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According to Reuters' Nopporn Wong-Anan, Thailand's coup leader Sonthi Boonyaratglin wants to teach people about democracy before the December 2007 elections. Boonyaratglin says:

"Poverty hinders the progress of democracy. We need to explain to the
people what permanent prosperity is. Taking money from politicians is
not a permanent solution to solve their poverty,"

In his efforts Boonyaratglin has hired the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) as educators. The ISOC was originally founded as
an anti-communist department during the Cold War and is reported to have included death squads.

Time will tell whether Thai democracy can be taught through the barrel of a gun.

Today Amy left for Rwanda, where she will be staying for a week and then after that she is going back to Germany to finish her masters. We want to thank Amy for all the hard work she has done. She will definatly be missed by everyone. 

Is God Democratic?

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Today's question raises a controversial topic that has a significant relevance for the current state global politics. The role of religion within politics has divided statesmen and citizens for centuries. Religion within state structures has varied across the world, leaving the debate on religion's applicability in ruling structures open-ended.

The recent use of religious extremism in the form of terrorism has contributed the mistrust between secularist governments and religious figures. The featured movie, Bloody Cartoons, explores this topic as well as the debate on the right to freedom of expression.

Is God democratic?
To me God is beyond this understanding and we really should be careful when mixing the two fields of religion and politics, it can be quite dangerous.

We asked all sorts of people -- authors, athletes, movie stars, politicians, thinkers, workers, dreamers -- ten tough questions about democracy. We will publish many of the answers on this page, with new ones every day. Be sure to tell us what you think in the forums.

Read today also:

10 Questions: Joseph Ayok-Loewenberg – Minister for religion (Sudan)
10 Questions: Helle Thorning-Schmidt - Leader of the Social Democrats (Denmark)

In a book excerpt presented by Forbes, Eric Lane and Michael Oreskes examine how American democracy has evolved in the last half a century. They amongst others refer to the Why Democracy? guest blogger and former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who wrote:

"the citizens of the great democracies more generally, have grown frustrated, dispirited, disillusioned."

Read More.