My e-Participation Story | Page 7

“Our undertaking has thoroughly positive and constructive nature. We do not protest or fight, we make friendly suggestions for making situations better. We bring out and map the places where it’s possible to improve the traffic situation with little resources and make it more logical, convenient and intuitive. We do not think that the places we refer to are improperly arranged but in our opinion they can be improved. We try to focus on proposals that are financially undemanding.” Aet thinks that a strong civil society is important and it can be strong only through cooperation with partners. Civil society does not mean only demanding: it consists of people’s own contributions as well. The local governments are doing their job, but citizens determine what kind of country they want. It all may sound idealistic, but Aet thinks that idealism and realism are not opposites of each other: idealism is something that leads us to better society. Aet created the group on social media which sees many active people. Although the group members don’t meet physically but their relationship with the Commission of the Narva City Municipality is based on mutually friendly and respectful communication. People may say that traffic management has minor importance and little influence on making overall Photo: FB group “Liiklus Narvas loogiliseks!” life better. Aet thinks that dealing with small things is also substantial as small things together may eventually have an important impact, and this is why there should be more citizen initiatives. Today the Narva City Government discusses the traffic solutions with the group members and implements those that are achievable. The citizen initiative “Traffic in Narva logical!” is important not only for the city traffic but likely even more for Narva’s civil society. Photo: Kristina Reinsalu private collection. Kristina Reinsalu Head of e-Democracy Domain in e-Governance Academy Foundation, Marju Lauristin MEP, and Aet Kiisla Estonian Photo: Kristina Reinsalu private collection winner of the competition. �7