'Loose Talk'
By Benjamin Benedict

If Only I Had A Vote!

In all the countries that I know anything about, the proportion of local news far outweighs news from elsewhere. When we are given ‘world news’ it is mainly stuff about dolphins being rescued, or a rare species being found and when it is of substance, such as the demonstrations in Burma some months ago, there is hardly ever the will to follow the story beyond it’s initial impact. Who knows what happened to those who were arrested, and whether the lady, Aung San Suu Kyi who represents the democratic opposition is still under house arrest? As I recall, the UN’s special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari was having meetings both with her and with the leaders of the military regime, and then, then nothing.
 
There is no doubt about the general feeling in the rest of the world concerning the plight of this country, but at the same time there is no coherent expression of it, outside of various diplomatic missions. This is the same in the Sudan, in Zimbabwe, in Kenya….I could go on and on.

Now it appears that the athletes who are selected to compete in the Beijing Olympics will have to sign a document which precludes them from making any expression of their feelings as regards the human rights situation in China. This has been reported on the UK news. I am assuming that it would be pointless to have UK athletes make such a pledge if other countries were not taking similar action. If I am right in this assumption, it is a huge story, but it is reported as if it were a local matter.

We hear a lot of things about globalisation, most of them negative, but surely, like it or not we are all citizens of an ever shrinking world and this segmentation of information deprives us of ever knowing what the full story is and therefore in having any say in it’s outcome.

This all hinges on the sovereignty of a Nation, even when that Nation has been hijacked and its people are being held to ransom. But what is a nation, anyway? It is no more than a concept that is constantly changing in size, shape, culture, influence, and political make-up. What was Russia yesterday is not Russia today, and what was Yugoslavia is not at all anymore. The majority party in Scotland wants independence from the United Kingdom. Iraq might well end up as three separate nations. Nations are man made concepts, an attempt to separate what is local from what is not and whereas we must have the right to know and act on local issues, it is increasing apparent that we need some sort of a global voice.

In due course, this is bound to evolve through the internet and the telephone. A sort of global opinion pole which we all have access to. There are many problems, such as validating each person’s identity, but I don’t doubt that it will come about, and along with it far more focus on events in other parts of the world.

And politics of this type can be extremely entertaining. There is today possibly one issue that a substantial proportion of the world’s population could and would all like to vote on. Not a vote that counted, just an opinion, based on a working knowledge of those involved. It is a subject that has captured the world’s imagination to a far greater extent than I think the local participants realize. Everyone has an opinion on it, even if they are on the other side of the planet and it has nothing directly to do with them. Can you guess what it is? Well, it’s the Hillary and Barack Show, of course. If only I had a vote!

Note. The author has spent fifteen years in America but is British by birth.

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