2014-05-09
The not-so-quiet American
I'm more than a month behind on my Vanity Fair reading---who cares about Lewinsky anyway---but could not miss reading the Snowden Speaks special report published last month. An excellent piece detailing the saga up to now. As Snowden says: "this post-terror generation rejects the idea that we have to burn down our village in order to save it---that the only way to defend the constitution is to tear it up." Given the behavior of both most recent administrations and congress on these matters, it makes it clear that while I do intend to vote because there are important policy differences between both parties, all my financial and energy support has to be put on post-national, policy oversight organizations which are the only hopes of any checks on the current democratic system: Amnesty International, the Innocence Project, Mayors against illegal guns, Government Accountability Project, Propublica, and the like. Looking forward to what First Look Media is going to do. See also acceptance speeches for the well-deserved annual Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling.
"Sooner or later...one has to take sides. If one is to remain human." Graham Greene, The Quiet American
"Sooner or later...one has to take sides. If one is to remain human." Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Labels: accountability, democracy
2013-04-01
Walled Democracy
The Easter message of universal redemption got me thinking about the incoherence between our idea of universal democracy and the "peace" process in the Middle East. If white democratic state, Catholic democratic state, Christian democratic state, Muslim democratic state and the like are all anathema to our idea of inclusive, universal democracy, why isn't a Jewish democratic state also?
The White democratic state of south Africa of the 1970's was a democracy for whites as much as the land of Israel+Palestine is a democracy only for those granted the ultimately religious Jewish status. Democracy for those given a special racial or religious status is not coherent with the idea of a liberal, humanistic, universal democracy.
Time is not usually on the side of such regimes, unless they completely annihilate the repressed populations, as was the case of the Native-Americans in all of the Americas. Since that does not look like a possibility in that part of the World, much less a desirable outcome, the advancement of the "peace process" is urgent like many commentators have been expressing recently. Until now, it has only served as a huge Orwellian hoax.
The White democratic state of south Africa of the 1970's was a democracy for whites as much as the land of Israel+Palestine is a democracy only for those granted the ultimately religious Jewish status. Democracy for those given a special racial or religious status is not coherent with the idea of a liberal, humanistic, universal democracy.
Time is not usually on the side of such regimes, unless they completely annihilate the repressed populations, as was the case of the Native-Americans in all of the Americas. Since that does not look like a possibility in that part of the World, much less a desirable outcome, the advancement of the "peace process" is urgent like many commentators have been expressing recently. Until now, it has only served as a huge Orwellian hoax.
