I am the first to admit that conventional democratic political processes are often corrupt, slow and ineffective due to bureaucracy and vested elitist interests that are contrary to  the greater well being of societies. I hold cynical views about corrupt politicians and social injustice and believe that it is fine to be disappointed and even disgusted by politics. BUT I ABSOLUTELY HATE it when people say that politics is not important or does not affect them or their daily lives.  According to the work of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)  there is a worrying trend of of increasing global voter apathy going as far back as 1945 so that “voter turnout has decreased globally over the past 10 years by almost 10 percent, both in established democracies as well as newly-democratized developing countries.

Politics cannot be easily defined but this wikipedia entry provides these key points by describing it as:  as process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of “social relations involving authority or power” and refers to the regulation of a political unit, and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy. However, there is not an academic consensus on the precise definition of “politics” and what is consider as political and what is not. Max Weber defined politics as the struggle for power. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics)
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Cadbury has officially joined the Fair-trade bandwagon. Does this mean that the farmers who provide the cocoa for the brand of chocolate loved through the U.K amongst other places will suddenly become wealthy? Having lived in Ghana for many years I know full well that the majority of Ghanaians have never tasted a bar of Cadbury dairy milk chocolate, and this is primarily due to the price. It is incredibly sad to think that though the main ingredient is sourced from Ghana the price will mean that it is out of reach of most Ghanaians, and that includes the farmers.

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Apathy;

What is it?

What feeds it?

Why should I care about it?

It’s just nothing!

What is it?!

How can I fight nothing?

Aww… forget it.

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Who said cynical people cannot be or are not optimistic and vice versa? In order to be an idealist, one has to balance on the fine line between cynicism and optimism. Although opposite, those two emotions fuel the minds of idealists who are cynical enough to be dissatisfied with the status quo and optimistic enough to believe that positive change is possible…

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