Election Information | Election Square

Students’ Involvement in Politics

November 9, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

In our world today, students are more and more interested in political issues, thus, it’s not uncommon to find some of youths avtively participate in politics. Many students even have expressed loyalty to or enrol themselves in their interested political parties. So how these participations of students can effect the political future and other social issues in the short term and long term perspectives.

A primary distinction must be made here between politics as active participation in political movements and the study of political science. The latter is an academic subject and involves the study of the administrative systems of different countries, the formation of political parties, different judiciary systems, etc. Political science, therefore, is a theoretical study of political systems. Politics means the formation of political parties and their active participation in the administration of a country.

This involves organizing political meetings, canvassing for elections and the manipulation of people for political gains.

The participation of students in politics has certain drawbacks. The main occupation of students should be the pursuit of their respective courses of study. All their time and energy should be used in this activity. It is only in this way that they can secure their own individual futures and thereby safeguard the future of the nation. Participation in politics means a huge waste of this precious time and energy.

Although politics may be beneficial in some ways students would be well-advised to stay well away from politics. Their main business is to concern themselves with studies.

By doing so they can do the most good for themselves with studies. By doing so they can do the most good for themselves as well as for the nation.

Filed Under: Election Information Tagged With: Involvement, Politics, Student's

Best Political Essay Writers

November 6, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

An essay based on a political situation or general politics is referred to as a political essay. For one to come up with a quality political essay, they must be best political essay writers. Research is needed so as to understand the topic or subject completely. Some of the sources that can be consulted during research include books, newspapers, journals, articles and political magazines. Another common source of information on various political paper topics is the Internet. With the highly advanced technology, virtually all students can easily gain access to the web, where there is a vast amount of information on various subjects and topics. Students with difficulties in writing political papers often wonder where they can get the best custom papers on politics. Well, there is no need to worry because our company is an online writing dedicated towards providing high quality political essays.

Our company has the best political essay writers.

There are several features pertaining to these writers that make them to be considered the best. First of all, we have the best political essay writers because they are creative and knowledgeable in the field of politics. They hold degrees in this filed and effectively apply their skills and knowledge in when completing political essay papers. We also have the best political essay writers because they are conscious about the quality of political essays that they give customers. They always make sure that customers get political essay papers that are of superior quality. Plagiarism is another factor to consider in proving that we have the best political essay writers. All the political papers that we provide are free of plagiarism mistakes. We have anti-plagiarism software that scans all political essays before they can be delivered to customers. Our best political essay writers understand the consequences of submitting plagiarized political essays. They are aware of different ways that can be used to avoid plagiarism. Our best political essay writers also have the potentiality to come up with political essays that have no language, spelling and grammar mistakes. This is because they have a good command of language.

Our company shows concern about the customers’ academic career and future. Hence, our best political essay writers make sure that all the requirements and instructions given by customers are strictly adhered to. They write political essays containing the required number of pages and the required writing styles. There are several styles that our best political essay writers use when completing political essays. Some of the common styles include APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard and the Oxford style of writing. Our best political essay writers have the know-how of the basic steps as well as the standard format for writing political essays. They always conduct an intensive research prior to starting on a political paper writing assignment. Our company has a history of providing quality political essay papers, and customer reviews have always appreciated the competency of our best political essay writers. Students who rely on our services always score highly in their assignments.

Therefore any student with the need for political essay writing help should choose our company because we guarantee them that their assignments will be completed by the best political essay writers. We also provide additional writing services such as research paper writing, term paper writing, dissertation writing and thesis writing services. All the writing services that we offer are original, affordable and free of plagiarism mistakes.

Filed Under: Election Information Tagged With: Best, Essay, Political, Writers

Elect Sebastian Pinera as President of Haiti

November 1, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The bottom line to defining insanityis abnormal mental or behavior patterns. I think the world is insane and desperate times call for desperate measures.

Haiti

Haiti is a nation that has been decimated by an earthquake and now dealing with a deadly cholera epidemic. 2000 dead and counting and the Pan American Health Organization said it was planning to treat 400,000 cholera cases within the next year.

Every country in the world sent help and supplies to save the lives of the people of Haiti at the time of the earthquake.

What we all saw afterwards was an inept system of distribution where starving people stood at the gates asking for food and water, mountains of food and water visible and people being turned away empty handed. People were dying and medical supplies were desperately needed but they remained neatly stacked in boxes on pallets in warehouses rather than going to the hospitals and caregivers who could have put them to good use by actually saving lives.

Was that NOT insane?

The excuse was “red tape”. Red tape means the filling out of seemingly unnecessary paperwork, obtaining of unnecessary licenses, having multiple people or committees approve a decision and various low-level rules that make conducting one’s affairs slower, more difficult, or both. I ask you why can’t we take the billions of dollars being spent for wars and fight a war on “red tape” instead. Perhaps that too is an insane idea.

Infrastructure for water and sanitation in Haiti has long been notoriously poor but was destroyed by the earthquake. Not much has been fixed since the earthquake which opened the door for cholera.

What is worse is that from the very beginning, this outcome was predicted by experts.

Maybe we should look to Chile for a miracle. I am sure Chilean President Sebastian Pinera is the man for the job. Pinera said and I quote:

“You will not be left alone, you have not been alone. The government is with you all, the entire country is with you all.”
He added: “We will knock on every door; we will search for every bit of technology, equipment, every expert, so we can get you out alive.”

Apparently they do not have “red tape” in Chile and they have a country led by a sane government that values the lives of each and every person. They will stop at nothing to do the right thing.

Lets build some bathrooms people. How hard is it to provide safe drinking water? Let’s ask President Pinera. God Bless Sebastian Pinera and the people of Chile for showing the world how it should be done and may God have mercy on Haiti.

Filed Under: Election Information Tagged With: Elect, Haiti, Pinera, President, Sebastian

Historical Political Quotes, Contemporary Political Crises

October 27, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

A little quiz on quotes relating to politics in America, try to figure out who said it and when they said it:

1) In reference to why political parties have lost the confidence of the public: “Their machinery of intrigue, their shuffling evasions, the dodges. the chicanery, and the deception of their leaders have excited universal disgust, and have created a general readiness in the public mind for any new organization that shall promise to shun their vices.”

2) Also in reference to why political parties have lost the confidence of the public: people “saw parties without any…difference contending for power, for the sake of power. They saw politics made a profession, and public plunder an employment. They beheld our public works the plaything of a rotten dynasty, enriching gamblers, and purchasing power at our expense.”

3) “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except for Congress.”

4) “The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employees, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.”

5)”Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.”

6) “An election cannot give the country a firm sense of direction if it has two or more national parties which merely have different names but are as alike in their principles and aims as two peas in a pod.”

