A question for 2019;
What does good governance mean?
Northern Ireland’s parliament is in shutdown
With Stormont in a chronic stalemate,
The default position is uneven centralism,
Then governmental stasis in the states,
Meaning more insecurity for North Americans
And every country to which they relate,
Democrats standing up to Trump’s Republicans
Who want them to collude and participate
In a wall built to keep out Mexicans,
A farce millions cannot contemplate,
In France, we see the rise of the Gilets Jaunes
Forcing Marcon into the Grand Debate
When riot police could not keep down
The protests; government could not dominate
With gas, batons or flash ball guns,
In Brazil, two extremes woo the electorate,
One saturated with corruption, in prison
Still claiming to be compassionate
Though in ten years the nation’s been driven
Into gross inequality, theft, violence,
Knifing the opposition, a man with a mission
But one who counts minorities as less,
While in a divided United Kingdom,
Parliament is in an almighty mess,
The cusp of leaving the European Union
Is marked with bilateral anguish
With no agreed, viable solution
To the much- disputed Brexit
Taking up all the air in the room
And consuming all other policies,
Amid worsening living conditions,
Ignoring individual and collective needs,
So, I return to my earlier question
About what all this says about democracy
And other forms of administration,
Problems echoed criss-cross countries
So often wrongly blamed on migration,
I see in each the patterns of plutocracy;
Of rights and voice defined by income,
Then, amid hardships, crises of identity
Leading to questioned certainties, divisions
And rife threats to human ties and societies,
Too often undermining the rights of minorities
In rising tides of nationalism,
There are examples of covert tyrannies;
Of leaders not resigning when they should
And other top dogs taking uncivil liberties
For their own or their tribe’s preferment,
Encouraging disillusion, discouraging diversity,
Increasing alienation and disenfranchisement
In national emergencies, too often political intent
Seems partisan, not meant to broker agreement,
In each case, as in others across continents,
Security is undermined by unstable employment
And people struggling for food, mortgage or rent,
In each case there’s a sense of restricted involvement
Of people in the workings of their government,
Often leading to questions on freedom of movement
When prejudices rise from the undercurrents,
In each case, mainstream media plays its part,
Directing direct democracy, or its proxy,
Sources of funding can fuel changes of heart
Affecting each story’s legitimacy,
While every situation is different,
Each wrought with seeming infinite complexity,
There seem to be patterns that are consistent;
The need for greater political transparency;
The need for engagement, informed consent
And protections against unreachable governance
Whatever the locale; whatever the distance,
Deficits of democracy are meeting resistance
Because deceptions and social disparities
Lead to inequality and festering grievance,
As uprisings against injustice lose clarity,
Destroyed by divide to rule philosophies
Made worse by the walls of isolationists,
Maybe this is a question for psychologists,
Maybe we’re either rebels or pragmatists,
Maybe we’re enigmas for archaeologists
Or evidence against climate change denialists,
Maybe we’re each authors of the crisis
Or targets for the powerful’s devices,
Whatever the truth of it is
We’re made stronger by who’s beside us,
Beyond cultures, faiths, ideologies,
The need to be heard by our leaders
Whether these lead councils, constituencies,
Countries or cross-national assemblies,
I do not have the answers
but
I believe this, we are strengthened by unities
And valuing ourselves and our fellow humans,
To embolden interconnected communities
With shared interests and empowered regions
Served by, not serving their parliamentarians.
Antonia Sara Zenkevitch
The 48% 