Tuesday 26 January 2010

Step 1 - embrace the truth

While I've never been one to seek the truth and the truth alone, I'd like to think of myself as an honest, upstanding young guy. And so, in that vein, I'm running in an upcoming election.

I've let a lot of people know about it before, and I'm not declaring which one it is formally due to a number of severe punishments that might blight my campaign, and potentially cause me to pull out. Which I don't want. And neither will a certain body of people.

I have dedicated a lot of my time to such activities before even thinking about going on a march to win this particular election, and although I appear to be policy-lite I can assure everyone that I will be true to what I set out to do. They're not unachievable tasks by any means, but that said they are the sort of things that most people would find time in their schedules to avoid. Subsequently I hope to evolutionise the organisation into which I hope to be elected by simple structures and an improvement of infrastructure and coherence of policy within afformentioned organisation.

It's difficult to do this without winning an election. And it's difficult to win an election without being quite outspoken about ridiculous policies that might attract a voter but also a cynic. I feel that my only weaknesses are that I refuse to overstretch myself, but my counter argument would be that I will be able to change the small things to make the big things easier to manage in the future. It's not a legacy, it's a sustainable approach to the future of an organisation I genuinely feel I belong to. And it's a long time since one of those has come along.

It is increasingly tricky to preach what I practise in a world where only the extraordinary get credit. I accept that in many ways I will be relying not on policies or people skills but rather the enticement of voters via pretty young people, which traditionally fares well against those with more rigorous beliefs or upstanding issues. While it is a sad state of affairs, at least it is an honest approach to a population who increasingly choose abstaining because they can't be bothered to go out of their way to actually declare themselves as abstaining instead of dirty tricks employed by far too many of my colleagues here on this planet.

If I lose, then so be it. As long as I lose in the right way, to someone who has also earned the right to stand, let alone reside in the office of this position, and to someone who has gone about the election in the right way. I refuse to accept a defeat at the hands of a mercenary who only wants something to put on their CV because they have nothing else to say for themselves.

If they'd embraced what the role stood for in the years leading up to this moment then they wouldn't be so narcissistic in their approach.

'McGuinness

Sunday 10 January 2010

There is a light

My dissertation is finished (although not officially submitted), the worst of the weather is probably over (touch wood) and it won't be long before I can start planning the future of the Students' Union here at Queen Mary. But what about the rest of the world?

I will confess that this will be somewhat more contemporary an entry compared to some of the others, but bear with me:

Terrorism is still happening. Take Yemen, Angola, Detroit, Somalia, Afghanistan... for all our efforts to apparently rid the world of terror (start with the moooooooovies and work backwards, it's probably easier to nanny the planet if you begin with the media) there have been precious few inroads. That said, perhaps we're seeing more evidence because there are more reporters or it's more likely to make the headlines. As I said, out of sight, out of mind - change the broadcasters' output if you want to win this one.

The economy hasn't made many advances from where it was last time I checked. Perhaps fewer people are being made unemployed, fewer banks are failing and the like, but for the most part it seems to be just as 'bad' as it ever was. I haven't yet experienced any of the fallout from before, but I'm sure it's coming. No change.

Society is still a little too angry for my liking. We continue to blame everyone else for everything, we come up with solutions with practicable methods of applications, we have an excuse for every moment of adversity and we refuse to admit responsibility. This is where I come in. Take it on the chin, accept that no one will ever give you credit, even if you shout it out, and season your life well. A pinch of salt gives flavour to what would otherwise be bland. Where is society angry? People like me getting frustrated with people using the increasingly lenient flow-charts or scripts of dealing with problems that we're faced with. 'I can't come in, I've got a cold'. Rubbish. I went to school in crutches for a month, so why can't people with the sniffles go to somewhere they get paid?

I have begun to lose my way I fear, but then I am just as part of the problem as I am a commentator on it: if it weren't for the royal family there wouldn't be a constant in our lives. Think about it, it makes sense, even if you don't agree with their position.

'McGuinness