Talking Politics

I've been privileged to witness a number of elections here over the years. The same party keeps winning, but funnily enough the elections somehow always manage to generate a lot of interest - enough last night to keep Noi up, watching as the results came in. It just shows what a poor political pundit I would make that I assumed it would be a shoo-in for the ruling party and only realised things might be a lot closer in the final couple of days, which turned out to be the case. The Guardian managed quite a neat summary of it alI today, but somehow didn't quite capture the richness of the situation, I felt. By the way, I didn't stay up, in the event, but that was due to advanced age rather than lack of interest.

There's a curious lack of any obvious political philosophy that prevails here with regard to all the parties. The usual terminology of left and right somehow doesn't apply, which makes any discussion of politics in the broad sense in the classroom quite tricky, something that also applies to trying to explain hierarchies of class as they appertain in Britain and the United States. The place seems curiously post-political. I suppose the concern is with what might be termed governance, and who is likely to be best at it. Considering the mess that the two western nations I previously mentioned are in in terms of that very quality I reckon such a concern is by no means a bad thing.

By the by, this election seems to be particularly memorable for Noi with regard to Fafa and Fifi voting for the first time. Indeed, she positively interrogated Fafa regarding the matter. Fifi, for some reason, seems to think I'm a communist, heavily influenced by Uncle John telling her so, I suppose - and also by some of my more incendiary pronouncements. Must say, I find her perception, off the mark as it may be, curiously satisfying. Baffling the young is always entertaining in its way.