Pig positive

We're not there yet. We still live under governments defining themselves in terms of ideologies which have long passed their 'sell by' date. A week from today we in Germany will likely learn that the nation has once again put their trust in 'Mutti' Merkel, although the prediction is that there will be a presence of the right-wing populist AfD party in the new parliament.

Nevertheless. Europe and the rest of the world will look to Berlin and see there a glimmer of hope that here at least stability and progress can coexist, even if a Pig can not yet take flight.

Although as a resident ex-pat I can vote in communal elections, I cannot participate in next Sunday's national polling. However, I feel no compunction to withhold from my few readers the choice I would make if allowed to place my voting paper in the urn. Note that the representation system demands that two choices must be made; one for a named local candidate of a party, a second choice of a 'party list' from which parliamentarians will be installed proportionately.

My second vote would be for the Bundnis Grundeinkommen, a party founded here in Munich just a year ago to promote the concept of Unconditional Basic Income as an alternative to unwieldy and often unfair welfare support mechanisms. Their message is hotly contested, seen as naively utopian by some, dangerously radical by others. My view is that UBI is at least innovative and forward-looking, which cannot be said of the platforms of the established parties.

Encouraging, too, is the growing resistance to craven political idiocy. Opponents of the incoherent 'Trump agenda' are making their voices heard, as are those who well understand that the plebiscite that resulted in a tiny majority for Brexit was a tragic accident. 

The German expression Ich glaub, mein Schwein pfeift, is literally translated as 'I think my Pig is whistling' and is used to exclaim disbelief, usually at an absurd or extremely unexpected situation.

Enough said.