The semester approaches

I admit, I fell off the face of the earth for two months. I was in Halifax, NS, soaking up the last feeble summer sunshine rays that exist in the upper northern hemisphere. Then I moved halfway down the east coast back to Williamsburg. Not having much experience with moving from A to B, it was an arduous process from which I am just now, three weeks later, recovering. Back to research…

After I got back from Montreal doing honours thesis research (yes, there’s still a bit of Canadian in me yet, so honours with a “u”) I spent a good deal of time trying to get data for my Monroe project. Whereas my honours thesis is on Quebec nationalism, my Monroe is on Scottish nationalism. Specifically, I’m looking at how the Scottish National Party (SNP) markets itself and its cause to the UK. Not surprisingly there was more current research available for me at Dalhousie, one of the premier research universities in Canada. Aside from the fact that they are a research university, Nova Scotia = New Scotland.

I’ve noticed this about research: there are trends in who researches whom. For example, Quebec, Belgium and France are just about the only countries to seriously study Quebec. The Frenchies stick together. For another example, England, Scotland, Australia and Canada are just about the only countries to study Canada and Australia. The (former) Brits stick together, too. Thus the presence of a good amount of Scottish research in Nova Scotia did not really come as a shock.

As far as data, since I didn’t get to Edinburgh this summer I am depending quite a bit on current scholarly articles, a few books (all written by UKers…) and the SNP website. The website is quite interesting, especially after reading background on what is important to Scotland. Like any political party worth a vote, the SNP caters to the traditional Scottish identity in education, health and law. But please don’t forget the oil: the stuff under the North Sea apparently belongs to Scotland for exploitation, not England.

It seems rather silly since at this point most of the liberal/progressive world has decided that fossil fuels (like oil) won’t be around long, and we have to find other methods of energy production to survive. If you’ve seen Barack Obama’s recent alternative energy campaign televised ad, you’ll know what I mean. Fossil fuels are passe’. But the SNP is adamant about its right to oil - doesn’t this seem like an instant-gratification fix?

If I were the SNP, which already struggles to convince voters that Scotland could indeed go it alone without England (its largest and most reliable market while in the Union), I would be less visibly concerned about the oil in the North Sea and more emphatic about the possibility of tidal energy harnessing, or other alternative sources. That would be sustainable for longer than a few years, and would mean that Scotland could support its need for energy without dependency on foreign fossil fuels - it could perhaps even make a profit selling the oil in the North Sea, making self-sufficiency even more possible.

When the biggest concern for the independence project in Scotland is creating a viable plan of action, short-term fixes and instant gratification are not convincing enough to earn a majority vote.

So that’s what I’m working on now: going through my data on the SNP to figure out how they work. The semester approaches, and I am preparing for the battle ahead.