Governance and politics is on my mind this week and you will notice that in this week’s links.
Let’s start the week with one that summarizes all that the UPA government has done wrong in this term.
Whenever you hear from the supporters of schemes like MNREGA or Food Security Bill they talk about the need to support the poor but why does it all have to translate to handouts? Good article on the subject: Why does all charity translate to handouts?
FT on how Freedom and Democracy can become enemies. This article takes the Egyptian example and doesn’t touch upon India but I am sure a lot of us feel the same way about India as well. How represented does an average middle class person feel? Very close to zero I would imagine.
Another excellent piece in the FT – this time on China: Why China will not buy the world?
Now a change in subject – I thought this article that tells you how to compare two Word documents without having to install any software was really good. I wasn’t aware of this feature until recently but it has been around for quite a while now.
Didn’t you always want to know this? Why do mosquitoes bite some people more other than other?
Finally, a really amazing underground bicycle parking that you should definitely watch.
Enjoy your weekend!
“Freedom and Democracy can become enemies. ”
On this, its disappointing that the author did not cite the clear examples from the USA. The founding fathers of the US, being products of the European enlightenment were quite clear that pure democracy is undesirable and unworkable. And, that an enlightened republic is the key bedrock for a sustainable democratic republic. Furthermore, they warned the populace that the republic not be meddled with by democratic methods, to subvert the freedoms granted to the American citizen by the constitution. As Benjamin Franklin said – “its a republic, if you can keep it”. The first few presidents and crafters of the American constitution would be quite bemused by all this talk about freedom = democracy by current American presidents. Its quite sad really, because the best examples of the enlightened republic in the West have forgotten their foundations and as a result the world is leaderless and visionless. The few sparks of hope come from the educated Egyptians who understand that the Islamists can never deliver an enlightened republic and would be in sync with the founding fathers of the US in stressing the importance of fundamental freedoms as opposed to paying lip service to freedom by just having democracy.