Hi,
Just want to clarify that I did not write the Imagine post, it was sent to
me & it doesn't suprise me to hear it was on the BBC. Also the portion that
you refer to as tongue in cheek was a comment written by someone else in
rebuttal to the post.
Its easy to mix up who said what on the internet so be careful when quoting.
Also I sent the post as food for thought because I found it very
interesting.
Just to balance things out a little, here is another post I received that
encourages us to relax & that as messy as things are, democracy is at work:
Sunday, November 12, 2000 12:01 a.m. EST
>From "America and the Battle for Florida," a commentary by Reuben Abati in
Nigeria's Guardian, Nov. 10:
If Bush were a Nigerian, and his opponent had already conceded victory to
him
only for a character called a state attorney-general to invoke a letter of
the law, which upturns the cart, I tell you, there would have been bloodshed
on the streets. Bush's kinsmen would have taken to the bush to prepare for
war. They would have spoken of marginalisation and every member of that
ethnic group would have taken up arms to defend their kinsman. As for the
attorney-general who fouled things up, he would have been beheaded, or he
would have had to go underground. I mean, what did he think he was doing:
quoting the law? Nigerians would have asked him: what law?
Indeed if America were Nigeria, that long re-counting of votes in Florida
would have resulted in a clash of the local gangs. Can you imagine anyone
recounting the votes in Anambra State to determine whether an Igbo man or a
Yoruba man should become president? The OPC would have travelled to Onitsha
to fight the Bakassi boys: there would have been so much mayhem that the
elections would have had to be cancelled. Or the military would have
intervened. By now, really, George Bush's father would have intervened to
say
that some people are trying to victimise his son. Mrs. Bush would have gone
on television to shed some crocodile tears. Al Gore's supporters would have
issued a statement to the effect that Americans should not serve father and
son, in the same century. They would have claimed that some assassins are
after Al Gore. Witch-doctors, pastors, palm readers, and futurologists would
all have stepped into the matter to make some uncanny predictions. If
President Clinton were a Nigerian, he too would have deemed it fit to make
some white noise.
But in America, a different kind of democracy is at work. George Bush has
not
called out any thugs. Al Gore has not issued any apocalyptic threats.
President Bill Clinton is quiet. What is on display is the beauty of
American
democracy, and the centrality of due process and the rule of law.
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