Lovemore Masakadza

President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry took the stage last Thursday to sell their foreign policy positions to Americans in the first presidential debate. Afterward, Americans were left to decide who won the debate.

The answer? Democracy won.

To an outsider watching the debate, the question was: “When is the rest of the world going to learn that people can disagree and still share their different views without the use of guns?”

Elections should be an opportunity for people to choose the leaders they want to lead them, and for potential leaders to try to convince voters that they will do a good job at the helm.

In some countries, though, the coming of elections is accompanied with an eruption of violence. Houses are reduced to ashes. Roads are destroyed and loved ones are lost.

Children are robbed of their parents and parents of their children.

Leaders, journalists, teachers and other professionals would be forced into exile because guns would be blazing and machetes would be drawn.

That is if the elections are ever held.

In countries where governments control the media, people are bombarded with “good” things the government does, and nothing about what opponents would be doing, because opponents are considered enemies.

Enemies are not good for these countries, so they have to be eliminated. And once declared enemies, they also begin to live like enemies.

The end result is civil war.

In Afghanistan there have been several attempts to assassinate President Hamid Karzai.

In the African country of Angola, the late opposition leader Jonas Savimbi and President Jose Eduardo dos Santos did not see eye to eye, and that cost the country a lot of innocent lives in a civil war in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, in America, different organizations urge people to vote. Still, many Americans don’t bother registering.

Did Kerry say Bush was not telling the truth on the network television in front of millions of viewers?

Did Bush say that the only consistent thing about Kerry is his inconsistency? p align="justify"> After those words were exchanged, the two opponents shook hands, and their wives joined them on stage with smiles decorating their faces.

In Cuba that would not have been possible. Fidel Castro is The Man.

n Russia, Vladimir Putin is up to some mischief. His government is directly taking control of the media, and that means Putin is going to be The Man.

One presidential debate is over. Two more to go.

Cherish reality TV, and laugh your lungs out when Kerry flip-flops, or when Bush talks about nuclear weapons in Iraq.

Because you can.