We could consider shifting blame to the kingpins solely.  As you know, I
relish a decent Dubya socking, but at the same time we must recognize he is
a man representing a collective of bluechip money mongers, conservatives,
and lets not forget the far religious right.  The unfortunacity (I made that
word up) of his position(that by rights being the most recognized machine
across terra firma)is there hasn't been a single leader in scripted history
that has actually "pleased" the populace under him (or her)let alone the
demands and vagary of the international community.  Simply
speaking...Nobody's perfect and you can't please everyone.

Where the diplomat is concerned, of course they're well conditioned to serve
the needs of the state internationally.  However, can diplomacy be a
paradigm of puppetry?  Of course...these plenipotentiaries can only serve
the needs and mandates of their dominion, inherent aptitude however would be
nothing short of lese majesty.

How do we measure the integrity of a leader?  Standard polling is
balderdash, as much as a Venezualan vote.  Personally, I lean towards
consistency.  The foundations of that being...have they kept a promise?  For
example George Sr. said something like "Read my Lips...no new taxes" and
like 8 months later, the largest tax hike in U.S. history magically
appeared...hmmmm A prime example of Gulf War Profiteering domestically...

Aside from consistency, we must address hypocrisy.  How do we measure a
leader who condemns human rights violations 10 time zones away, but fails to
recognize the flaws in their own mottled system.  Canada (my home and native
land)is unique in sense of universal education and healthcare.  Provincially
speaking, things get messy...Onterrible (where I hail from) for instance has a
work for welfare program installed with mandatory drug testing for all
social service recipients.  Recently Mike Harris (aka The Hammer or
Fascistfriendly) has decided to cull the province in search of illegal
immigrants who might pose a terrorist threat.  What that means is anyone who
isn't a citizen, but has a landing card, could be subject to intensive and
invasive investigation, on the pretense they might go to Parliament Hill and
take shots from the clocktower at Stockwell Day or something...

Onterrible is in a sad state of affairs...I don't know about Sask, and only
a little about Albertie and B.C. but our figurehead is failing it's people. 
The saddest example is just before I went planting in Feb/2000, 3 homeless
men froze to death under an overpass in Toronto about 2 miles from Queen's
Park(home of the provincial gummint).  Apparently these guys had been turned
away from the Sally Ann...no beds.  I remember that particular week, coldest
in Ontario history...-33 with a windchill of -50.  Where's the humanity in
that.  I think our tax dollars could be better spent than making some
welfare mom piss in a cup every other month.

Lastly, are the testaments of the masses being met?  Here we can touch on
how Marxism, fundamentally a good plan (as was Maoism) but beginning with a
housearrest of the Imperial family in Tsarskoe Selo, then their eventual,
and horrifying murder...to the death of 22 million quasi-Bolshevik
proletariats in the Stalinist gulags.  Or the monstrous Pol Pot and the
Khmer Rouge.  The Spanish Inquisition, the "discovery of America", Pre 1955
Tibet an theocracy, Auschwitz, any given time in the Middle East,Europe, Asia
and Africa.  Sadly our history has been built on the graves of people lost
to the cause of powerplay and stateism.  Surely, there is happiness in there
somewhere (and dammit, I hope there is), but I haven't picked up the book
yet.

By: Dinah Brown   

Copyright © 2002 Worldbridges    Copyright Policies