| versión para imprimir - envía este articulo por e-mail |
The Prom Crashers
Por Sudhama Ranganathan -
Tuesday, Mar. 15, 2011 at 1:39 AM
uconnharassment@gmail.com
All across the world now ordinary people are rising up against repressive regimes which rob from them the ability to live free lives and have true multi-party democracies. People who no longer wish to have their voices silenced by governments repressing dissent or alternate views with torture, imprisonment and blacklisting/ social isolation have begun to rise up across the world. The ugly response from the powerful elite has been clear for people across the globe to see. They wanted the people that sweep and sell fruit and cater to their needs to be kept quiet, knowing their place and that they should shut up and stay there, but people are saying they have had enough.
thepromcrashers.jpg, image/jpeg, 460x250
They rose up in Tunisia and demanded an oppressive dictator and his cronies give in and allow real democracy to take root. There ordinary people that never felt they had a voice found the courage to summon up their strength and try. They found the will to press forward for the kind of nation they always felt they had a right to. Repression, extremism and bigotry were not called for, but the demands were sounded for basic opportunities and the right to live free from oppression.
In Tunisia, they won. In Egypt they also said enough is enough. There too an act of self immolation led to a nation overturning a face the west claimed was a friend, but in fact carried out a shadowy reign of terror against his own people if they dared to speak out and question what was happening. They had enough and pushed back against what turned out to be in reality a ruthless government and their loyalist cronies. In Egypt, they won.
In Bahrain they demanded a voice, in fact more than that, and have said they simply wish to take their destiny in their own hands free from the manipulation of those claiming ordinary people are too stupid to known what is good for them. The ordinary people are winning. The anti democracy dictator there, unfortunately supported by the west, has already agreed to step aside at the end of his term but the fight goes on. They will have prevail and have freedom from oppression.
In Libya they fight too. There they push back against a ruthless dictator that tortured his people and is now following the footsteps of Saddam Hussein through bloody attacks on his own people. There they must continue to fight against the shadowy dictatorial oppressors to prevail and they have decided they will not rest until Gadhafi steps down. The ordinary people will prevail and hopefully with the help of the UN.
In Yemen protests have started against a brutal president and they are making a strong stand. There another brutal dictator is being asked to step down by the people, yet he refuses to give the country over to the majority. However he has already shifted and is making concessions. There it will be a difficult battle, but if they stand strong they will prevail.
It’s happening in Iran and, as Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times said yesterday, “what is striking is the way it is now spreading not only through the Middle East itself, but we're beginning to see it as far away as Zimbabwe today, or Mauritania, Albania and even in China, although the demonstrations there were -- they seemed to attract as many security people and journalists as they did authentic demonstrators.” (http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1102/21/pmt.01.html) The movement is spreading across the world now and even here inmy country - the US.
The decline in power of American labor unions has directly preceded the decline of the middle class. Yet in Wisconsin protests started nine days ago that are catching the attention of the nation. People are demanding they have a say in their destinies and that they have the right to bargain, and after all what is wrong with that?
No doubt there have been instances where unions here in America went a too far and union heads, like those representing the auto workers, have admitted as much, but if people want to be heard they should have the right to. If they want to organize they should have the right to. At times there is simply more power in the voices of the many than in the few, and in workplace situations, as in the fate of entire nations, that can be the case. It is unions that stopped child labor in America and built the middle class. It was the power of a real say.
Over the last few decades the rich in America have gotten richer while the poor have gotten poorer. Americans should be successful and there will always be those that have achieved more than others, but when the gap keeps growing and the once thriving middle-class has become poorer red flags go up among the ordinary folk. An article from September 17, 2010 reported, “author Timothy Noah points out, between 1980 and 2005, about 80 percent of the increase in total U.S. income went to the top 1 percent of Americans - that is, those who make more than $380,000 a year.
“That richest 1 percent account for 24 percent of the nation's total income, the highest share since 1928, right before the Great Depression. That's nearly triple their 9 percent share in the 1970s.
“For the first time in generations, Americans can no longer expect that their children will do better than they will. Workers earning the median wage in 2007 are making less, adjusted for inflation, than workers earning the median wage 30 years ago. Whether you believe it or not, a struggling middle class affects everyone. It's the middle class' purchases of goods and services that power the U.S. economy. If the middle class doesn't have the money to spend, the economy will stay where it is: moribund.” (http://articles.philly.com/2010-09-17/news/24978549_1_income-inequality-poverty-homeless-shelters/2)
The people desiring more rights in the Middle East speak loudly. They are demanding things change and the ball the few elites have enjoyed at the expense of the repressed majority be over. They are prom crashers. People in Egypt that changed their nation forever ending the Mubarak family stealing billions which could have been used for the betterment of the entire nation spoke loudly. They are the prom crashers.
People in Yemen still fighting for democracy and an end to a shadowy and convenient tyrant for certain interests are bringing down the good times for those that have lived off the backs of ordinary people. Those ordinary people are the prom crashers. There are people ready to be killed in front of the world when the gunships, government mercenaries and loyalists come to attack. They do this so others may live through their sacrifice for real democracy and freedom and an end to Gadhafi’s madness in Libya. They can now never be forgotten. They are the prom crashers.
Prom crashers are not people ruining the good times for everyone else. They are those demanding a say and equality even in the midst of brutal and shadowy elites refusing to allow them to be free because to do so would mean to take away from their good times. They are those demanding the right to express themselves from laborers to artists to plumbers to thinkers to nurses to journalists and more they are the prom crashers. They are the people that demand that their tax dollars not go to million dollar golf courses or to support sex slavery in Eastern Europe. They are the prom crashers demanding an end to one big party at their expense.
Let us hope all our leaders in the west will unite to help a transition to freedom and that they don’t take the side of shadowy control for regimes resistant to liberty or democracy and that want their high lives at the expense of entire nations to continue.
To read about my inspiration for this article go to http://www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.