respect and recognition

Whilst having been too caught up in other things to express my thoughts here, there have been many issues that have occupied my grey matter. In recent times (days, weeks), there have been a number of reports in the press on two that give me some hope: the Israel-Palestine issue and that of the situation in Australia regarding the lack of respect and recognition afforded First Peoples, particularly in regard to the 'National Holiday' on January 26 known as Australia Day.

Of late, I have pondered some seemingly diverse issues and common threads have struck a chord. Awareness of this arose whilst seeking inspiration, which I found in a film I had not seen for some years: Pump up the Volume (1990) [wikipedia, imdb]. Many of the issues I have pondered were explored in the film, though share commonality with recent experiences and academic texts I have engaged with. These musings are somewhat of a mash-up…

Whilst my brain had some free time recently, I was pondering the concept of sovereignty. My thoughts rotated around why it exists as a notion—more-so that it is not a concept that I consider needed nor one that has a place in a fair and just society. This brings me to two clarifications: 1). These are ideas still a work in progress; 2). Given the lack of a fair and just society in (never quite) post-colonial countries (and many others), the concept has some usefulness. I will come back to the latter.