As I search for who I believe will be the most suitable candidate to represent me and every Egyptian with the vast differences between each and everyone of us I feel tired.
I feel overwhelmed with responsibility.
I feel like I'm back in college with the Student Union elections coming up.
Except this time its not about the amount of academic gain versus number of parties the SU will host. It's about peace, development, life and freedom.
Being deprived of all of these for so long I believe we should not mistaken our ability to vote as a privilege. It is actually a responsibility.
That responsibility is what has me panicking as we approach Nov. 28. I don't know how to make my decision. The last two times I took the step to make my voice count I basically blew it because my basis of choice was flawed from the beginning.
Everytime I remember that had I actually sent my ballot in the 2000 US elections I would've been one of the majority who put Bush into office. The reason I was going to vote for him was so lame, I am actually too embarrassed to reveal it in public.
The next time I voted I fully supported and backed one candidate over another in the Student Union elections simply because he was a friend of mine. Of course back then I had convinced myself and everyone around me it was because I truly believed in his capabilities. The truth is the candidate who lost and the one I did not support had a much better plan, better track record and would've been the better candidate.
This time I am on my own. I could take the easy way out and simply support the one candidate that the people around me support.There are so many opinions out there as to who will be the best representative in the parliament.
But there aren't enough plans out there to read. For some reason I can't seem to find information on all the candidates. Those who are not Internet friendly and simply take to the streets are different from the candidates who have all their activities online.
The media is so subjective that none of the mainstream papers or tv channels will give fair representation of the candidates. There are no debates to see candidates in front of each other and the whole process is confusing. Even the pages which explain the process are not all that telling.
The responsibility is overwhelming and as a friend of mine said, its as if we are being bullied into having a political opinion.
This time though I want to do things right.
I don't however know what the right thing to do is.
Voting is like parenting, you take a shot in the dark based on the books, (there are so many books with conflicting opinions you have to simply choose what makes most sense to you) or just do what your parents did before you.
At this point I can think of about 5 different conspiracies to put down as I struggle to study for the Nov. 28 test. But I won't go into them because now is not the time.
Is our time and effort worth spending for the unknown?
I truly do not know the answer to this.
One thing I do know from my experience with elections is they cause divisions. They cause hatred and anger between people. Splits and divisions that, in my opinion, SCAF has succeeded in nurturing between the people since Feb. 11.
So for the elections, if we do our research and manage to find anything, we will see that the goals are the same, the mission is one and action at this point is for the good of society. People may differ in their opinions of what is good, which is why we need to search well to find the proper representative of all these different people. BUT we need to remember that the days of personal gain on our account needs to come to an end, so let us not be puppets and fall into the trap of our inadequate media, ignorant gossip and do the work ourselves.
I feel overwhelmed with responsibility.
I feel like I'm back in college with the Student Union elections coming up.
Except this time its not about the amount of academic gain versus number of parties the SU will host. It's about peace, development, life and freedom.
Being deprived of all of these for so long I believe we should not mistaken our ability to vote as a privilege. It is actually a responsibility.
That responsibility is what has me panicking as we approach Nov. 28. I don't know how to make my decision. The last two times I took the step to make my voice count I basically blew it because my basis of choice was flawed from the beginning.
Everytime I remember that had I actually sent my ballot in the 2000 US elections I would've been one of the majority who put Bush into office. The reason I was going to vote for him was so lame, I am actually too embarrassed to reveal it in public.
The next time I voted I fully supported and backed one candidate over another in the Student Union elections simply because he was a friend of mine. Of course back then I had convinced myself and everyone around me it was because I truly believed in his capabilities. The truth is the candidate who lost and the one I did not support had a much better plan, better track record and would've been the better candidate.
This time I am on my own. I could take the easy way out and simply support the one candidate that the people around me support.There are so many opinions out there as to who will be the best representative in the parliament.
But there aren't enough plans out there to read. For some reason I can't seem to find information on all the candidates. Those who are not Internet friendly and simply take to the streets are different from the candidates who have all their activities online.
The media is so subjective that none of the mainstream papers or tv channels will give fair representation of the candidates. There are no debates to see candidates in front of each other and the whole process is confusing. Even the pages which explain the process are not all that telling.
The responsibility is overwhelming and as a friend of mine said, its as if we are being bullied into having a political opinion.
This time though I want to do things right.
I don't however know what the right thing to do is.
Voting is like parenting, you take a shot in the dark based on the books, (there are so many books with conflicting opinions you have to simply choose what makes most sense to you) or just do what your parents did before you.
At this point I can think of about 5 different conspiracies to put down as I struggle to study for the Nov. 28 test. But I won't go into them because now is not the time.
Is our time and effort worth spending for the unknown?
I truly do not know the answer to this.
One thing I do know from my experience with elections is they cause divisions. They cause hatred and anger between people. Splits and divisions that, in my opinion, SCAF has succeeded in nurturing between the people since Feb. 11.
So for the elections, if we do our research and manage to find anything, we will see that the goals are the same, the mission is one and action at this point is for the good of society. People may differ in their opinions of what is good, which is why we need to search well to find the proper representative of all these different people. BUT we need to remember that the days of personal gain on our account needs to come to an end, so let us not be puppets and fall into the trap of our inadequate media, ignorant gossip and do the work ourselves.
