China

In today's roundup: China, USA, Russia, Cuba, Ireland, EU and Zimbabwe. Photo of a water tank in Cuba from the Generation Y blog.

Today's roundup includes China, Turkmenistan, Gabon, Bolivia, Iran, and Kenya. Photo of demonstrators in La Paz, Bolivia, by Flickr user GafferBee.

In today's roundup: Burma, Bolivia, China, Kosovo, USA, Zimbabwe, and Haiti and the global food crisis. Photograph of children in Haiti by Flickr user sagabardon.

In today's roundup: China, Tibet, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Iran, Nauru and the USA. Photo of pro-Tibet demonstration by Flickr user mejules.

In today's roundup: Zimbabwe, Egypt, Italy, Burma, Australia and China.

Photo of Pangsau, Burma, by Flickr user Artisteinconnu-back.

How could anyone ever choose a President of the World? With diverse cultures and societies, surely there cannot be one person that could govern the entire globe. Instead, today's question tries to get you thinking about entities or corporations that control international trends. International financial institutions have long been thought to guide capital markets and assist developing countries. But their reputation has been tarnished badly over the last decade leading to the question of what could or who could rule the world. The Democracy House has been a running a poll over the last few weeks for today's question. Cast your vote for the candidates our readers have chosen.

Today's feature film is the award-winning Please Vote For Me. Despite being set in a third grade class, the film provides a microcosm of the way politics operates all over the world.

Top Chinese officials have stated that Western democracy is not an option for China. At the Communist Party's 17th congress, some party members inquired about political reform.
The BBC reported that Li Dongshen, spokesperson for the Congress, noted that "Political reform is an important component of our comprehensive reform. We have advanced political reform without pause."
But he quickly quashed any idea that China could eventually become a multi-party liberal democracy.
"We will never copy the Western model of political system," he said as he gave details about the congress, which meets every five years.

Full article available here.

As the editor from Boxun, I can tell you that we receive a lot of news that is not covered by official media.

What exactly is happening in China?

Democracy in China affects every corner of the world. For example, with issues in North Korea, Burma, etc., China is playing a strong role, but it could be improved.

This weekend thousands took to the streets in Hong Kong to promote the implementation of a full fledged democracy in Hong Kong.

It is estimated that more than 5000 people attended. The protesters held up umbrellas, that spelled out 2012, the year that Hong Kong wants their democratic reforms enforced by.  

Years ago, we assumed that capitalism and democracy went hand in glove, that capitalism almost inevitably led to democracy and vice versa. Now we cannot be so sure.

China has become a hotbed of capitalism but it is not a democracy by any stretch. Nor Singapore. Russia calls itself a democracy, and it is practicing a form of capitalism, but few would agree that its democracy is robust.

Indeed, even in the United States, as I noted this morning, capitalism has burgeoned over the last thirty years -- into what I call "Supercapitalism" in my new book by that name -- but democracy has become far less capable of reflecting what we want or need to do together, as citizens.