Scrolling Game Development Kit Forum
General => Off-Topic => Topic started by: Tanja on 2009-08-13, 08:14:52 AM
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Since the Pirate Party is active in pretty every country, I would like to know, do YOU know them? And what is your opinion about them?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_party
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I never heard of a pirate party. Is it like a political party? Sorry, I didn't read a lot of it. I'm young, so a lot of words tend to get me confused. :-[
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Doesn't exist here. :/
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Interesting, I just learned about it. It would seem that there is a Pirate Party in Canada, but it is just starting up, they're not doing much right now.
To TonyX: Yep, it seems that it is a political party. They want to reform the patent and copyright systems (I guess they basically want to make them obsolete so that everything could be shared) and they want to reinforce personal privacy, so the government or corporations could not access your private info by invoking some anti-terror law or something.
It seems like good ideas to debate. But I wonder, what would happen is all copyrights and patents would be cancelled. I mean, it wouldn't do much damage to big companies I guess, but what about the emerging writers, musicians, inventors, etc that aren't rich and try to make a living? I'm not really up to speed on this topic, but that would be my main concern.
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They want to reform patents and copyright system, not ban them. did you know an artist gets only 4-7% of the money from their CD? The big labels and production companies get the rest. That cannot be. It's time to change, to think the whole system over and create better ones.
You can see good examples everywhere. Artists give their music away for free and earn money with concerts and merchandise. Or the sell their music over the internet. The money and the control over an artistic work should be given back to the artists.
And patents are very difficult and expensive to get for a normal person. I had lessons about that in university, it's horrible. This should be reformed, too.
the Pirate Party is upcoming in Germany right now. Every four years we elect the government anew. On 27. September is the next "Bundestagswahl".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_2009 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_2009)
We suspect to enter the Bundestag, but we won't be part of the government. ^^ Opposition, then. This Party is different. There is a big thing about to change here. We try to fight the surveillance state, because it seems Germany will be one soon. if nobody does something.
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Ok, I understand a little better now. The canadian website really has little info on it.
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When are the next government elections in Canada?
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It should be around 2012 (every 4 years for us too), but in the last few years, federal politics have been a little chaotic. I think we had one each two years. Here is a quick explanation, for those interested in Canada's political system. :P
There is a prime minister in Canada, but he's not elected like a president in the US. The chief of the political party that has the most seats automatically becomes the prime minister. Does it work the same way in Germany?
There are five political parties in Canada. So it is very possible that the political party who leads doesn't have the majority of the seats. It is the case right now. When the leading party wishes to write a new law, or make the budget, etc, there is a vote in the chamber. If it is approved by a majority decision, everything is OK. If it doesn't pass, the leading party can make changes following the other parties suggestions, etc. Sometimes, when the leading party doesn't want to negotiate or tries to force new laws, the rest of the political parties can ask for a vote to dissolve the government and if it passes, then there are general elections right then and there.
For the last couple of years, since the previous leading (liberal) party was affected by a corruption scandal, the conservative party took lead but with a minority of seats. Some of the five parties tend to get along with one another, but the conservatives are a little too "right-aligned" (want to legalize death sentence, stronger army, bigger jail penalties, make abortion illegal, they are the most religious too) for most Canadians I think. So most of the other parties do not get along with them. Often, when they try to pass a law or sign the budget, the other parties try to dissolve the government and, the conservative party has to negotiate to keep power.
So... Normally, the next elections are around 2012 I guess, but it could be at any moment if the other parties dissolve the government.
Oh, and there is no real senate in Canada. We have senators, but it is mostly an honorary position and they have no real power. And the queen and the politics of England have nothing to do with politics in Canada. So everything is decided by the chamber.
Oh, interestingly, because of the system, when things are chaotic with the government (could be dissolved at any moment), things tend to be calm in Canada, because the leading party cannot pass any law that it pleases and the leading party tries to solidify it's base, so almost nothing controversial happens and the laws try to please everyone. Ironic, isn't it? :P
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oh wow, i'm amazed, this really sounds chaotic. but it seems to me there is no way to make laws that change more than only... minors.
sometimes i hear that a government should have more time than four years, because you can't make longer lasting decisions/policy. so, i would't want your system from the few things i heard right now.
I let Google translate this from Wikipedia:
The Chancellor is the head of government of the Federal Republic of Germany: They determine the federal minister and the policy guidelines of the Federal Government. The Chancellor is de facto the most powerful German politicians, however, they stand in the protocol under the Federal President as head of state and President of the Bundestag as a representative of all factions. The Chancellor is elected by the Bundestag and may before the expiry of the legislature of the Bundestag be replaced only by a constructive vote of no confidence. Current Chancellor is the CDU politician Angela Merkel.
However, before the new government is elected, the parties introduce their candidates for Chancellor. The one of the biggest party is the one chosen, i think. They chose their candidates wisely, because the one must collect sympathies among the Germans, or they won't vote for that party. maybe.