Great quotes, all of them. Unfortunately, it seems as if we are living everyone one of them today. The interesting thing is that these quotes are quite historical, not contemporary:

1) According to the Real Politics website, this quote was from the book, “The Origins of the Republican Party” by William E. Gienapp and the quote is dated from 1855. The New York Times called it “dodges”, today we call it “spin doctoring.” The Times called it “universal disgust,” we call it having Congressional approval ratings around only 20%. The Times called it “chicanery”, we call it a variety of names including earmarks and outright corruption. It is remarkable how closely a quote from 155 years ago captures the nightmare we are living through today with our political class.

2) This quote is also from the Gienapp, also from 1855, and it appeared in the New York Evening Post. This also captures our current state of political affairs. We also see most of our politicians vying only for power, not for the opportunity to make the country better. With their high salaries, great benefits, many, many perks, our current day politicians fit the Post’s description that politicians “saw politics made a profession, and public plunder an employment.” Without term limits, our politicians see being elected not as a service to the nation but as a life time job. And their gerrymandering Congressional districts, rigging campaign finance laws, and handing out taxpayer dollars as earmarks allows them to ensure perpetual re-election, regardless of the quality of their work.

3) This third quote is from Mark Twain and is obviously well over a hundred years old. However, even back then he realized that the power allocated to politicians many times results in outright criminal behavior. Congressmen Traficant, Jefferson, Cunningham and other Congressional politicians have served time due to their corrupt and unlawful behavior while in office. How many former Illinois governors have either served prison time, are currently serving time, or are aggressively trying not to serve prison time? Charles Rangel and Maxine Walters, two current members of Congress, are likely to face a House Of Representatives trial within the next few months on ethics and corruption charges. The House ethics office has investigated or is currently investigating potential crimes by other members of Congress. The more you list out what has happened to our contemporary politicians, you marvel at how right Mark Twain may have been way back when.

4) This quote is from Woodrow Wiilson who said it early in the last century. At that time, he realized the influence that non-voting entities can and do have on government functions and corruption. Wilson called them “special interests,” we call them lobbyists.

Nixon declared War On Drugs in the 1960s and we are no closer today to having a coherent national drug strategy and policy than the day he declared war.
Carter muddled through the oil crises in the 1970s and we are no closer to having a coherent, national energy strategy and policy than we were when we waited in long lines at gas stations.
Reagan identified the problems with public education with a Presidential Commission in 1983 and 27 years later, U.S. public schools badly trail many, many other nations in the education of their children.
Clinton presided through numerous terrorist attacks including the first World Trade Center bombing and the African embassy bombings and never came up with a coherent terror defense policy and strategy, resulting in the death of almost 3,000 Americans on 9-11.
Over the years over 10 million illegal aliens have come across our borders with no politician able to come up with a coherent immigration strategy and plan.
Unfortunately, Groucho was right back then and he would be right today if he saw the incompetence of today’s politicians.

6) This last quote is from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and is at least 65 years old. When you really come down to it, are the Republican politicians much different from the Democrats? Sure they pick their friends and identify their enemies, e.g. Republicans are generally pro-life and pro-guns while Democrats are generally pro-choice and anti-guns. But when you look at their records, neither party has accomplished much of anything positive over the past fifty years. Just look at what we listed above under Groucho’s quote: no solutions to the drug, immigration, terrorist, public school and energy problems. The only reason they pick their friends is to get money to finance their constant re-election, not to solve any meaningful problems.

While Obama the candidate promised change you can believe in, Obama the President is hardly any different than Bush. Obama drew down U.S. forces in Iraq but it was on the timetable Bush established. Bush set up the terrorist prison in Guantanamo and so far, Obama has kept it open. Our border still leaks illegal immigrants and we still have no new policy or plan for energy or public schooling. Bush enacted the Patriot Act and Obama basically rubber stamped its renewal. Gay rights are no further along under Obama than under Bush and the amount of earmarks in our national budget is as high under Obama as under Bush. The only significant difference between Bush and Obama is that the Obama administration has run up spending deficits orders of magnitude higher than Bush.

This is why the whole area of U.S. politics can get so depressing. The incompetence and corruption we face today appears to have been going on for a long, long time. The only difference may be is that government is so much larger, wasteful, and intrusive then it was in 1855 or when Twain, Roosevelt, Marx, and Wilson spoke their quotes above. That is why we need to find a way to start shrinking the size of government immediately in order to start cutting back on the corruption and waste that apparently is inherent in the genes of all politicians:

Step 1 – start the government shrinkage process by reducing all government functions and budgets by 10% a year for the next five years.

Step 2 – aggressively step up fraud and corruption activities in all government areas, hopefully including the investigation of fraud and corruption from our elected officials.

Step 3 – implement term limits for all politicians in order to avoid the problem discussed in the Post quote above, i.e. politics should not be a profession, it should be a temporary calling and service calling.

Steps 4 – set up intelligent problem solving processes to systematically attack and solve the problems that politicians have been unable to solve with their own capabilities and intelligence including drugs, energy, schooling, and immigration.

Hopefully by implementing these steps we will eventually end up with contemporary solutions to our problems and finally put to rest the historically pessimistic view of our political class.

Filed Under: Election Information Tagged With: Contemporary, Crises, Historical, Political, Quotes

What Were They Thinking? How Not To Solve Problems

October 25, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Most Americans were thrilled and thankful for the successful Navy Seal military operation against Bin Laden. It was a job well done. It was also one of the few times where the political class, and the government it runs, successfully addressed a real life problem and executed a real solution based on facts and logic. Solving a problem usually involves some relatively simple steps:

* Define the problem: In this case it was the continuing influence and inspiration that Bin Laden had in the world of terrorism.

* Define the desired solution: Find and eliminate Bin Laden as a source of influence in whatever way possible.

* Collect data: gather intelligence information from a variety of sources.

* Look at various scenarios and hypothesize the likely consequences or actions: For example, if the U.S. bombed the Bin Laden compound, you had the possibility of killing innocent civilians, not confirming his death, and the consequences unleashing military might deep within a sovereign country. If you sent in the Seals, you minimized the potential for civilian casualties, could confirm his death or capture, and your military operation would be surgical but not mighty. The risk and consequence was the stranding of U.S. military personnel deep within a foreign country.

* Choose an option and develop the necessary support tactics: Seal team insertion and all of the associated details.

Logical, detailed, well thought out, and successful.

