31 Trivia Tidbits About Embarrassing Mistakes Made by Countries and Governments
Blunders heard ‘round the world
![31 Trivia Tidbits About Embarrassing Mistakes Made by Countries and Governments](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/5/1/1/1080511_320x180.jpg)
We thought that governments — especially national governments — would hold themselves to a much higher standard than this. But it looks like that dopey little human element reared its befuddled head and got the best of them. Not to say that governments should be run by A.I.… yet. That said, if this list of blunders is what humans have to offer, we’re willing to hear our possible A.I. leaders out!
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![The Malaysian government told women in lockdown to be Stepford wives. Elak pakai pakaian rumah. Bertatahias seperti biasa, bersolek dan berpakaian kemas. Official advice said women should wear makeup, dress up, and not nag their husbands. The government later apologized, saying they were just trying to maintain positive relationships among family members. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/5/1078245.jpg)
![When healthcare.gov launched and immediately crashed, the government paid $4 million to fix it. Affordable Care Act That money went to the same contractor who screwed it up. Despite the fact that the flaws were generated by the contractor, the CMS withheld only $267,420 of the $4 million. http://www bloomberg com/news/articles/2015-09-22/-s-paid- GRACKED.COM healthcare-gov-contractor-4-million-to-fix-its-own-mess](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/3/1078243.jpg)
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![The European Union CRACKED.COM The EU thought the best way to promote unity was to show a white lady being menaced by a bunch of foreigners martial artists, and ultimately being saved by summoning several more, identical white ladies.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/0/1078240.jpg)
![INDIA'S UTTARAKHAND STATE PUNISHES LOCKDOWN VIOLATORS LIKE A MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL WOULD. Police caught at least 10 foreign nationals walking outside despite quarantine, and made them write I did not follow the lockdown, I am sorry 500 times. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/1/1078241.jpg)
![Public votes that backfired big time A DUMP BY ANY OTHER NAME Ca Amo Austin, TX citizens voted to rename its Solid Waste Department the Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts, and Durst tweeted, I hope we win. They did win, but the city chose boring old Austin Resource Recovery. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/9/1078239.jpg)
![South Africa has three capitals. < Cape Town Cape Town is the legislative capital, Pretoria is the administrative capital, and Bloemfontein is the judiciary capital. South Africa was born from the unification of four British colonies, and they couldn't agree on a city that would be the single capital. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/8/1078238.jpg)
![THE ETHIOPIAN CALENDAR IS SEVEN YEARS BEHIND THE REST OF THE WORLD. It was developed by Orthodox and Coptic churches, based on their own calculations for the date of Jesus's birth. It has 12 months of 30 days and one of five days (six on leap years.) In this system, the year begins on September 11 or 12 of the Gregorian calendar. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/7/1078237.jpg)
![60% OF JAILED WOMEN IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC ARE DOING TIME FOR BEING WITCHES. Pstic Ca And 40% of all criminal cases in the country are sorcery-related, making it the most commonly prosecuted felony. This has no parallel in the rest of the world. GRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/6/1078236.jpg)
![+3 +4 45 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10 +11 DESPITE ITS MASSIVE SIZE, CHINA ONLY USES ONE TIME ZONE. Eyes Sex Bering Sex Sex of Okhand - Company I - Sex-of TURKMEMETAN CANA ALS I NORTH RAO +3 1/2 PACIFIC PROSTAN OCEAN Care Chine SAUCE Sex ARABIA TARKS +5% PHOLIPPINES Philippine Any HOME - Bengal South Des Sea Arabian -2% Sea - - Sea - - - -5% - CO - - - - - - - PALAU - 1% LAMA The country - has room Center for five different time zones, but only recognizes Beijing Standard ... Time, which means that in some](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/4/1078234.jpg)
![The US flew nearly $12 billion in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq. after KAZA Then they tossed it around without checking to see who was receiving it or how it was being spent. A congressional committee found that a staggering amount of the cash, which was was earmarked for Iraqi ministries and US contractors, was lost to corruption and waste. CRACKED.COM http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/08/usa iraq1](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/5/1078235.jpg)
![In 1958, the Air Force hatched Project A119, A Study of Lunar Research Flights. The plan: Nuke the Moon. During the height of the Cold War, the U.S. wanted to show off its military might with a nuclear detonation on the moon that would be visible from Earth. After 8 project reports were commissioned, it was determined they could probably pull it off, but the project was scrapped. CRACKED.COM http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/051400-02.htm](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/2/1078232.jpg)
![The Pentagon has so far invested over $4 million on the NAV. (That's short for Nano Air Vehicle.) the NAV Not the NAV It's a robot hummingbird. It's 6 inches tall and weighs less than an ounce. And yes, it's for spying. CRACKED.COM http://www.avinc.com/nano](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/3/1078233.jpg)
