I have always wondered why Arundhati Roy is against democracy and prefers dictators like Musharraf, Saddam Hussein etc. I got my answer in her speech at Centre for Economic and Social Rights in New York on May 13th
Democracy is the Free World's whore, says Arundhati Roy
"Democracy, the modern world's holy cow, is in crisis ... every kind of outrage is being committed in the name of democracy. It has become little more than a hollow word, a pretty shell, emptied of all content or meaning," she said. "Democracy is the Free World's whore, willing to dress up, dress down, willing to satisfy a whole range of tastes, available to be used and abused at will."
See that is the problem with democracy. Sometimes you have to accept the fact that there are people who do not agree with your point of view. In Saddam's land, you never had that problem. You could have a different point of view, so long as you were willing to spent rest of your life as a dead body.
She did not spare the judicary as well.
Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market means they are on sale to the highest bidder, she said.
Call the Judiciary stupid if you want, but they do not like it a bit when you violate the rules of the land and build houses in protected land.
Again, don't you see the irony here. You are able to come to United States and criticize it in public. Now go to Cuba, China, Iran or North Korea and say the same thing about their administration.
Comments (9)
JK, I think it is a case of something like Groucho Marx said - "I wouldn't be part of a club that would have me as a member" - Roy and her ilk cannot stand states that give people like her the freedom to spew their hateful venom.
Posted by Shanti | May 18, 2003 3:28 PM
Posted on May 18, 2003 15:28
You know when the American media writes about India and Pakistan, they write, Hindu majority India, Muslim Majority Pakistan..Similarly, when we write about Arundhati, we should qualify her as "anti-democracy, forest land grabber, anti-iraq-rebuilder..." etc.
Posted by JK | May 19, 2003 10:02 AM
Posted on May 19, 2003 10:02
LOL - sounds perfect - we should come up with a catchy acronym for all that.
Posted by Shanti | May 20, 2003 7:38 AM
Posted on May 20, 2003 07:38
Shanti,
The acronymn is right there, in JK's comment:
AFAR
Anti-democracy
Forest grabber
Anti-Iraq-Rebuilder
But I prefer "verbal terrorist" any day! :-)
Posted by Sandeep | May 21, 2003 11:34 PM
Posted on May 21, 2003 23:34
Sandeep, "Verbal Terrorist" is short and accurate. The only thing is that we should use this qualifier all the time. Is it Ravikiran who came up with this ?
Posted by JK | May 22, 2003 8:11 AM
Posted on May 22, 2003 08:11
I like AFAR, but "verbal terrorist" has a very nice ring to it. JK, we all need to be paying royalties to Ravi.
Posted by Shanti | May 22, 2003 8:14 AM
Posted on May 22, 2003 08:14
Contact me for licensing terms. I also offer bulk discounts. Bloggers will need it.
( http://www.ravikiran.com/comments/?blgid=81 )
Posted by Ravikiran | May 22, 2003 9:56 AM
Posted on May 22, 2003 09:56
Rajeev Srinivasan has introduced more terms. Ravi, I think he is competing with you.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/22rajeev.htm
I particularly liked Similarly, RNIs call themselves 'secular progressives' whereas they are neither secular nor progressive: a more truthful description would be 'regressive fundamentalists'.
I am going to switch to this new terminology.
Posted by JK | May 22, 2003 10:26 AM
Posted on May 22, 2003 10:26
roy is right..as for going to north korea and other non democrat lands ran by brutal dictators and protesting ..one must never forget..these godforsaken countrys were set up by and their brutal rulers supported by you guessed it..powerful democracys like america and britain.
only when they dare threaten the policys and oil supplys of powerful democracys are they ever dealt with...until that occurs their citizenry are left to suffer.
Posted by melvin fisher | October 26, 2003 11:00 AM
Posted on October 26, 2003 11:00