Category: politics

"In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman." (Margaret Thatcher)

Frau Dr. Angela Dorothea Merkel was sworn into office yesterday as Germany’s first female chancellor (or chancellorette as quoted in another blog) and already made her first offical trip to Paris and Bruxelles to reconfirm this special relationship between France, Germany and the EU.

Now, blogging on politics often carries a certain punchline somewhere and there sure is a lot of amusing stuff already on this woman and her new team of ministers (as pictured). Be it her ever changing looks (read: hairstyle), her shy husband (who reminds us of Denis Thatcher among other parallels like the scientific background) or even her childhood in the former GDR, which apparently formed her in one way or another.
I think a lot of people in Germany actually like the big coalition between the CDU, CSU (right-wing) and the SPD (somewhere in the middle wing) that enabled this new government and I do of course hope that the other, smaller opposition parties will take a big chance to add their constructive criticsm.
And just as much as I would like to make more fun of all this and openly laugh about Frau Merkel’s clumsy appearances, I would like to point out that it’s good to have a female chancellor in this world of sensitive, neurotic male politicians. I never voted for her, but I am happy that she made it nevertheless.

The alternative would have bored me to death, I think. :-)

Kudos to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) for compiling a list of 40 politicians ("list of shame") whose "derogatory speech along ethnic and racial lines" during the referendum campaigns were an incitement to violence.
The way I understand it is that the KNCHR is not only into reproving those politicians, but moreover its a test to see how far the Attorney General takes this matter seriously. And please note: "The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (the Commission) is an independent National Human Rights Institution established by an Act of Parliament."
For me as an external observer, it is nice to see how an independet group really gets to the point and puts the finger into the wound, thereby challenging the whole system. I think in many countries we have a lot of politicians that are way too much involved into the political game(s) and there’s this big gap between the electorate and their elected representatives.
As for Kenya, the referendum issue shows me that there are still a lot of things Kenyans will need to debate upon, a lot of frustration that needs to be discussed. And when I look at my own country – Germany – I see this huge gap between the people from the East and West, North and South and I wonder if things over here could also become as emotional as in Kenya right now. What else does it take for people over here to wake up and start taking part in those discussions? I know how difficult it is to motivate others on such issues but many only complain once its already too late. Maybe there a lot of political decisions that we can not agree with but it might already help to talk about problems and not to ignore them and leave them "to others".

Ouch! I really really tried to avoid worrying about this question – but!, the future german government (read: serikali ya mseto) TONIGHT decided upon the fate of this country: they want to raise the value added tax (V.A.T.) from 16 to 19% (as of January 1st, 2007).

Now, I am NOT an economist like Lady Tembomoja but I guess it doesn’t take much to understand its meaning for this country. MAYBE it was about time for a change, MAYBE Germany with its relatively low 16% was at the bottom of the european VAT scale (ranging from 15% in Cyprus to 25% in Denmark) so change was inevitable, and MAYBE its just one of those taxes that is easily raised and supposed to be fair on everyone’s pocket. On the other hand – who’s going to pay for all this? How am I, a student with no income, supposed to pay even more?

The way I’ve learnt it is that once your pockets are empty (and not just then), you start thinking: where did all my money go? and what will I do about it next time? will I be able to spend it wisely?
What I am trying to get at is: our governments (german, kenyan, any..) are always complaining about the money issue, they always require fresh pesa to come in and yet they try to safe it only at the wrong ends. Think of schools/educational-, health- and family policies, think of the things we as a society want to have and other things we don’t need so urgently and ask yourself if it’s just a question of the pocket or of your priorities.

We all have been witnessing budget speeches, we know this procedure from different institutions/organizations and we know how such things are debatted and often end up in a compromise. I just don’t get it though why they put more emphasis on obtaining even more money instead of rethinking their budget strategies and how to really spend it wisely in future. They DO have money, they’ve already taken it from the people, wasted it and now they are looking for alternative sources. Where’s the government that will really care about its people and needs? What’s on our agenda? How do we want to live as a society? What are our priorities?
And: what will we be able to do about it? How can we point out to them what we really want? Who are "we"? Can we come up with our own blueprint? We, the electorate?

This politics thing seems to be like playing soccer: there are only a few players on the field, but millions of referees. Sorry, it’s just too many whistles blowing at the same time…