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The battle of votes
Mar. 1st, 2011 09:26 amPeople were shouting. The throng of commuters descended the stairs but slowly. Several enthusiasts at the bottom of the stairs were the cause of their slow pace. Papers flew, hands flung out trying to force the flyers into the hands of the unwilling unawake.
"Young lady!" the man to my right shouted as I approached the spot where he was physically forcing himself and his flyers onto the crowd. "Vote for D'66! It's for your own future!"
The other man harassing the crowd tried to drown out the first man's voice. "Here, have a flyer of the VVD!"
I slowly shook my head, and walked to my next platform. I'd already read the flyers of my parties of choice and had made up my mind. VVD and D'66 did not even feature in my selection of the finalists.
Tomorrow, we vote!
And while we're on the subject, let's consider...
Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains. - Winston Churchill
I don't agree with this statement. Let me tell you why.
When I read the left-wing, liberal, social agenda what I notice is that, generally speaking, they are against expanding large airports, adding more asphalt to existing freeways, etc. while at the same time focusing on the social aspect of helping out the unemployed and those who need guidance and even the arts.
While honestly, we all know that in ten, twenty years these new roads will have been built, these airports will have expanded, because the population will have grown to a point where we can't cling to the ideals of 1966 anymore. In the 1970s we stopped driving our cars for a few Sundays because the oil prizes were too high. And compare them to today's oil prizes... are they higher? Do we get out of our cars and into public transport because gas is too expensive? Do we cycle to work more often? No, life went on and change happened. It takes a lot more than expensive gas to stop us taking our cars.
On one hand, I feel that perhaps you can't stop progress. You can't stop airports from growing larger because the population will grow, the economy will have to keep up and all those mouths will have to be fed. But I think that the left-wing will still be very important, because they look beyond just the expansion of airports to the effects it will have on the environment. Even if they never become part of the ruling party but stay in the opposition, they will still force people to look at the bigger picture. Never mind that progress can't be stopped, because maybe that's not the point...maybe we should progress but take care to look at the bigger picture. And the bigger picture isn't money!
As for the social aspect: yes, I agree that our country has a lot of people abusing the system. I'm sure there are numerous people who refuse to work even though they're perfectly able to. (Let's not point to immigrants right away, because look at all the christian housewives...)
There are also plenty of people who are quite willing to work but can't find a proper job. Business is turning sour, it's a dog-eat-dog world, but guess what? We're not all dogs. We're human beings.
We're forced to make life-deciding choices at the age of 14 or 15. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life back then and I'm not sure I do now. Maybe if we were a bit more social and spent a little more money on helping eachother out, people would find a job they're not only good at but they enjoy a lot more. A happy worker is also a happy shopper! Of you loathe your job you're not going to go out and spend that paycheck to get a healthy economy.
Be a social bee. Be a good employer. Find a job you love. Help eachother out. See how our society will bloom.
Tomorrow we vote for the Provincial Parliament, who will then in turn vote for the Eerste Kamer, who will have to pass the legislation. It's an important vote, so if you have it: use it!
"Young lady!" the man to my right shouted as I approached the spot where he was physically forcing himself and his flyers onto the crowd. "Vote for D'66! It's for your own future!"
The other man harassing the crowd tried to drown out the first man's voice. "Here, have a flyer of the VVD!"
I slowly shook my head, and walked to my next platform. I'd already read the flyers of my parties of choice and had made up my mind. VVD and D'66 did not even feature in my selection of the finalists.
Tomorrow, we vote!
And while we're on the subject, let's consider...
Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains. - Winston Churchill
I don't agree with this statement. Let me tell you why.
When I read the left-wing, liberal, social agenda what I notice is that, generally speaking, they are against expanding large airports, adding more asphalt to existing freeways, etc. while at the same time focusing on the social aspect of helping out the unemployed and those who need guidance and even the arts.
While honestly, we all know that in ten, twenty years these new roads will have been built, these airports will have expanded, because the population will have grown to a point where we can't cling to the ideals of 1966 anymore. In the 1970s we stopped driving our cars for a few Sundays because the oil prizes were too high. And compare them to today's oil prizes... are they higher? Do we get out of our cars and into public transport because gas is too expensive? Do we cycle to work more often? No, life went on and change happened. It takes a lot more than expensive gas to stop us taking our cars.
On one hand, I feel that perhaps you can't stop progress. You can't stop airports from growing larger because the population will grow, the economy will have to keep up and all those mouths will have to be fed. But I think that the left-wing will still be very important, because they look beyond just the expansion of airports to the effects it will have on the environment. Even if they never become part of the ruling party but stay in the opposition, they will still force people to look at the bigger picture. Never mind that progress can't be stopped, because maybe that's not the point...maybe we should progress but take care to look at the bigger picture. And the bigger picture isn't money!
As for the social aspect: yes, I agree that our country has a lot of people abusing the system. I'm sure there are numerous people who refuse to work even though they're perfectly able to. (Let's not point to immigrants right away, because look at all the christian housewives...)
There are also plenty of people who are quite willing to work but can't find a proper job. Business is turning sour, it's a dog-eat-dog world, but guess what? We're not all dogs. We're human beings.
We're forced to make life-deciding choices at the age of 14 or 15. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life back then and I'm not sure I do now. Maybe if we were a bit more social and spent a little more money on helping eachother out, people would find a job they're not only good at but they enjoy a lot more. A happy worker is also a happy shopper! Of you loathe your job you're not going to go out and spend that paycheck to get a healthy economy.
Be a social bee. Be a good employer. Find a job you love. Help eachother out. See how our society will bloom.
Tomorrow we vote for the Provincial Parliament, who will then in turn vote for the Eerste Kamer, who will have to pass the legislation. It's an important vote, so if you have it: use it!
