"The background of April the 12th is that on this date in 1973, political parties were banned in Swaziland by the late King Sobhuza II. So on this date political formations in country use it as a day to "make noise" in a quest to push for the unbanning of political parties in the Kingdom."
I have not heard any 'noise' this year, but it has given me the opportunity to reflect on how thankful I am to be American. I know that we are in the midst of the election season back in America and you are probably tired of the repetitive campaign 'news' and polling that seems to be the only interesting stories to reporters. Honestly, that is one thing I am happy to miss in America, but the fact that we have a choice and a say in the way our government operates is not a right that everyone in the world is able to enjoy (or the opposite of enjoy: how we love to complain when the only thing on the news is a discussion of how a candidate's religious views will affect the Latino vote or something along those lines).
Another thing I have thought about is how awesome our Forefathers were. It is pretty spectacular how successful our government is, a system that they essentially created from scratch. And you can see the proof of how spectacular it is when the news programs take a break from talking about a politicians' infidelities for 30 seconds to talk about the actual news as countries like Egypt, Syria, Iraq and many others including Swaziland struggle to create democracy (or at least a government that is more representative of the people's needs). Creating a whole new government that the people accept and fight for to protect its values is a huge accomplishment that I always took for granted. Good job forefathers!
I am not trying to say that our government is perfect. Actually, it is imperfect in a lot of ways, but the writers of our Constitution had the foresight to allow us to change it as our needs changed. As Americans we are brought up taught to ask questions, we make our own decisions on what we believe, and we hold our leaders accountable to serve our needs: the people's needs rather their own self-interest.
I must admit that politicians have a really tough job. I can only compare it to the brief time I was a soccer referee. During one winter while I was still in high school I worked for a short time reffing the 5 year olds indoor soccer teams. It was the worst job ever. Every time I blew my whistle to make a call some coach or parent would start yelling at me telling me how awful I was. At any given time half the people thought I was doing a terrible job. On top of that, I always felt myself becoming partial to the underdog(not the best quality for a referee). Soccer refereeing is definitely not the job for me. I learned that pretty quickly and I hope that those 5 year olds weren't too adversely affected. I am sure my experience as a soccer referee is nothing like what being a politician is like other than having 50% of the audience hate me all the time except for a politician its worse since the audience is more than a million times bigger than mine was.
I think more than anything, my time in Swaziland has solidified the feeling that I am proud to be an American. I am happy to reap the benefits of a democracy that was created a couple centuries ago and glad that we didn't have to wait until now to achieve democracy because given the current political climate I don't know if they could ever come to an agreement of how to run things.
39 years ago, political parties were banned in Swaziland and although they make progress seem slow in America, political parties and their politicians have made our country what it is today: a great place to live, but always a work in progress.
On a lighter note, today I spent a couple hours hand washing the clothes from my vacation last week. Patty and Mom made it back to America safely, and now I am heading out to work in my garden. It failed miserably the first time I planted it, but I am hoping that the cooler weather will bring more success this time. Crossing my fingers!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone powered by MTN Swaziland
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