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Well, if I get it right, it is quite similar since the chancellor is like the head of the biggest party. And the government can be dissolved by a vote of "no confidence" at the parliament (Bundestag).
It's usually very stable in Canada, it's just the corruption scandal that stirred things up in the last few years. It's not like we are near a civil war or something, but, for once, politics are actually interesting! ;)
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Hm, it seems there are two types. The one is that the Chancellor aks the parliament: do you still trust me?
If the most vote NO, this gives room to re-elect the government. That is a tool sometimes used to discipline the parliament.
The other type is the "constructive vote of no confidence" which comes from the parliament. Don't ask me too hard, but i think they must have a new Chancellor canditate or something, so no chaos can arise.
ANYWAY, everyone, support your local Pirate Party! ;D
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Oh ok. I think I get it now.
Go Pirate Party. :)
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Ahaha, yeah, you got it. GO GO POWERPIRATES!!
ah well, i really wonder if we'll get over this 5% hurdle. How is this in Canada? a party must get at least 5% of all votes in order to get into the parliament.
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In Canada, we don't have a "proportional representation". Meaning that if a party as 5% of total votes but is so spread up that no one is elected, then the party won't be in the parliament.
Example: there is the "Bloc Qu
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but the vote is so spread up all over the country that they get around 10 seats.
wut?! sounds like a stupid system. i can't get that. i mean, when some people vote for a party, it shouldn't matter if they are "wide spread". people are people, aren't they?
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Yup, it's old and dumb. :hurt:
I don't know how elections work in Germany, but in Canada, the country is split up in as many parts as there are seats at the Parliament. For each part (region) of the country, the parties assign a candidate (some parties don't have a candidate for each region), and then people in this region vote for the candidate they want in this region. That's why the BQ has so much seats and the NPD so little.
The system should change, obviously. Even the BQ gets less seats, (I'm from Quebec after all), it's not fair.
Besides, the BQ isn't there to rule the country, but to defend a province and disrupt the federal government when it wants to change stuff that would displease people in Quebec. But, well, that's another story. Strange politics we got in here... ;)
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But people are represented in the government by districts. Since every person can't be individually represented in government, you have to group people together and let some group of people vote for a single government representative to represent them in the government. I guess most places do this by geography. So if 10% of the people in each district vote for party A, and 90% of the people in each district vote for party B, then only party B will be represented because there are more party B people in every district. But if you combine the 10% from each district into one and get 90% voting for party A in that district, and then every other district votes for party B, then you can have some representation of part A in the government that more closely represents the general population. Attempting to define districts in order to control this is called Gerrymandering (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering). Ideally the districting would be defined to result in the government representing the people at the correct percentages.
That's my understanding.
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Well, the main reason why it is still working like this in Canada is because, when you move on to "proportional representation", then only parties get elected and independent candidates (not affiliated to any party) cannot be elected anymore. But I guess, it's not very important, what can a single elected candidate do in a parliament with huge parties?
There are some projects here to move to a kind of hybrid system, but it seems fishy...
I guess, the best should be to dismantle the districts, vote for the parties, and split the seats according to the votes % between the parties. Let the parties decide for themselves to whom they will give the seats... Hmm... But I guess the road to corruption and internal lobbying would be very wide and easy with that.
Damn, it's never easy with politics and it's always dirty. That's a shame... :(
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Today is Bundestagswahl!!!! Oh my oh my! I just voted, and i'm so excited about how all the parties will do! Especially the Pirates, of course! :laugh:
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I'll keep my fingers crossed. ;)
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there are some changes in the government, Black-Red (CDU-SPD) is no more because Red had a very bad result... now Black (CDU) and Yellow (FDP) will form a coalition. Well, the pirates had solid 2%.... i really had thought we would get at least 3-4%, but well... i think it is good anyways. We are a very young party and really need to get some things done before government calls.
In four years our time is ripe!
in my town there is a polling station where we got 10,32%, and in another town we had 13,81%! wow!
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I don't see any party with the name "Pirate" ever getting widespread support for government control. Pirates generally stand for everything against the government. So by definition, you can't have a government of "Pirates" no matter what they stand for. They might have to change their name.
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:laugh: hahaha blue monk, everyone said that like two months before today. for weeks i haven't heard this argument, because we and the name are accepted.
to err is human, but to ARRR! is pirate!
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Pirate Party made the slashdot.org front page today.
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Pirate Party made the slashdot.org front page today.
digg too.
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it will be very interesting to see where and when other pirate parties will rise and how they will do.
too bad i don't have a fast forward button here, 'cause this development will take years.
the next government elections for whole germany are in four years, but meanwhile there will be plenty of elections for town councils and federal state governments.
i wish the other pirate parties well, because it is a though business and needs very dedicated people. a lot of time is to invest in research and meetings, boring bureaucratic work and of course - debating with lots of people who have got strange opinions and a demanding way to discuss them. :laugh: