This blog feels like a cold empty building right now. Is there anybody out there?

OK - how about this? There is a proposal to change the law concerning voting rights in Hungary. The suggestion is that each mother should get more than one vote - one for herself and another one for each dependent child that she has below the independent voting age. See:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/17/hungary-mothers-get-extra-votes

The justification is that, without such a measure, a significant proportion of the population is disenfranchised - ie has no say in the future direction of government in the country.

As we are starting our formal consideration of ethics today, let's use this example in order to try to develop some arguments about whether this proposal is a good idea or not. What do you think?

Some people say that multiculturalism is a dead idea - they claim that it doesn't work. People with widely differing values, cultures, beliefs getting along together in the same society is not a reasonable expectation.

The roots of each country belong in one particular tradition that shapes its institutions and methods for making things happen effectively. As diversity increases, people experience an ever-widening gulf between the strong loyalty they feel to their own group and weaker ties to the society as a whole, and this leads to fragmentation and conflict.

Better solutions include encouraging people to stay where they "belong", or insisting that people adopt the core traditions of the country concerned whether or not they agree or conflict with their own values and beliefs.

What do you think?