Roosting ducks: Confused Americans still wondering if that was a coup or not
The United States of America, a former colony of the United Kingdom, may not yet be ready for democracy.
Another disputed election, as has been happening in the country since before the George Bush fiasco, has once again alerted international election observers of possible foul play.
"The voting happened peacefully. Many people came, they voted and they left," Kajalie Ahmed, an election observer from Bangladesh, had said earlier. Yesterday, however, she sang a different tune.
"I felt watched when I was observing their election. Everything was tightly controlled. Our tours were guided. We couldn't walk into any centre we wanted," she told this newspaper.
Adiba Abbas, head of the World Democratic Association, believes the problem lies in America's nature of being a societal basket case.
"This is a country fraught with many different problems. Everything for them is a race issue. And it is a very individualistic society, which celebrates individuals more than the collective. So democratic values will be hard to instil here," Adiba said.
Benyayoun Hussien, a political observer, said this uniquely American problem can have global repercussions. "This is a nuclear-armed country we are talking about. It is also the only country in the world to have used nuclear arms. Maybe they are already producing more such arms. Such a country cannot be allowed to run this way, without the world finally interfering," he said.
"They need to have more transparency," he added.
"Yes. The ducks have come home to roost. But it's our problem. It's a white problem," an unnamed netizen said on a popular forum the day after protestors, if we can even call them that, stormed the US Capitol Building and stopped the congressional certification of the electoral vote.
Their thoughts were echoed by others who felt the same, once again showing how divisive the supposed strong democracy is. Questions, however, are still being raised about what yesterday was all about.
"We know coups. We have done it many times over. We annexed Texas, invaded California, brought about regime change in Iraq, Afghanistan, all over Africa and even Europe," Bob Barker, an American citizen with the right skin complexion to make a statement, told this newspaper.
"This wasn't a coup. This was us exercising our democratic right to congregate and protest," he added.
Those within the corridors of power also agreed with Bob's assessment. "This wasn't a coup. This was an attack on democracy, engineered by the Russians and the Chinese," a spokesman for The Whitest House, said.
Pointed out that not one of the protestors seemed to be Russian or Chinese, the spokesman retorted asking whether any of the Libyan supporters who overthrew Gaddafi looked American.
In certain sections, however, yesterday's events are still seen as an absolute coup attempt. "We are a first-world country. How can we behave like disgusting third world countries? Yuck. I want to throw up just thinking about that," Karen Armstrong, a progressive, said.
Meanwhile, heads of states are scheduled to meet in the upcoming week where they will decide whether the American elections were fair or not, regardless of how the voters feel.
"We need to give them some guidance. It is our responsibility as the world police," a spokesman for China said.