Thailand belittled again as U.S. ostracizes it from democracy summit

[hhinner]

^^ Sure if China owes Yuan it can print more and devalue the currency. It can't do that with USD for example.

[malcolminthemiddle]

I'm guessing that a government stemming from a military coup would have difficulty in meeting the criteria to be invited to a Summit for Democracy?

[Michaelaway]

Bingo!

[buksida]

This is a very good, well-balanced piece that fairly critiques all sides.

The Misguided US ‘Democracy Summit’
The United States government under President Joe Biden is putting up the right fight in a counterproductive way in its online organization of a “summit for democracy” this week. Much touted since he won the election in November last year, President Biden’s summit of democracies has proved controversial, with both good intentions and unintended consequences. The real battleground, as clichés about the benefits and drawbacks of democracy go, is to make the case that popular rule where citizens should have rights and freedoms for their own collective self-determination is ultimately preferable and superior than all other forms of government.

...

For Southeast Asia, democracy is clearly down but not out. From the Myanmar military’s brutal robbery of democratic rule from its people and Thailand’s latent military-backed royalist conservative regime manipulating constitutional ways to elected office to established and emergent authoritarianism around the region, democracy appears in unmistakable retreat.

Full Story: https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/guest ... ummit.html

[handdrummer]

Democracy is a slippery word with many different definitions and applications. In its original form, it meant rule by the people. That hasn't happened since ancient Greece and I don't want my neighbors deciding the rules.

[europtimiste]

Democracy is a slippery word with many different definitions and applications. In its original form, it meant rule by the people. That hasn't happened since ancient Greece and I don't want my neighbors deciding the rules.

In ancient Greece only educated people had the right to vote and be elected. Somebody invented the word democracy and any idiot could vote and elect an idiot.

[hhinner]

Democracy is a slippery word with many different definitions and applications. In its original form, it meant rule by the people. That hasn't happened since ancient Greece and I don't want my neighbors deciding the rules.

In ancient Greece only educated people had the right to vote and be elected. Somebody invented the word democracy and any idiot could vote and elect an idiot.

^^ All adult citizens in ancient Greece were entitled and required to vote. However "citizen" referred only to free men; not women, children or slaves.

[handdrummer]

Democracy is a slippery word with many different definitions and applications. In its original form, it meant rule by the people. That hasn't happened since ancient Greece and I don't want my neighbors deciding the rules.

In ancient Greece only educated people had the right to vote and be elected. Somebody invented the word democracy and any idiot could vote and elect an idiot.

^^ All adult citizens in ancient Greece were entitled and required to vote. However "citizen" referred only to free men; not women, children or slaves.

All words were invented by "somebody."