“People are good, it’s the politicians who are the problem.”
We have heard this thought thoughout our travels, expressed by young and old alike.
The majority of people we have met have been honest and open, willing to listen and understand your point of view.
They all see political posturing as a hindrance to understanding and accepting our collective differences.
We heard this in Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania.
We also heard the same thought expressed in Spain, Italy, France and the UK.
These are all countries that have gone through, or are going through, difficult times, of varying degrees.
Politicians polarise opinions and bipartisanism seems to be a strategy of the past.
As the Governator* put it,”…a worldview that put parties ahead of people…”
Political parties have become so partisan that they try to win favour with the voters by doggedly adhering to an extremist point of view.
Political leaders aren’t winning the popular vote by developing an enlightened vision for the future, but rather stagnating the system by offering the voters no real choice.
Immediately they get into power, even if it’s by the smallest margin, their primary goal is to remain there, while the opposition’s approach is to be obstructionist.
Australia, like the rest of the world, is stuck in this malaise. Our problem is that we are in dire need of ‘Big Vision Politics’.
While most of Europe struggles under the flip-flop of political ideals, they are fortunate in that the big thinking in infrastructure has been done and executed.
There is a network of Autobahns, Autostradas, Autoroutes, Autopistas and Motorways throughout Europe. Most largish cities have a highly developed underground or tramway sytem in place. They keep cars out of the city centers and encourage the tourists and locals alike to use public transport and then provide a sytem that will cope with it.
Many cities have a single charge for any trip taken within the hour.
Nuremberg and Bordeaux have an excellent tram and trolly bus sytem, Valencia has a Metro as does Lyon.
These are cities with populations ranging from 400,000 to 1.2 million.
Barcelona has a comprehensive underground, overground, tram and bus sytem. All to service a population of 5 million.
In 2020 Melbourne’s population is expected to reach that number.
It’s time for the politicians to stop talking about more public transport and start to put a plan, any plan, into action.
As the Victorian oposition spokesperson has said, you can’t catch a feasibility study to work.
Therein lies the problem, they had years to do something about it when they were in government and again all they did was talk.
There has to be a better system, the current one is broken.
*(Page 555) Total Recal by Arnold Schwarzenegger
