Day: March 16, 2011

Nation Building?

Daily Agitator

After the big war, WWII, the US was involved in the rebuilding of Germany and Japan, among others….but those were the biggest recipients of large injections of American cash….we help with all aspects of their respective societies…..from bridges to constitutions to actual governments….we were deeply involved….and look what that has done….those two nations became the leaders of the international economic world…all with the help of the US…..

Now, a quick trip in my magical mystery time machine port-a-let…….we skip ahead to the 21st century…..the US invaded and occupied two more countries….Afghanistan and Iraq…..and after relieving the countries of the dastardly leaders…..we set about building a nation from the ground up…..forced democracy..,…..and massive help with infrastructure as well……legislative construction all in the name of democracy……it was yet another story of nation building by the US……

There is been many to condemn our efforts to impose a political process on people that may NOT be ready or even want it….I have been one of those doing the condemning….I feel that it is NOT our place to tell others what they want or what they need, especially on how they should be governed….but beyond that I would like to say……

We DO need nation building…only the nation that we should be helping to improve is…… our own!  We need to spend all the cash that we are now pissing away in Iraq and Afghanistan to be spent right here in the good old US of A…….our infrastructure is falling down around our ears or schools are sadly inadequate…the cash would be much better spent on rebuilding our country and let others fend for themselves…..we have children right here that go to bed hungry and old people eating cat food without adequate housing…we need the nation building as much if not more than the other parts of the world that we feel are so needy….the US is as needy as anywhere else…..

Spend the money here….Nation build here……make the US as prosperous as you want other countries to be….we deserve a fighting chance from our government……

Never Gonna Happen Here!

By now, unless you are a slug and live under a rock, you have heard of the disaster in Japan…..the 9.0 quake and the resulting tsunami….which has help cause a nuclear disaster…..it seems that a local nuke plant is exploding and burning and, in short, just a heartbeat away from a meltdown…and that would not be good for anyone on this planet……

But I want to talk about the rest of Japan…..because of the disaster the country has lost about 25% of its total power output…..and the government decide the way to handle this short fall was to have rolling blackouts and the word went out to the people that they needed to conserve as much as possible……

It appears that the people of Japan have taken heed of the word from the government and conserved…..conserved so much that the rolling blackouts were NOT necessary…..let me say that again!  The rolling blackouts were NOT necessary!

That means that the Japanese people stepped up in a time of crisis and pulled together to assist the country in its time of need……Again?  They were responsible enough to step up and conserve for the good of the nation!  Of course this may not be a permanent situation…..but at least they step up……this is also a perfect illustration of what “shared sacrifice” means…..

OK, now look at the US……would that happen here in this country?  Of course, it would NOT!  The people of the US cannot pull together for something as important as education and to think that they would do so in time of crisis is delusional……very few are responsible enough to help the country, maybe their neighbors in time of crisis….but the whole country….NO WAY!

The Light Of Democracy Dims

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Middle East/Political Philosophy/

For a couple months countries all across the Arab world have been caught up in the protests for reforms, democratic as well as others….the protesters have been met with violence and mayhem….not that anything else was ever considered….the area’s despots will not go down quietly….as is the example of Libya, where the rebels are on the short stick now that Qadafi has regrouped and attacked……

But what about the other countries that have been part of the situation….Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia….on and on….almost ALL countries of the area have experienced some form of protests against the sitting government……

But how does the future look for the institution of democracy?

To me. it looks like the light of democracy is flickering and could go out for another generation……why?  Despots in Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria and others are proposing reforms to try and silence the voices of dissension….issues like throwing out people from their offices, proposing more voting and people participation, yada, yada…… these are NOT reforms but rather just attempts to placate the people and let the despots keep their hold on power…..will the people fall for this?  Think about it……would you if you were aware of an army, a brutal military waiting in the wings to flex their muscle against the people and protesters?

Recently there were protests in Saudi and Syria testing the governments whether open to change or not….sad to say…they are NOT…the government in both cases won the confrontation…..The Arab League is pushing hard against Qadafi and Libya….but it appears to be an attempt to refocus the people on something other than the removal of despots, which the AL has a lot of members that are just that……

Many Arab leaders say they are in it for the long haul….good thought….the problem is….will the people be in it for the long haul?  If they cannot keep the people motivated then the whole democratic movement will sputter and die.

Sorry to report….but……the democratic light of hope and change is getting pretty dim and that could be the end of an area wide democracy movement and the extinguishing the light for a generation or longer……..