Monday, June 23, 2008

USA- The land of premature eclapulation*

Before you put your hands together for the land of freedom and the greatest country in the world.... 2 instances to prove this theory wrong:

1) Electoral College (United States)- "Rather than directly voting for the President and Vice President, U.S. citizens cast votes for electoral college representatives, known as electors. While electors are theoretically free to vote for the candidate of their choice, in practice they pledge to vote for specific candidates". ha ha. Have you heard of anything funnier in a democracy? This is such a farce.
Elections in India are won by:
a) Booth capturing (rural model): go to the place of voting and force people to vote for your party or fake the votes. Very rare.
b) Pay per vote(rural & urban model): buy votes from the citizens
The point is...the voter/people/citizen decide who their leader is...until the next step in evolution of bribing the guy counting the vote or bribing the guy who announces the results comes along.
But the founding fathers of the USA were visionary in their quest for retaining power. Let not people of this country choose their president, but let them FEEL they have chosen him. So currently 270 people out of a population of 300 million choose the president of the most powerful country in the world.
Now most of you will say its system that has worked for over 150 years or more. I say please judge for yourself keeping in mind the outgoing president.

"We are here to preserve democracy, not practice it" - Crimson Tide, Movie

2)Saw a documentary on NDTV yesterday. It focused on unlawful detention and torture of "POWs" captured by the US and allied farces. Torture included Waterboarding, Standing up to 40 hours, Forced nudity etc. The Geneva convention apparently isn't applicable / understood here. Most of the US solders were "doing their jobs" apparently.
Only 7% of detainees have been captured by the US. 93% have been handed over by warlords in exchange for $$$. As you may have guess majority of them were innocent citizens. The war strategy seems to be "if you kill enough of em, you automatically wipe out the terrorists".
I sometimes wonder about the people of Iraq who don't have anything to look forward to ...no jobs, money, homes, security. The picking up relatives or friends acts as a trigger for young men/women to take up jihad. In a land (US) where your "rights" are of utmost importance and you spilling coffee on yourself makes someone else liable to pay you millions these poor bastards truly are children of a lesser god.

*premature eclapulation- the process of clapping, during events such as plays, operas, and orchestral performances when the climax of the moment or the moment most appropriate for ovation has not yet been reached.

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