Now consider some other recent government and political class actions, none of which were logical, detailed, well thought out, and successful or followed the simple problem solving steps listed above:

– One of the biggest problems as it relates to the growing violence, lawlessness, and strength of the Mexican drug cartels is that they are equipping themselves with high powered weaponry with guns made and sold in the United States. Recently, President Obama and the Mexican President got together and both agreed that stemming the flow of weapons into Mexico was a major objective.

Their reasoning is twofold: first, the arming of the cartel’s hoods makes it more difficult and dangerous for the Mexican authorities to get the cartel violence problem under control if the cartel has comparable or better weapons than the authorities. Second, tens of thousand of Mexicans have been killed in just the past few years as a result of drug violence and gun usage.

So the leaders correctly identified the problem, too many guns going into Mexico illegally. They correctly identified the desired solution, a significant reduction in the flow of weapons into Mexico. However, according to a continuing story line being followed by CBS News, the government really fell down when they came up with a proposed solution and the tactics that were implemented to execute the solution.

The solution being pursued by the political class and government is to actually encourage the flow of illegal guns and automatic weapons into Mexico, in direct opposition to the desired solution which is the reduction of the number of weapons going into Mexico. CBS News uncovered a plan where Federal agents were told by their superiors to intentionally allow guns to go into Mexico with the thin hope of tracking where they ended up, build a big case for illegal firearms, and take down the cartels. The practice is called “letting guns walk” and the project was code named “Fast and Furious.”

And, the Mexican government, supposedly our partners in the desired solution of reducing gun trafficking, was never told of the plan. According to the report, the number of guns allowed to “walk” was in the thousands.

CBS obtained video of suspected drug cartel suppliers taking crates of AK-47 weapons to their cars at a Phoenix gun shop. The tape was obtained from the Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco (ATF)organization, the very organization that is supposed to prevent this type of behavior but was not only was encouraging it but also videotaping the action.

The most tragic part of this whole “solution” is the sad fact that it is highly likely, according to CBS News, that U.S. Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down last December and killed by some of the “Fast and Furious” weapons. Two assault rifles that the ATF had allowed to pass illegally into Mexico were found at the murder scene. Unknown is the number of Mexican civilians that have been killed by the thousands of weapons that were allowed to head over the border, the article did not provide that estimate.

What were they thinking? If your desired solution is to stop guns from going over the border, why would you allow guns to go over the border? There is no word or any indication that arrests or negative impacts on the drug cartels due to “Fast and Furious” is imminent. Very bad problem solving, using tactics that are in direct opposition to your desired result and not understanding the consequences of the plan.

– Recent comments from New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg really make you stop and think, “What was he thinking?” As most of us know, we have a very serious immigration problem in this country. Most estimates put the number of illegal immigrants in this country at well over 10 million, spread throughout the country. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, having over 10 million unknown people walking around the country presents national security problems and societal problems.

Thus, the current situation is at least 10 million illegal immigrants are already here, and more are coming over our porous borders. The desired solution is to have an immigration plan and strategy that secures our borders and allows the types of immigrants into the country that we desire.

What is Mr. Bloomberg’s proposed solution? According to a recent Associated Press report, he wants to “wave a magic wand (his words) and pull everybody together” and “pass a law letting immigrants come in as long as they agreed to go to Detroit and live there for five or ten years. Start businesses, take jobs, whatever.” His reasoning is that the population of Detroit has dropped from about 1.8 million in 1950 to just over 700,000 in 2010, including a 26% drop in the past ten years alone. He would wave his magic wand, repopulate Detroit with immigrants, and solve both Detroit’s problems and our broken immigration problem.

Boy, did the Mayor blow this problem solving exercise:

* Define the problem – the problem is not that Detroit has too few people and we have too many immigrants. Detroit has structural economic problems and we have porous borders which allows us no control over who enters the country. So the Mayor did not even the define the problem correctly.

* Define the desired solution – the desired solution is to have a coherent immigration policy and strategy that secures our borders and only allows in immigrants that we want to allow in. Forcing people against their will to go to Detroit is not a solution. Plus, we do not have a magic wand so the proposed solution is dead on arrival if a magic wand is essential to implementing the solution.

* Collect data: if the mayor had taken the time to collect a little bit of data he may not have made such a ridiculous proposal. The reason Detroit has fewer and fewer people is because there are fewer and fewer jobs. Just dumping millions of immigrants into the Detroit metro area does not create jobs. The population would not be so low if there were jobs available, and no magic wand to can fix that problem.

* Look at various scenarios and hypothesize the likely consequences of actions: Did the mayor not think that one of the likely consequences of this plan would be the comparison to the internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II? The forced shipping and relocation of certain types of people? Forcing people to stay at a location, likely against their will?

* Choose and option and develop the necessary support tactics – without that magic wand, this plan for solving the problems is not feasible and we should be thankful for that fact.

What was he thinking? Forced relocation, magical job creation, still porous borders, etc. Hardly a good problem solver, this mayor of the largest American city.

– Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve have shown that they are not very good at problem solving either. No one at the Fed, in any position of power, was able to foresee the coming of the Great Recession until it hit the Fed and the rest of the country in the face. How people in those positions of the Federal bank, those responsible for the health of the economy, could not see that problem coming is almost beyond belief.

Thus, it makes you a little more than scared when these same people and the same institution decides to start printing money out of thin air to fix the problem they never saw coming in the first place. Printing money out of thin air is also known as quantitative easing and the Fed printed and injected about 0 billion of phony wealth into the economy to try and get it moving.

According to an article in the May 6, 2011 issue of The Week magazine, quantitative easing did pump up the stock market reduced the cost of American exports, and allowed companies to borrow money at lower costs. However, in the areas that really matter, and which affect most Americans, quantitative easing did not reduce the unemployment rate or reduce the cost and expand the availability of mortgages and consumer loans.

Thus, the solution from the Fed helped out Wall Street and U.S. manufacturers but did nothing to help the ordinary American. In the process, it weakened the dollar which will likely lead to much higher inflation in the coming months. Seems like the Fed did not define the problem correctly, did not attain the desired solution, and did not understand the likely consequences of printing money.

– Obama Care is, of course, a prime example of bad problem solving skills from the political class. The politicians working on health care reform that ended up with the abomination called Obama Care did not even understand the current problem, i.e. what is causing escalating health care costs in America. The root causes are probably a combination of the following symptoms:

1) Americans eat too much.

2) Americans eat to much of the wrong types of food.

3) Americans do not get enough exercise.

4) Americans smoke too much.

5) Americans on average are getting older, resulting in more old age diseases such as dementia than in the past.

6) The American health care system is in dire need of tort reform.
The American health care system restricts cross state line medical insurance competition.

