European Politics.. or how to write about something I don’t know anything about…

“I have a guilty secret,” that was what one of the political leaders at the Th!nk About It opening event said to a whole European Parliament room of curious young bloggers. We expected the worst - as it is common in journalists’ minds- ready to be the first to write down the nasty things this politician was going to confess.  Had he been cheating, collaborating with the opposite party or maybe worst… did he lose objectivity for a moment?

But then he said ” I am a blogger” and pens went down again. What’s wrong with being a blogger? That is exactly the new trend if you want to become a popular politician, isn’t it? Isn’t it the golden road to fame and holy worships? Didn’t Barack Obama pave  the way for politicians to Facebook and YouTube? I remember I talked to a hippie-American when I stayed in Montreal last summer. She voted for Obama, because he  “at least knows how to handle a computer”. McCain, in her lively imagination, did already freak out when searching for the start button of his PC. 

At that moment I didn’t know much about Obama yet, nor about McCain. What I picked up from the Media was the fact Obama was the first black-and-white-mixed American with a serious chance to become the US president and that McCain had a name that sounded like potatoes and tasted like ‘Bush III’.  Public opinion can be very short-sighted of course. I can speak for myself. I didn’t even consider McCains real intellectual capacities after imagining him in his ‘quest for the start-button’.

I don’t think this American hippie girl spend sleepless nights considering all the pro’s and con’s of the presidential candidates.  She obviously had some other personal problems to be sleepless about. Like most of us. My grandmother doesn’t worry about the next Members of the European Parliament, but about the happiness  of her two seriously spoiled cats.  My uncle, widower since the beginning of this year, would feel offended if I would talk to him about the importance of a deliberate EU vote.   And for some people my age and younger,  the new MEP’s just need to know some basic computer skills to get in.  If you, as a politician, can even offer them a blog to surf to, you already dream to become ‘Europe’s next president’…

Are things that simple? I don’t think so… At least, I don’t want to make a superficial choice in June. The person I will vote truly has to deserve the tick of my red pencil.  Just one problem liggers in my mind…

My own guilty secret is even worse than a blogging politician. Be ready and feel my shame… ” I am a blogger for the European Blogging Competition… but I don’t know anything about European Politics”.  But please don’t run away now. I can explain it… really, please, stay. I can talk about other things if you want. Just ask, I can offer you 3 years of Academic knowledge in Arts & Cultures. Do you want some Psychology,  your wish is my command. But still, you came here in the first place for the real stuff,  European Politics,  so I will not disappoint you.

On this blog I will turn my ‘guilty secret’ upside down. I will try to understand what seems like a big euphemistic and unpragmatic chaos for me.  Little by little, I will try to untie the nod. European Politics can’t be that hard to understand. It is made by humans,  for humans.  It has to do with daily life, if you know how to translate it.  Feel free to help me in my mission. Will I finally know who to vote for in June?

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