Vote Sizing Institute Real change from within.

It is no news that since the advent of democracy, we have experienced so many failures in our natural environment (deforestation, pollution and toxins spreading around the world faster than ever), economical systems (greed, corruption, brutality, arrogance, poverty) and social structures (moral degradation). We are not saying here that democracy itself is bad, but that it has woefully failed to fulfill the purpose for which it was intended due to its poor management.

The yearning of all human beings in all parts of the world has been same: freedom and decent living standards. The relentless efforts of many governments of the world have put in place institutions like the UNO, World Bank, IMF, Good Governance structures, Human Rights associations, Anti-corruption units and many others. Yet where are we today? For a long time Africa especially has borne the brunt of much of man's evil; and if anything, the pace has only accelerated.

Regarding corruption, despite all the structures put in place by the government of Cameroon to conquer this 'beast', things have instead grown much worse. Some people and intellectuals argue that the anti-corruption units, the judiciary, legislative and executive systems must be totally independent at all levels before this corruption problem can be solved. The question to them is this: "has corruption with other social malpractices been reduced in old democracies like the USA, Canada and Britain?" We aren't sure. In May 2004, the world was shocked by the revelations of the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Grahib in Iraq though in a democratic era where human rights abuses are condemned by these same big or rather old democracies.

We cannot forget the 9-11 events, the multiple terrorist attacks in Britain and other European countries, and increase crime wave in many parts of the world. Recently, we have had cases in Cameroon where traditional rulers have been beaten to death by their subjects, cases where traditional rulers have openly killed their subjects and gone free. People no more believe in their judiciary systems because of corrupt practices. Rather than democratic ideals put forth, greed, tyranny, arrogance, brutality and lawlessness are becoming the order of the day.

Health and Education, considered as the keys to development, are drastically degrading not only in Cameroon but Africa at large. Talking about education, Cameroon universities since 1990 (the time when multiparty politics was gaining ground) have undergone numerous student strikes were some of them were shot to death. Embezzlement, practiced by some corrupt officials has crippled most of these higher institutions, i.e., there is lack or shortage of technical, literary and chemical equipments, increase in tuition fee, lack of part time jobs for students, increase in the price of lodging facilities, which are today fuelling the educational crises. Our health structures are significantly loosing their worth today, especially with the problem of brain-drain, and it seems reversing this syndrome is a far fetched idea with an uncountable number of nurses who have fled the country for greener pastures in western countries.

Our rural population, which makes up the majority population not only in Cameroon but also in Africa, has shortage of portable water, lack of roads for the transportation of farming produce and no electricity. These are all engineered by greed practiced by a few corrupt individuals. You can imagine how we are so lacking with the advent of modern technologies like the Computer, Internet and even Televisions – in an era where democracy is gaining ground.

For the past two decades, politicians, journalists and many other groups of people have been holding debates and talks to help curb these societal ills, but like doctors fighting the symptoms of a disease while ignoring the cause … the disease is becoming incurable. The result is that wealthy people sit in their high towers and decide and implement solutions for the poor living in squalors because they have convinced themselves that they are better placed to do so. We term this mindset as lack of communal understanding. Do you believe the poorer people don't know what they need? It is condescending and inaccurate to assume that educated, privileged and wealthy people know better what to do with the rivers, forests and soil than the people who actually depend on them to survive.

Our lives are much too precious to leave them in the hands of other people who have little grasp of reality. Empowerment begins only once we take control of our own lives, when we recognize that we have had enough of their manipulation, when we take appropriate steps to make order out of the chaos and above all fully embrace our responsibility over what we do and don't have.

We are not, and don't want, to talk on the behalf of the poor - instead our goal is to listen to them, take their voice deep into the political system, and thereby give everyone a say. We are rich, very rich in terms of natural resources but because these resources are managed by a privileged few we are bound to live in misery and underdevelopment – History teaches us that inclusion is better than domination.

Hello folks, with all the problems enumerated above, we think that 'vote sizing' which is the 'backbone' or the 'operating system' of our future political party – the Fair Choice Party, is the most efficient tool to easily, peacefully and successfully change our community, our country, our continent and our world, making it a better place for all.

The Fair Choice Party abbreviated FCP is a sister party to the DEP located in Vancouver – Canada. In the name Fair Choice Party, "Fair" stands for impartial, i.e. no one should have to sacrifice any more than the others, "Choice" for the right or responsibility of choosing between wealth and power. We believe that to have people choose between wealth and power is constitutional, democratic, wise and fair. "If we don't push corruption away, then we should only expect corruption to push us all back".

The Fair Choice Party does not wish to replace the current governmental structure, but has as its primary focus to raise electoral reforms in such a way as to increase the size of votes inversely to wealth; so that poorer people get larger votes. Therefore the FCP sees itself as one of the many political parties in the political arena - with ambitions of one day becoming a very powerful and influential opposition party in our current political system.

It is our duty to fight for ourselves because definitely nobody is going to fight for us. If you cherish our ideas, then contact us so that we can together spread the message, read more on our website www.VoteSizing.org.