June 7, 2009

It's a big thing after all! It is every adult citizen's right and duty.

This is the first time I experience it here in Lebanon and frankly I'm kind of getting annoyed by it. I cannot wait for June 7th to come to stop hearing about it.

I don't understand masalan, how a visit to congratulate new parents on the arrival of their daughter triggers a political conversation about voting, who said what and who is better than whom, and who we SHOULD vote for.

It feels like the huge billboards on the roads got even bigger with the campaign ads. Some of them don't make sense, and the best are the ones copied from an opponent's idea. No thinking required. That shouldn't have required a huge budget for marketing and advertising. Bravo! What a great money saving strategy! Money spent otherwise on other unthinkable actions like more billboards or paying voters or whatever annoying and disturbing action.

Radio and TV ads (at least the one I heard and saw) are a bit more conservative and targeted to the general public. They sound like they are made to encourage people to vote in general, no matter who they would vote for. That's great! The real funny one is that Xtra radio ad campaign... Only in Lebanon a beverage becomes a candidate in the governmental elections! I would maybe vote for it, if I know what it is made of :)

What are really annoying are two things actually.
First, people who try to TELL you who you SHOULD vote for. I might be of the same opinion, I may be voting for the same party but it is no one's business. Why otherwise would the voting experience be secretive and made behind closed curtains? Save the trouble of creating appropriate voting locations and do it by the raise of a hand, what's the big deal? Eh?

Second, some parties are paying money to Lebanese working and living abroad to come and vote for them. Where's the democracy in that? Why do some IMPORTANT people and parties have enough money to bring in people to vote and not spend it on Lebanon? Why do Lebanese in Lebanon have to pay an arm and a leg to have clean water, electricity and other necessities, drive on streets more like dirt roads, and sell their kidney to put their kids in schools, and be told that the national deficit is such, when there are IMPORTANT people with ENOUGH money to cover the national deficit and make life easier on EVERYONE? Wouldn't they earn enough votes had they done some good on the ground instead of having to beg people abroad to come and vote for them? Did these political figures with big money want justice and democracy in the election exercise; they would have worked on allowing the Lebanese living abroad to vote from outside the country. What is a better reason to have an embassy or a consulate than to facilitate the practice of ones duty towards their country? Just an opinion.

Looking forward to June 7, 2009; and see what happens after...