Postman Pat visits

The Finnish government has managed to track me down again. This time upon my return to South Africa what was waiting for me in the communal mailbox (I will get to that rant at some point) was a letter inviting me to vote.

The letter tells me that I can vote either in Pretoria - though unfortunately that takes place while I'm in Denmark - or Finland. And oh joy. I'm in the vicinity of the swimming hall official voting place in my hometown at the time I (and everyone else) have been given to go cast my vote. Hurrah for democracy!

I have been looking forward to such a serendipitous moment for a while. When I last had the opportunity to vote was a while (quite a long one) back, in the parliament elections I believe. Unfortunately the candidate I voted for only amassed 150 votes which even in Finnish terms is quite a measly amount. That's what you get for favoring the communist workers party. I guess those days have passed. Other times I have either been unaware of an election going on until it was much too late (in Finland that is. I would kill for the opportunity to vote here, or in the States [well, more here since the result of the election that just took place is a little daunting with Jacob Zuma, once on trial for rape and not quite seeing what really is so bad with HIV, becoming the Prez]), and the papers never made it to our address, or the election has been a church one, in which case I don't think I should be allowed to have any effect on what goes on there. However, this time I lucked out. Yippee, Now I can go vote in the....

Hey, wait a minute. WTF...

I can vote in the European parliament elections?

Why would I want to do that? What do they do anyways?

google, google, google some more, google, google.

Oh, they might talk about legalizing marijuana. I'm back on board! If they do it, then America might just follow. Maybe. In the future. And finally stop the drug wars in Mexico.

Yes, I'm voting for a Finnish woman for the European parliament in order to stop drug wars in Mexico.

At least I'm voting.