World Muse
The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index
December 2010
The palest blue countries get a score above 9 out of 10
(with Norway being the most democratic country at 9.80)
while the black countries score below 3
(with North Korea being the least democratic at 1.08)
(with Norway being the most democratic country at 9.80)
while the black countries score below 3
(with North Korea being the least democratic at 1.08)
What Is Democracy?
"While there is no
universally accepted definition of 'democracy',
equality and freedom
have both been identified as important characteristics
of democracysince ancient times"
Take a Longer Look
Speaking of Democracy
Some Links to Current Events an Stories
2011
Anonymous
Occupy Wall Street
Keith Oberman
"Countdown"
Visits Occupy Wall Street
Tune In To Live-Stream Anytime
Read this exaltation
by
Steve Almond
at "The Rumpus"
"Idealism wasn’t an object of ridicule.
It was a legitimate, even laudable, belief system."
and
Four Weeks On Wall Street
by Michael Greenberg
at New York Review of Books
If you don't have time to read these offerings,
just pass them along or file them away.
Keep The Faith
whatever it may be
UPDATE
For Wall Street Protests, What Constitutes Success?
http://n.npr.org/NPRI/
3 comments:
there is no democracy
politicians are more interested in their egos and being reelected than they are about what's best for the country.
Oh dear Jude--harsh--maybe true--but not a final verdict to my way of thinking. I mean, so long as one believes in, say, the principle of equality, and the principle of freedom, it is still possible to act on behalf of those principles, even in an un-free, unequal world, isn't it?
and Dear Deanna--though that may be so, I know some politicians, who, despite the preordained frame, have broken through expectation to stand outside the box of convention in the service of a greater interest than just self-interest. let us say it was an 'enlightened' self-interest that propelled Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and countless others less known, to enter politics at the ground level in order to change the world.
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