It saddens me to repeatedly hear people comment that they “won’t be voting” in the upcoming elections on May 16. What saddens me most of all is that these people represent the young demographic, people who are just about-or have begun to create a family of their own, and need every help they can get to ensure their family’s security when oil runs out.

It’s not just about improving government services; it’s ensuring that these services continue to survive after the economy shrinks from complete oil dependence in sixty or seventy years time; according to recent estimates (some reports claim a maximum of forty years).

I have a 2 year old daughter, by the time she’s a mother, her children will face Kuwait’s hardest economic situation ever-a country without oil to fuel the state’s expenditures and services. In other words, what I as a parent decide today will affect my grandchildren’s future wellbeing.

By selecting the right MP, we as voters set the standards for a better future, it’s not about voting for someone who would be able to help me grab a government-built house quicker than the rest, or someone who would be able to process my papers with his influence or some other short-term personal gain.

Younger voters may not feel it now, but think about this: A University education with gender-segregated classes is no education to rely upon, and this segregation came about recently because the people voted for the wrong MP’s. On the same subject, an educational system where course work is dictated by politically and religiously motivated advisers is doomed to produce fanatics and extremists no matter how the situation is justified.

Last year I posted a blog about the difference between the Kuwait of the 1960’s and today, and in it, I outlined the features of the ideal candidate for my family and myself. Today, however, there are many options that fit the description I set for myself, and ironically enough, they were not all tribalists nor Islamists or ‘service MP’s’; They were all right-minded people, with an actual progressive agenda and clean-shaven faces who don’t shout their throats off in front of cameras, spurting out brain-farts for local consumption while flexing their tribal or Islamist muscles!

I’m not endorsing anyone in particular here, but I am asking everyone to vote, and vote well. Vote with your minds, not your hearts, not your ears, and certainly not for your expected monetary gains – despite what you may watch in political plays and songs, you shouldn’t be voting for Kuwait for the sake of Kuwait; It’s simply a plot of land with oil underneath it! You should be voting for your family’s well-being in the not-too-distant future, you should be voting for Kuwait’s children, since they’ll be inheriting the problems and solutions that you will be creating today….and if that’s not enough to make someone vote right, think about people in my latest post, and what they’d done for you and your country lately!