Green election

Where’s the sustainability debate in the Swedish general #election? http://tiny.cc/tdq0z #sustainability #Sweden #green

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

I think, next year we will have elections in Croatia, too. Honestly, every time there is an election i have a big question who to choose and often i don’t even go voting. Sometimes, i also make mistakes in preferring one candidate or party which at the end shows itself as a bad choice. Then i get even more confused.

Unfortunately, very often choosing seems more like some lottery numbers best guess, instead of choosing concrete, predictable and suistainable programs. It seems in every country there are 2-3 major parties which every now and then just switch sides, becoming leaders and opposition, and that’s pretty much it. There are of course smaller and independent ones but they are mostly to weak to make a difference, so sometimes they go in coalitions and make compromises just to achieve one of their critical goals (but at the cost of accepting even bad other ones).

So it is a question, is our politics only an ammalgamation of different narrow interests or we really have a carefully interrelated long run holistic programme in the best interests of all people. Some parties or experts seems even to don’t want to cooperate with their suggestions and ideas, because they wait they win the elections first, not to help their competitor to use it and win their political points. (?)

The other problem, i think, is that of financing political parties from private sources and donations, which is very controversial. And also the fact that big parties have lots of members, which will most likely vote for them automatically, sometimes even because they will make some personal interest of it, and not neccesarily because they have better program or skills to execute it properly. …

One of very disturbing idea on political scene (and what i read here also) is: Should we sacrifice our values and that what makes our society most worthy to achieve some other goal ? For instance one can say: we should reduce taxes, cut workers rights (i am surprised that comes from the left, too), lower our social benefits, permit environment degradation, etc. to improve employment, growth and enterpreneurship. …

Personaly, i don’t believe in such approach, especially when those who loose all that are not becoming properly compensated or have their share in directing it, which in lots of cases isn’t even truly possible, because lots of values and social benefits are not tangibile and can not be rightfully payed for at all. Besides, most people when they think of Sweden, think also of their unique social system, which is integrated in everything you do, including trust, care and wellbeing in your products and services you export. …

This is probably because of this heavy crisis situation and heavy unemployment which is in Croatia even a bigger problem. Maybe more emphasis should be put on green technology and green economy instead only on global warming (which is not only national but global problem). The good thing as a foreign policy, however, would be also to help other countries to be more suistainable and reduce unfair and only high profit seeking competition (which Sweden already does), also because these crisis presures come from abroad.

For instance, few days ago i watched a TV report on plans to build a major golf terrain with appartements right above historical city of Dubrovnik. It appears the foreign company who seeks urbanisation (and goverment subsidies!) for investments is only a lobbyst who seeks to get a permit and resell its rights to someone else and earn billions just for paperwork. It seems there is still lots of capital out there that tries to win easy money and fraud alike bussineses. These should certainly not to be allowed to gain momentum again. …

But for the start i think people altogether should be confronted with much more meaningfull informations about our present situation and alternatives. For that to happen i think there has to be more invested into objective analysis and report on a more broader system level and how this system components interrelate together, not just by itself. (?)

In Croatia, when it comes to hollistic thinking many failed, even experts. They usually concentrate on one field like finances, or monetary politics. But someone should know far more then that if it want’s to lead a nation.

I agree, absolutely. The only problem is that most people aren’t experts, even if this might not be always neccessary. … For instance yesterday it was in the news that Germany decided to prolong the use of 17 nuclear powerplants for additional 12 years after 2020. The officals claim (after carefull analisys)that green technologies are still not evolved enough to replace it, so a mix including green, nuclear and other energy sources will still be required as most green contemporary alternative possible. … (?)