Tuesday, May 19, 2009

time to vote

Have you seen these videos?





You can also click
here and see what they call "versión fuerte", and some opinions about these ads.

Now that we have to vote next month, have you thought about what these ads say? It might even be the first time that some of you are going to vote. Are you interested in exercising this right? Do you have information about the different candidates, or are you planning to find some? Do you think it is important to vote responsibly? In all cases, why or why not?

8 comments:

Eli =) said...

Those videos are excellent!!! But it would be great if they were showed everywhere, not just on the internet.

Being able to vote is a right that most of us don´t consider as important as it really is. Especially the new generation. I reckon that this is a cultural problem that involves different facts.
First of all,It seems that since the last dictatorship there´s a generalized idea and fear that if you get involved in political group or something like that, something may happen to you. From this derives the fact that there´s a lack of proper teaching. In other words, people don´t care to know about politics so they don´t teach their children, mostly because they don´t know how to or what to say.
Secondly, the fact that Tv programms and radio stations take one side insted of showing the hole picture don´t help much either. We only know about some politicians, not about everyone. And the truth is taht most of us are tired of seeing the same faces.
When voting time comes most of us have no idea who the candidates are, their ideas, if they´ve already been a senator or a mayor, and if so haw they fulfilled their duty...and so on. And what most of us do is to ask our parents whom to vote, or when we enter the dark room, take the ballot that we like the most and that´s it...our job is done.

I know that it´s not easy to learn about every person that is running for a seat, but at least we sould start to be conscious about what we are doing, why, andy also why it´s so important to be responsible. Asking for a change is not enough, we have to make something for that to happen.

A. F. Ch. said...

To vote, especially, to have a voting mind is a hard thing to accomplish.
I agree with you Atenea in the sense that most of us don't have a strong consideration towards voting. I also agree when you mention the roots of the problem, leading to the educational system as possible concern. I believe that although it's our parents’ duty to teach and inform us with the latest news towards the next elections, for instance, it's our duty as well. We must be clear-minded and have a profound interest in the elections because we are voting, in fact, our country candidates, which isn't a common or simple fact.

One observation to Atenea's comment: The videos shown on the internet have been shown on TV as well.

Unknown said...

I agree with Atenea that the videos are excellent indeed!!
I believe that the problem about voting without responsibility here in Argentina arises from people's distrust on politicians and the traits they are associated with. Argentinian people seem not to believe in what politicians promise, they see them as corrupt people, liers, who only think about their pockets. Therefore, they take voting just as an act of dropping an envelope into a box, leaving aside the responsibility it implies. From my point of view, it is important to vote responsibly, however, it happened to me that when I must vote, I just choose ANY ballot paper of politicians I guess are not going to win, and place it inside the envelope. I have the feeling of distrust on politicians myself. I argue that this attitude should change, but how? Most Argentinian citizens, as well as myself, have a negative image of politicians which does not let them vote responsibly. Is there a way for this problem to be solved or most of us will continue voting with no responsibility in mind?

Unknown said...

I believe that being able to vote is one of the most important rights we are entitled to. Even though citizens should take responsibility when voting, they seem not to care much about it.

One of the reasons why people do not seem to have much interest in voting might be lack of trust in politicians. Many citizens know that politicians make promises to get more votes. But when the time to fulfill their promises comes, they do not do much. For this reason, some people believe that even if the candidate they have chosen is elected, their problems will probably not be solved. This frustration leads to nothing but lack of interest.
Another cause of this problem might be education. Both parents and teachers should tell children and teenagers how important it is to vote consciously. They should encourage children to get involved in the voting process, so that when they are older they take it more responsibly.
I did not receive much encouragement for voting with responsibility from my family. But I know that we are very lucky to be able to choose. I am not the most informed person in the world, but I try to get as much information about candidates as I can. I like to have the opportunity to vote. I believe that those who do not care about it, cannot afterwards complain about the problems our country has.

bubble said...

