Bastille. The stronghold, where prisoners were kept and where the armory was. On that fateful day the peasants stormed and this was the beginning of the French Revolution. A couple weeks ago, masses converged on the Place de la Bastille voicing their displeasure upon the result of the election. Election coverage and the results is forbidden until after 8pm. Crowds gather in anticipation all over France, and discuss, (see below) while sipping on a coffee or otherwise.
You will see older and younger ones. I have to confess, I like pictures like this one because each face tells a story. The photographer above who lies bloodily while being helped was hit in the head by a piece of concrete. He explains that his proximity to the police was the reason he was hit. Fortunately, he is recovering well and the wound looks worse than it actually was.
Sarkozy. I do not know what to make of him. I have been exposed to just a piece of the picture but my opinion at this point is of a man who is not afraid to use his position to further his cause. Sarko was the mayor, when he married a couple in 1984. Three years later the bride, Cecilia, was his. She will be a different first lady. I will let you read the link below. The thing in which I am curious about, is when he used his position to get a man fired, because of a piece which was written. What do you think of that? (See link.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6656717.stm
I just got off of the phone with a friend who is in the Philippines. In case you are not aware, there has been an election there. A bomb exploded just hours away from Michael ( my pal ) because of the polling. He says it is crazy there. He cannot walk anywhere by himself or he will get kidnapped. He witnessed people selling their votes. You go into the polling station and there are all kinds of people there. They will actually pay you if you will vote for them. The elections are not about government, but about how to boost your finances, and influence. Candidates will walk down the street, while their militia is following them with machine guns drawn just paces behind. It seems so foreign to me. He is making a video to post on his blog site, and I will hope to share it with you, if he makes it back here alive. I at this point won't say much except that I am glad to live in Australia. Check out the link below.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6652393.stm
2 comments:
Hooligans making a mockery of Democracy.
Makes you thankful we all live in a "civilized" country where you can safely walk to the polls and cast your vote without harrassment or intimidation.
And yet, we make light of our "right to vote" and some don't even bother, even though they could.
Are we witnessing the demise of democracy and the rise of greedy power hungry people who want to be able to abuse the people who put them in power?
Is it time for a new way of looking at the role of Government?
I am really at odds with the system.
Let's live in peace, and if you don't like what is happening let's get off our chairs and run for a political party.
If you want things to change you have to do something different.
dost
One of the best movies I have ever seen that really makes you feel like you're in the middle of it all, watching political upheaval in a violent country, is Beyond Rangoon. Also, as I mentioned in my comment after the last post, Blood Diamond is an excellent movie for seeing just how the cycles get started that cause death and destruction in thirld world nations. It seems to me that one of the biggest forces of destruction in the world is colonization. Starting several centuries ago, European nations started colonizing the Americas and Africa, and the result has ended up being devastation to all the people that lived there beforehand. China and Japan have certainly perpetrated a large amount of the same sort of chaos. If you really want to take a relatively peaceful tribal population of people, who are still at that blissful point of evolution where they don't recognize individual pieces of land as "nations", and plunge them into massacres and wars, teach them the value of gold and diamonds, and give them weapons. It won't even take a year to watch them start killing each other. It's that easy. Then it's pretty easy for someone from a developed nation, with all their transportation and other technology, to walk in and clean up on the natural resources that are now bared on the land like an open wound.
Civilization is a double-edged sword. Resoundingly, it seems that there are stories of civilization throughout history where a civilization forms, the people prosper, and meantime all the people in the world surrounding that civilization become victims of the wealth and greed of that civilization. It was true of the Roman empire, it was true of the British empire, and it's most certainly true of America and Canada.
Every time our culture decides they've found some new commodity that they all want to have, whether it's coffee, cars, or soft drinks, people all over the world elsewhere die gruesome deaths as a result.
I don't think democracy has ever been a solution to any problems. Perhaps it helps some nations stabilize themselves in some cases, but consider one of my favorite sayings: "Talk to nice to America, or we'll bring democracy to your country".
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