Breaking the taboo

Alea iacta est - I gave my vote yesterday. Initially I was open for voting for almost any of the candidates, and that's why candidates' behavior during the campaign really mattered to me. I had my eye on five criterion: values, view on foreign politics, campaign attitude, self-perception and communication skills.

I mapped the candidates and the criterion based on the impression I have gotten during the campaign. I didn't judge the communication skills separately, because communication skills are striking through in the other four categories: if I have formed wrong impression or if I haven't been able to form any impression at all, then it's her/his lost in the communication.

"Who do you vote for" is some sort of a taboo in Finnish culture. But in the presidential election 2012 quite many have broken the taboo and expressed openly who they vote for. I believe some people have broken the silence because it's their way of fighting back to True Finns' success in the last parliament election. I'm sure some have broken the taboo just because it's so easy with Facebook and all. And for sure it's easier to be open since this is an election of a person, not that much of a party.

So I'm coming out of the closet too: based on my engineer-like Excel approach I voted for Pekka Haavisto. His values are ok for me. He's the only candidate who's view on foreign politics I'm able to a) understand and b) support. Haavisto is also the only one of the candidates who has been present on those arenas I'm following; I'm an internet consumer in my thirties. You can't win my vote by hanging around on the market square serving pea soup and giving out brochures. You can win my vote by being smart and active in both social and more conventional media. To summarize, he has earned my vote.