Democracy is stammering. Let’s take a look.
I think it’s a good thing that bloodstained dictators, who savagely violate the essential freedoms of their citizens, be forced to face the bench of an international court that actually works. Not the current one which is stuck on intentions only.
Justice should be fair for everyone. Anything contrary is simply not justice. First World leaders who break the law should also be sentenced. Or, they should at least pay attention and respond to the accusations submitted by groups and social movements.
Silvio Berlusconi, ludicrous Italian president, should be forced to comply with the laws regarding the corruption of minors. And if it is proven that he committed the crime, he should go to jail. Like anyone else.
No one should be above the law. If young gang members are sentenced to several years behind the bars for robbing a gas station, the same should apply to bankers, managers, financiers, or even presidents of countries if they engage in corruption.
But the law is too far out of balance. Why are figures from the financial world, which are the main culprits of the current international economic crisis, not in jail?
In the United States, the country at the epicenter of the financial disaster, only Bernard L. Madoff, the investor who provoked the worst embezzlement in history when he magically made millions and millions of dollars disappear, has gone to jail.
I doubt that Madoff is the only one guilty of a global crisis which has affected each and every inhabitant of this planet. I read with much horror that, instead of punishing the responsible bankers, they are instead rewarded.
The financiers sent home for doing a bad job left with shocking bonuses, as if to keep them from worrying. And those who replaced them are making more money than their predecessors.
Talk about some binge. They spend the money of savers and pensioners in speculative moves which result in pure illusions, and later, when the panic spreads and they are left with no cash, they run to beg the State for money.
Those who caused the current international economic disaster should pay for their errors. The bill should not fall on the citizens of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain, among other nations, which have only worked a lot and very hard throughout their entire lives.
Wherever it is they live, autocrats should not feel very safe either. Before pulling the trigger or sending people to humid and gloomy prisons just for thinking differently, they should know that there is a world-wide organism which is making sure that governments comply with the norms and rights inherent in man.
Real democracy should involve everyone. Large nations and small nations. Rich and poor. But to this day, some powerful people are evading the laws. It’s not just.
Translated by Raul G.
April 13 2011
