Riot Rant

I had to close down the school last week. I’m still a bit upset over that. Upset because I, like everyone else, is being ‘played’ by a few clowns. I am not too sure what is going on.

There is much civil unrest in the air lately. Thursday and Friday of last week I ended up closing the school for two days. Nothing too serious, I guess. Just the 131 opposition parties calling for peaceful marches and rallies, basically contesting everything the sitting government is doing and protesting the fact that this government is in power and they’re not. Unfortunately, peaceful marches and rallies here usually end up with rocks being thrown, fires being lit, and people getting hurt. 

Like I said, I am not too sure what is going on. I figure either politics here is so complicated that I am having problems wrapping my little non-political non-violent Canadian pea-brain head around what is really happening, or that the ‘school-yard-like’ political maneuvering played out by some of these politicians is so primitive, stupid and childish, that I can’t bring myself to believing that people could act so primitively, stupidly, and childishly, and get away with it.  Some of these opposition guys really crack me up with what they are saying. Haven’t laughed so hard since Newt Gingrich declared he wanted to open up the 51st state on the moon, if he were to be elected President.

Some still insist that the elections held over a year ago were fraudulent, even though respected international observers from the Carter Centre applauded these first free presidential elections in Guinea in more than 50 years, saying it was democratic, inclusive and transparent. We’re talking about official watchdogs from the Carter Center here...that’s good enough for me.  Yet, ever since the elections, whatever the government puts on the table (e.g. : elimination of corruption within the government, making sure people have food to eat, supplying electricity that people can afford, etc.) in an attempt to move this shipwrecked country forward and extract it from its dire situation is immediately and vehemently shot down by the opposition parties. I may not hold an advanced degree in Political Science, but its looking more and more like sour grapes from where I’m standing. 

 

On the other hand, how realistic is it to think that anyone could reach consensus with 131 opposition parties who have never before even come close to experiencing this concept of democracy? What’s so hard to understand? In a democracy, the majority gets to elect a government and hopes for the best, while the rest accepts that its first choice wasn’t the first choice of the majority, and therefore, can still squabble over minutiae, make stuff up to make the ruling party look bad, and of course criticize the work and policies of the ruling party, but in the end will have to settle for a government that is not their choice and also hope for the best during the reign of this government. Simple enough concept. 

However, the paucity of solid economic discussion and constructive criticism presently coming from these opposition politicians leads everyone to believe that they must think that the people they want to lead are stupid. They are wrong and I predict that its just a matter of time before this opposition implodes. In the meantime, supposedly peaceful and democratic marches and rallies that inevitably turn into destructive and dangerous riots are called, offices, stores, and schools are closed, people who barely make enough money to feed their families can’t go to work, and children end up going to bed that night on an empty stomach. And just because a few jokers didn’t get to be chosen captain of the team.

End of Rant.