I consider it really important to vote. It`s our country, our own lives we are risking when we put the envelope into the box. unfortunately, as u all people have already mentioned, many people do not take voting seriously. It is true that we are a bit dissapointed about all the promisses we`ve heard, which never became true. But we don`t have enything else to do. Trust. We must trust. But first, it is really important to study all the candidates, to follow their projects closely, and choose carefully, counciously. I have known many people who take the same method than the guys in the videos at the time to vote, and then, they criticize what others have chosen. what do you think of those kind of people who act like this?

lara croft said...

I agree with most of you: it´s not easy to vote in Argentina. Most candidates are the same people we have already seen NOT do what they promised, so how can people vote them again? And the funny thing is that they do, and those people keep winning elections!
To be honest, this makes me furious, and that´s why I don´t really feel like voting. I will, mind you, because I want to act responsible, but I´d like to be able to vote for someone I really want to choose, and I don´t see any candidate that I think I can trust. What I mean is: I think I´m responsible if I do my best to vote consciously, so I don´t agree that if I´m not satisfied with any candidate and I still vote that means that I don´t take voting seriously (I say this because I have the impression that that´s what some of you mean).
I´d like to ask a final question: we are more than 100 students in this subject. Does everybody really want to vote? Isn´t there anybody who is planning to vote like in the videos? Come on, be honest! If that´s what somebody is going to do, it would be interesting to know why, so say it!

Ganesha said...

In answer to what Lara Croft said, I wanted to tell you I do really want to vote but I haven't had the opportunity to vote yet.
I'm 22 and I couldn't vote till now because in the last two presidential elections I didn't appear on the electoral roll.
Now this is going to change (hopefully).

On the other hand, I agree with all of you. I think that people is not really aware of the responsibility of voting. If we keep on complaining about the candidature of a particular person then, we, as citizens, should do something to change our situation. In order to do so, we have to be responsible and pay better attention on the next political campaigns. Besides, we have to be more interested in politics so that we can get an overall idea of the different proposals.

Then, I believe all of you are right when you say that there's not much encouragement from school in the matter of voting. This leads to lack of interest and also to a general overview that politics is somehow obscure, dirty and false. But the truth is that since we are in democracy we have the right to vote; it is our fundamental human right! If we were conscious of this we would realize that, in the end, WE have the power of making things happen, but we have to act consequently.

The videos are excellent! They impressed me in the sense that they reflect in a faithfull way what happens at the time one has to vote.

FloReS:) said...

GREAT VIDEOS!! They are cathartic in some strange way...

...And they are absolutely right. Of course voting responsibly is important. In fact, responsibility and voting should not be think of separately, but of course, life is life, it's not perfect and only rarely the act of voting is accompanied by a responsible attitude.

I can't help feeling politics as a personal subject. Having been raised in a "radical" family, closely related to the political scene, I have come to know what I like to call THE OTHER SIDE OF POLITICS. The side of (with sorrow I say this) the losers, the ones who have gotten involved with politics in their life not for financial advantage (because they haven't received that), but because they truly love it in their soul, and feel passionate about discussing issues of importance, trying to find the way to solve them, to help people, to live in a better community, with honesty first and foremost.

But as I say, this is the losing side, the side I feel almost no one knows about. The side that never gets elected. It seems people like to maintain the 'statu quo'.

In my first voting experience in the last presidential elections, I was hopeful, but then felt so angry with the results that I wanted never to vote again, I thought it didn't even make a difference, so why bother??
But I realised I couldn't think like that. The right to vote is not something that has always existed in this country, for women and for all people in general. And we are talking about people who will handle our hard-earned incomes, who will make choices that will affect how much we spend when we go shopping, what kind of service we get when we have to go to the hospital and so many other things. THIS IS A 'BIG DEAL'.

It's a reality that information about candidate's proposals is not always available, but we should try to find it, or think about what it means if it's absent. In any case, I feel that we are living a moment in time of which we can benefit from a lot in terms of getting information. There are so many resources that we can exploit. And there are many people, newspapers, projects and programs out there right now, that try to present a view of the present circumstances of our country under a different light than the usual, so we should take advantage of that! Start opening our eyes, our ears to read and listen beyond the words, because it's our future we are putting in the hands of the people we vote.