These define the problem and the problem solving exercise should emanate from these facts. Tactics should eventually include a public health approach to eating, exercising and smoking along with tort reform, encouraging competition, and researching and finding cures and remedies for old age diseases. Instead, the political class blew the very first step by mis-defining the root causes of the problems and ended up with a government bureaucracy and taxing solution that does not fit the problem. What were they thinking?

It is a shame that the problem solving skill set used in the Bin Laden action could not be used in the rest of the government by the rest of the political class. Many Americans are shocked they pulled off the Bin Laden exercise. It is not that we did not think our armed forces would act admirably and heroically, but that our politicians would execute the plan as efficiently as they did. Kudos on this one case.

However, there are many other problems that need this type of execution skills and we need to change a few things in our political processes to repeat the Bin Laden success, some steps of which:

– Institute term limits for all Federal political positions. Many of those sitting in Congress have been sitting in those same seats for decades. Since our major issues are decades old, one must assume that those long timers in Congress are short on problem solving skills. Thus, they need to be removed from office and term limits is the only way to do it in order to get some fresh views and fresh ideas into Washington, hopefully from people that know how to solve a problem.

– Remove politicians from Congressional committees if those committees fail to execute their responsibilities to at least minimum performance standards. One example of this would be the “walking guns” situation above. If a Congressional committee is responsible for overseeing the ATF and the ATF is purposefully allowing guns to be shipped to violent Mexican drug cartels, at some point in time, that behavior has to result in dismissal from committee posts.

– Apply a defined problem solving process to the national issues of immigration, drug abuse, energy policy, education reform, and health care costs in order to properly execute the simple problem solving steps listed above. The proposed processes would exclude members of the political class and their associated lobbyists. These two groups tend to short circuit any reasonable problem solving in order to first solve their own selfish needs and issues, with the best solution to the problem rarely being considered, never mind implemented.

Again, thanks to all that successfully implemented a cogent problem solving process in the Bin Laden exercise. However, are we continually going to be thinking: “What were they thinking?” relative to other political class and government programs until we can fix our political processes, orienting them to problem solvers and not incumbents only looking to get re-elected?

Filed Under: Election Information Tagged With: Problems, Solve, They, Thinking, Were

While You Were Out – A Memo To The American Political Class

October 22, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Dear American Political Class:

While you were all out campaigning over the past month or so, the following events happened that might be of interest to you and which you may not be aware of or sensitive to:

– While you were out campaigning, many of you spending millions of dollars of your own wealth to get jobs that generally pay less 0,000 a year, more than 50 U.S. troops were killed in action in Afghanistan, bringing to 417 that have been killed there so far this year (Source: iCasualties website)

– While you were out campaigning and spending billions of dollars of other people’s wealth to get jobs that generally pay less than 0,000 a year, the Federal government probably added another 0 billion to the national debt, over 0 worth of debt burden for every U.S. household.

– While you were out campaigning and slinging mud and childish accusations at each other, at least six American citizens were killed as a direct result of the Mexican drug cartels, 105 tons of marijuana bound for the United States was seized by Mexican police in Tijuana, Mexico, and a major drug smuggling tunnel, running from a warehouse in Mexico under the border to a warehouse in the U.S. was shut down.

– While you were out campaigning for jobs that will put your salary into the upper 95% percentile of all American workers, over 1.8 million newly unemployed Americans filed first time unemployment claims.

– While you were out campaigning to keep a plush job you already have or get a plush job from another politician, over 14 million Americans still have no job.

– While you were out campaigning, preening in front of all varieties of news media, most American students suffered through another month within a failing public education system.

– While you were out campaigning, flying and driving to numerous campaign stops, the country went another month without a comprehensive national energy strategy that reduces our dependence on foreign energy supplies while being kinder to the environment.

– While you were out campaigning and telling us how much you supported the middle class, you neglected to renew the expiring tax cuts before you left town that will add thousands of dollars to middle class tax bills in 2011.

– While you were out campaigning, posturing and “energizing your base,” America became more divided as ever as a result of your actions, words, slurs, insults, attack advertising and the derogatory efforts of your respective “friends” in the media.

But most importantly, while you were out campaigning, Americans started to realize that whether you are in Washington or not, nothing ever changes. This past month when you were not in session was really not any different than when you are in session. Issues are rarely ever addressed, reality based solutions never materialize, and those legislative actions that you do somehow pass such as health care reform, financial regulation reform, and economic stimulus packages have proven to be failures or are well on their way to failure.

We suggest that when you do decide to mosey on back to your jobs in D.C., you consider moving on some of the steps laid out in below:

1) Start reducing the Federal budget by 10% a year for the next five years in order to get the national debt under control so that each American household is not on the hook for another 0 every month that you do not act.

2) Reinstate the expiring tax cuts and make them permanent, returning our wealth to working Americans, the ones that worked and earned it, and helping to starve the Federal bureaucracy of funds so that it shrinks to do only the most essential tasks needed by its citizens.

3) Enact campaign finance reforms that can withstand a legal challenge and which allow only individual Americans to contribute to election campaigns, essentially freezing out corporations, unions, PACS, and other organizations from the campaign funding cycle. It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to attain political jobs that pay so little in relation to the amount spent to get the jobs.

4) Enact a comprehensive, non-political problem solving process to finally develop an effective national energy strategy and policy.

5) Enact a comprehensive, non-political problem solving process to finally develop an effective national drug policy that balances freedom, protection, and treatment while bankrupting the violent drug cartels around the world.

6) Enact a comprehensive, non-political problem solving process to finally fix the failure that are most of our public schools.

7) Enact a comprehensive, non-political problem solving process to develop a real solution to the problem of escalating health care costs in this country, identifying the true root causes and attacking those root causes with the right solutions, a process not undertaken under Obama Care.

Start bringing back the majority of U.S. troops stationed overseas and develop a realistic and workable Afghanistan strategy. This strategy needs to take into account the recently disclosed close ties of the Afghan government with Iran, the rampant corruption within the Afghan government, and the double dealing of the Pakistan government which says they are our allies but who secretly support terrorist groups and individuals fighting our ground troops across the border.

9) Require all members of the political class to take and pass a basic course on economics in order to avoid implementing the failed economic stimulus programs of the past few years such as Cash For Clunkers.

While you were out, it has gotten really crazy, with ordinary Americans finally demanding real answers and real solutions. It does not look like they are willing to accept the same old behavior that we have been giving them over the past decades. Thus, while you were out, the American public started to tune in to your shortcomings and failures. Hurry back soon or they may decide they do not need you at all.

Sincerely:
The United States Of America

Filed Under: Election Information Tagged With: American, Class, Memo, Political, Were

Historical Political Quotes, Contemporary Political Crises

October 21, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

A little quiz on quotes relating to politics in America, try to figure out who said it and when they said it:

3) “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except for Congress.”

