A
journalist is dowsed in sulphuric acid in Ukraine for trying to expose local
corruption. She died on the same day that a fellow reporter was shot in the
back for doing the same. Kashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate only to be
brutally murdered, dismembered and finally dissolved in yet more acid to
dispose of his corpse. From Mexico to Russia, from Venezuela to Malta, whistle
blowers are being assassinated in cold blood by ruthless, unscrupulous regimes
that operate more like the Mafia than a political body.
Millennials
beware. This is a growing threat to democracy and, more to the point, to citizens’
rights. For what is the point of democracy if it is only a choice between bad
or worse? What really matters is society. Freedom of speech, tolerance,
transparency and accountability. These are the pillars of a healthy, pacific
system. If we accept the barbaric methods of gangster-like regimes, we will
slowly but surely begin to lose those rights and become mere vassals.
These hard
won rights do not defend themselves. They need to be protected perpetually; there
are plenty of people out there prepared to do away with them if they come into
conflict with their interests. And their interests are purely selfish, their
agendas focused on personal gain.
So be
vigilant, or the gains of hundreds of years of struggle will have been in vain,
and once more we will become mere toys in the hands avaricious megalomaniacs.
