Good Drunks?

Writing in the local paper. Local Issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs, which can now be seen online  (in Spanish) as well. 

I have two passports, two nationalities and yet, for years, I haven’t been able to vote in either country. Canada, where I was born, only recently overturned a long-established law that stated that if you hadn’t lived in the country for five years, you weren’t eligible to vote. Then, in the run up to the Brexit vote, knowing which way the million and a half Brits living in the EU and the two million more living elsewhere would surely vote, the government voted down a bill that would have scrapped their fifteen-year limit to voting rights for its citizens living overseas. Indeed it’s only thanks to the comical farce taking place in the UK over Brexit will I still be able to walk up the hill to the Diputacion *my polling stations) on Sunday and exercise a right denied me and those like me, at least at the local and EU levels: the right to vote. It’s a right I take seriously. I’ve lived in Libya under Gadhafi, Laos and its communist regime and even Azerbaijan and Yemen with their authoritarian regimes hidden behind democratic facades that only consist of flags and empty, jingoistic songs that constantly repeat the name of the country and its leader. I have seen firsthand what it’s like to be voiceless, to feel powerless over the decisions that directly affect lives. It’s a dark reality that Spaniards of a certain age will remember all too well and one which the vast majority would prefer to put behind them. But being able to vote is a right that is easily taken for granted by those that have always had it. Especially when, no matter who you vote for, promises are never kept and your quality of life continues to decline. When campaign promises become the equivalent of a drunk’s ravings that are forgotten the day after, it’s easy to become disenfranchised and abandon the right that some many still struggle for. I can’t say I have seen very many concrete ideas by any of the candidates beyond fancy words like conciliation, inclusion, employment and sustainability but whoever wins, they will have won for something. Let’s hope they aren’t bad drunks and remember what they promised the day after.