Life in the Rear-view Mirror

A Tale of Two Countries

Nothing came to symbolize the Cold War better than the Berlin Wall. When it was brought down, in late 1989, it announced the triumph of Capitalism over Communism, and the triumph of democracy over single-party rule. Everybody in the west cheered and partied. However, reality is not always what we wish it to be! Nothing is ever black and white. Both communism and democracy have changed!

Take China and India, for example. They are a study of contrasts revealing some surprising results and conclusions. I have chosen them because they were the two most populous countries in the world, and both very poor. The major difference is their political system. India was considered then, and now, the largest democracy in the world, while China was, and still is, the largest communist country in the world. In 1970, all bets were on India to leave China behind in the dust, both economically and socially. Democratic countries would shine and prosper; communistic ones would fail and suffer. That was the mantra. Time would prove it wrong. China embraced capitalism, within the communist one-party system, and has far outperformed India on all counts!

The facts speak for themselves.

In 1970, India's and China's per capita GDP were about equal at $114 and $112 per person, respectively. They were very poor countries compared to the U.S., which had a GDP of $5,250 per person - a humongous difference! While the average American lived on about $14 per day, the average Chinese and Indian lived on only thirty cents a day!

Fast forward to 2012. China's per capita GDP was $6,090, while India's languished at $1,490 - one quarter that of China! Moreover, there are far more people living below the poverty line in India than there are in China. What happened to those bets and those rosy predictions? Why did democracy fail India and communism work for China? Why has communism been loathed so much by the West?

The facts are: China has made rapid progress in reducing poverty; India has not. Clearly, political ideology has nothing to do with good governance! The largest democracy in the world is also one of the most corrupt in the world. While Chinese government is no model of transparency, it stands as a model of good governance to India. As of 2012, women held 23% of the seats in China's parliament versus India's 11%. It certainly is not easy governing a country of more than one billion people, but communist China seems to be doing a stellar job compared to democratic India!

In effect, China's single-party political system is better than India's multi-party system. Given how badly corrupt democratic governments have become in many countries, one has to ask the question, why is a two-party system better than a single-party system?

The two-party system in the U.S. no longer works. So, what's better, a two-party system that doesn't work, or a single-party system that works? Clearly, the American system is working well for the wealthy, but not for the masses. Furthermore, why is a single party system less democratic?

The Chinese have elections like in all democratic countries, and they have a full range of candidates to choose from. They are all card-carrying communists, to be sure, but each offers a different take on economic issues. At the end of the day, the Chinese probably have more choice of candidates than Americans, offering them a large range of social and economic views to choose from.

In theory, the Chinese have far less freedom of speech than the Americans, but in practice, the difference is not as great as it used to be. Post 9/11 America is a much different place. In reality, there is probably as much infringement of individual privacy nowadays in the U.S. as there is in China. The war on terrorism has given American security agencies carte blanche to infringe on individual rights and freedoms, even if there is only the slightest possibility of someone being involved, or remotely associated, with groups sympathetic to terrorists. This has created much abuse and there appears to be no end in sight. Of course, I prefer living in North America than China, but when it comes to personal freedom infringement we're on a very slippery slope.

On a lazy summer afternoon I sat comfortably in my backyard's easy chair and posted something on my blog. As soon as I clicked publish, I went to check the blog statistics and found one hit. I couldn't believe it! I checked further to see where the visitor was from, and discovered that it was from the U.S. Then it dawned on me, it was the U.S. spy agency that monitors everything that moves on the Internet! It wasn't just a solitary case, it happened every time I posted something on my blog. The same agency monitors telephone calls, e-mails, and all social network communication. What happened to people's rights to privacy?

It's not my intention to condone what's happening in China with respect to human right issues because I don't. However, we are so used to pointing the finger at China and Russia for such abuses that we are blind to what goes on within our very own country.

There is a lot more that goes on inside government than meets the eye, but every now and then, there are honest, conscientious whistle-blowers, such as Edward Snowdon, who shed light on it. A picture emerged from the occasional leaks that is far worse than George Orwell had imagined in his book, 1984.

The large military posts and spy networks that protected the Roman Empire from internal rebellions and external attacks were the glue that held it together. No empire has ever lasted long without strong military power and a good spy network, and the American Empire is no different. It's not often that we think of the U.S. as an empire, and the reason is that the media goes along with the government to downplay the imperialistic reality.

The American Empire has military posts (bases) in Europe, Korea, Japan, and other places. Moreover, it has large fleets on all the oceans and seas, which are effectively floating bases, giving it a mighty presence everywhere in the world. That military power and spying capability translates into economic power: they are inextricably linked.

After the military, Corporate America is the biggest beneficiary of all the spying that goes on. Therefore, spying, which is defended on the basis of national security, is also conducted on behalf of Big Business. Things are never what they seem. As Lewis Carroll said, it gets curiouser and curiouser. The rights and freedoms of individuals are subjugated to the rights and freedoms of corporations, which in turn control governments.

People are still much better off in the U.S., but the gap is narrowing. America's income inequality is also rapidly catching up to that of China, which despite being a communist country, where everybody should be equal; and despite making good progress, it's still a very unequal society. But compared to India, it's a model of good government. And that's the whole point: India was supposed to do better and it didn't!

Democracy was supposed to deliver prosperity to poor Indians, but it hasn't. The point is also that, nowadays, democracy is just an illusion! There's a lot more to democracy than the right to cast a vote, which many no longer exercise. A functioning democracy is also about social and economic justice and fair sharing of wealth! One should ask the 300 million Indians (one quarter of the population) who live below the poverty line ($1.25 per day) whether they think their country's wealth is being shared fairly!