Call Me a Dreamer

I can’t avoid news. I was not actively checking news. People talk about what is going on and I’m immediately catapulted into a bad mood. To avoid this, I would like to invite my readers to dream and share their ideas on “If you could change how your country is run, what would you do?”

Don’t censor your ideas as long as they are respectful and non-violent. Here is my vision:

There are no political parties and central governments anymore, Instead, policy will be based on projects and bottom-up. Let me use an example.

The small village

The citizens of Wunschhausen, a rural community, come together to discuss what they want and need for their village. The most discussed suggestions have been in number of votes:

1. Prevent the closure of the nearby nursery and primary school in neighbouring Freihausen, another rural but bigger community.
2. Optimise routes and timetables of public transport.
3. Create a village charity f.e. checking twice per day on the elderly who cannot leave home anymore or only with support.
4. Create a reward sytem for volunteer work
5. Renew all roads within the village and to neighbouring villages

Because this is a new concept, the citizens also decided to focus on the first suggestion as their first project.

First they needed to know why nursery and primary school were facing closure. Not enough children, not enough funding, not enough personnel?Whatever reason, they had to contact Freihausen to win them for cooperation on this issue. Also, they decided to contact other neighbouring villages affected by the closure for the same reason. They selected a group of five people who were able to conduct these investigations and to present the results within 4 weeks.

The Idea

It is about democracy. It is about diversity. Communities have different needs. It is about setting your rules f.e. about transparency, control of funds and projects, selecting people able or even with expertise on an issue, reporting progress and setbacks. It is about thinking further. Is the issue a local issue? Some issues can turn out to be of national or international interest. It is about networking, which the powerful know to use to their benefits.

What have parties to do with our interests and needs? They are unnecessary dividers. Working on projects unites.

This sounds difficult but can we afford to keep the current political structure and organisation alive? If you could change how your country is run, what would you do? Share your thoughts!