Added post about my motivation
Signed-off-by: Jim Martens <github@2martens.de>
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layout: post
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title: "Don't pretend, Represent! - Why I am doing what I am doing"
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date: 2016-07-11 22:00:00 +0200
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categories: politics
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---
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Yesterday I was essentially asked if I do the things I am doing, because
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I think someone expects it from me or because I want to do them. Well, here
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is the long and profound answer to that question. But first, what am I doing?
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Engagement in University of Hamburg:
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- student council of Computer Science
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- student parliament
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- presidium of said parlament in this election period
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- academic committee (MIN faculty level)
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- CampusGrün university group
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- orientation unit for freshmen in Computer Science
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- general networking of students in Computer Science, the faculty and university wide
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Engagement in general:
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- Diem 25
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General activities:
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- reading about politics
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- writing about politics (mostly Twitter)
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That's all my public engagement and politics related activity. It sure is a lot
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and consumes a lot of my time. The obvious question becomes if it is worth it.
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Some might ask considering the amount of stress in study, job, family and beyond
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why I am doing all of that and to what end. This is the ultimative answer to all
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these questions. Maybe some could ask if I had nothing better to do - yes
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some people might conceive of such a question.
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First of all I'd like to state that I am not crazy. With that out of the
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way, let's get to the heart of the matter. To understand my motivations behind
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what I am doing now, it's worth going back to my motivation to study Computer
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Science and how I got to where I am today. During school time I was subject of a
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lot of mobbing. Essentially computer science became my escape from that and showed
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me that there were people out there that appreciated my work and what I did. This
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helped me through the sometimes rough times at school. Therefore it was a
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[no-brainer](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/no-brainer) to study Computer
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Science at the end of school.
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It turned out to be the single best decision in my whole life as not only
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the mobbing ended but I met an awesome row of people that are essentially
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the reason I am the person I am today. They allowed me to develop my true
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potential by overcoming my shyness and becoming more and more capable of openly
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approaching people. In part my engagement in the student council right in the
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first semester was a therapy to force myself to communicate with people I didn't
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know. At the end of the first semester I got out of it and continued my engagement
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in the department on relative low flame. In 2013 I was part of the comission
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that discussed making the free selection area of the study unimportant for the
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final grade of the bachelor. And I participated in the orientation unit but
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overall I did concentrate on the study. The revelations of Edward Snowden did hit
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me but I largely continued with business as usual and didn't completely understand
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the full scope of it. Furthermore the current federal government was elected
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but I voted for the Left party.
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The year 2014 changed all of that dramatically. In April I got back into the
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student council and stayed there ever since. In the winter semester I ran
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as solidarity candidate for CampusGrün and the student parliament and I visited
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the 31C3 - my first ChaosCommunicationCongress. Shortly after I saw Citizenfour.
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That was the start of my passion for politics.
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After finishing all Computer Science modules except for the bachelor thesis
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at the end of summer semester 2015 I started to participate actively in CampusGrün.
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Furthermore the election of Syriza in Greece electrified me and showed me
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that change is possible if people come together. I followed the negotiations
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with the Troika closely and got more and more educated on the economic
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failings of the EU and how to argue it. Thanks a lot Yanis Varoufakis for that.
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In the winter semester 2015/16 I got more active in the student parliament
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and worked my way from being passively in the sessions to an active
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participant by more actively participating in the preparation meetings.
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Therefore I ran again for student parliament and this time with the intention
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of being in from day one. I won a direct mandate and was active part of the
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coalition talks following the election. It was nothing fancy or gloryful but
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it was a learning lesson for life and potential future political engagement.
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In addition I was talked into becoming part of the presidium of the parliament
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and though that is work and I didn't know whether I was fit for that office,
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I took the challenge instead for opting for the easier way out.
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Plus the election in the US happened and Bernie Sanders made me interested
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in the political process of the US and invested into the outcome. It made me
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learn about the primary process of the Democratic party, superdelegates
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and the policies discussed by Bernie. Jeremy Corbyn was elected as Labour
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leader in the UK in fall of 2015. He was another reason for becoming interested
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in politics.
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Earlier this year Yanis Varoufakis announced Diem 25 and I immediately
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jumped aboard to change the EU. With the recent Brexit vote in the UK,
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the right wing takeover in Poland and emergency powers in France the shockwaves
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came ever closer. I understood that we don't have time to let our children
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do the dirty work. After a decade of relative slow change on the surface,
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we are back in almost revolutionary times. Things are changing by the day.
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With this we are coming to my motivation for my engagement. All of the current
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political events show me that it is now or never that we retake our countries,
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the EU and the political process. In times of change many things are possible -
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both good and evil. It is in these times that the biggest of decisions are made
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that will impact us for decades to come in one way or another. If I were going
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by the book, finish my studies, work in a company and beyond that don't engage
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in the political process, it would feel like betraying my principles and the
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people I love and the millions more that don't have the luxury of being able
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to live a decent life without major change to society. That doesn't mean however
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that I don't like this engagement. If I didn't like it, my engagement would
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be lackluster and therefore couldn't produce the results I want. In this political
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engagement I found the activity that fulfills me wholeheartedly. There will
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be setbacks and not only success and that will be hard but I wouldn't want
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it any other way.
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Going forward I will focus on combining both politics and computer science
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with each other by using the best of both to achieve the most with the least
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amount of time and effort as possible. One central idea that comes to mind
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is transparency and Open Government. Why don't put your law proposals up on
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Github for everyone to comment - lobbyists AND ordinary people alike on one
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level? Why don't accept proposals by ordinary people through the same
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interface? Why don't do it in a non-binding way at start with 0 infrastructure cost
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and only minimal additional workload without the need to make a law governing it?
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Why don't attribute the people that helped propose a law and therefore allowing
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them to build a track record? The laws are public texts so the proposal process
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should be open as well.
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That is some way to be a politician using computer science techniques.
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Another would be to develop software that makes it easier for people to engage
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in the political process.
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These are the things that drive me. I want to see purpose in what I do. I want
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to be able to say that my activities are doing something good for the people
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coming after me. I want to leave the next generation a better place to live in.
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Simply developing some random software in a random company might earn me good
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money but I won't be happy and fulfilled. Something would miss. I don't know
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if my plan works out but if you don't try you already lost.
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And to the politicians I can only say: Stop pretending to care about people
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and actually start representing them. Representative democracy has this name
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for a reason. I'd love to make "Don't Pretend, Represent!" a thing for all
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upcoming elections on local, state, federal and EU level.
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Remember: We are the people
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and we are millions. Let us start coordinating and overcome the egoism that
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only asks what do you want. If we cooperate and care about what others want
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it will be beneficial for each of us. The first step is to talk about
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the problems of the world instead of silencing them, because they are so big.
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But the next step must NOT be to give up. Instead it must be to strengthen
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those who support others, who give hope, who work to make things better.
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And then it must be to do the same and change something while encouraging
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others do to the same. Share successes and let it be known far and wide that
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change IS possible if we demand it.
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Don't pretend, represent! Live long and prosper. \/
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