ALL COMMUNIST ARE DICTATORS HOW LIFE HAVE THEY TAKEN NUMBERS ARE VERY VERY LESSER THAN USA AND EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ,PLEASE SEE HISTORY TILL DATE THESE ARE THE REAL WARRING NATIONS ,
Re: Indira Gandhi
by Harish Menon on Jun 30, 2010 12:57 PM
Which part of "As many as 109 crore people across the world continue to languish under various forms of dictatorship, according to a recent article in the Foreign Policy journal" didn't you understand?
Or is it a case of merely not comprehending the complex and nuanced difference between past and present tense.
I read this story on Foreign Policy sometime last week... why is it being reproduced here after all these days?
In any case how can Iran -- the only democracy in the middle east -- be termed a dictatorship? Just because he doesn't toe the US's line? At same time, the Gulf emirates -- Saudi, Kuwait, UAE -- who are virtual stooges of the US do not find mention in the list toppers. Neither are Singapore, Brunei, Vatican city etc seen or heard of in such lists.
Re: Delayed
by ram kumar on Jun 30, 2010 01:04 PM
When you massively rig elections and crush the RESULTING protests that brutally, it no longer becomes a democracy but a dictatorship.
Re: Re: Delayed
by Harish Menon on Jun 30, 2010 01:09 PM
The allegations of rigging, true to a certain extent, was wholly over-hyped by the western media. And guess what the main source of information was for this media -- hold your breath -- Tweets!
The true mark of a democracy is not mere periodic polls. It is about institutions, a vibrant civil society, flourishing art and culture and dissent. All this is thriving in Iran in varying degrees - though may not be to the extent seen in the US or Japan or the UK.
Re: Delayed
by commie basher on Jun 30, 2010 12:59 PM
Middle east also has Israel. Israel is a vibrant democracy with multi party West minister style government. Iran is not the only democracy. Ahmedenijad is sitting in Power after an election that is rigged.
Re: Re: Delayed
by Harish Menon on Jun 30, 2010 01:04 PM
My mistake. Of course Israel too is a vibrant democracy -- in my view more democratic than Iran. I meant, among the theocracies of the Gulf.
However, the rigging of Iranian elections -- true to a certain extent -- were not as bad as the western media claim. It was only as bad in implication as the screwed up Florida voting that gave Bush the presidency based on the flawed collegium system even though Gore won the popular vote.
Re: Re: Re: Delayed
by commie basher on Jun 30, 2010 04:47 PM
You are comparing apples and oranges here. Iran is a theocracy like Israel which is a half secular theocratic democracy, where as United states is not theocracy, its a secular democracy. If bush rigged the polls and won the election you could sue him and still live. Could you do that in Iran ?
Re: Replace
by Harish Menon on Jun 30, 2010 12:56 PM
You perhaps are only bothered about political boundaries and not larger concepts of identity and country. Otherwise you wouldn't have been ignorant of terms like Bharatvarsha, Al-Hind and India. If historical facts is what you are looking at, then India should be claiming Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, Afghanistan and Burma too.
Understand the difference between a nation state and a country to begin with.
Re: Re: Re: Replace
by Harish Menon on Jun 30, 2010 01:16 PM
This is what happens when you copy paste stuff from wikipedia before understanding the more layered meanings. Try and and think beyond the idea of a nation state. And a country is a much larges and older concept.
When Al Beruni wrote Tarikh al-Hind in the 11th century, he was referring to a geographic entity that had defining traits that gave this part of the world a larger commonality.
The Indian Ocean is so called because "India" as a concept and idea was the preponderant entity of this geography. And this idea was born out of the people living here.
Just because modern politics has dismembered that idea into artificial boundaries doesn't mean the idea itself did not exist.
