humphreyhawksley wrote:
> My name is Humphrey Hawksley. I am the author of a book called
> Democracy Kills -- What's So Good About Having the Vote.
> The title is stark because people need to join the discussion. We
> in ther Western democracies must not go blindly into Burma, North
> Korea, Cuba and other countries as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan.
> But my main mission on this site is to turn John from being a
> pessimist into an optimist -- if only by a nanometre.
For other forum members, let me introduce Humphrey Hawksley. He's an
international on-air correspondent for the BBC, and I'm flattered as
hell that he's joined this forum. Anyone who listens to the BBC
regularly knows that Humphrey regular reports on wars and crises from
every corner of the world, and is one of the most knowledgeable
people in the world on international events.
He and I have had a running conversation for a couple of years on his
blog.
http://www.humphreyhawksley.com/blog/index.php
The comment quoted above comes from a blog entry where he said,
Humphrey Hawksley wrote:
> In his review of Democracy Kills in the Guardian, Martin
> Woolacott describes me as ‘the Candide of foreign correspondents,
> beginning as an optimist but, as he has gone round the world
> posing his deceptively simple questions, progressively exposing
> how pessimistic the honest observer is forced to become. For more
> than 20 years he has been embarrassing, irritating and sometimes
> infuriating politicians, officials and businessmen.”
> Woolacott agrees with the central theme of the book:- “Indeed,
> this kind of democracy can kill, as his title suggests,
> encouraging conflict rather than resolving it. It is an engaging
> record of a dogged and decent journalist at work.”
I posted this comment to his blog entry:
John Xenakis wrote:
> I hope that I’ve played at least a tiny part in turning you into a
> pessimist. The world is full of airhead optimists, and is
> urgently, desperately in need of honest, intelligent, thoughtful
> pessimists.
So now Humphrey has decided to get even with me for my remark by
attempting to convert me, the gloomiest person in the world, into an
optimist. That's a truly quixotic quest.
Humphrey has written numerous books, including the following:
> * The Third World War
> * Security Breach
> * Dragon Fire
> * Dragon Strike
> * Red Spirit
> * Absolute Measures
> * Ceremony Of Innocence
>
http://www.humphreyhawksley.com/pages/author/
Humphrey, perhaps you could describe for this audience the theme of
your new book,
Democracy Kills -- What's So Good About Having the
Vote.
In particular, the obvious question is related to Sir Winston
Churchill's remark: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form
of government except all the others that have been tried." What's
your response to Churchill?
Sincerely,
John