Democracy, ritual, responsibility, and … (yep) spoiling the ballot, giddily
We live in a democracy. It’s not perfect, but we adhere to certain fundamental principles. Like this one: individuals are entitled, even encouraged, to hold widely divergent views. The vigourous debate...
View ArticleCounting Down to the Ballot
Under one week and counting. Advance polls opened (late and chaotic) yesterday. And the question is, who’s going to win the election? Now I’ve gone on record saying that I don’t believe that it really...
View ArticleReflections on Majority Rule 2018 (better late than never)
Fifty-one years and two months ago, on January 10, 1967, the Colony of the Bahama Islands held the election that concluded with what we have come to call “Majority Rule”. In 2014, January 10 was...
View ArticleOban, the Glass Window, and other cautionary tales – Part I
Or, why I really spoiled my ballot Time and rope There is a great Bahamian saying: time longer dan rope. A year has passed, a year and a month or so, since #OutDaBox242 began its much-excoriated...
View ArticleOban, the Glass Window, and other cautionary tales – Part II
In the first part of this meditation, I outlined the reasons I did not vote for any candidate in the last election, and why I will continue to withhold my consent to be governed by candidates going...
View ArticleOban, the Glass Window, and other cautionary tales – Part III
In the first part of this three-part meditation, I examined my reasons for spoiling my ballot in 2017. In the second part, I looked at some of the issues that are current in March 2018, which are, I...
View ArticleWhy democracy is more than just casting a vote
There’s a common perception in The Bahamas, and perhaps in other parts of the world too, though I can’t speak to them, that democracy flourishes during election seasons, when the citizenry is given its...
View ArticleThe NEW age of revolution
There’s a video I shared on Facebook. Its purpose: to explain to the world the real purpose behind the gilets jaunes (yellow vest) movement in France. The speaker in the video calls it “the...
View ArticleMore of the same-old
It’s 2019. Conversations in the public domain are swinging round to elections, which are coming in two years. (Is it coincidental that conversations in the American public domain are doing the same?)...
View ArticleThe New Nationalism | By Robert Schertzer | University of Toronto Magazine
The New Nationalism | By Robert Schertzer | University of Toronto Magazine — Read on magazine.utoronto.ca/opinion/the-new-nationalism/
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