I was reading Jennifer Rubin’s commentary from a couple of weeks ago concerning an upcoming summit on democracy, and I had a weird visual. First, the relevant passage:
It might seem like a cop-out for regimes, especially those that been criticized for backsliding on human rights such as India, to make up their own pledges. But having nations show up and present themselves as democracies is an achievement in and of itself. A gathering of a broad, impressive array of 100 or so countries would provide a contrast with the smaller clutch of illiberal regimes that seek to undermine democratic values and institutions. The event will put pressure on regimes to address domestic critics and reform advocates. And in any event, international commitments that do not have domestic political support would likely be toothless anyway. [WaPo]
Source: The World Factbook
The visual? I’m thinking of a large map of, say, Europe, large enough to be walked on. On each country stands a person representing not the country, but the country’s essential governmental core – the democracies of France and Germany and the UK dressed in a handsome blue, the more deceptive countries, such as Russia and Belarus, are loud, boisterous men and women in an alarming off-red.
And, since I mention Belarus, run by the strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who wins fake elections, let’s note that he’s been making international news lately by his maneuvering at the border of his country with Poland. He’s transported migrants to the border and set them on the Polish border guards, who, in turn, have hit the rock-throwing migrants with water cannon. Thus, Lukashenko’s attempt to manipulate a neighbor is thought to have been turn on its head.
Returning to my visual, I’d see those neighbors who dislike him, Poland, Ukraine, etc, advancing to their borders while Belarus’ representative bellows at them, and then advancing over the border, leaving a beautiful light blue in their wake, while Belarus’ person bellows some more – and then flees to the arms of Russia’s representative.
It’d make a great commercial for the summit.
