Empires rose and fell. Kingdoms spread and shrank. Maps changed every now and then. The History Book recorded all that and more. In it we read about kings and emperors who sat at tables overladen with the most cherished food and drink. They laughed. They listened to music. They enjoyed themselves with their women. They played and hunted. They smelt roses and waged wars. They smiled and cried. They dreamt and died.

Poets wept, sighed, leapt with joy and said verses lauding their beautiful beloved souls, and then they died.

Writers roamed their countries, scrutinized their societies, scanned their beautiful surroundings, and wrote tales about what they liked and disliked, about what they lived and what they wished they had lived. And then they died.

Scientists saw what their peoples had and thought of what they could do to preserve or improve what their peoples had, and wrote about what they wished they could do, and then they died.

Ordinary people –teachers, shoemakers, bakers, grocers, butchers, masons, tailors, joiners, shepherds, scribes, barbers– all lived their little lives: they ate, they drank, they played, they worked, they married, they begot children, they built their houses, they rode their mounts, they visited each other, they fought each other, they contemplated the moon, they smelt flowers, they slept. And then they died.

Then came our turn to live our own little lives. The moon that those before us saw is the same moon we can see today. The same earth. The same flowers. The same fruits and vegetables. The same water. The same air. The same tunes and sand dunes. The same dreams. The same pleasures. The same fears. The same pains. And the same death.

So what could any politicians change? The best government could –at best– improve people’s living conditions. But for how long? Nothing is eternal. In the best imaginable society there will always be unfortunate people who will suffer while others just can’t visualize what suffering is like. And there will always be new roses, new springs, new babies and new cries.

I wonder whether I will vote for anyone in the forthcoming elections. But I do respect anyone who is taking part in them. For me these elections are neither crucial nor redundant. They are merely part of the normal political system, which I have nothing against. (I voted for the current Constitution.) Only I don’t feel enthusiastic about voting for anyone this time again. At least for the time being.

I wish the best of luck to all candidates!