Week 2023#09: politics & you
Week 2023#09: politics & you
Key insights: participation in the political system gives you more control over your role in the system
Finally, cat content! I joined a weekend seminar organized by my special someone in the country side. Supposedly this is an adult cat. Also, this cat behaves more like a dog than a cat.
What I’ve learned
If you don’t get into politics, somebody else, maybe with less noble intentions will
Week 9 was parliamentary elections week in Estonia.
“Estonishing Evenings” organized a political discussion evening with representatives of each major political party in a panel discussion.
This was the second time this year that I’ve experienced politicians up close, getting a better idea of them as people, not just “politicians”, and seeing how nuanced a lot of the issues, which society here is facing, actually are.
Many times that evening I caught myself thinking, “oh, I never looked at this issue from that perspective” and suddenly there was no straightforward solution to a given problem anymore.
What I liked the most was that the evening was interactive: the audience of around 100 people could ask multiple questions to former ministers and other high-ranking politicians and those questions were actually discussed in earnest.
As a result of that evening, I decided to leave Reformierakond and join Eesti 200.
Why?
While Reform has a clear vision for the future, Eesti 200 has an even clearer and even more future-orientated vision: a drone and AI-assisted defense strategy, slimming down the state apparatus while increasing the quality of public service, and much more. Exciting stuff!
Eesti 200 is not as big as Reform, so there are more opportunities to contribute in a meaningful way.
I personally know people active in Eesti 200, so I feel emotionally invested in the party.
The above is a stark contrast to how I related to politics in Germany: mostly disinterest, paired with disappointment.
The system is so large, I can’t influence it in a meaningful way
Closer reflection on this revealed that:
I wasn’t in a place in my life to even think past my own problems while I was living in Germany,
while top-level politicians in Estonia are more approachable than in Germany, local politicians in Germany also carry a lot of (local) influence, so there are hierarchies on a similar scale. In theory that should make it possible to roughly equal impact.
Ultimately, we have to interact with the system we are living in, and active participation, of any kind, at least gives us some kind of control over our role within the system.
Expectations vs Reality
Another week where expectations are future-oriented:
My application to join Eesti 200 will be accepted
Käti will be actively contributing to the Decode Estonian website
The next “Decode Estonian” workshop will be sold out
What happened
Highlights of last week:
Planned and somewhat advertised the next “Decode Estonian” workshop @ 49 EUR per person,
Organized a trip to Nyland/Kramfors from the 22nd of March to the 27th of March, getting the house into better shape,
Spent the weekend with a bunch of people whom I don’t know, of various ages, talking about hate speech and discrimination. An unusual experience! I had no idea how European funding is actually spent in practice.