Inspired by: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8aLKcnvq_8

Simon Chilembo Indeed, Europe has for hundreds of years screwed the outside world like nobody else as any (South) African will tell you. But then again it is generally certain specific (Western!) European values, such as Democracy (no matter how the concept is and can be skewed both in definition and application from time and space to time and space), which have contributed to the progress of our current global modern society with all its faults and flaws, but functional and constantly forward-looking and moving all the same.

In my mind, heaven and a perfect world are functions of democratic principles applied to create and sustain conditions for the individual to reach the highest level of self-realization and creative potential possible within the confines of prevailing laws, moral and ethical boundaries. Makes me wonder if Silicon Valley and similar places in the world would ever have come to life in the absence of growth and development possibilities Democracy facilitates. To have or not to have iPad? To believe or not to believe in God? In a functional democratic setting I believe these questions can be debated freely without fear or favour till the gates of heaven fall apart. Europe, in the 21st century you are actually not too bad; do thrive!