Ayatollah Khomeini: Maker of the Global Village
             Leaders of this world shape the happenings of their country's existence. They can destine the road the nation takes thereby determining the future of its everyday citizens. If a nation is set towards disaster, a leader and his platform can rescue it. If a nation is set towards prosperity, a leader and his party can destroy it. Leaders can contribute to the making or breaking of the global village. Iran is such a nation on this globe, laced with rich culture, traditions and a long history. The Iranian population has seen much from the great Persian Empire founded by the Greeks in 550 B.C. to several monarch dynasties conquering each other. Recently, however, for more than 65,000,000 Iranians located in the South West of Asia the Islamic revolution has surpassed it all. The Shah of Iran, Reza Shah Pehalvi carried out an autocratic rule from the late 40's up to 1979. His government was known for its loyalty towards the United States that supported it to exploit oil wealth from Iran. Efforts were made to Americanize the Iranian society. The regime's strategies increased inflation, distance between the castes, corruption and tyranny - much to the people's dismay. By 1977, unrest at the Shah's rule was widespread, demonstrations and strikes were common, and the exiled Ruhollah Mussavi Khomeini took the stage to guide an upheaval. Khomeini emerged as one of the most important revolutionary leader the world has known in the twentieth century. He was proclaimed Time Magazine's 'Man of the Year' in 1979 (www.time.com), with an insistence that he was a repressive, Islamic extremist, to which most of the Western world concurs. Yet, he not only established one of the only working democracies in the Muslim world he was also well liked by much of the Iranian population. Ayatollah Khomeini was a maker of the twentieth century global village because of his extraordinary efforts as a spirited individual...