Face in the Wood
Imagine. It’s all a matter of perspective.

The second round of the election campaign in Slovenia is just about over. The two candidates who made it this far and will be competing for the position of the Slovenian ‘king of hearts‘ during the next five-year term are Lojze Peterle and Danilo Türk. Please note the *ü* – if your keyboard doesn’t include it, alcessa has at least one for sale.

The so-called “election silence” (according to Slovenian election legislation, ‘public election propaganda must cease at least 24 hours before the day of the elections’) will be imposed as of midnight, cutting down on the juiciness of Slovenian news programmes. Not only that, the election silence may even take some wind from talk shows, fashion shows, family shows, cooking programmes and – who knows – maybe cartoons as well? Anything but reality shows: those are far too sacred a topic to smear with something as filthy as politics. Except for the original Big Brother, that is.

You may have heard of the latest declared candidate in the US Presidential elections, Stephen Colbert of the Daily Show. At a web poll, over 80% of more than 27,000 (!) people voted “Yes! Finally a candidate who understands how ridiculous he is.”

Ok so the world is a stage and we should all keep’em laughing as we go, but… never underestimate the power of your own vote. In this apparently media-driven (ok so who is/owns the media anyway, right?) society, it is no longer the political candidates that take on the role of stars during election frenzy, but rather the show hosts who can make them talk about their families, pets, make them cook, sing, maybe do tricks, even?

The trailer for the most popular Slovenian family show at the end of the first round of the campaign actually said something to the effect of: we don’t care about the policies they endorse, we want to get to know them better on a personal level. !”#$”#$&$%##”$%!

Pardon my language, it was a slip of a finger… or two. It’s so easy to forget that the policies the elected people draft will eventually be implemented in a way that will affect your daily lives and it’s equally easy to forget that in democratic elections, your vote counts exactly as much as that of your neighbour, boss or favourite soap opera star.

By failing to vote, you are actually giving somebody else the power to vote instead of you. Think about it. Dr. Fil is definitelly getting off her comfy couch and braving any type of weather and potential ‘maček’ due to ‘martinovanje’ to cast her vote. How about you?