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After bloody protest led by Burmese munks the UN brokered a deal with the Burmese government who promised to start negotiations with Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The first meeting between the new 'minister for relations' General Aung Kyi and Aung San Suu Kyi took place today. As of yet, there is no news on what was discussed during the meeting. And it is still unclear whether Burma is any further along the path towards democracy.

It is the first known meeting between the government and the pro-democracy forces in the past 12 years. The Burmese Junta agreed to start the negotiations with Suu Kyi if she agreed to denounce international sanctions against the Junta. 

Yesterday Bush declared that the United States of America wants to aid Cuba, but only after democracy has been restored.

Bush has stated that there will be no change in the current economic sanctions, but that the current U.S. administration wants to aid political dissidents by inviting them to embassy events all over the world and encouraging NGO's and civil society to reach out to Cuban emmigrants.

Moreover, Bush has promised to start an 'International Freedom Fund' for Cuba. All nations are invited to donate to the Fund, which will help develop Cuba. Bush declared that the funds will only become available to Cuba after democracy has been instated in the country. 

Environmentalists warn that current government policies on rivers are destroying fragile water ecology. Damns and cannals heat up water, kills the fish and creates serious environmental and social havoc, says The Times of India.

River projects are commonly build with government funds. It is argued that river developoments benefit the common good. However, in light of several repports that have come out over the last few years; river developments usually causes more damage than they do good, benefiting mainly big coorperations and urban areas. Environmentalists argue that government policies on rivers need to be 'democratized' to benefit the common good.

According to Koigi Wa Wamwere's article on allAfrica.com the upcomming Kenyan elections are becomming all about 'Majimbo'.

Majimbo is a term referring to power being vested in the various regions of Kenya, rather than with a national government. Majimbo is promoted by the Orange Democratic Movement, or the ODM, which argue that it will lead to powersharing between the regions of Kenya.

However, Wamwere argues taht Majimbo will not lead to greater powersharing, but rather will lead to a divided Kenya, in which the rich regions will become richer and the poor regions will become poorer.

Instead Wamwere suggests that the politicians should promote Social Democracy as the way forward for a united Kenya.

Inspired by our 10 questions, we have been running the poll 'Who would you vote for for President of the World?' for the past 10 days.

The poll was composed of an eclectic group of people, including:

Barack Obama, Lisa Simpson, Hillary Clinton, Arundhati Roy and David Sizek.

We are proud to annonce the winner RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW:

The person you would most like to become President of the World is former South African President and Human Rights Activist Nelson Mandela.

Unfortunately Nelson Mandela is retired right now and we don't have a global government.

Thank you all for your votes!

Recently Nigeria's Senate President David Mark announced that the 2007 Presidential elections were legitimate.

Mark said that the elections mark a milestone in Nigerian Democracy as it is the first time one Nigerian government has been democratically replaced with another.

According to allAfrica.com Mark

"urged politicians to learn to accept election results in good faith,
saying that there would always be a loser and a winner in any contest."

After four crazy months, we are sad to say that it is the end of the Why Democracy House?

It has been really hard and crazy work, and we have all had a lot of fun. 

This site will keep being up to date, but it will no longer be run out of a house in South Africa. However it will be as virtual and current and committed to being an online platform for discussion about democracy.

Also, there is an article about Why Democracy and the house in the South African weekly Mail and Guardian.

Is Democracy Good For Everyone?

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Since today sees an end to our 10 questions feature, it is only fitting that we end with a question that is at the heart of this project. Over the last few months, the Democracy House has been attempting to start a global debate about democracy. Our efforts have not been in vain as our forums have had constant activity. Our channels on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Flickr have had substantial interaction making the Why Democracy? project a resounding success.

Through these various discussions, the question of the day has been answered many times and on a number of levels. We have ultimately left it up to our readers to discuss whether democracy is indeed good for everyone. The answer after reading hundreds of contributions? Undecided!

With regard to the question of the day, one group of worthy candidates has to be The Elders.

Their website states that "out of deep concern for the challenges currently facing all of the people of our world, Nelson
Mandela, Graça Machel and Desmond Tutu have convened a group of leaders to contribute
their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackling some of the world's toughest
problems."

Some of the leaders include Jimmy Carter, Li Zhaoxing, Kofi Annan and Muhammad Yunus.