Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe frolics with balloons during lavish celebrations in Bulawayo to mark his 86th birthday, in 2010. Mugabe has been in power since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, and under his rule the country has fallen to pieces. But regardless of Zimbabwe's economic situation, and even in years where shops ran out of bread and his people suffered, Mugabe's expensive birthday parties have continued.
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Mugabe goes for a trendy boho layered look on his 83th birthday in 2007, with a patterned shirt, flower lei and red communist-style neckerchief. This was the year that shops in Zimbabwe ran out of bread on Mugabe's birthday.
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Mugabe celebrates his 80th birthday in 2004 with celebrations in Zvimba, his hometown, attended by 10,000 of his closest friends (he might have preferred a nap). A day before his 80th, Mugabe pledged to step down in five years. He is still in power.
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Mugabe and his son Chatunga eat cake during celebrations held in Chinhoyi to mark the veteran leader's 85th birthday.
- [DESMOND KWANDE/AFP/Getty Images]

Mugabe's annual birthday tradition of releasing the balloons. And yes, the printed shirt Mugabe is wearing does appear to bear his own image.
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Mugabe supporters wish their Comrade President a happy birthday in 2008.
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Mugabe with balloons in the colors of his political party, ZANU-PF, at 84th birthday celebrations in Beitbridge. Mugabe appears unconcerned with the prospect of world helium shortages.
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Mugabe and family members cut one of his 84th birthday cakes in 2008. Elections were held a month after Mugabe's birthday that year, and the country descended into brutal violence led by thugs from the ruling ZANU-PF party.
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For his 81st birthday, in 2005, Mugabe wore a dapper suit, accessorized with flower-and-ribbon lei and the red neckerchief of his party's youth movement.
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Mugabe cuts his 81st birthday cake with his family at a party in Marondera.
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