What is sovereignty and self-determination?
Many people don’t realize that within our parents and grandparents lifetimes, the nation they were born into most likely changed it’s sovereignty and borders several times. Across Europe at least since WW1, Kingdoms, domains, borders have been in flux.
My parents were born in Belfast, which at the time was recognized both as Irish and British depending on your religion. And our grandparents were born in the same city (Belfast) which held a different sovereignty of a united Ireland, under British Rule. I was born in Australia but resided for 5 years in Switzerland.
So which is my nationality?
My ‘EU’ friends and colleagues have similar stories, or even more complex, with parents or themselves born into a sovereignty that no longer exists, such as ‘East GermanyDDR’, ‘Yugoslavia’, ‘Austro-Hungary’ to name a few. And even more complex in the Middle East whose current political boundaries were carved not by themselves. Not to mention the ‘Commonwealth’ of nations colonized under British rule, that slowly and individually gained their independence.
So who are we all then?
Many populations in the world, are of merged nationalities, with mixed loyalties and cultural identities that does not suite this current ideological debate. Sovereignty is not to be confused with culture nor even nationalism, if sovereignty is the absence of mutual interference, the most sovereign country in the world is North Korea.
alpitecture 