You know how we read about some authors, and how they wake up in the middle of the night with this storyline in their head, and they have to start writing it all down before they lose it? Well, that was me last night, laying in bed waiting for sleep to come and thinking about all this election crap and talk about government surveillance etc etc. And it got me thinking of this fabulous beginning of my newest blog post. My mind was literally spinning with ideas and such forth, so I took it upon myself to begin writing it on my phone - because I sure wasn't leaving my cosy warm bed to sit at my computer. And so it began. After a few hundred words, and the realisation that it was past 9:30, I stopped and figured that my email would save it as a draft. Finally, I went to sleep.
Well apparently my phone version of my email
doesn't save drafts, so I am back to the beginning again. Darn, but hey, I'll try to make it just as good.
Now, please don't assume that I know what I'm talking about - quite frankly, I don't really. This is just my personal opinion and ideas on the topic.
There's been so much talk and speculation about the "spying", and it's typical that it'd be brought into focus near the election, creating heaps of drama and rife between government and citizens. You know, personally I think Edward Snowden is pretty darn awesome, giving out the information like he did, but I'm just in two minds about all this possible spying.
1: What are they even achieving? Ok, so keeping an eye on the USA and other massive countries like that I can sort of understand, but New Zealand? We're so jolly small that why would they do it, and what exactly would they get out of it? Do they just video us for their own amusement and watch it on their lunch breaks? There is just so much red tape on the entire subject that it is simply too hard to keep up anyway.
Also, it's not as if they're secretly setting up little cameras in our homes to watch how we live, we're not unusual animals who are being monitored for specific behaviours in a zoo for crying out loud. I think we should be more concerned with random unknown people around the world hacking our computers and watching us through our webcams because they've got nothing else to do.
It would be a breach of our personal privacy if they
are actually "spying" on us, there's no doubt! But the thing is, once you leave your home you're going out into the world, there is no stopping anybody from doing what they do.
It's like photographers, take a photo in a private place such as at a home or workplace, they really need permission from the people who are in the photo. However, if they were to walk out onto a busy street in Auckland during lunch hour, they could take as many photos as they like because it is a
public place. So if the Government
is "spying" on us in this "public place" is it really spying anyway?
2: What information are they taking, and who are they giving it to and what is its use? It's not as if they're trying for statistics, we've got departments who do that for them legally. And there are only so many people at the top of the human body and that's the Prime Ministers, Presidents and Queen. What are all these people gonna do with our information anyway? Seriously?!
However you would get away with calling me naive when it comes to elections, and government issues and whatnot. I
despise politics with a passion, and generally block it out when it comes on the news. But I am curious, and I am going to vote, if only because I would feel guilty for being part of my generation who have no interest in the government. In my personal opinion (it's that fancy word that I use far too often but I enjoy doing it anyway), I think they should change the way of voting. But for now, I'm going to put a picture in your mind and I want you to try to see it.
A $10 special is something you can get from here in town at one of our many fast food outlets on the main street. It's one of those meals that's just perfect for any occasion and there is always plenty to go around. A big scoop of deep fried chips, a few battered fish, some potato fritters and a few sausages, covered in a large dusting of salt and wrapped in our local newspaper. You can take it anywhere, to the beach, the park, home, add a good helping of good ol' Watties and you're set. There is just nothing better. There are many implications with this meal, you may have guessed a few. There is the coating of salt that could possibly be mistaken for snow it's that thick, there's our local newspaper, complete with black and coloured ink, holding all the hot oily food. Need I mention the potential double dipping of the Watties?! And how about the fact that the servings are not going to be even? There really is a lot to think about.
Now imagine four friends, sitting at a picnic table on the grassy verge near some sand dunes by the beach, they are all quite unique in their thinking patterns, which I'm about to describe. The first guy just digs in, he's so jolly hungry he doesn't look back.
His friend is a little less aggressive, she picks daintily at the meal and would prefer to have her own sauce, but doesn't mention anything for concern of being laughed at. She's a "go with the flow" type of person on most occasions.
The third is a little bit more considerate, and possibly brings up in conversation what chemicals they could possibly be eating that has leached out of the ink and into the hot oily food. But, once the meal is over, the idea is long forgotten. This sort of thing may flash in his mind every so often, but he's easily distracted by the bigger things - like an empty stomach.
Finally the fourth friend is very passionate about everything she comes across, she speaks her mind without a filter and does what she likes without fear of judgement. She stops everyone before they begin and makes them portion out the food, and takes the sauce bottle and gets her own because double dipping is disgusting. Not only that but she dusts off as much salt as she possibly can, and makes a mental note to eat a very healthy meal tomorrow with little salt to balance it all out.
Now that you've got that, I want you to think of these four friends as voters. The first guy will probably vote if and when he feels like it, he isn't concerned at all. The second will probably vote for the same party as her parents. The third will seriously think about what party to vote for, may bring it up in discussion every so often, but will vote for the party he thinks is better for him, and will likely vote for the same party every time. And the fourth will consider all the options, will talk non stop about it right up until election day and will vote for the party that will benefit the
entire country the best.
Thinking about these comparisons that I've come up with, I seriously have to wonder on the whole election. Each party is coming up with good ideas and bad ideas, all different. So either way, whoever you vote for is going to have pros and cons, the pros are great and that's what you're actually voting for, and you just have to live with the cons that will come into government too. And when you think about it, the promises a Party makes only ever seem to come into play on their last year anyway! It takes two of their three years to put words into action, so what really is the point?! I'm going to mention again, my honest opinion, and that is this: Why aren't we voting for promises, not Parties? Think about it, if every party promised ONE thing, and it was anonymous, it would change a lot of things. Instead of voting for one of the 15 or so Parties, we would vote for one of 15 or so promises/changes. And with electorates, people always seem to vote for the same party relevant person, but if each
person was to offer something for that district, again anonymously, then maybe things would be different for better reasons?!
People are so biased these days, and everything is so confusing, it's no wonder that Generation Y is avoiding voting. All we see on TV is election election election, and this government person did this, and this one did that. It's madness. But, that's just my personal opinion ;)
