Voting From Afar

The Gregorians had it all wrong when they put the beginning of the new year in January. September truly feels like the first month of the year. By then, vacations are over, along with the fiscal year for some businesses (like ad agencies), school begins, and people slowly shake off the summer laziness. 

By now, a month into the 'New Year,' life has picked up where it left off before the summer. At work, I'm juggling several projects with looming deadlines. Money must be saved and preparations made for the coming Canada trip. There's an urgency to drink patio beers and partake in outdoor activities before winter becomes a reality.

In the midst of this, a Canadian election is scheduled for October 19, and there is one thing I wanted to ensure I made time for.

Casting my Voting as an Expat

As a someone who has lived outside of Canada for less than five years, I am happily still able to vote. I applied for my voting kit (which meant simply sending a scan of my passport and my address to Elections Canada) and cast my vote today (by mail).

It's an interesting process. I didn't tick a box for a candidate; I write in the name of the candidate. Then I put the ballot into a little envelope. Then I took that little envelope and put it into another envelope, which I signed and dated. Then I put it into another envelope, which is the mailing envelope. It felt more like putting together a lickable Matryoshka doll than voting. 

Nevertheless, I miss voting in person, not for the ease of it – although licking my way through the voting kit was a little weird. It's a comforting ritual to walk in the polling station, mark an X beside my candidate, and drop it into the ballot box. 

Elections Canada made this process very easy for me, but it's startling to see that only 6,000 Canadians out of maybe 2.8 million living outside of Canada cast a vote. 

It's startling, but somewhat understandable. I didn't know I could vote from abroad, and I've always made a point of voting, but a similar ignorance might keeps expats away. Or a perception that it's difficult (which it isn't). Or old fashioned indifference (not unlikely).

Exercising my right this way might not last long. A court struck down Canadian citizens' right to vote if they've been living elsewhere for over five years. The court's decision was rooted in the argument that expat's votes would upset the social contract between the government and current residents in Canada. 

I understand that argument, but to me that means the system should be tweaked just a bit. 

My Parliamentary Expat Reform Bill

My suggestion? Expats should get our own Member of Parliament. Just because we've been away for a while doesn't mean we don't have ties to Canada (property, investments, family, citizenship) or that we never intend to return.

Having our own MP would attract more voters and bring a different perspective. We're copywriters in Germany, teachers in Indonesia, and hockey players in the United States. Where we live shouldn't invalidate us from making an informed decision – we are still Canadian citizens, after all.

Recently, Prime Minister Harper has proposed more changes. Mostly, it would make it difficult to vote from afar. Rather than emailing a scan of my passport, I would have to get someone to vouch for me that I am from the riding that I intend to vote in. 

There is a pattern here. In the last election, mysterious robocalls sent voters to the wrong polling stations. A new law that should have countered this instead instituted rigorous identification procedures for voting. The stated purpose was stopping people from voting more than once, but it merely succeeded in making it more difficult for students, pensioners, and the homeless to vote. Budget cuts to Elections Canada and for voting advocacy have not helped either.

This obfuscation of the democratic process is shameful enough, but it's not the only problem. Voter turnout was only around 60% in Canada. 

It's so disheartening to see people throw away their vote by not voting. yes, the country's and the world's problems can seem so daunting that our vote seems like it won't make a difference. But it's also so ridiculously easy (for now) that there's no reason why we all shouldn't give it a shot.

Sissi 2012-2015

The Long Short (Probably Happy) Life of Sissi

Sissi on her house.

Sissi was a hamster. She was suspicious of strangers. She hated being touched by people. She had three different homes and four different owners in her life.

Despite all of that, she lived three years – three lifetimes for a Siberian hamster – and most of it was good.

Kata inherited Sissi from her ex, so the pet-to-owner relationship started off awkwardly. Sissi's cage sat beside Kata's desk, so while she was freelancing they spent a lot of time together. Gradually, they came around and developed an understanding.

Sissi moved in with me when Kata left to Berlin for work. I don't think she liked me in the beginning. When I came over to Kata's place, she'd squeak at me and keep me awake in the night, digging in her wood shavings and shimmying on the bars of her cage.

I put her in my front hall, where her nocturnal shenanigans would not disturb me. I also refused to get attached, since she was over a year old at the time – an old lady in hamster years. Kata would ask after her and I would worry about having to tell her that Sissi died.

