The movement against corruption can be channeled

[sandywang5230]

With this perspective, it is not surprising that the struggle against corruption was turned into a struggle against democracy.The slogan "reform before elections" that mobilized academics, professionals, white-collar workers, and small businesspeople was essentially a call to devise constitutional arrangements that would keep electoral majorities based on the rural and urban poor from forming governments. The military junta is heeding this call, imperiling the cornerstone of democracy: majority rule.Perhaps the best illustration of the transmogrification of anti-corruption discourse was this assertion from a supposedly liberal Thai academic, who told me: "For me democracy is not the best regime. I'm in this sense an elitist. If there are people who are more capable, why not give them more weight? Why should they not come ahead of everybody else? You may call me a Nietzschean."Lessons for ProgressivesSo how should progressives relate to corruption?First of all they should recognize that corruption fut 16 coins is a universal concern, and its elimination or mitigation can have a positive impact on reducing inequality. This is especially true in the case of the extravagant infrastructure expenditures and massive evictions of poor Brazilians that paved the way for the World Cup.Yet they should be careful not to play into the hands of neoliberal elites looking to reverse the redistribution of power and wealth away from the poor and marginalized classes. The movement against corruption can be channeled into a mobilization of the middle class to oust governments that promote popular political and economic empowerment, as in Thailand.So even as they embrace fighting corruption as part of a broader movement for social transformation, progressives would be well advised not to get trapped into using anti-corruption rhetoric for anti-democratic ends. Let's talk about futbol, or soccer, call it as you wish. It is the sport and not the name that brings people together.Ann Coulter, a syndicated-columnist, published a rather provocative article where she addresses nine points on how soccer and the culture around it are proof of a country's decaying moral standards. Her empty claims show a lack of vision and an overall weak understanding of athletic and cultural virtues.First, she questions the legitimacy of athletic expression within the sport. She claims there is no individual achievement. Now, hold on. In a sport where you're required to run up and down -- she got that one right -- 110-120 yards repeatedly (FIFA standard measurement of a soccer field) while juggling a ball and an opposing player while rapidly changing directions, pattern of movement and speed, we have no proof of athletic expression at all?If the prospect of either personal humiliation or major injury is required for it to count as a sport, as she says, then that's covered -- e.g. in 2008 Da Silva had a broken fibula and dislocated his ankle while playing for Arsenal. And yet, that's not the make up of a sport.