4) “The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employees, the special interests.

An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.”

5)”Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.”

Great quotes, all of them. Unfortunately, it seems as if we are living everyone one of them today. The interesting thing is that these quotes are quite historical, not contemporary:

5) My source attributed this quote to Groucho Marx and is likely more than fifty years old also. Back then, even comedians like Groucho recognized that politicians were not any good at identifying the root causes of problems, if a problem even existed, and then putting together a coherent, efficient and cost effective plan to solve that problem. Our politicians are no different:
Nixon declared War On Drugs in the 1960s and we are no closer today to having a coherent national drug strategy and policy than the day he declared war.
Carter muddled through the oil crises in the 1970s and we are no closer to having a coherent, national energy strategy and policy than we were when we waited in long lines at gas stations.
Reagan identified the problems with public education with a Presidential Commission in 1983 and 27 years later, U.S. public schools badly trail many, many other nations in the education of their children.
Clinton presided through numerous terrorist attacks including the first World Trade Center bombing and the African embassy bombings and never came up with a coherent terror defense policy and strategy, resulting in the death of almost 3,000 Americans on 9-11.
Over the years over 10 million illegal aliens have come across our borders with no politician able to come up with a coherent immigration strategy and plan.

Unfortunately, Groucho was right back then and he would be right today if he saw the incompetence of today’s politicians.

Step 1 - start the government shrinkage process by reducing all government functions and budgets by 10% a year for the next five years.
Step 2 – aggressively step up fraud and corruption activities in all government areas, hopefully including the investigation of fraud and corruption from our elected officials.
Step 3 – implement term limits for all politicians in order to avoid the problem discussed in the Post quote above, i.e. politics should not be a profession, it should be a temporary calling and service calling.
Steps 4 – set up intelligent problem solving processes to systematically attack and solve the problems that politicians have been unable to solve with their own capabilities and intelligence including drugs, energy, schooling, and immigration.

Hopefully by implementing these steps we will eventually end up with contemporary solutions to our problems and finally put to rest the historically pessimistic view of our political class.

Filed Under: Election Information Tagged With: Contemporary, Crises, Historical, Political, Quotes

Right to Information: An Overview

October 20, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

India is a democratic country. The head of the country is elected by the people of the country. The Government of the country possesses the authority to work for the welfare of the country on behalf of the people. The final decision making power regarding the welfare of the country is in the hands of Government.

The people of the country want to know how the government is functioning. People have many questions regarding the functioning of the government. So, to answer all the questions of the people, the Parliament passed a new Bill known as “The Right to Information Act, 2005″. The Bill was presented in Parliament on 22nd December, 2004. After intense debate till 15th June, 2005, it was finally passed on 15th June 2005 and came into force on 12th October, 2005. The Right to Information Act aimed at ensuring transparency in the functioning of Central & State Governments. The Act provides for setting out the practical regime of right to information for the people to secure access to information under the control of public authorities to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority, the Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions have been constituted for this purpose.

Before passing of this Act, Disclosure of Government Information in India was governed by a law enacted during the British rule named as Official Secrets Act of 1889 which was amended in 1923. After 1923, it has taken India 82 years to transition from an opaque system of governance, legitimized by the colonial Official Secrets Act, to one where citizens can demand the right to information.

The Right to Information is derived from our fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 of the Constitution of India. It says, “All the citizens shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression.” The main idea is that if the people do not have any information regarding the functioning of the Government and public institutions, then people cannot express any informed opinion on it. In a system of democracy where citizens being at the centre of government – rule of the people. For such a democracy to function, Freedom of Press is necessary to be understood first. The main reason for a free press is to ensure that the citizens are informed. Thus, it clearly flows from this that the citizens’ right to know is paramount.

In a famous case of “In a government of responsibility like ours, where all the agents of the public must be responsible for their conduct, there can be but few secrets. The people of this country have a right to know every public act, everything that is done in a public way by their public functionaries. They are entitled to know the particulars of every public transaction in all its bearing. Their right to know, which is derived from the concept of freedom of speech, though not absolute, is a factor which should make one wary when secrecy is claimed for transactions which can at any rate have no repercussion on public security”.

In the right to information was held to be included within the right to freedom of speech & expression guaranteed by Article 19 (1) (a).

In the right of the people to know about every public act, and the details of every pubic transaction undertaken by public functionaries was described.

The Right to Information has been recognized as a fundamental human right, which upholds the inherent dignity of all human beings. The Right to Information forms the crucial underpinning of participatory democracy. It is essential to ensure accountability and good governance. The greater the access of the citizen to information, the greater the responsiveness of government to community needs. Alternatively, the more restrictions that are placed on access, the greater will be the feelings of ‘powerlessness’ & ‘alienation’. Without information, people cannot adequately exercise their rights as citizens or make informed choices.

]]>

The free flow of information in India remains severely restricted by three factors:

The legislative framework includes several pieces of restrictive legislation, such as the Official Secrets Act, 1923;
The pervasive culture of secrecy and arrogance within the bureaucracy; and
The low levels of literacy and rights awareness amongst India’s people.

The primary power of RTI is the fact that it allows the individual Citizens to requisition information. Hence, without necessarily forming pressure groups or associations, it puts power directly into the hands of the foundation of democracy – the Citizen.

The new law passed by Parliament places India among the 55 countries to have such legislation. The Act provides the citizen the right to seek information on many matters but not on all matters. It does not permit citizens to seek information of certain matters affecting security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the country. It gives citizens a legal right to be informed about utilization of public funds, progress reports of ongoing projects, state circulars, contracts, etc.

The right to information is defined in Section 2(j) of the Act which means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority & includes the right to –

(i) inspection of work, documents, records;

(ii) taking notes, contracts or certified copies of documents or records;

(iii) taking certified samples of material;

(iv) obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printouts where such information is stored in a computer or in any other device.

The Act & its rules define a format for requisitioning information, a time period to provide information, method of giving information & some exemptions when no information can be requisitioned:

of the Act makes a duty of public authorities to maintain records for easy access & to publish within the name of the particular officers who should give the information & in regard to frame rules, regulations, etc. Under the Act, all authorities covered must appoint their Public Information Officer (PIO).

of the Act provides that any person can submit the request for information in Hindi or English or in official language of the area accompanying prescribed fee without assigning any reason for the request or any personal details except his name and contact particulars. Such a request shall be made to:

(a) the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, of the concerned public authority;

(b) the Central Assistant Public Information Officer or State Assistant Public Information Officer, as the case may be.

