I lamented in a previous post about how the stupidest 1% of Sri Lanka’s population holds the reigns of power in the country and some of my readers kindly pointed out that that’s because the “geniuses who make up the other 99% vote the dumb cunts in.” Sad but true I guess though there has always been a lack of decent people in politics (or they get knocked off very early in their careers) so the choice has in all fairness been limited.

What is a bit disheartening, or possibly heartening depending on ones view of the world is that the countries in the developed region of the world are suffering similar problems. This is an excerpt from an article by Mark Morford, a SF Gate columnist (Check out that link for a truly orgasmic electric super car),

 

“Did you already calculate that if even a fraction of the $300 billion — a truly staggering amount — we’ve wasted on BushCo’s failed and disgusting war could have gone to revolutionizing our nation’s energy infrastructure (like, say, funding large-scale development of the Roadster’s technology), instead of annihilating a pip-squeak nonthreatening nation over its oil reserves while simultaneously serving as the most successful terrorist-recruitment poster in world history, the United States could be considered the epicenter of integrity and invention once again? Of course you did.

But oh wait. Such an obvious, lucid redirection of resources and ideology would require someone with true vision in the White House. Someone with integrity. And intelligence. And fearlessness. And an articulate understanding of complex ideas. And a Congress to match. Never mind.”

 

So obviously the lament for quality leadership is not just confined to us ‘Third Worlders’. I remember back in 2000 I was talking to an American fellow about Dubya’s chances of getting elected. He said rather ominously “the American people are voting someone in who thinks just like them.” The weird thing is I haven’t met too many Americans who think like Bush though this could possibly be a reflection of the fact I live on the relatively liberal West coast and not say deep in the heartland of Kansas.

My question is where does this leave us? Us individuals who are concerned about social justice, the environment, equal rights and who just want to live in a decent, safe world so we can enjoy the pleasures of life and bring up little versions of ourselves, what do we do in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles to normalcy. I’m open to ideas to this semi-rhetorical question but I do have some sort of answer. That is that we are aware of what goes on in the world, that we use every opportunity to speak up against injustice whether to another person, on a blog or even in your head.

Ignorance, sticking your head in the sand and disowning the fight is not enough unless you are willing to take bombs in your backyard, threats to your health, assaults on the environment and your culture without nary a complaint. It’s not easy and can’t be done 100% of the time, thinking about and analyzing such things is exhausting. Writing this post was emotionally exhausting, but it has to be done. Sometimes I sit on a Sunday and wish I had the energy to write about an injustice I read about, to make people aware about it but just don’t have the willpower. I just file that away for later and hope I can get to it when I have the emotional fortitude to address it.

We the individuals make up the global democracy and despite what Bush, Blair, Mahinda, Prabha, GE, Newscorp or any of those entities that make up the system in our part of the globe do or say the only way they will win is if we keep quiet. Speak up; act out once a week and you are helping form a new world.

 

P.S. on a completely unrelated subject, I’ve posted before about the travails of my early morning bus ride. Well today I had a reasonably cute blonde sit next to me. After about five minutes I noticed a strange odour piercing my early morning haze. It was with something approaching horror that I realized it was the girl.

Now this to me was like the laws of physics being upended or evolution being disproved. I like girls because they smell nice, it’s not the only reason I like them but it’s a major reason and the concept of a pretty, smelly girl just doesn’t gel with me. Now before I have a load of feminists deluge me with hate-mail I would like to point out that I find anybody being smelly objectionable, its jus that girls usually do smell nice (and dare I say should). It was just too much to handle that early in the morning. She did get out a few stops later and got replaced by a 300 pound, fat, sweaty executive type who kept sliding into me when the bus climbed the hilly routes of San Francisco.

All in all not the best start to a morning.