Monday 11 July 2016

The Day That Britain Left Europe.


london
So #Brexit happened, by a tragically thin sliver. Just a wee two percent difference in the Yes/No vote and kaboom! everything changed. You would think something this dramatic would at least warrant dramatic poll numbers but apparently reality is not scripted by Hollywood. 

The most interesting information to come out of the polls has to be the generational difference in opinion about the EU. The majority of young Britons wanted to stay, the majority of old Britons did not. Guess who gets to live with the consequences of their elders' choices, watching their future get knocked in an unwanted direction in the space of 24 hours? As someone who suffers from immense frustration over the undue concentration of power in elderly hands in my own country, I feel for young Britain. 

In light of this, I would like to raise the issue of weighted voting* in my own Republic's democratic design. Perhaps not for all votes, but the idea would be to concentrate influence in the hands of the demographic most affected by a policy. "One thing which could be done is to give those under 30 more votes than those over, for example, 70. This would be done to give young people more say in their futures than older people."

I think it a brilliant way in which to address the Tyranny ya Wazee that is constantly shafting young Tanzanians and getting in the way of a reasonable standard of living for all.
* a quick search will show you that this area of democratic philosophy is well-developed in terms of literature. Honestly if I was to do PoliSci at UDSM I would probably be a bit more interested in a course that discusses this sort of progressive thinking than revisiting of the glory days of our African Socialism experiment. 

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