Advise Yourself

I was browsing through a blog talking about how the person like us look back to his past and forward a question of what to advice a younger-self when the idea about judging actions of one-self, learning from others, teaching others lessons we learn from the past clicked in my exhausted mind.

All this came to my mind in a fraction of a second.

I don't know why my mind drifted into politics when I had these thoughts, maybe because of all the news about elections: elections in Iraq, elections in the Netherlands, and last week first round of the regional elections in France where all my thoughts circulated around it. The news of these election all agree that right parties in France, including president Sarkozy's one received a big slap in the face from the French citizen.

Life is about questions and answers, and we learn by seeking answers to our questions, and this blog had and will continue to have a lot of questions about life. Sharing with other by writing these questions on my blog is one of the ways to find answers for my questions, and learn from others. There are people who never learn from other people lesson and experience and that's why two people know each other and they advice each other, but each fall in the same mistake over and over again. I guess this is some human nature: we advice each other, but we sometimes never take that advice seriously, and fall in the pit

Back to French elections last Sunday: I have been to France twice in the last two months. I talked to people there and the impression I had that no one is happy with the direction and strategy their government is taking, particularly President Sarkozy. In fact there is a growing resentment towards their leader, some called his strategy indirectly as "the Americanization of France" policy. However, Sarkozy's attempt to pull France nationalism away from its people is not the only reason. People there are not happy with the outcome and situation, and this is the reason that they look for another leadership.

This has been proved, of course, last Sunday and we will see the final result next Sunday.

On the other hand, last week Dutch labor party leader, Wouter Bos, has announced his resignation due to family commitments. Shortly after that there was an announcement that the 63 years old current mayor of Amsterdam, decided to take the helm and became the new leader of the prominent political party. Cohen's move has been widely praised, because he will be the party's representative in upcoming general elections in June.

Job Cohen, I want to emphasize, is known for his strong personality and acknowledged political career, so he is not just "another" politician who is trying his luck by going out and spray words against this ethnic group or gather people in a specific park to announce the birth of a new party while bashing another ethnic group.

Yesterday, a survey took place among Dutch citizens and the result was shocking: if general elections took place on the day of the survey, Job Cohen would be the next Prime Minister so easily, on the account of other political parties, such as that of SP and PVV (I rather call it Wilder's political sect than Free Netherlands party).

Isn't that enough indication that voting for Wilders in the last municipal elections was done out of emotional rather than rational look at things?

I wrote about these elections here)

I talked once or twice about emotional factor, and I talked once or twice about how fear is the main reason behind people rallying behind Wilders in last election until this day, but comparing the results of yesterday's survey with the results of the regional elections in the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago shows how the Dutch citizen is looking for a symbol to have them united. Like any citizen from any population living on this planet, no difference between third world or first world country, every citizen in every country is looking for a leader to look up to. Observing the lack of satisfaction with current leaders the people in the Netherlands began looking somewhere else. This has been taken advantage by people like Geert Wilders (among other things he took advantage of, such as bad attitude of some Moroccan teenagers on street and put that attitude on the shoulders of the whole Muslim community all around the country and in whole Europe.

The result is natural when you are afraid and looking for someone to unite you, in fact to protect you: you choose for him.

Yesterday's survey in the Netherlands, and the result of France's regional elections are good lessons for the voter to prepare for the next elections in June. People with extreme ideology, people with hatred against other people must not be given the chance, because these are not the standards for living together regardless of ethnic background, race, nationality.

How many lessons it takes for a human being to learn and to be able to choose what is right and what is wrong?

Or do we need some Yoga to exercise our brains on how to forecast a disaster that might take place in a peaceful country?

But why forecasting? We have enough lessons from the past: Hitler's extermination machine is still in people minds, when he ripped off society from the concept of living together, peacefully.