How to promote Democracy (2)

We have seen in part (1) that democracy is not for everyone. As Winston Churchill said: "democracy is the worst political system yet devised, except for all the others". In "Democracy in America", Alexis de Tocqueville wrote: "Democracy has enormous benefits, but also has the most dangers".

If we sincerely believe that our system is better, we should not have to lecture, nor spend a fortune in a low-class propaganda. Nothing is more convincing than a good behaviour, concrete examples, and successful results.

Having three cars in the driveway, four television sets, six cell phones, a series of gadgets, working 60 hours a week, not taking responsible time with children, ignorance about the world outside our borders (?), shootings in schools, poor performance of our students at the international level, 25% of the population who do not have access to decent healthcare, etc.....are not necessarily the "dream" of all awake foreigners.

Psychic consequence...

The world is laughing at us....and we should cry. Our children will pay a heavy price because of our ignorance, arrogance, and superior attitude. We are losing more and more friends, and creating more and more enemies. In more than 100 countries, children and adults can now play at killing Americans on video-games.

It might be safer than being killed at home....but, now, we have created a new disastrous phenomenon: a long lasting psychic attitude against Americans. A billion people, in school, at home, at work, now, can release their frustrations and/or satisfy their own personal feelings, by killing us on video-games.

Forget the mosques, extremist Muslims, and other radicals, we have seen the enemy..........and he is us.

Triple Standard

If we want to be smarter with Latin America, which is " la raison-d'être " of The Liaison, we must start to be serious, and honest with ourselves.

We boycott Cuba because it is a communist state, but we deal with China, Vietnam, and others.

We boycott Cuba because Castro is a dictator, but we deal with Pakistan, Libya, Egypt, and others in Africa.

We have invaded Iraq because we wanted to believe in the madness of Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction, and then, as an after-thought, to promote democracy, but we did not invade Pakistan, still with weapons of mass destruction, still with a dictatorship, still harbouring members of Al Qaida, plus Ben Laden, at certain days.

We are against regimes of autocrats, but still deal with Arab countries.

We are for democracy, but do not respect the will of people who have democratically elected a government (Palestine). We did not like either the face of the first president of Iraq, and forced him to resign (going against the will of the voters). Now, we blame his successor for our failures.

We are for democracy, as long as we like the result. We are for democracy, but we have supported, and/or even installed dictators in the past (Shah of Iran, Batista, Indonesia, Congo, Uganda, Nicaragua, Nigeria, South Korea, South Vietnam, Bolivia, Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti, etc. etc.).

We blame other countries for their lack of human rights, but we forget Guantanamo, Iraq, torture in hidden jails in Syria.

We are for the rules of law, as long as we can change the rules, to dissimulate our lack of respect for the law.

As recently described by Yevgeny A. Zhovtis, Kazakhstan International Bureau of Human Rights and Rule of Law: "There are four enemies of human rights: oil, gas, war on terror, geopolitical considerations. And we have all four". But, we provide financial assistance to his country, and an invitation to the White House.

The world is not that stupid, anymore. We are not walking the talk. The famous quotation of Abraham Lincoln: "we can fool all the people for a certain time; we can fool certain people, all the time; but we can not fool all the people, all the time".

Oh, by the way.....Cuba has some oil, and is rich in certain minerals. A few companies from Canada, Italy, Spain, have been drilling there, with success. Perhaps, we should lift the embargo. There are a few companies in Houston that are frustrated.

We have a second proposal to the White House.

Mr. Bush, you promised $80 million to White Cubans of Miami for promoting democracy in Cuba.

Give us a similar amount. We promise you, Mr. Bush, to do a better job in promoting democracy in Cuba. In addition, we will assist the real Cubans in their real needs, and develop a mutually beneficial relationship between Americans and Cubans, a willing and lasting connection.

Mr. Bush, do not forget our first proposal to save our country $100 billion a year, save face in Iraq, restore some credibility and trust from the rest of the world, and save thousands of lives. As mentioned in our article of October 1, we just need a private meeting with you and Secretary of State.

Any members of Congress reading? You have an opportunity to build a better future for our children. Just arrange that meeting for us. It will also enhance the legacy of the President. This will definitely attract his attention.