Courtesy of my IS exam revision. Really need to stop this last-minute revising, because it’s doing me no good: I wrote, “Terrorism is now more likely to be caused by terrorists.” I mean, what? Who caused terrorism before now if not terrorists?!
One hour to go…
36 hours
Countdown to International Studies exam: 36 hours. Aiiie. I feel so woefully unprepared for this thing, and yet I have so little time to rectify the situation…
Self-determination
Today, my International Studies teacher used an interesting, if roundabout, example to demonstrate the ludicrousness of self-determination. He said, “Suppose that Melbourne decides to break away from the rest of Australia. If we have the right of self-determination, we can do that, can’t we? Well, but if you grant that, then perhaps the people of western Melbourne might decide they’re different to the people of eastern Melbourne, so they might exercise their right to self-determination. But then, the people of Sunshine might decide they’re different to everyone else in western Melbourne, and exercise their right. Then the boys of west Sunshine might decide they’re different to the boys of east Sunshine, and before we know it, we’ve got a West Sunshine Republic on our hands. Do we want one of those? So the question with self-determination, therefore, is, ‘Where do we stop?’”
Keep in mind that South Ossetia is on the “Sunshine” end of the scale. Read on…