002 – Why it is important to be involved in politics

Everyone of us has specific points of view about specific matters (it also happens that people talk about subjects they do not know anything about; that, however, is another matter). I am not talking about universal knowledge or, in general, about actual facts which result to be always true. For example, I am not talking about doubting the righteousness of an affirmation like the following: “The cube root of 27 is 3”, or like “The epitaph on John Keat’s gravestone is ‘Here lies One Whose Name is writ in Water’”. I am rather talking about subjects whose righteousness may differ from individual to individual.

For example, I believe that everyone has the right to live their own life the way they wish. This means, among other things, that everyone must be guaranteed free access to health care and to education. That everyone must be guaranteed a place to live, to grow and to develop as a human being. That everyone must be guaranteed fresh, clean water and air. I believe that these basic, fundamental needs must be met regardless of the gender, sexual orientation, economic conditions, creed, ethnicity and political affiliation of the single individual.

As you may have noticed, these and many other points of view, or opinions, are subject to political debate. This is due to the fact that my concept of justice may not be shared by other people. There is no need, for now, to investigate the reasons for that. But it is appropriate to say that everyone has the duty to inform themselves and to be properly informed about every matter pertaining to their lives. In fact, it may easily occur, as it usually does, that some politicians make laws and policies which negatively affect the lives of a considerable part of the national and of the world population. Let’s take as an example the practice of land grabbing. Even though it is the first cause of diversion, depletion and pollution of local soil, air and water sources and indirectly the major reason for global warming and its consequences on a global scale, it only obeys national and local laws, because there are still no international regulations on the trade of land or of the products grown on it, such as coffee, sugarcane, rice, rubber and so on. Actually, there are some international declarations that may apply to this matter, such as the UN Resolution No. 1803/62, concerning the permanent sovereignty of peoples and nations over natural resources, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007, the “Legislative Guide on Privately Financed Infrastructure Projects” created by UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) in 2000, or the “Legal Guide on Contract Farming” developed by UNIDROIT (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law) in 2012. Unfortunately, however, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007 was subject to criticisms at the time of voting, since the representatives of Canada and New Zealand expressed major concerns about the contents of the document, while the representative of the United States voted against (of course…). On the other hand, the UNCITRAL “Legislative Guide on Privately Financed Infrastructure Projects” resulted in failure, because of the possibility for national governments of modifying and even delete entire parts of the text, which is reflected in the effectiveness of the document itself.