Elections

darobin on 2002-06-08T15:28:03

Tomorrow come the French Parliamentary Elections' first round. The suspense is quite simply killing me. I'm pretty much certain the left wing will lose, which means five years of crookery ahead.

People have such short memories, it amazes me. The right wing, with the very same people pulling the strings, was in power from '93 to '97, and France was in a mess like it hadn't been in ages. The sheer amount of events that occured between those two dates should normally stay burnt in one's brain for ages. A team that completely paralysed an industrial country for over a month and managed to put three million people in the streets (out of a total population of 60) should never get a chance to come back to power.

But no, people have no memory whatsoever, and they're about to be back.

We'll see how it goes... but I'm seriously hesitating between getting more involved in politics for the next round (which should normally occur in 2007) or moving to the UK, which against all odds seems to be the last refuge of sanity in Europe. I'd hate to see what was built and fought for, however imperfect, destroyed and systematically dismantled as planned.

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Elections, Impeachments, etc.

godoy on 2002-06-11T02:05:27

"hearing" you talking about elections made me think about our situation in Brazil. We're having elections this year for the major executive positions (president, congressman, etc.) and people are worried with.... the world cup!

We have had an impeachment a few years ago (1993/1994) and had our first president removed. I have to remind that he was one of our first elected presidents (we lived in a dictatorial state for almost 30 years --- in fact more, but lets say 30 years).

Now, this same impeached president, after 8 years, is trying to be elected as a congressman.

Do I need to tell what's going to happen?

Oh! By the way, a relative of him was trying to be the first woman to be president here...

Memory... people have no memory. They remember something, but the masses are easily manipulated. Here you can't trust TV or newspapers. They put whom they want in power. They take them out when they want. The bandit becomes a hero and the hero simply vanishes in the air.

Justice? Memory? What for?

Re:Elections, Impeachments, etc.

darobin on 2002-06-11T13:13:01

Yes, it's pretty much the same thing here. The team that's back in power did amazing stuff last time, including seeing several ministers in serious judiciary trouble, sending a helicopter to the Himalayans to go pull a more favourable judge out of his holidays and other such "coolness".

Here you can't trust TV or newspapers

Here the newspapers are roughly "ok" (roughly) but no one reads them anyway. As for TV, it's very much the same here.