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So, we had all these elections going on yesterday - and what did we learn?
Pretty much all over Europe, people voted for the parties that are currently forming the opposition in their own governments. Do they realize that there is a difference between European politics and national politics?
Stupid question to ask, I know. In my home town, we also elected the mayor. And that proved that some people are not able to differ between one man and his son. Our former mayor had resigned because of health problems. His son was running for office yesterday. Let me add that father and son do not like each other at all. The father's wife died a few days ago, and the son didn't even show up at the funeral. OK, it wasn't his mother, but it still was family!
Anyway, it is said that the son only ran to spite his father. But there were many people who just looked at the last name and voted for him, never realizing who he actually was! And my town only has something like 1700 inhabitants, you pretty much know everybody here.
OK, I admit it: the only reason why this is bugging me is that my mother ran, too. She got the most votes, but as there were three candidates, she didn't get more than 50%, and that would have been necessary to win. So we'll have another election two weeks from now, with only my Mom and the third candidate. So there still is a chance for Mom to win, but it means another two weeks of waiting.
It also means finding enough people to help out during election, handing out ballots, checking that everybody votes only once and counting in the evening. Ever since I am allowed to, I have been doing that. You get paid a little bit for it, but if you're in for the money, it isn't the right job for you. Yesterday, I had to be there at 7 o'clock and spent 5 hours standing next to ballot boxes (we had 4, as there were 4 different elections) saying 'Please fold the green and the white ballots twice, otherwise they don't fit.' and 'Please don't forget to fold all the ballots.' You should think that in 40 years of German Democratic Republic (GDR - what most Americans call East Germany, or Former East Germany - even if our geographic location has not changed...) people would have learned how to fold a ballot, as this was the only thing they had to do in GDR elections.
And at 6, we started counting all these votes. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see that so many people came to vote (about 860 of 1400 something registered voters), but for two of the elections, people had three votes, and that's terrible to count. And don't ask me why this is done, doesn't make much sense to me. It has something to do with voting several persons from the lists the parties set up, so you can give votes not only to the first person on the list. But it makes it very complicated, especially for elderly people. We ended up with quite a few invalid votes, where people had checked more than three circles.
Then there are two or three forms to be filled out for every election, stating all the candidates that were running, the votes they got and everything. As I had the most practice writing these protocols, I had to do it. And I still made a few mistakes, so when we went to hand in all the ballots, the forms and our counting lists (that was at 10:30 pm), I had to fill out some forms again. I think I was home at about 11:30, and I really do not look forward to doing this again two weeks from now.
But I'll have to, as we never find enough people who are willing to sacrifice their Sunday for the sake of democracy.
Which brings us back to the beginning: What did we learn?
Attendance to the election was low all over Europe. Soccer championships and Formula 1 was much more important then who is going to govern us in the next years (We also voted for city councils, you'd think people would care about politics in their own towns...)
Going to elections is not a punishment or a chore, it's an opportunity to influence what happens around us, and it's a gift. People around here should know that better then anybody else, having lived in a democracy by name only for so long. But that is 14 years ago, and people have a short memory. They even vote for the party that is the successor of the main GDR party. Some of my friends might say that it's not the same party, they don't have the same ideas. But I don't believe it. There are some of the same people who held high offices in GDR still around. And many of their voters believe that everything was better when we had the Berlin Wall. Some West Germans regret the re-unification, and many East Germans do, too.
They are angry because things didn't turn out the way they had expected. Capitalism is hard to live with, the economic situation in Germany is really bad. Unemployment rates are high, and that's not going to change any time soon. So both the left and the right wing of the political spectrum gain votes. One because everything was better before, and the other because 'all these foreigners take our jobs' (Such as picking asparagus - the farmers are unable to find Germans who ware willing to do this job) and 'the big bosses take our jobs away to Eastern Europe, because work is cheaper there. European Union is crap.' (True, work force IS cheaper in Eastern Europe, but I think the main problem is this: in Germany, being unemployed is not too bad, you can get quite a bit of money to support you, and some people prefer not to work. That doesn't keep them from complaining about how mean it is than nobody offers them a job)
Of course, there are people who would love to work but don't get the chance. But if the CEO of a company had four applicant who didn't show up for their appointments, can you expect him to invite a fifth?
I get the impression that unemployment in Germany isn't hard enough on people, the way they are still behaving...
So, from the failure to understand the benefits and demands of democracy to unemployment. It's a rather short way for me. Maybe my perspective will change when I become unemployed. Right now, even though I don't have anything to do, officially I'm a student. So perhaps it's easy for me rant like that.
Somewhere deep down inside me, I firmly believe that I will not be unemployed if I work hard enough. If there isn't a job around here, then I'll have to go elsewhere. And if I can't find a job in Germany - well, my English should be good enough to work in any English speaking country. Singapore might be interesting, too...
