Lögberg-Heimskringla - 17.09.1999, Qupperneq 2

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m Editorials
Response to Bragi
Magnusson
Kevin Jón Johnson
WINSTON CHURCHILL CALLED
democracy the worst form of
government, except for all
the rest. The growth of democracy in
the twentieth century has pleasantly
surprised many democrats, but the
forces working against democracy still
exist, as Bragi Magnusson points out.
One major concern, the Cold War,
has now passed, but that concem may
soon be reawakened. The President of
Russia, Boris Yeltsin, only has one or
two per cent support in the polls, and
the Russian press has recently revealed
stories of a ten-billion-dollar embez-
zling scheme which implicates both
Yeltsin and some of his family and
friends, so his support in the polls will
dwindle further! As a Russian commen-
tator said, “The fish is rotting from the
head.”
Democracy has failed in Russia;
corruption appears widespread. The
Communists seem poised to rise to
power in the approaching election, so a
new Cold War may arise. We may not
have escaped the horrible cloud of pos-
sible nuclear annihilation.
Still, as Bragi Magnusson stated in
1953, the world population increases by
about 200,000 each day. World popula-
tion recently passed the six billion
mark, and population in India recently
passed the one billion mark. More peo-
ple in the world are worse off todáy
than in 1953, simply because of expo-
nential world population growth. World
population has more than tripled in the
twentieth century.
With the increase in food science
and farming techniques in the free
world, or western world, as Magnusson
points out, there is apparently enough
food to feed tlie world. There is enough
food, but not enough money, in the
Further to Nelson Gerrard’s
“Navigating in Dangerous Waters,” I
suspect Nelson is correct that the term
“republic” is not quite appropriate. I am
disturbed that the Quebec Separatists
would be interested. However, I remain
confused. I have two questions:
1. If “republic” is not the appropri-
ate term, what word or phrase would be
best used to describe this arrangement?
needy areas, to purchase it! With our
democracies, we have commercial
interests which demand payment for
goods or services.
David Suzuki has suggested that if
everyone in the world lived like
Canadians, we would require four plan-
ets like the Earth to support us! Our
lifestyles, in the free west, are the most
greedy consumers of world resources.
The dire poverty of most of the world
escapes our affluent notice; we offer the
most abuse to the world ecology.
As we change from a gas and oil
consuming western world into one run
on renewable energy sohrces, there is
an opportunity to share these new tech-
nologies with the developing world,
thereby raising their standard of living.
The record, however, of such generous,
brotherly assistance has been rather
bleak.
The United States’ record on sup-
porting democracies around the world
“in blood and money” has been a
remarkable and good one. The victories
in the First and Second World Wars
were gained largely because of
American money and military skill. The
United States directed the positive
restructuring in Europe and Japan after
the Second World War. Some American
interest, however, in developing nations
is less altruistic and directed by an
interest in gaining money, for example,
the stock market games which have
recently imperiled the Asian tigers,
Russia, Mexico, and parts of South
America. The currency speculators
have even attacked the Canadian
loonie!
In our homelands, we have enjoyed
democracy, peace, and prosperity rela-
tive to most parts of the world, but the
daily news brings us dire stories to the
contrary.
Recent images from Sierra Leone
show young children with only stumps
for arms or legs; their limbs have been
hacked off by the machetes of rebel
forces. Or thousands of children from
I am in need of a concise description
which can be used, for example, to
inform the public when questions arise
at the Icelandic cultural display at
Edmonton’s Heritage Days multicultur-
al festival.
2. Was this arrangement, in fact,
unique in Canadian history, or have
there been other similar situations?
I look forward to being further
the ages of eight to eighteen are
returned by the rebel forces; they forced
the boys to kill their own family mem-
bers to show their allegiance, before
putting them in the rebel army. They
raped the young girls, and used them as
sexual slaves. The children returned are
sick or pregnant. Thousands more
remain in the wilderness with the rebel
army. This occurs in the sub-Saharan
AIDS belt, where one in four people
carries the HIV virus, so the pregnant
girls have more to fear than forced, bru-
tal pregnancies.
These children, like many children
around the world, have lost their inno-
cence, and suffered although innocent.
Such tragedies continue to unfold.
Human evil appears unlimited; whereas
human good appears quite restricted
and more rare.
The Americans are not alone in
their nobler efforts to support democra-
cies, nor are they alone in their selfish
manipulation of poorer nations, and
their resources.
The two points of Bragi
Magnusson, raised at the end of his
address, offer an enlightened, philo-
sophical stance or approach to the prob-
lems facing our world and our democ-
racies. Enough of us have not done
enough to ensure the realization of such
goals. The Cold War was a major pre-
occupation, and we may be heading
into another Cold War, if the
Communists take power again in the
deeply troubled democracy of Russia.
Two and one half thousand years
ago, the Greek tragic poet Aeschylus in
his Prometheus Bound has the bound
and tortured god Prometheus comment
that the greatest gift that he gave to
mankind was to limit his knowledge of
the future and give him hope, blind
hope. Our Christian theology offers
more positive hope, but world history
tends only to confirm the wisdom of
Aeschylus; a truth more vivid in less
fortunate, undemocratic parts of this
world.
enlightened on this topic.
Gloria Krenhrenk
St. Albert, AB
Minnist
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í ERFÐASKRÁM YÐAR
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