Actually, there's an easier way to make people vote for whom they're being paid to vote for.
Let's suppose that you are a family man who lives in a ranch in the middle of nowhere, or in a small town or village. Your ranch was built by your own hands and its not something nice, but it provides a roof over your head. The soil is not rich enough to plow or grow some crops. So you have your family(wife, 2 kids, although with no electricity, tv, air conditioner or videogames you are bound to have more) in a dry patch of land with no means to make that land grow, be it cause you never learned how to do it or you simply don't have the resources to buy some fertilizers, plows, seeds and an irrigation system.
So, you're living barely off the little vegetables you manage to get from the "Quinta" or "backyard vegetables" (tomatoes, potatoes, some carrots and a lotta spinach).
One day some guy in a suit comes from the city and promises to lift the land value, build you some houses and provide each and every one of your kids with food, clothes and education. He only asks of you to vote for him in the upcoming elections.
Lets break it here for a minute, what I'm explaining here is the situation for most rural areas all over Argentina. As I'm writing this, about 12% of the children population in some provinces are suffering from starvation, disease and about 5% of them will not be around to see the new year.
So, as I was saying, this guy starts building a public food distribution center, just to show you he means to do everything he promises. He only asks for your vote on election day to keep working for you and your family. You see your eldest son, the one that was bedridden with fever, get medical treatment for free at a public hospital that just opened in town. You start to believe this man will get you better things if you can make him the governor of your province.
So, you go and vote for him, and so does your wife, and all your friends.
3 months later, the hospital runs out of supplies, it starts to deteriorate and the poor nurse that stayed to help can only hope that you don't get some acute conjuntivitis or you could die. The soil was never fertilized, some spokeperson of that guy in the suit said it would be done "as soon as possible". You go back to try and grow something in the "Quinta".
Let's make this already long story short. Eventually the guy in the suit comes back with supplies, and you start to believe again. Or he doesnt and another one comes bearing gifts, houses and promises of a better tomorrow for you and your family. So you keep "selling your vote" as long as you keep believing in all of this suited dudes. You do it to keep your family alive.
I know that every one of us that had the benefit of education, middle-class upbringing and several other things can't possibly imagine this being a true story and advocating about freedom . All I'm saying is that not every single person on this planet has a CHOICE in the matter. Sometimes you do things to make sure your loved ones can get ahead in life. Sometimes you only see one option in front of you. Maybe it's because you've heard a lot of different guys in suits promising and talking about what they WILL do, and not one of them came through at the end.
Our apathy, as some of you had called it, comes from the fact that we Argentinians can't learn from our own past. We keep hoping for a magical solution to all of our problems that will launch us right into the category of "first world country" like we were promised many times over. We do not realize that the only way of doing this is... actually... to DO IT, to forget political affiliations, party discussions, self benefit and start building up our infrastructure as an industrialized country. To stop thinking that we can make it in the globalized world by exporting crops and dairy products, like we did in the 19th-20th century.
It's not easy, i'm not saying that. We actually need a strong leader to band us together. A president for the people, n
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Actually, there's an easier way to make people vote for whom they're being paid to vote for.
Let's suppose that you are a family man who lives in a ranch in the middle of nowhere, or in a small town or village. Your ranch was built by your own hands and its not something nice, but it provides a roof over your head. The soil is not rich enough to plow or grow some crops. So you have your family(wife, 2 kids, although with no electricity, tv, air conditioner or videogames you are bound to have more) in a dry patch of land with no means to make that land grow, be it cause you never learned how to do it or you simply don't have the resources to buy some fertilizers, plows, seeds and an irrigation system.
So, you're living barely off the little vegetables you manage to get from the "Quinta" or "backyard vegetables" (tomatoes, potatoes, some carrots and a lotta spinach).
One day some guy in a suit comes from the city and promises to lift the land value, build you some houses and provide each and every one of your kids with food, clothes and education. He only asks of you to vote for him in the upcoming elections.
Lets break it here for a minute, what I'm explaining here is the situation for most rural areas all over Argentina. As I'm writing this, about 12% of the children population in some provinces are suffering from starvation, disease and about 5% of them will not be around to see the new year.
So, as I was saying, this guy starts building a public food distribution center, just to show you he means to do everything he promises. He only asks for your vote on election day to keep working for you and your family. You see your eldest son, the one that was bedridden with fever, get medical treatment for free at a public hospital that just opened in town. You start to believe this man will get you better things if you can make him the governor of your province.
So, you go and vote for him, and so does your wife, and all your friends.
3 months later, the hospital runs out of supplies, it starts to deteriorate and the poor nurse that stayed to help can only hope that you don't get some acute conjuntivitis or you could die. The soil was never fertilized, some spokeperson of that guy in the suit said it would be done "as soon as possible". You go back to try and grow something in the "Quinta".
Let's make this already long story short. Eventually the guy in the suit comes back with supplies, and you start to believe again. Or he doesnt and another one comes bearing gifts, houses and promises of a better tomorrow for you and your family. So you keep "selling your vote" as long as you keep believing in all of this suited dudes. You do it to keep your family alive.
I know that every one of us that had the benefit of education, middle-class upbringing and several other things can't possibly imagine this being a true story and advocating about freedom . All I'm saying is that not every single person on this planet has a CHOICE in the matter. Sometimes you do things to make sure your loved ones can get ahead in life. Sometimes you only see one option in front of you. Maybe it's because you've heard a lot of different guys in suits promising and talking about what they WILL do, and not one of them came through at the end.
Our apathy, as some of you had called it, comes from the fact that we Argentinians can't learn from our own past. We keep hoping for a magical solution to all of our problems that will launch us right into the category of "first world country" like we were promised many times over. We do not realize that the only way of doing this is... actually... to DO IT, to forget political affiliations, party discussions, self benefit and start building up our infrastructure as an industrialized country. To stop thinking that we can make it in the globalized world by exporting crops and dairy products, like we did in the 19th-20th century.
It's not easy, i'm not saying that. We actually need a strong leader to band us together. A president for the people, n