Reviews for The Dilemma of Democracy: Diagnosis and Prescription

The average rating for The Dilemma of Democracy: Diagnosis and Prescription based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-08-17 00:00:00 Desiree Delay Sheila Cassidy was the young Catholic doctor who was arrested by the right-wing regime in Chile in 1975, imprisoned for a few weeks and tortured, after tending a wounded rebel. She wrote this book following her release and deportation home to England. A picture emerges of a naive, idealistic, somewhat self-centred but good-hearted young woman caught up in extraordinary events which made her grow up and grow deeper into her faith as she faced the appalling situation she found herself in. She is often hard on herself and pays fulsome tribute both to the friends and fellow prisoners who suffered with her.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-08-27 00:00:00 Thomas Brady I finished reading this compelling first part of Dr. Sheila Cassidy’s autobiography on Human Rights Day. The title is taken from Martin Luther King’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. I found it gripping, enlightening,and challenging. Sheila Cassidy was imprisoned in Chile for two months and subjected to torture, because she treated a guerrilla fighter who had been wounded. He was considered an enemy of the state led by General Pinochet. She believed in and lived out her Hypocratic oath. The military coup under General Pinochet replaced a peaceful socialist state by a totalitarian military dictatorship who were zealous in executing and torturing those who they believed were an enemy of the state and their collaborators. This first part of her autobiography is deeply rooted in Sheila Cassidy’s Christian faith and she sometimes appears to be throwing down the gauntlet to those Christian communities who only appear to pay lip service to Jesus teachings and their claim to be his disciples. I wondered throughout whether she had written this book to make sense of and come to terms with a very difficult & challenging part of her life.