>>>>Go read Message #1509468 and ask yourself if maybe you want to retract that :)
>>>
>>>Makes my point in a way.
>>
>>Just curious, because though we tend to differ about some things we always manage amicable humor as well : did you see what I posted to our friend from Kazakhstan as abusive in any way? I certainly didn't mean it that way. He seemed to come away from Mike's message with the impression that Obama had not in fact been born in the US and I was trying to clarify it all for him using English sentence structures which I thought were clearer for a non-native speaker. ( and in fact President Nursultan Nazarbayev had been relelected for another 5 year term with over 95% percent of the vote on April 11 of this year. )
>>
>>Mike's reaction certainly didn't bother me, but I felt said more about Mike than about me.
>>
>>But if you saw it differently I would be interested to know.
>
>Charles, you did not ask my opinion but I'll give it anyways :)
>
>The message up to the last sentence was perfect, but that last sentence I read it as irony, like "unlike your corrupt country where the president got 95% of the vote", I might be wrong or not, but that is the way I read it, and if you were directing that to me, to Argentina, I would thoroughly agree with you and chuckle, but it might be offensive for others and you were directing the message to someone new.
>
>[Update]Of course I do not justify Mike's words!![/Update]

Yes, I could see that and I actually thought about it before I wrote it. I tried not to imply any thing corrupt about the election ( I am in no position to know ) but I did a little research before I wrote it and decided to just state it factually as it is indeed a contrast from our country where the electorate is more visibly split.

Besides, sometimes a heavily "guided" election can work in a country's best interests.. ( When I read a lot of internet posts I sometimes get less enthusiastic about democracy <s>)

I also do not confuse Kazakhstan - which is actually currently a success story doing quite well, partly as a result of the apparently stable leadership of their president (and the energy sector ) - with Turkmenistan which got a lot of bad press a decade ago under the "eccentric" leadership of Saparmurat Niyazov, who had some of the charming qualities of Idi Amin, Emperor Bokassa and Stalin.