Democracy

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

Those three words are synonymous with the first French revolution, when France began its long, hard struggle for freedom. In the present day many countries are fully democratic, all of Europe, with the exception of Belarus, is democratic and so is most of the Americas. Asia and Africa aren’t so lucky; most nations there are openly dictatorships or are phoney democracies like North Korea or the People’s Republic of China. When Europe and the Americas began to move from dictatorships to republics and democracies in the 20^th century the only nations around that were democratic and powerful were France, the UK and the USA. Now there are many more democratic nations and we need to help people in other countries achieve democracy. The revolts and revolutions in 2011 can be seen as a global democratic awakening and the west must stop backing tyrants and start backing people.

This awakening is being spurned on by social media, the internet has never been so important. That’s why it is fantastic that SOPA, PIPA and ACTA have been defeated (the last being European) as they would have threatened activists around the world. One of the most important organisations in sparking the awakening of democracy (and a re-awakening in the western nations), is called Avaaz. The organisation campaigns on all sorts of issues, from phone hacking in the UK, corruption in India and supporting protesters in the Arab world.  This community has grown immensely in the past few years to over 13 million people and is making a real difference. Avaaz has smuggled over $1.8 million of medical supplies into Syria, helped to defeat SOPA with a 3.5 million strong petition and persuaded governments to retract support from Mubarak. The community will only grow in strength and is a real tool of people power, gone are the days when shady deals can be done, when the media is controlled by a few moguls. The internet is the greatest weapon for democracy as it is owned by the people, not a person.

I would advise everybody to join Avaaz; it will only take a couple of minutes of your life. But know that if you do, you will be helping millions towards a better life. Click here to join.