It is the obligation on the PIO to provide information to the person requesting for such information under the Act. If the request pertains to another public authority (in whole or part), it is the PIO’s, it is the PIO’s responsibility to transfer/forward the concerned portions of the request to a PIO of the other area within 5 days.

In addition to this, every Public Authority is required to designate Assistant Public Information Officers (APIOs) to receive RTI requests and appeals for forwarding to the PIOs of their public authority.

The Act specifies time limits for replying to the request:

If the request is made to the PIO then the reply must be given within of the receipt of request on payment of prescribed fees.
If the request is made to the APIO, then the reply must be given within of the receipt of request on payment of prescribed fees.
If the PIO transfers the request to another public authority (who is better concerned with the information), then the reply must be made in but the period must be computed from the day after it is received by the PIO of the transferee authority.
When the information is relating to life or liberty of a person, the information shall be provided within .
Information concerning corruption and Human Rights violations by scheduled Security agencies (those listed in the Second Schedule of the Act) is to be provided within but with the prior approval of the Central Information Commission.

If the request is rejected then the rejection of request shall be communicated under with valid reasons of rejection, specifying the procedure & proof for appeal & the designation of the appellate authority.

says that information shall ordinarily be provided in the form in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in question.

It is mentioned that a fee of Rs. 10.00 is payable along with the application. In addition to this, a fee of Rs. 2.00 per page or Rs. 50 for CD etc. is also mentioned. If the applicant is Below Poverty Line, then no fee shall apply. Such a person has to provide a copy of his BPL Card along with the application to the Public Authority.

It provides certain exemptions when no request for disclosure of information shall be entertained as per the contents stated in . Sub-clause (b) exempts information, which is expressly forbidden by any court of law or tribunal or the dispute of which may constitute contempt of court. Sub-Clause (g) exempts information the disclosure of which would endanger life, or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purpose. Sub-clause (h) exempts information, which could impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders. Sub-clause (i) exempts Cabinet papers.

of the Act has provided for penalties against Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be:

(i) If the concerned Public Information Officer refuses to receive any application or do not furnish information within the time specified in the Act or malafidely denies the request for information or knowingly gives incorrect or incomplete information then a penalty of Rs. 250 each day shall be imposed till information is furnished or received by the person. The total amount of penalty shall not exceed Rs. 25000.

(ii) The penal provisions are the strength of the Act, which ensure that the Public Information Officer does not treat citizens’ demands for information in a cavalier manner.

The Right to Information is derived from our fundamental right of Expression under Article 19 of the Constitution of India. If we do not have information on how our Government and Public Institutions function, we cannot express informed opinion on it. So, it is recognized as a very important right and people should avail and make good use of this right.

Filed Under: Election Information Tagged With: Information, Overview, Right

An analysis of Rights of Information law in Bangladesh – Implementing Perspective

October 19, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

An analysis ofÂ Rights of Information law inBangladeshâ Implementing Perspective .Â

Abstract : :Â
The Right to Information Act (RTIA) has been passed in the parliament by the Government of Bangladesh with a view to ensuring free flow of information and people’s access to it also good governance . thisÂ was notified byÂ the Bangladesh Gazette on Monday, 6 April, 20091. The law is also believed to increase transparency and accountability and decrease corruption. it is yet to be implemented in full swing. Before going to the practice of the freedom of information in Bangladesh, there are still many loopholes and challenges ahead, which this paper examines, either within the government process or outside. In particular, the government can bar the disclosure of information under the Official Secrets Act 19232, Special Power Act 19743 and the Rules of Business 19794. Further, the country itself is facing numerous challenges as like illiteracy, poverty, lack of technology or communications media, political freedom and so on, which require prior solutions to the right to information.

Introduction :

Information, as a vital resource for problem solving, decision making, education and knowledge updating, has no boundaries. Everybody, state and society requires it to achieve their goals and objectives. Therefore it is considered as a power resource as equal to other natural resources. In some cases it is more important than other resources. It has played significant role for the overall development of the societies since ancient time. Hence, information, as an important asset, has come up as the driver of all scientific, technological, social, economic and political activities.Â
And information is also considered as a basic need of human beings, who, by nature, want to know the unknown. Their curiosity process continues until the ultimate demise. That is why people’s right to know now internationally recognized as a fundamental human right. According to Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, âeveryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.5

Developments ofÂ Right to Information Law inBangladesh:

In today’s world, freedom of information is the pre-requisite of sustainable development due to its driving power. Free flow of information and its consumption boosts a country’s progress and prosperity. Effectiveness of democracy and security of human rights vastly depends on freedom of expression and information, in other word, freedom of the press. Understanding the essence many countries- from developed to developing- now open the shutters and nod the people’s right to the access of information resources.Â
In recent years, a number of nations enacted the freedom of information law including neighboring India in 20056, Pakistan in 20027, and Nepal in 20078. Formulation of the Right to Information Act (RTIA) unfolds a new horizon in South Asia for the free course of information. Bangladesh is already late in this regard. Post independence, there was little talk about people’s access to information. Military or military backed governments rather enacted so-called black laws like Special Power Act 19749 in order to curb the freedom of the press. In addition, government officials manipulate the Official Secrets Acts 1923 for masking government records.

After the restoration of democracy in 1990, gradually a demand of giving the people the right or access to information emerged and subsequently a massive discussion among civil society to media practitioners continued. Unfortunately, no political government passed the freedom of information law even though they several times focused the issue on their respective election manifestos. Finally, light has seen at the end of the tunnel. The legal signal has come through the hand of the army-backed caretaker government, even though their role was highly criticized.

During its two-year tenure, the interim government promulgated an ordinance namely Right to Information Ordinance on October 20, 200810. This is really a cornerstone in the way to free flow of information in Bangladesh. In fact, it is a demand of era. Perhaps, recognizing the ground reality, the present government, with minor changes, passed the Right to Information Act (RTIA) in the parliament on March 29, 200911.Â

A Summary ofÂ The Right To Information Act, 2009.Â

The Act was notified in the Bangladesh Gazette on Monday, 6 April, 2009. It received the President’s assent on 5 April 200912.

Preamble:

The Act makes provisions for ensuring free flow of information and people’s right to information. The freedom of thought, conscience and speech is recognised in the Constitution as a fundamental right and the right to information is an alienable part of it. Since all powers of the Republic belong to the people, it is necessary to ensure right to information for their empowerment.

The right to information shall ensure that transparency and accountability in all public, autonomous and statutory organizations and in private organizations run on government or foreign funding shall increase, corruption shall decrease and good governance shall be established. It is expedient and necessary to make provisions for ensuring transparency and accountability

]]>

Section 1 : Comes into force

All provisions of the Act have come into force since 20 October 2008 except for Sections 8, 24, 25 which shall come into effect from 1 July 2009. This includes the sections on request for obtaining information (Sec.8), appeals mechanism (Sec.24) and complaints mechanism (Sec. 25).

