Be More Like Estonia
Germany doesn't stack up to EU internet powerhouse
Surprise, Germans don't want to jump to online elections when they see how poorly countries who are merely using digital technology are doing -- an election involving Bush, maybe? Germans are slow to the electro-vote because they don't want to be responsible for something like that, and I applaud them. Good work, end of story.
But no! They had to bring the Estonians into the picture. I had no idea the Estonians were so ITed out. I know they're doing well for a former Soviet Republican state, but declaring it "the most wired of all EU nations" requires investigation. They weren't even allowed to have phones under the Soviets, and now this? Plus, where's all the .ee URLs?
Well, they're out there. And it's because the Estonians weren't permitted personal computers and cell phones that they're all about them now. If you've never had a landline and someone offers you a cell, are you going to take it? Hell yes. Wait -- it can take pictures, too? Combine post-Communist curiousity with Baltic seclusiveness, and you, as Al Pacino puts it in The Devil's Advocate, "sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire; you build egos the size of cathedrals; fiber-optically connect the world to every eager impulse; grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green, gold-plated fantasies, until every human becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own God... and where can you go from there?" Really good online banking and voting, apparently. And, oh yeah, I think they're into hip hop too.
(After you read a bit more, you learn about Taara worship and flat taxes and the Singing Revolution and how bizarre and beautiful it was and then you think the ending to V for Vendetta wasn't that far-fetched after all and by this point, you've been completely carried away and have to return to topic.)
So yeah, online voting. We're not there yet because German communism wasn't oppressive enough. The big press for German online ballots anyway is so that some guy in Antarctica can vote. Is this a vote we really need? He's made his icy, icy bed, as far as I'm concerned.