Living Without a Vote

Today, German parliament passed the "hearth premium" that I have written about a couple of times, which grants a monthly payment to parents that do not send their children to kindergarden. The idea is from the centre-right christian democrat party (CDU), which Chancellor Merkel belongs to. I find the bill appalling, and in today's paper (Sueddeutsche) read yet another argument against it: a backlash to integration. Germany has a large immigrant population, much of which lives in "ghettos", and the children of which face significant hurdles in their education, because many of them do not speak German by the time they start first grade. Early childhood education is key to ensuring that they have the correct skill-set and opportunities for their education, and do not face being "downgraded" in the German school system to a lower-tired school level just after four/five years.

Germany has general elections in fall 2013, and the social democrat Chancellor candidate (former finance minister Peer Steinbrück) has stated that he would immediately scrap this hearth premium if elected. He has my vote! Or would, just as Barack Obama would have, if I were entitled to vote.

I love my Finnish nationality. But knowing that I will probably never return their permanently makes me feel disenfranchised. Of course there are so many ways to be politically active beyond voting (think Obama's statement: the work only starts with the vote...), but in a democracy, no vote = no decision-making power. Lobbying to influence other people's decisions is one thing, being able to make a decision yourself is another.

p.s. The career-relaunch book I wrote about a few posts ago is turning out to be a great read. More on that later.