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Biden's Democracy Summit: The Sad Truth About The Invitation List

Can the countries the United States have invited to an exclusive summit on democracy safeguard and spread a system that is inherently flawed and fragile?

Biden's Democracy Summit: The Sad Truth About The Invitation List

The U.S. invited Taiwan to take part to the Summit for Democracy

Marcos Peckel

-OpEd-

BOGOTÁ — Don't expect much from the Summit for Democracy, summoned by the U.S. President Joe Biden.

Slated later this week, it follows other initiatives to defend and promote democracy worldwide, and will convene by video remote the representatives of 110 invited countries, which the U.S. State Department considers democracies.

Its three stated objectives are: defense against authoritarianism, fighting corruption and promoting respect for human rights.

The first controversy around the gathering emerged from the guest list, which includes some of the United States' chief regional allies.


Whatever the concerns, they are of particular importance amid an incipient, reemerging cold war with China.

Who's in and who's out

The least represented regions will include Central America, the Gulf, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and North Africa. From the Middle East, only Israel and Iraq were invited, with the latter included to show that the 2003 invasion achieved something. Tunisia, an erstwhile example to hold up from the Arab Spring, was not invited. It is slowly, though not inevitably, sliding toward authoritarian rule.

Was there an inherent, democratic flaw that has brought this regression?

The invitation to Taiwan was clearly a slap at China, which has, alongside Russia, derided the summit as a bid to divide the world and foment a "cold war mentality." The summit excluded the usual suspects from Latin America — Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela — but also Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Bolivia. For better or worse these last four have democratically elected governments.

Joe Biden at the 2021 NATO Summit in Brussels

Nicolas Landemard/Le Pictorium Agency/ZUMA

How much do we value democracy?

At a time of grave deterioration in liberal democracies, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, and when a creature we thought extinct, the putsch, has reemerged with dismal vigor, one wonders, was there an inherent, democratic flaw that has brought this regression? How far does the balance between liberty and prosperity lean toward the former? How much do societies value the separation of powers and freedom of expression?

Rocky terrain, with uncertain objectives.

One would have to somehow confirm Winston Churchill's familiar opinion that democracy was the worst system, bar all others. Because while improvements in material prosperity are palpable in places like China and Vietnam, which are under one-party rule, in some democracies, inequality and vulnerability have increased.

Perhaps in addition, we should not underestimate the "DNA" of some societies that seemingly, would rather live under big leaders and tyrants, to avoid democracy's ups and downs.

Biden's summit and other moves to spread democracy have entered rocky terrain, with uncertain objectives. At the end of the day, it is for nations themselves to defend their democracies.

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Society

What's Spoiling The Kids: The Big Tech v. Bad Parenting Debate

Without an extended family network, modern parents have sought to raise happy kids in a "hostile" world. It's a tall order, when youngsters absorb the fears (and devices) around them like a sponge.

Image of a kid wearing a blue striped sweater, using an ipad.

Children exposed to technology at a very young age are prominent today.

Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — A 2021 report from the United States (the Youth Risk Behavior Survey) found that 42% of the country's high-school students persistently felt sad and 22% had thought about suicide. In other words, almost half of the country's young people are living in despair and a fifth of them have thought about killing themselves.

Such chilling figures are unprecedented in history. Many have suggested that this might be the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sadly, we can see depression has deeper causes, and the pandemic merely illustrated its complexity.

I have written before on possible links between severe depression and the time young people spend on social media. But this is just one aspect of the problem. Today, young people suffer frequent and intense emotional crises, and not just for all the hours spent staring at a screen. Another, possibly more important cause may lie in changes to the family composition and authority patterns at home.

Firstly: Families today have fewer members, who communicate less among themselves.

Young people marry at a later age, have fewer children and many opt for personal projects and pets instead of having children. Families are more diverse and flexible. In many countries, the number of children per woman is close to or less than one (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong among others).

In Colombia, women have on average 1.9 children, compared to 7.6 in 1970. Worldwide, women aged 15 to 49 years have on average 2.4 children, or half the average figure for 1970. The changes are much more pronounced in cities and among middle and upper-income groups.

Of further concern today is the decline in communication time at home, notably between parents and children. This is difficult to quantify, but reasons may include fewer household members, pervasive use of screens, mothers going to work, microwave ovens that have eliminated family cooking and meals and, thanks to new technologies, an increase in time spent on work, even at home. Our society is addicted to work and devotes little time to minors.

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