She didn't die, so I didn't have to follow through on any strange plans of burying her in Karoly Kert at night. Like all good roommate arrangements, we gave each other space. She had her room, I had mine. I would only take her out to put her in her hamster ball while I cleaned the cage. As time went by, we developed a rhythm, I'd feed her and talk to her (I was told you're supposed to do that) and she would do her usual hamster-y things. 

Then I left Budapest. 

Once more Sissi was passed on, this time to Monica, who wanted a pet. I walked Sissi in her cage to Monica's place. She cried and screeched the whole way down Vaci utca. I kept it together, mostly.

Once again, Sissi somehow lived beyond expectations. Monica and her spent a year together – until last night – which was likely the most stable and comfortable Sissi had been since leaving Kata's flat. For a short life, it was a long one, and likely a happy one.

Kata freelancing alongside Sissi.
Drawing by Kata Varga.

Dorfy Day Trip: A German Castle

The Castle at Kaiserwerth, or what's left of it.

Let's talk a bit about castles. There used to be one downriver from the Dorf. It's a ruin now, thanks to the Napoleonic troops who blew it up to deny the German states any fortification that would have helped them retake the Rhineland. 

But in its hey day, after it was built by Frederick Barbarossa, it had the distinction of being one of his key castles on the Rhine. It guarded the Rhine River and exacted tolls from boats passing by. It's good business for the castle owner: you just sit and wait for the next boat to float by.

And! It was easy to reach. It is just sitting on a bike path, upriver from Düsseldorf – a cool 45-minute bike away. 

When you put in perspective, it's incredible that a stone building has survived in some shape or form for 1000 years. Yet, it's a common sight, even in Hungary, where they were built with a different purpose in mind. 

Picture this: It's year 1285 and you're a Hungarian peasant going about your business, when that business is interrupted by thousands of Mongol horsemen burning and killing as they go. 

Your only hope as a peasant without a horse is to hide behind a high wall, like that of a castle. But there are no castles close to you, so you're dead now. 

When the Mongol hordes came tearing into Hungary, they found a flat, nearly defenceless land, perfect for their mounted warriors. Other than a Hungarian army of knights and infantry, which they handily defeated with their mounted cavalry, there was nothing to stop them.

The Hungarians – who centuries before, like the Mongols, lived on horseback and rode to Europe from Central Asia – noticed that cities and fortresses with high stone walls survived the onslaught. Anticipating a Mongol return, they built castles all over the land and waited. 

The Mongols returned, but they couldn't breach the castles with horses and arrows. The Hungarians waited and watched them ride past, then attacked and defeated the Mongols. 

SIDE NOTE!! The Hungarian word for waiting and castle is var, and I'm certain that there's a connection between the two. In Germany, which didn't have to wait for terrifyingly apocalyptic Mongol invasions to come to them, large prosperous towns grew around their castles. It's no coincidence that burg is the German word for castle and town, think Magdeburg or Salzburg.

Where was I... oh yes, Hungary! All seemed fine for about 400 years or so when the Hungarians lost the Battle of Mohacs to the massive Ottoman Turk army. The survivors retreated to their castles and awaited the onslaught.

The Ottomans – 300,000 of them – moved northwest, fighting a long, grinding 70-year war, assaulting castle after castle. Some withstood the assaults, like Eger, but many fell one at a time. 

What's amazing is that most of these castles survived the Turkish invasion and would have survived today if the Austrians hadn't blown most of them after 1848, to avoid giving Hungarian revolutionaries any place to attack them from. You can't wait out everything, I guess.

Visegrad

This castle was where the first King of Hungary held court. This one was built after the first Mongol invasion. It survived that whole time, commanding a beautiful view of the Danube below, until it was destroyed by the Austrians.

Visegrad's Reconstructed Main Hall

Incredible view from up top.

If you happen to take the train between Prague and Budapest,
you will be able to Visegrad from the Slovakia side of the Danube. 

Eger

I've written about Eger before here, which, in my biased opinion, is worth reading. 

After we climbed the castle, drank Bull's Blood!

 Pannonhalma

Pannonhalma, which I mentioned in the past, managed to resist the Mongols, and the Turks, and the Austrians (well, kind of), and the communists. Not bad for a bunch of learned monks.

Fülek

I probably used the wrong umlaut thing over the 'u', but we came across this Hungarian castle on a road trip in Slovakia. The Mongols never managed to breach this castle either, but the Turks took it. 

Some Random Castle

Kata and I saw this one on a highway coach in Slovakia. I don't know it's name, so... that's about it. 

Random castle sighting in Slovakia.