Person of the Year 2008

It's hard to remember now, but Robert Mugabe was once a heroic figure in Africa. Because of his work to end colonial rule, he spent more than a decade in prison in the 1960s and '70s. But now he presides over a vicious kleptocracy in which the wives of political opponents are gang-raped, eight in 10 citizens can't find work, and much of the country is on the brink of starvation or cholera infection — even as Mugabe's wife declares that her narrow feet can fit into nothing but Ferragamos. Because of Mugabe's policies, this once-fertile land produces almost no food, and even in the capital, Harare, the water system doesn't function. Still, Africa and the West dither, Mugabe stays in power, and Zimbabwe spirals into chaos.

—John Cloud