The Al Qaida Of Democracy

My Title service ( "Purveyors of fine titles to the Queen since 1964") of D.J.Ramesbotham and Sons seems to have taken leave of their senses, supplying me incredulously with the incredible example of their wares above. What, one might ask, can one make of Al Qaida and Democracy? No faint heart I- for faint heart ne'er won fair maiden-I shall pick up the gauntlet thrown down by "Digger" Ramesbotham and supply a posting worthy of being read by fine people everywhere, as well as the Queen, were she to take a notion to do so. Ahem. First, we must take note that the word Qaida is actually Qai'ida, the ' being used to indicate the Arabic letter " 'ain ". Since the 'ain is a consonant, there are actually 3 syllables in the word, not just 2. If I had to give an example of the sound of this letter, I would suggest you think of the sound of "r" in the word "bower": it occurs way back in the throat and the throat does not close entirely. It is somewhat like the "r" in "bower" pronounced while vigorously yawning. The meaning of Qai'ida is "base" in the sense of something upon which something else is established, built, or situated. Thus, it means "foundation" ( for a house), "undercarriage" (for a car or truck), "principle" (of a conceptual system), "groundwork" (for ensuing work), and so on. Second, the growing divide between the rich and the poor in this country leads us to remember that the class conflict in ancient Greece was the impetus that led to ancient Democracy. I can assure you that ancient Democracy was not bestowed upon Athens by the privileged class because they thought it would be a good and just thing to do! We conclude that the Foundation of Ancient Democracy was the divide between the rich and the poor AND the creative way that Athens found to remedy this social schism. And we may put special emphasis upon the second part of the conjunction above: the creative way of remedy.