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Originally Posted by Glice
Yeah, absolutely. The danger with comparing us to Egypt (for instance) is that I'm not convinced we have it substantially 'better'. Ok, we have a great many more freedoms, but we're not perfect, and we should certainly be very cautious of assuming that we're 'advanced' or the perfect instance of democracy. But Egypt [et al] do make us realise that it's utterly critical to vote, even when disillusioned with the voting process. Libya's fucked, but it was a relatively peaceful resistance, largely democratic, which inspired change. Unfortunately, it forced the hand of a cunt, but you have to hope it's all for the good.
[Sorry, bit tl;dr] Fundamentally, I think most reasonable people realise it's important to vote, regardless of that voting system being flawed.
On the Arab front, I've been particularly enjoying Naseer Shamma's updates (he's an Oud player, and very fine he is too).
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we aint perfect of course. But if you speak to a person from Iraq or Afghanistan, we are lucky to have been born here. At least here we have a chance of some kind.
The Libya resistance happened under the shroud of Blair and Bush accepting Gadaffi back into the international fold, so they were rebelling against someone who the democratic nations of the west had made a deal with about 5 years earlier. They could have been forgiven for thinking that we would support the dictator because we welcomed him back to the diplomatic community... and it seems like, shamefully, they were right.