilham is his natural successor. (And frankly, nobody doubts that Ilham's wife will be the next president.)

But sometimes, someone is willing to step out of bounds, and cracks break through the facade. I was talking to a few young men the other day, teenagers about to finish high school, and was surprised at what they told me.

"Ilham is weak," they said.

Maybe we just need more posters.