Dengl 43 Two Thoughts for 2012

Eligibility for Voting in a Referendum on Scottish Independence

Should Scottish expatriates – and others with Scottish roots, family and or jobs be eligible to vote in a referendum on Scottish independence? What about the other inhabitants of the United Kingdom who live outside Scotland, whose Union will be affected? Should they all be entitled to vote?
The refurbished National Museum in Edinburgh has an installation which tells visitors that there are five million people in Scotland, but also 25 million of Scottish descent in other countries. One such person is David Cameron, whose father is from Aberdeen and who would prefer the Union to stay. Another is Sir Sean Connery, who says he will remain outside Scotland until it achieves independence.
There is much to be said for both parties having a say – in this case, Scottish and non-Scottish members of the United Kingdom. As a Londoner with two Scottish grandchildren and family in Glasgow, I wonder if I might claim entitlement to vote.



Scope for an “International Yad VaShem” to honour those who opposed genocide


An elderly woman had written to the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/opinion/honoring-all-who-saved-jews.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
that a heroic Tunisian man had saved her and many of her family from Nazi threats (elsewhere leading to extinction). Her plea to Yad VaShem the Israeli institution which decides on a definitive honured status of “Righteous Gentile” for those who saved Jews from the Nazis, had her request for recognition for Khaled Abdul Wahab.
This led me to think of a need for an inistitution of wider application, rejected:

Is there an internationalised (or even, heaven help us on a smaller scale a Euro) version of Yad VaShem which would honour those who acted in this way anywhere else? No shortage of heroes and heroines of such episodes since WWII – including those who saved gypsies, gays, who knows what others from systematic attempts to erase their group...?
the Nobel outfit with money attached seems the wrong base ...
There must be many unsung hero(in)es to be recognised – in Tibet, Burma, the Balkans, Cambodia ...?? even shias rescuing sunnis and vice versa ...(in the face of lethal inter-communal aggression ...) and there are certainly many instances in "the Indian subcontinent" (including Sri Lanka).