I've just spent three years driving through 35 countries in Africa. Before that I spent 2 years driving through 16 countries in Latin America.
I completely agree with your comment.
It's fascinating to sit in a third world country watching the developed world preach on and on about capitalism and democracy being the greatest thing since sliced bread, while on the news we get to see extremely violent protests in France, Brexit completely grinding the UK to a halt, the longest government shutdown in US history, Australia have 7 Prime Ministers in 10 years[1], fears of another giant economic collapse, etc. etc.
These are supposed to be the leaders of the free world, and for all intents and purposes they're dysfunctional.
From the outside looking in, Democracy hasn't turned out to be the "magic" solution it was marketed as.
This was never more true than when I was sitting with a bunch of locals watching the violent protests in DC when Trump was inaugurated. None of the locals could understand why there was violence, and kept asking me "But don't they have democracy there?" ... "Why are they being so violent"?"
[1] I like to say Australia has had more Coups can the Congo.
Protests mean Democracy is working. Look at protests in France and the US vs protests in the Middle East or even Turkey. How do protests fair in China? Ask the unknown number of citizens in education camps.
I completely agree with your comment.
It's fascinating to sit in a third world country watching the developed world preach on and on about capitalism and democracy being the greatest thing since sliced bread, while on the news we get to see extremely violent protests in France, Brexit completely grinding the UK to a halt, the longest government shutdown in US history, Australia have 7 Prime Ministers in 10 years[1], fears of another giant economic collapse, etc. etc.
These are supposed to be the leaders of the free world, and for all intents and purposes they're dysfunctional.
From the outside looking in, Democracy hasn't turned out to be the "magic" solution it was marketed as.
This was never more true than when I was sitting with a bunch of locals watching the violent protests in DC when Trump was inaugurated. None of the locals could understand why there was violence, and kept asking me "But don't they have democracy there?" ... "Why are they being so violent"?"
[1] I like to say Australia has had more Coups can the Congo.