Section 2: Authority and Information Providing Unit, Third party and Definition

Section 4 : Right of Information

Section 7 : What is nor Open fore information .

Section 9 : Partial Disclosure

Section 5, 8:Â Authority’s Duties

Section 6 : Information Disclosure by Authorities

Section 8 : Application Procedure

Section 9 :Â Duties of Responsible Officer, Procedure and Time Limits for providing information

Section 10 : Responsible Officer

Sections 11 , 12 :Â Establishment and Composition of the Information Commission

Sections 13 : Powers and Functions of Information Commission

Sections 14, 15, 17 Appointment Process, Qualifications and Terms of Service

Section 16 : Removal of Chief Information Commissioners and Information Commissioners

Sections 19, 20, 21 : Fund, Budget and FinancialIndependenceof the Information Commission

Section 23 : Officers and Employees of the Information Commission

Â Section 2, 24 Appellate Authority and Appeals Mechanism

Sections 25, 26 : Complaints Mechanism

Section 27 : Penalty Provisions

Section 28 :Â Application of Limitation Act of 1908

Section 30 : Information Commission’s Annual Report

Section 32 and Schedule : Who are excluded?

Section 33, 34 : Rules and Regulations Making Power

Section 35 :Â Power to Deal with removal of ambiguity

Section 36 : Publication of a translated English version

Section 37 : Repeal

Above those sections some rights related sections are shortly described bellows .Except narrated section , others section are formative, departmental , clerical and procedurals .

(A)Rights Under the Law

Right to Information : Section 4

Every citizen has a right to information from the Authority and the Authority shall on demand from a citizen be bound to provide information. Â
Â

What is not open? â Section 7

Publication or providing certain types of information is not mandatory.

None of the authorities will be obliged to give the citizens the following information:

1) Information disclosure of which would be a threat to the security, integrity and sovereignty ofBangladesh;

2) Information related to any foreign policy, the disclosure of which would lead to harming existing relationships with any foreign state, or international institution or any regional bloc or organization;

3) Information received in confidence from a foreign government;

4) Information related to commercial or business confidence, copyright or intellectual property right, the disclosure of which would harm the intellectual property rights of any third party;

5) Information the disclosure of which would either benefit or harm an individual or institution, such as :

a) any advance information regarding income tax, customs, VAT and law relating to excise, budget or change in the tax rate;

b) any advance information regarding changes related to exchange rate and interest rate ;

c) any advance information regarding the management and supervision of financial institutions including banks;

6) Information the disclosure of which would obstruct the enforcement of law or incite any offence;

7) Information the disclosure of which would endanger the security of the people or would impede the due judicial process of a pending case;

Information the disclosure of which would harm the privacy of the personal life of an individual;

9) Information, the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person;

10) Information given in confidence by a person to help a law enforcement institution;

11) Information related to any matter pending in any court of law and which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court;

12) Information related to any matter which is under investigation whose disclosure might impede the investigation process;

13) Information, the disclosure of which would affect any criminal investigation process and the arrest and prosecution of the offenders;

14) Information, which according to law is liable to be published only for a specified time period;

15) Information obtained through technical or scientific experiments which is expedient to be kept secret for strategic and commercial reasons;

16) Information related to any purchase processes before it is complete or before any decision is taken regarding the purchase or the processes involved;

17) Information whose release may lead to breach of privileges of National Parliament (Jatiya Sansad);

18) Information regarding any person which is to be kept in confidence by law;

19) Advance information regarding question papers of an examination or the marks obtained;

20) Documents including summaries to be placed before the Cabinet or as the case may be, in the meetings of the Council of Advisors and information relating to deliberations and decisions made, provided that the decisions of the Cabinet or the Council of Advisors, the reasons and material basis upon which the decisions were taken shall be made public,

Provided as per this section if information is not to be disclosed then the related authority must take prior approval from the Information Commission.

Partial Disclosure: Section 9

Partial access to information contained in records covered by the clause where information is not mandatory for publication, is allowed. A portion of the information requested can be separated from the portion that is not mandatory for publication and be given to the applicant.

Who are excluded? â Section 32 and Schedule

The following organizations and institutions involved with national security and intelligence as mentioned in the schedule shall not be covered by the RTI Act:

1. National Security Intelligence (NSI)

2. Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI)

3. Defence Intelligence Units

4. Criminal Investigation Department (CID),BangladeshPolice

5. Special Security Force (SSF)

6. Intelligence Cell of the National Board of Revenue

7. SpecialBranch,BangladeshPolice

8. Intelligence Cell of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)

The number of institutions mentioned in the list above can be decreased or increased by the Government by amending the schedule in consultation with the Information Commission from time to time by notification published in the government gazette.

Information relating to corruption and human rights must be given. If a request for such information is received, then the concerned organization or institution must give the information, subject to the approval of the Information Commission within 30 days from the date of receiving the request.Â

Â (B) Enforcing MechanismÂ :

Application Procedure: Section 8

1) Apply in writing or electronically or by e-mail to the Responsible Officer;

2) In the application, the following information must be given:

a.Name, address, and where applicable fax number and e-mail address of the applicant;

b.Correct and clear description of the information sought;

Any other useful and related information that might help in locating the requested information;

Description of the method by which information is sought, namely by inspecting, taking photo copies, taking notes or any other approved method.

3) The information request can me made either in the form printed by the authority or in the prescribed format. However, if the forms are not printed or are not easily available or the format has not been prescribed, then the application can be written on a plain white paper by giving all the information mentioned above or can be sent through electronically or by e-mail;

4) The applicant will have to pay reasonable fees as may be prescribed by the Responsible Officer;

5) The government may in consultation with the Information Commission prescribe the application fees and if necessary the cost of information by notification in the official Â

gazette. The government may also exempt an individual or class of individuals or any other class from paying the fees.

Procedure and Time Limits for providing information: Section 9

1) Responsible Officer shall provide information within 20 working days from the date of receipt of application;

2) In case more than one “information providing unit” or authority is involved with the information requested, then information shall be given in 30 working days from the date of application;

3) In case the Responsible Officer rejects a request, then he must inform the applicant the decision and reasons for rejection within 10 working days from the date of application;

4) In case basic information concerning any person’s life or death, arrest and release from jail is sought then it must be given within 24 hours from receiving the request;

5) In case the requested information is available with the Responsible Officer then he must calculate the reasonable fee and inform the applicant to pay the fees within 5 working days. The fees for printed publications, information in electronic format or photocopies or print outs shall not be more than the actual costs;

6) No action on application within the specified time limits of 20 and 30 working days and 24 hours as mentioned above is a deemed refusal.

