Chintito

Two sides of a (thick) coin

CHINTITO

Political parties at loggerheads (or not) with each other, and politicians of opposite camps have a knack to find everything wrong with their adversaries. They can however never find any problem with themselves or with their own, especially in an alliance, even when they are in the wrong. The following clip may explain to some extent the predicament:

In a divorce court a woman requested the judge: "Your honour, I want to divorce my husband."

"But why?" asked the judge.
She replied, "Because he is not faithful to me."
The judge asked, "How do you know?"
She replied, “My lord, not a single child resembles him”

Politicians are so upset with their enemy despite their assumed common love, their country, that they would go to any extent to harm their opposite number. Here's a clip that may throw some light in the darkness:

From his deathbed, the husband called his wife and said, "One month after I die I want you to marry Sammy."
"Sammy! But he is your enemy!"
"Yes, I know that! I've suffered all these years so now let him suffer.”

The country will suffer but their politics has to continue.

And when it comes to being nice to the political foe, particularly at campaign time before elections, as it goes down as good behaviour and bears well with the voters, they can be sardonic and caustic. Here's how:

One woman told another: "My neighbour is always speaking ill of her husband, but look at me, my husband is foolish, lazy and a coward; but have I ever said anything bad about him?”

Every citizen in every country expects and hopes that opposing politicians will be generous to each other, because their continual bickering does more harm than good to the nation. We could all learn from the ants. Here's how:

Four Ants are moving through a forest. They see an elephant coming towards them.

Ant 1 says: We should kill him.
Ant 2 says: No, let us break his leg alone.
Ant 3 says: No, we will just push him away from our path.
Ant 4 says: No, we will leave him because he is alone and we are four.

That is the good thing about political alliances; there could be one among the ten or twenty parties that would think, say and do sense. Often the entire alliance is politically blind, so much so that to teach a lesson to someone with a different view they can burn the whole country.

The world would have been a better place had opposing political parties even behaved as husband and wife does in many marriages. As Al Gore said, “After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together”. No, that is not the reason why he lost the US presidential elections.

All over the world the international community mediates every now and then to resolve domestic issues. Reconciliatory meetings are sometimes convened in foreign lands. One such leader in power and a leader of the opposition found themselves before a wishing well in Rome. It was the turn of the government leader to make a wish, and he leaned over the well, made a silent wish, and tossed in a coin. It was then the turn of the opposition leader to make a wish, but he leaned over too much, fell, and drowned. The government leader was shocked, stunned for a while, but then composed himself to say with a smile, “It really works!”

Jokes aside, no country in the world has progressed where there exists no political congeniality. Healthy politics is the secret of growth and poverty eradication. While one can agree to disagree, or vice versa, there can be little progress if everything done by a political party of a different political view is opposed by the other.

Every political personality thrives on being loved and respected. In many instances, that is brought him into this business; pun not intended. So, political leaders are afraid of being human; that is, making mistake/s. According to a clip, generally, when a person, read politician, makes a mistake, he would look around to find a scapegoat to point the finger at, usually at a person with a different political philosophy. This is the beginning of a never-ending mud-slinging match. “We should always remember that when we point one finger at a person, the three other fingers (of the same hand) are pointing at ourselves.”

In the daily life of a citizen too, and politicians are first citizens, let us accept faults that we are responsible for. Let us understand why others are making slipups. If no corruption is involved, let us acknowledge imperfection in one another as missteps in our voyage to success, not the end of the journey. Let us lend a hand to the fallen. Together only we can walk.

(PS. All clips are borrowed from the Net.)

 

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