Democracy or what? – and then climate
Most of us were appalled to see what happened in Washington ten days ago when a ‘mob’, incited by Donald Trump’s address,
stormed the Capitol building to prevent the presentation of Joe Biden as the next President. He gave voice to a possible fraudulent (in his mind) election, by putting suspicion on the postal ballot long before the election took place, and tried to ‘engineer’ the ballot by putting his ‘own’ man in control of it. He tried to manipulate the Supreme Court by replacing vacancies with people he expected to follow his lead and must have been disappointed, if not shocked, to find that the court unanimously rejected his claim that the votes had been rigged and should be thrown out. His unruly term of office saw the greatest turnover of people of any previous presidential term as staff could only hack the unusual behaviour of a disordered mind for so long. And so on and so on. Much will be written about the 4-year aberration that was Donald Trump. On a lighter note, his escapades in golf have given rise to a book, ‘Commander in Cheat’!
Concerned people have written and spoken about the state of democracy today. Those of us who have spent some time stateside appreciate the immensity of the country, how one is made welcome, but also the prejudices that one finds and the general unknowing of the world we live in by large swathes of the population. Some are still steeped in attitudes that pre-date the civil war. Donald Trump played to all of those and gave them voice. That is a big challenge facing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to get America back on track and if not ‘great again’ to stand up and join the rest of us and share and appreciate that there are billions of other people that are working away with hopes and dreams and looked to the US as a beacon.
That should be the meaning of ‘great again’, and if they can look up and truly be the land of the free and welcome the weak and
downtrodden who are fleeing war and violence, as was once the way, then we can say that once more ‘you have earned the right to be the leader of democracy’, and democracy, for all its imperfections, is still the least bad form of government. It is well that the US re-joins the world as totalitarianism, in all its forms and at all levels, is on the rise again. Countries that espouse democracy and heed its precepts need to speak up loudly and be heard once again.
In November of this year is the World Climate Meeting, COP21, in Glasgow, Scotland at which the latest news on climate will be debated. Hopefully, the coronavirus will be on the decline and the US election will no longer be an issue. We can then get together on the one matter that should concentrate all our minds and separate the wheat from the chaff because there is some said that is wrong that muddies the waters, and leads the politicians to make incorrect decisions. But change is around us.
Climate is a highly complex issue, arguably the most complicated, that not all the modelling can get right, but study must go on. It is strange that it has only come to our notice since the population of the world over the past 60 years, has increased dramatically from approaching 3 billion to 8 billion.
Mankind has thus significantly increased breeding himself, and thus his use of natural resources, for example cutting down trees, which need carbon dioxide to live, and vastly increased the pollution of the seas and the seas cover 70% of the planet. It has only been in comparatively recent times that we have started to pay attention to the seas and are alarmed at what we see. However, we have the tools to put things right. We just need the will and ability to spend money wisely.
About the author:
Dr J Scott Younger, OBE, is a professional civil engineer, he spent 42 years in the Far East undertaking assignments in 10 countries for WB, ADB, UNDP. He published many papers; he was a columnist for Forbes Indonesia and Globe Asia. He served on British & European Chamber boards and was a Vice Chair of Int’l Business Chamber for 17 years. His expertise is infrastructure and sustainable development and he takes an interest in international affairs. He is an International Chancellor of the President University, Indonesia. He is a member of IFIMES Advisory Board.
Ljubljana/Glasgow, January 2021Footnotes:
[1] IFIMES – International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, has Special Consultative status at ECOSOC/UN, New York, since 2018.
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9965 (Research ● Dr J Scott Younger: Democracy or what? – and then climate)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9964 (Research ● 2021 Early Elections in Kosovo: End of an Era)
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- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9958 (Press release: Lamberto Zannier becomes the new Director at IFIMES for the Euro-Mediterranean Diplomacy and Intercultural Affairs)
- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9960 (Saopćenje za javnost: Lamberto Zannier novoimenovani direktor za Euro-mediteransku diplomaciju i interkulturna pitanja IFIMES-a)
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- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9942 (Research ● 2020 Bosnia and Herzegovina: There will be no rule of law without the comprehensive reform of the BiH judiciary – Fadil Novalić case illustrates the state of the BiH judiciary)
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- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9939 (Research ● 2020 BiH: Stumbling Judiciary is the cancer of BiH Society)
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- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9906 (Research ● Tereza Neuwirthová ● How to Spend it: An Austro-Franco-German Proposal for a European Covid-19 Recovery Programme)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9904 (Research ● Dr. Alexander G. Savelyev: China and Nuclear Arms Control)
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- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9902 (Research ● Guido Lanfranchi: Political will is needed to foster multilateralism in Europe – Dr. Franz Fischler says)
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- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9889 (Press release: Executive Director of the WIIW Institute Dr. Holzner received the IFIMES delegation)
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- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9888 (Saopćenje za javnost: Izvršni direktor Instituta WIIW dr. Holzner primio delegaciju IFIMES-a)
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- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9882 (Analiza – Bjelorusija 2020: Bjelorusija između imperijalizma EU i okupacije Rusije)
- Link (ENG/RUS): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9887 (Research – 2020 Belarus: Belarus between EU imperialism and Russian occupation/Беларусь 2020: Беларусь между империализмом ЕС и оккупацией России)
- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9880 (Analiza – Parlamentarni izbori u Crnoj Gori 2020: Kraj ere Mila Đukanovića)
- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9829 (Analiza – „Crna Gora 2020: Steže se obruč oko Mila Đukanovića)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9879 (Research – General (Rtd) Corneliu Pivariu: What will the future look like?)
- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9877 (Analiza – Bjelorusija 2020: Wagnerizacija Bjelorusije)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9876 (Research – 2020 Belarus: Wagnerization of Belarus/2020 Беларусь: Вагнеризация Беларуси)
- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9875 (Analiza – Zapadni Balkan 2020: Pokušaj ponavljanja historije)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9878 (Research – 2020 Western Balkans: Attempt at repeating history)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9874 (Research – Amb. Azzeddine Farhane: Ongoing Reforms for Prosperity and a brighter future for Morocco)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9873 (Research ● Anastasiia Pachina: Vienna Process 2020: From Culture for Peace to Culture of Peace)
- Video – Vienna Process: Common Future – One EuropeDiplomatic Academy Vienna, 01 July 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=QJHxZFaWfgM&t=10s - Video: 01 First panel Vienna International Conference 2020: The WWII legacy – Nurnberg and Tokyo trials as a direct inspiration for the Universal and European Human Rights Charter, Antifascism as the European confidence building block, mutual trust and good neighbourly relations https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=DvlGydZDj6g&t=7092s - Video: 02 Second panel Vienna Conf. 2020: From Culture for Peace to Culture of Peace – culture, science, arts https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=dfz1l26XS20&t=56s - Video: 03 Third panel Vienna Conference 2020: Future to Europe: Is there any alternative to universal and pan-European Multilateralism?; revisiting and recalibrating the Euro-MED and cross-continental affairs https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=4p2mzY2jyYw - Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9872 (Research/Speech – Dr. Manfred Nowak: Legacy of antifascism for the common pan-European future)
- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9869 (Saopćenje za javnost: IFIMES potpisao MoU sa IACA)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9870 (Press release: IFIMES signs MoU with IACA)
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- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9859 (Press release: Director of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute received the IFIMES delegation)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9855 (Press release: Directors of IFIMES visited IACA)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9851 (Press release: Successfully organized international conference in Vienna: »75 years of Europe’s Collective Security and Human Rights System«)
- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9857 (Saopćenje za javnost: Direktor Instituta Simon Wiesenthal primio delegaciju IFIMES-a)
- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9854 (Saopćenje za javnost: Vodstvo IFIMES-a posjetilo IACA)
- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9852 (Saopćenje za javnost: U Beču uspješno organizirana međunarodna konferencija »75 godina zajedničke evropske sigurnosti i sistema ljudskih prava«)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9851 (Press release: Successfully organized international conference in Vienna: »75 years of Europe’s Collective Security and Human Rights System«)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9850 (Research – Will Marshall – Crude Oil, Conflict and COVID-19: The Political Economy of State Fragility in Iraq)
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- Link (BSH/MAKED): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9845 (Analiza – Parlamentarni izboru u Sjevernoj Makedoniji 2020: Članstvo u NATO-u historijski uspjeh/Парламентарни избори во Северна Македонија 2020: Членството во НАТО како историски успех)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9848 (Research ● Michael D. Barbero: Hezbollah takes control of Lebanon’s judiciary in assault on rule of law)
- Link (BSH): https://www.ifimes.org/ba/9866 (Analiza – Michael D. Barbero: Hezbollah preuzima nadzor nad libanonskim pravosuđem napadom na pravnu državu)
- Link (ENG): https://www.ifimes.org/en/9847 (Research ● Donald Johnston: Of multilateralism and future to Europe Recalibration)
- Link (ENG): https://www.
europeanperspectives.org/enInternational scientific journal “European Perspectives” - Link (ENG):https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=645V9eryieI&t=5s (IFIMES presentation film)
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