Replacing the wildly popular Flags of All Nations insert set that graced the 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter set is another 50 card insert set called 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter World Leaders. The concept is simple. Pick fifty Presidents, Kings, Prime Ministers, Popes, etc., and put their image on a card with a map of the country they govern. Simple concept. And for government buffs, political science majors, and so on, this is a set worth completing. I may eventually try for a complete set if the price is right, but I'll wait until later when prices settle down even more.
Count me in as ignorant. I may be a closet geographer, but I don't know that much about, nor have I taken the time to study, each country's political structure. So I don't know who is the leader of each country. Apparently, neither does Topps.
Please take a look at the card above. It is of Bertie Ahern, who is the Taoiseach (or Prime Minister) of the Republic of Ireland (Éire). Now for most of us, at first glance there is nothing wrong with the card. Tell that to the Irish.
It seems that Ahern is no longer is the Taoiseach, having resigned four months ago (Brian Cowen, previously Ireland's finance minister is now the Taoiseach...in case you're wondering). That's not necessarily the problem here as the card was designed and printed long before he resigned his position. But it seems that the picture enclosed is not even of Ahern, but of a gentleman by the name of Hans-Gert Pöttering, who is the President of the European Parliament.
Topps, which has a presence in Ireland in County Cork, has apologized for the error and is looking into how this got past the editors.
For more information, please click here. This will lead you to the Irish Independent News website where this story written by Senan Molony, the paper's Deputy Political Editor.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
I'm actually kind of impressed that Topps was able to restrain themselves from releasing a super short printed Obama or McCain card in this set. I still think they should have included some controversial leaders in the set like Chavez and Ahmedanijad.
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