Appellate Authority and Appeals Mechanism: Section 2, 24

1) In case of the “information providing unit” the appellate authority is the administrative head of its immediate superior office. In case the unit does not have a superior office, then the appellate authority is the administrative head of that unit.

2) If any person is not given information within the time period specified in Section 9 or is aggrieved by the decision of the Responsible Officer, then he/she can appeal before the appellate authority within the next 30 days from receiving the decision or after the expiry of the time period;

3) If the appellate authority is satisfied that the appellant for justifiable reasons could not submit the appeal within the specified time period of 30 days then he may accept the appeal even after the expiry of that time;

4) The Appellate Authority shall within 15 days from the date of receiving the appeal:

Filed Under: Election Information Tagged With: analysis, Bangladesh, Implementing, Information, Perspective, Rights

Is Iran Heading For A Second Revolution?

October 19, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Watching the turmoil in Iran following the recently concluded presidential election, on television, I can’t help getting the nagging feeling that I’ve seen it all before. It’s the common malaise that seems to inflict dictators and autocratic rulers all over the world – inevitably leading to their downfall. They overreach themselves with insufficient provocation. Recent history is replete with examples of this.

In the early 1990’s, Gorbachev was under tremendous international pressure to give Communism a more human face. He did make a start with glasnost and perestroika, but he remained a traditional communist at heart – and the Soviet Union remained intact. However, that wasn’t enough for the old style Communist oligarchs who longed for a return to the glory days of Khrushchev and Brezhnev. They staged an abortive coup which proved to be the final nail in the coffin of communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Empire.

Back in the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos was chugging happily along, looting the treasury and allowing his wife Imelda to become the undisputed shoe queen of the world. There was no need for him to do anything drastic, but he couldn’t leave well enough alone. He had opposition leader Benigno Aquino murdered and the rest, as they say, is history.

Then there was America’s favorite bete-noire, Saddam Hussein. For three decades, he had lorded it over his countrymen like a latter day Nebuchadnezzar. He had unlimited power and everything money could possibly buy. In short, he was set for life, but that wasn’t enough for him, Like Nebuchadnezzar, he dreamed of conquest. So he invaded Kuwait and started procuring weapons of mass destruction, thereby giving the two Bushes a great excuse to bump him off.

Let’s now get back to Iran and the King of Kings, Shah Reza Pahlavi, who faked his lineage to claim descent from Cyrus the Great 2500 years ago. I happened to be living in Tehran during the final two years of the Shah’s reign, so I can add a little personal perspective on this. Although a Muslim, the Shah considered himself a modern ruler and had no patience with the trappings of traditional Islam – like the veil. His people grumbled about being spied upon by the Shah’s secret police – and resented the fact that hordes of Westerners were invited to run Iran’s infrastructure projects and were given preferential treatment, but they tolerated it. The upside was that the country was flush with petrodollars; and they were reasonably well off. The economy was booming: a dollar was worth 70 Rials; now it will get you around 6000 Rials. He had things under control. Then Ayatollah Khomeini, then in exile in Iraq, began spewing venom at the Shah and wounded the most vulnerable part of his anatomy – his ego. The reality was that Khomeini in Iraq could do little more than rant: Saddam made sure of that. He was no real threat. But in a fit of pique, the Shah persuaded Saddam to kick the bearded one out of Iraq. A fatal mistake. Khomeini ensconced him self in Paris, where there were no restrictions on his actions – and that lead directly to the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Coming to the present, there was never any real hope of the moderate Moussavi becoming President. Iran’s ruling clerics and their captive militia would have seen to that. If there is one thing, Iran’s theocratic rulers fear most, it’s even a hint of liberalism. 30 years ago, they came to power by convincing the majority of Iran’s populace that the Shah had strayed disastrously from the tenets of Islam; and that they were needed to bring the country back to the true faith. That myth has become stale now. To put it in perspective, one must understand that Iranians are not Arabs. Their brand of Islam, which seems repressive to the West, is in fact far more liberal than the Wahabbi strain practiced in Saudi Arabia – and by Al Qaida and the Taliban. For example, women may have dress restrictions, but they can drive and work in offices and have a much more powerful voice than their counterparts in many Arab countries. 60 percent of students in Iran’s universities are women.

And Iranians have always had an individualistic streak in them. They resent being dictated to and made to conform to the mainstream. The present generation, while remaining committed to the Islamic faith, has come to realize that it is not an acceptable substitute for a degree of prosperity; and for being treated by a pariah by the world’s developed countries. They are no longer hoodwinked by the ruling clergy’s demonizing the United States as the Great Satan, for example. Thanks to the opening up of the internet – and despite the establishment’s attempt to impart only selective information of the world around them by the largely state-controlled media – Iranians, especially the younger generation, now can see for themselves what sort of life their counterparts in the West lead – and by and large they like what they see. Many of them may be uncomfortable with what they perceive as Western licentiousness and easy interaction between the sexes, but they envy the freedoms Americans and Europeans enjoy. Thanks to internet access to online versions of newspapers like the New York Times, Iranians have come to realize that, contrary to the propaganda they have been fed for decades, America is not out to get them and, in fact, Iran hardly registers on the radar of the average American. This is the base for the surge of support for moderates like Moussavi.

Of course, this new found liberalism is perceived as a grave threat by the ayatollahs. Therefore, Ahmedinejad’s “victory” was inevitable. Where the regime goofed was in the ham handed way they set about accomplishing this. The smart thing would have been to portray the electoral contest as a close one, with Ahmedinejad just inching ahead at the finish line. This would, no doubt, have disappointed Moussavi’s supporters, but they would have forced to concede that the result, though improbable, was not outside the bounds of possibility. Instead, by blatantly apportioning two-thirds of the votes to Ahmedinejad, thereby making it obvious that large scale rigging was involved, the establishment has shot itself in the foot. It is this monumental fraud that has angered many Iranians, far more than the actual result.

So what comes next? It is very difficult to predict anything in Iran with a degree of accuracy, but it seems that the establishment will be forced to slacken the reins. People power can be glorious and terrifying to behold. In the past, Iran’s Islamic rulers have used it against Israel and the Great Satan. Now, for the first time, that power and rage is directed against themselves – and they are deeply worried. It is difficult to predict how much the ayatollahs will concede, but it seems inevitable that they will have to give up something. It may soon become a matter of survival. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure. The Islamic Republic of Iran will not remain in its present form.

Filed Under: Election Information Tagged With: Heading, Iran, Revolution, Second

Recent Posts