Blog
01.June 2000 - 00:00
Flying high on learning
My first year as a Euro parliamentarian has past, and I certainly couldn't call it dull. Since learning has always brought me so much mental pleasure, almost physical excitement and even butterflies in my stomach, you can only guess how wonderfully providence has (to misuse the idiom) sent me flying. I have learned a good deal, not only about the legal foundations of Environmental Law and the division of labour between the EU Commission, its Council and Parliament, but also that it's not worth opening a sealed tub of yoghurt with it facing you on a flight. Experienced travellers splash the contents of the air-pressured carton on the back of the seat in front.
Many EU representatives have the good sense to hate flying, but not me: I've always enjoyed sitting and thinking. And as a poor student I dreamed of flying so much that I even went on a parachuting course just so that I could fly. It certainly was the cheapest way, although one had to jump out of the plane in the middle of it.
But the reason why I actually became interested in politics is not connected with learning or flying. For that, I think I should thank a young politician whose interview I read a few years ago. This attractive woman held the view that the explanation for the world's injustices is in the law of karma. "How else can we explain the existence of suffering?" she pondered in an evening paper. This frightened me. If a politician is comfortable with the thought that injustice is God-ordained, what happens to the will to fight against it?
A friend of mine and her beloved husband worked for a few years in the Far East. From time to time his slight physical disability aroused some curiosity among the local people who kept asking discreetly when the couple had got married. When the questioners realised that the injury had happened before the marriage and that a healthy person had taken a disabled partner, many could not hide their surprise. Why should a healthy person with a good karma take alongside them a person with a bad karma? Surely that was bringing misfortune upon oneself? They saw the injury as a consequence of some bad deed and the law of karma had worked.
There may be a lot of loose talk connected with Christian values, but in this respect there is no debate: according to the Christian view, neither the sick, nor the poor deserve their fate because they are guilty. A man is not sick because of his sins in a previous life, nor because of his parents' mistakes or simply because of his lecherous life. Therefore something must be done about disease, suffering and injustice, and out of that arises the revolutionary will to change the world.
This view about the equality of one and all, the sick as well as the healthy, is an unshakeable tenet of our culture that has to be consciously cherished; ultimately, it is everyone’s safety net. But it can no longer be taken for granted. And certainly no party can claim it exclusively. It is for the common good that we do politics that reflects this principle.
Alueuutiset, July 2000
My first year as a Euro parliamentarian has past, and I certainly couldn't call it dull. Since learning has always brought me so much mental pleasure, almost physical excitement and even butterflies in my stomach, you can only guess how wonderfully providence has (to misuse the idiom) sent me flying. I have learned a good deal, not only about the legal foundations of Environmental Law and the division of labour between the EU Commission, its Council and Parliament, but also that it's not worth opening a sealed tub of yoghurt with it facing you on a flight. Experienced travellers splash the contents of the air-pressured carton on the back of the seat in front.
Many EU representatives have the good sense to hate flying, but not me: I've always enjoyed sitting and thinking. And as a poor student I dreamed of flying so much that I even went on a parachuting course just so that I could fly. It certainly was the cheapest way, although one had to jump out of the plane in the middle of it.
But the reason why I actually became interested in politics is not connected with learning or flying. For that, I think I should thank a young politician whose interview I read a few years ago. This attractive woman held the view that the explanation for the world's injustices is in the law of karma. "How else can we explain the existence of suffering?" she pondered in an evening paper. This frightened me. If a politician is comfortable with the thought that injustice is God-ordained, what happens to the will to fight against it?
A friend of mine and her beloved husband worked for a few years in the Far East. From time to time his slight physical disability aroused some curiosity among the local people who kept asking discreetly when the couple had got married. When the questioners realised that the injury had happened before the marriage and that a healthy person had taken a disabled partner, many could not hide their surprise. Why should a healthy person with a good karma take alongside them a person with a bad karma? Surely that was bringing misfortune upon oneself? They saw the injury as a consequence of some bad deed and the law of karma had worked.
There may be a lot of loose talk connected with Christian values, but in this respect there is no debate: according to the Christian view, neither the sick, nor the poor deserve their fate because they are guilty. A man is not sick because of his sins in a previous life, nor because of his parents' mistakes or simply because of his lecherous life. Therefore something must be done about disease, suffering and injustice, and out of that arises the revolutionary will to change the world.
This view about the equality of one and all, the sick as well as the healthy, is an unshakeable tenet of our culture that has to be consciously cherished; ultimately, it is everyone’s safety net. But it can no longer be taken for granted. And certainly no party can claim it exclusively. It is for the common good that we do politics that reflects this principle.
Alueuutiset, July 2000