![The NIH has spent $1.55 million on a video game app called Kiddio: Food Fight. In it, you play a mother persuading her kid to taste vegetables. Because harried moms want nothing more than to spend rare moments of leisure playing force the kid to eat veggies on their phones. CRACKED.COM https://salmon house gov/media-center/press-releases/ rep-salmon-introduces-final-shrink-our-spending-bill-2015-cuts-funding](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/0/1078230.jpg)
![In 1962, council members in Centralia, PA, hired firefighters to burn their trash. It's still burning. The landfill was adjacent to an underground coal mine, and the fire spread to the tunnels beneath the city. Smoke continues to billow from the fire, which is expected to burn for another 250 years. In 1984, Congress spent more than $42 million to relocate the town's residents. CRACKED.COM David DeKok, 1986 Unseen Danger; A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/1/1078231.jpg)
![Between 1942 and 1964, the U.S. Military built an artificial island in the Pacific. Johnson Atoll, 860 mi southwest of Hawaii It was abandoned in 2004. We don't know how much it cost, but a comparable project in scope and scale would be the Japanese Kansai Airport. That was another artificial island built to support a landing strip, and it cost around $20 billion. CRACKED.COM www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2010/04/isolated-and-abandoned-military-airbase-johnston-atoll](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/9/1078229.jpg)
![Project Stargate was a 20-year government program launched in 1978. The project employed 22 full-time psychics. Apparently Command heard rumors that the Soviets were using psychics for military intelligence, and they didn't want to be left out. The psychics were used to telepathically view distant locations, looking for military installations. CRACKED.COM http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983829,00.html](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/7/1078227.jpg)
![In 2010, the GSA spent $800,000 on a conference in Vegas. conositara P | I I P no 850198IN2 D OM НО ВЕ ... OTI CCOS OOT NATION eep ried Twinkie The General Services Administration is the eRm agency that is in charge of eliminating government waste. Expenses included a $75,000 team building exercise, various $5,600 in-room parties, $31,000 networking receptions and assorted mysterious catering bills, such as a $7,000 sushi bill. CRACKED.COM http://www.gsaig ov/?LinkServID=90537F5B-FBF8-E39E-A4F0D09005742C28&showMeta=0](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/8/1078228.jpg)
![Berlin tried to use mimes to deal with drunken tourists in the streets at night. POUL ГОРОШЕК and ГОР MAP The mimes would go out in groups of four and let people take photos with them while exerting social pressure on tourists to act appropriately. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/5/1078225.jpg)
![Russia created a Safe Selfie campaign with a booklet about what not to do. The booklet, distributed in schools, says you shouldn't do things like climbing an electrical pylon or hanging from a rooftop just to get likes. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/6/1078226.jpg)
![The United Kingdom actually appointed a Minister for Loneliness in 2018. That was the result of the 2017 finding that 9 million Britons felt lonely some or all of the time --soon, a national strategy for loneliness was launched. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/4/1078224.jpg)
![A MEXICAN TOWN IS SPRAYING PEOPLE CROSSING THE BORDER WITH DISINFECTANT. OFICINAS GRUPO BETA Drivers crossing into Nogales, Mexico from Nogales, Arizona have to step out of their vehicles and go into an inflatable tunnel where they get sprayed with some kind of biodegradable sanitizer. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/2/1078222.jpg)
![During the Vietnam War, the U.S. decided to relocate South Vietnamese villagers. It was called the Strategic Hamlet Program, and the idea was to move the villagers away from the soldiers, so they wouldn't get hurt. They'd be grateful, and support our side. But we grossly underestimated the number of villagers. It turned out there were 8 million of them, and the government had no way of providing for them. The resulting discontent made them easy recruits for the communists. CRACKED.COM http://www.britannica com/event/Vietnam-War#ref809122](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/0/1078220.jpg)
![It took 10 years GRACKED.COM (from 1938 to 1948) for the Secrets Service to catch the desive HUNDRE Eight-Eighty Mister NOT TE If ONE PL LAY LA - DOLLARS ... who had 'Wahsington' on his counterfeit $1 bills. That's right. Counterfeit $1 bills.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/1/1078221.jpg)
![ochi.ru 2014 Russia spent $8.7 Billion to construct a highway connecting Sochi to the mountain hosting the ski and snowboard events. This is more than the total cost for the 2010 Winter Olympics. GRAGKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/3/1078223.jpg)
![Meet the F-35 Lightning II, a.k.a. the Joint Strike Fighter, the world's next generation fighter plane currently under development. Each unit is estimated to cost $109.5 million, over 2,100 times the median U.S. household income. The U.S. Department of Defense has budgeted for 2,457 of these bad boys. That's 2,457 times... well, you get the idea. CRACKED COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/1/9/1078219.jpg)