“I have seen an armful of daisies keep the peace of a block better than a policeman and his club.” — Jacob Riis
“Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day.” —Benito Mussolini
“Democracy is messy, and it’s hard. It’s never easy.”—Robert Kennedy, Jr.
February 2021 demonstrations in Myanmar protesting the brutal scuttling of a democratic election and all hope for the nation’s future by the reprehensible, murderous Tatmadaw military Junta.
Photo Credit: Facebook/Public Domain/Cropped. Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine
Who is right?
- Well, Jacob Riis wins. The daisies are still around but their existence is threatened in many places where climate change is harsh. Hard work to save the daisies will be led by defenders of democracies like sheroes Leni Robredo, Maria Ressa and Leila de Lima. Mankind is in a struggle against patriarchal autocracy that only sees the moment and the gold it wants to steal.
- The vile Benito Mussolini died a despised dictator. Was he predicting Donald Trump when he slammed America? He allied himself with Adolf Hitler during World War II as a fascist dictator of Italy from 1925 to 1945, hence nothing he had to say about democracy has worth. Donald Trump should be treated in the same manner.
- Robert Kennedy had lost his brother, the President of the United States, to a murderer. That was hard for everyone. For Robert Kennedy, democracy was very harsh. He struggled with his brother’s murder. We all did.
Watching sheroes Leni Robredo, Maria Ressa, and Leila M. de Lima struggle against a self-confessed murderer, a bully of women, and an authoritarian despot is nevertheless inspiring.
Why? Courage is always inspiring. These women are determined defenders of human rights and democracy. Earth and humanity needs these women and more of their kind, now more than ever.
We need them as leaders.
The loss of Philippines democracy and thousands of lives to extrajudicial killings is painful evidence of harm from greed, hate and corruption allowed in a quasi-dictatorship. That’s what the Catholic Church in the Philippines is talking about these days in more biblical terms: ‘evil incarnate‘. Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court may be muttering the same things under their breathe.
Autocracies are usually kleptocracies that leave nothing for the ordinary people. Democracy may be hard but this betrayal of ordinary Filipinos escapes those too accustomed to centuries of forced occupation, to know what democracy really is all about. Democracy is beautiful. It’s noisy, but beautiful. It’s crazy sometimes, but beautiful.
‘Democracies are about people working together, caring and sharing, cooperating and striving as one to achieve their mutually decided goals,’ says Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau [Paraphrased. Watch the video].
Autocracy only worked for the benevolent dictator Tito. Otherwise it is a form of government wherein the leaders mine the population for their value and leave people broken, lost, and without hope. The evidence is everywhere. Throw the bums out.
Watching the horror of hunger and disease handed to malnourished small children in North Korea and Yemen is heartbreaking. Despotic monsters have created these autocratically authored tragedies. Bully nations like Saudi Arabia create these problems as has been the case of authoritarian bully nations since the beginning of recorded history. Both North Korea and Yemen are being bullied and starved by embargoes on food and medicines.
America started killing Koreans en masse in 1952. It killed three million civilians then. It has not stopped. It killed a million Iraqis. And America’s last President has killed a million Americans. Maybe that is what Benito Mussolini was talking about.
Saudi Arabia has bullied would-be supporters of Yemen at the UN, to stand back and let Saudi continue its fight unfettered against the smashed nation’s people.
The final hour of decision, Totalitarianism or Democracy? for Taiwan, fast approaches.
As Taiwan struggles against the authoritarian bully, Xi Jinping, we are reminded that democracy isn’t pretty but it is always beautiful. Taiwan is beautiful. China is scared and the Chinese want to leave their country but they fear being arrested and held in Canada by the Americans.
Tsai Ing-wen is standing firm against Xi Jinping’s disingenuous cries for the reunification of Taiwan and China. The two nations have never been together, never united, always apart.
History defies Xi Jinping’s crazy story, in fact history makes Jinping look bereft of his senses.
China is an increasingly brutal totalitarian regime under Xi Jinping and Taiwan is a democracy.
They are like night and day. They should never and will never unite. Democracy needs to win this day but not with a war. The people of the world should go to Taiwan and form a daisy chain, hand to hand encircling the island nation in global unison to say “stay away”—“leave our brothers and sisters at peace; then come back in peace when you are ready.”
China is building enormous amphibious landing craft with which it plans to land thousands of troops and armaments on the island nation of Taiwan. They may need to kill all 23,871,803 Taiwanese because polls say the people have no interest in Xi Jinping’s brutal, totalitarian ownership.
Democracy is not pretty. It is beautiful. But in beauty there is fragility. Let’s encourage all democracy defenders.
Encourage and promote outstanding leaders like Leni Robredo, Maria Ressa, Leila M. de Lima, Angela Merkel, Tsai Ing-wen, Jacinda Ardern, Moon Jae-in, Lee Hsien Loong, Justin Trudeau… and the list goes on. Defenders of democracy will band together; stand together, and bring about a new day for humanity. It must be that way.