This Diary is to announce the formation of a new group, initially consisting of me, under the name in the Diary title, More and Better Democracies. I will invite others to join when I see them writing appropriate Diaries. You can send me a private message to apply for membership, too.
The dKos mission has always been More and Better Democrats in US politics. What about the rest of the world? Where are we, and what is most urgently needed next?
Obviously there is a lot that Kossacks and our friends and colleagues are doing about that, and a lot more that we could do. There is much more than will fit in a Diary, but if there is interest, we can explore the opportunities and the necessary strategies in various places on various issues. The new group would collect global stories from elsewhere on dKos, but would primarily be a place to discuss strategies and issues with a global impact, or the way a strategy or issue is playing out in a country or region. US foreign policy is of course also welcome.
I offer below, to begin with, a summary of progress so far, together with links to some of the plans currently in motion on issues of education, poverty, health, democracy, rule of law, human rights, corruption, reining in corporations, and countering UN Black Helicopter Conspiracy Theories. I have my own projects in education, and consequently in all of these areas, but I need you to tell me and others who may choose to join what you want to know about these issues, and what you want to do about them.
"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. When we enquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, and at the backs of books in libraries."
— Samuel Johnson (Boswell's
Life of Johnson)
Ah, but now we have the Internet, and some of us are not afraid to use it. Updating Johnson, our enquiry leads us to look at search engines and at the home pages of sites on the Web. We can update Will Rogers, too.
All I know is what I read on the Internet.
But that isn't the whole story. We are in contact with real people around the world. Ask me about South Korea or Haiti or Rwanda or Kyrgyzstan sometime.
There is bad news, good news, and better news, and beyond that endless opportunity and endless difficulty.
Bad News
The bad news came out of the catastrophic 20th century, the age of state Communism and Fascism, of tin-pot dictators and genocides, and the death throes of Empire. Their remnant consists of tyrannies led by North Korea, with some others in Central and South Asia and Africa; civil wars, as in Congo, Iraq, and Afghanistan; the new economic imperialism of out-of-control multinational corporations; massive corruption and oppression; starvation and even more widespread malnutrition; preventable and curable, or at least treatable diseases and disabilities; state-sponsored terrorism from the oppressed and the oppressors; violent, authoritarian religious movements within Christianity, Islam, and several other major religions; and a number of other ills. Also, the Republican Party/Christian Right attitudes on the War on Drugs, immigration, warmongering, Muslim-bashing, exporting bigotry, attempting to provoke Armageddon in the Middle East, and a multitude of international Conspiracy Theories about Jewish Bankers, the Trilateral Commission, Commies under the beds, the worldwide Gay Agenda, Global Warming, UN Black Helicopters, and so on.
So it goes.
Good News
Although there were local improvements here and there, such as the formation and progress of Solidarity in Poland starting in 1980, and the progress of China from Mao and the Gang of Four to authoritarian market economics, the first global round of good news on democracies since the aftermath of World War II came out of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Soviet Republics gained their independence and set up dictatorships (some of which later fell) or democracies. Eastern European satellites were freed of Soviet overlordship, though not of the Russian Mafia or heavy-handed attempts at hegemony. Germany took down the Berlin Wall and reunified. When the US responded by stopping its support for every supposed anti-Communist dictator in Africa and Latin America, there was a wave of democratization and economic freedom there, too. Apartheid fell in South Africa, and Sinn Fein was allowed into politics in Northern Ireland, leading to the collapse of the IRA.
Many of the newly democratized countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America entered into periods of sustained economic growth, which continues.
Not that the news was all good. Yugoslavia collapsed and descended into multiple civil wars. Some of the Central Asian republics remained under dictators. Multiple civil wars broke out in Africa. Russia seriously botched its transition to political openness and a market economy, and has seriously regressed under Putin. Chechnya was nearly destroyed. Terrorist groups grew, and terrorist acts increased.
Better News
Several countries that came out of the Soviet period with quite repressive governments have since evolved further. Many, though by no means all, civil wars in Africa have been settled. The Arab Spring resulted in revolutionary change in Tunisia and Egypt; less dramatic change in Saudi Arabia, which is at least considering women's rights seriously; major repression in Bahrain; and ongoing civil war in Syria.
In spite of the media only reporting on conflict in the region, economic growth has taken hold in much of Africa, except in the areas still suffering civil wars or authoritarian rule. Every country in Africa either has at least one fiber optic connection to the rest of the world or is in the process of laying the cable. Plans to extend the networks throughout the countries are gradually taking shape and sometimes getting funded.
Of all the countries of the world, only North Korea is still seriously off the Internet, although the necessary infrastructure exists, and plans have been laid to grant some level of monitored Internet access at universities.
Where To?
There are still several major hotspots in the world: the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea, Congo, Sudan and South Sudan, Yemen, Mali, some parts of China…There are post-conflict states enjoying still-tenuous democratic transitions: Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Egypt, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Liberia…and countries struggling with direst poverty: Haiti, Bangladesh, and several in Africa, in particular.
I work with One Laptop Per Child, and its partner NGOs Sugar Labs and FLOSS Manuals (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) on educational computers, software, and Open Educational Resources (OERs) for ending poverty. We have provided computers to several million children, out of a billion or so worldwide, and I get to make them presents nearly every day. Among them should be a series of learning materials on civics, including
- How governments are supposed to work.
- How they do or do not work in reality.
- How you can organize to make them work in time.
except that I don't know enough to write them myself.
In addition to basic education, and education on the full range of computer and citizenship skills, our program is meant to connect children together and teach them how to work together, first in the classroom, and then in the wider world. I invite you to imagine a billion highly educated and computer literate children at a time coming together to tackle the problems of the world. Daily Kos as we know it isn't in it, although we can discuss what we can contribute as we are, and what we could turn ourselves into in the future.
Various organizations have other takes on how to end poverty and oppression, establish democracy everywhere, rein in corruption, and generally save the world. Here are just a few.
We can discuss those and much more.
But Neo-Cons? Feh.