Dec 11, 2008

Finally Democracy: for the good or the bad

Yesterday somewhere in the United Kingdom: more than 400 people get to vote for the first time. Unbelievable? Yes, but true. The Isle of Sark (probably the first territory ever to be invaded by a single person) a tiny channel island makes his first steps in democracy (where close to 10% of the population stood for vote). The experience was not too good at least for a sixth of the population who lost as a consequence of the outcome directly their job. How did this happen? To understand this one needs to know that the “Barclay brothers” happen to own the neighboring island, for which the Isle of Sark claims jurisdiction. The brothers drew up a list of “acceptable candidates”. When it became apparent that not sufficient approved candidates had been elected, the Barclays announced that they were shutting down their businesses on Sark — hotels, shops, estate agents, and building firms (See the BBC article). At the least, a bizarre interconnection of economics, politics and history.

1 comment:

Dany Jaimovich - Bakary Baludin said...

this is just a small scale example of a very generalized phenomenon, that includes the way US was controlling must of latinamerican countries in the 60s-80s, and still in some of them. A striking example, Cuba before the revolution (remember The Godfather)... maybe a Fidel will come to Sark Island, for good or bad...