Overseas voting

I took the opportunity to visit the New Zealand Consulate / Trade and Enterprise office today to cast my vote in the General Election. The whole process was easy, roll up with your passport, give your address and sign a declaration. I'm really casting a special vote, albeit, thousands of kilometres away. For me the voting process allowed me windows of opportunity. Firstly I didn't know we had a consulate office in Ho Chi Minh City. I did know we had a New Zealand Embassy in Hanoi, however knowing this office exists in my city, is like a safety net. If I am ever faced with a problem that requires solving or input at a higher level then I do have a port of call and a place to visit.
Secondly I cast my vote because I can, because my country values democracy, because I have a voice and I'm given the opportunity and freedom to express it. While travelling into some of the countries I have been to, I begin to quickly appreciate and value democracy and the nature of our political system.
Vietnam is a communist state, without a welfare system, so people graft a living any which way, from street food vendor to recycling collector, to gorgeous lady on the arm of some elderly fat Westerner. I'm not too certain of their political system, and I do know that bribery exists......
While in Nth Thailand I saw the Chinese and Burmese tea houses. The owners and occupants having fled from their country to Thailand. 17 km away is Myanmar where Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest for 21 years by their Junta. I left behind the Arab world and the political unrest that was wide spread through the area. I admire the strength and tenacity of the people who flee to improve their lifestyle, or the people who protest to improve their rights. Today I cast a vote not only for an MP, a party, a political system but mostly for democracy and freedom, something I may well have taken for granted.