A failure or success?

Internet is often described as democratic because of its openness and all users’ opportunity to express themselves – even anonymously. But all that is written, filmed and blogged bears clear traces of the author’s background, education, and economic status, so we carry class-status hierarchies onto the internet.

These background factors are not fair. We are born in a world without the possibility to choose circumstances. The democratic society compensates for this unfairness by giving all humans equal democratic rights and we all have to decide if we want to use this equality.

The dream of a more democratic world has got a promising tool, but it is not utilized. Almost all activities are now in the parallel world online. An important exception is political decision-making. The Internet makes it possible to extend the voting right, so it is here that democracy ought to expand. Neither anonymity nor freedom of speech gives us equal democratic value, but digital voting does.

Have you ever seen a child fight? You would like to intervene, but it is not always possible because it is not your problem. But what if you were the police, would you still fail to stop it? Now the child is Syria and the police are the United Nations.

Alarming reports from Human Rights Watch tell about crime being committed. The Syrian regime refuse to facilitate more documentation, just as Gadaffi did in Libya.  It is important for the UN to make clear that all crimes committed in the civil war will be punished.

President Bashar al-Assad is a part of the problem himself. The civilized way to solve a problem is to use the International Criminal Court. Since Syria has many distinct ethnic groups, the only peaceful way to solve the conflict is to help Syria establish democracy.

Lack of democracy is also a problem in the UN. The United Nations Security Council (the power of veto) prevents the UN from gaining the democratic process in Syria. Democracy comes from democracy, as you sow so shall you reap.