Pretty much all over Europe, people voted for the parties that are currently forming the opposition in their own governments. Do they realize that there is a difference between European politics and national politics?
Stupid question to ask, I know. In my home town, we also elected the mayor. And that proved that some people are not able to differ between one man and his son. Our former mayor had resigned because of health problems. His son was running for office yesterday. Let me add that father and son do not like each other at all. The father's wife died a few days ago, and the son didn't even show up at the funeral. OK, it wasn't his mother, but it still was family!
Anyway, it is said that the son only ran to spite his father. But there were many people who just looked at the last name and voted for him, never realizing who he actually was! And my town only has something like 1700 inhabitants, you pretty much know everybody here.
OK, I admit it: the only reason why this is bugging me is that my mother ran, too. She got the most votes, but as there were three candidates, she didn't get more than 50%, and that would have been necessary to win. So we'll have another election two weeks from now, with only my Mom and the third candidate. So there still is a chance for Mom to win, but it means another two weeks of waiting.
It also means finding enough people to help out during election, handing out ballots, checking that everybody votes only once and counting in the evening. Ever since I am allowed to, I have been doing that. You get paid a little bit for it, but if you're in for the money, it isn't the right job for you. Yesterday, I had to be there at 7 o'clock and spent 5 hours standing next to ballot boxes (we had 4, as there were 4 different elections) saying 'Please fold the green and the white ballots twice, otherwise they don't fit.' and 'Please don't forget to fold all the ballots.' You should think that in 40 years of German Democratic Republic (GDR - what most Americans call East Germany, or Former East Germany - even if our geographic location has not changed...) people would have learned how to fold a ballot, as this was the only thing they had to do in GDR elections.
And at 6, we started counting all these votes. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see that so many people came to vote (about 860 of 1400 something registered voters), but for two of the elections, people had three votes, and that's terrible to count. And don't ask me why this is done, doesn't make much sense to me. It has something to do with voting several persons from the lists the parties set up, so you can give votes not only to the first person on the list. But it makes it very complicated, especially for elderly people. We ended up with quite a few invalid votes, where people had checked more than three circles.
Then there are two or three forms to be filled out for every election, stating all the candidates that were running, the votes they got and everything. As I had the most practice writing these protocols, I had to do it. And I still made a few mistakes, so when we went to hand in all the ballots, the forms and our counting lists (that was at 10:30 pm), I had to fill out some forms again. I think I was home at about 11:30, and I really do not look forward to doing this again two weeks from now.
But I'll have to, as we never find enough people who are willing to sacrifice their Sunday for the sake of democracy.
Which brings us back to the beginning: What did we learn?
Attendance to the election was low all over Europe. Soccer championships and Formula 1 was much more important then who is going to govern us in the next years (We also voted for city councils, you'd think people would care about politics in their own towns...)
Going to elections is not a punishment or a chore, it's an opportunity to influence what happens around us, and it's a gift. People around here should know that better then anybody else, having lived in a democracy by name only for so long. But that is 14 years ago, and people have a short memory. They even vote for the party that is the successor of the main GDR party. Some of my friends might say that it's not the same party, they don't have the same ideas. But I don't believe it. There are some of the same people who held high offices in GDR still around. And many of their voters believe that everything was better when we had the Berlin Wall. Some West Germans regret the re-unification, and many East Germans do, too.
They are angry because things didn't turn out the way they had expected. Capitalism is hard to live with, the economic situation in Germany is really bad. Unemployment rates are high, and that's not going to change any time soon. So both the left and the right wing of the political spectrum gain votes. One because everything was better before, and the other because 'all these foreigners take our jobs' (Such as picking asparagus - the farmers are unable to find Germans who ware willing to do this job) and 'the big bosses take our jobs away to Eastern Europe, because work is cheaper there. European Union is crap.' (True, work force IS cheaper in Eastern Europe, but I think the main problem is this: in Germany, being unemployed is not too bad, you can get quite a bit of money to support you, and some people prefer not to work. That doesn't keep them from complaining about how mean it is than nobody offers them a job)
Of course, there are people who would love to work but don't get the chance. But if the CEO of a company had four applicant who didn't show up for their appointments, can you expect him to invite a fifth?
I get the impression that unemployment in Germany isn't hard enough on people, the way they are still behaving...
So, from the failure to understand the benefits and demands of democracy to unemployment. It's a rather short way for me. Maybe my perspective will change when I become unemployed. Right now, even though I don't have anything to do, officially I'm a student. So perhaps it's easy for me rant like that.
Somewhere deep down inside me, I firmly believe that I will not be unemployed if I work hard enough. If there isn't a job around here, then I'll have to go elsewhere. And if I can't find a job in Germany - well, my English should be good enough to work in any English speaking country. Singapore might be interesting, too...
