I had not realized that India would be holding elections again so quickly.

There is always the undecided question of the First Pup. I am following your form book on that.

You are absolutely right. In fact, even the way in which election campaigns are run is very different here. With elections around the corner, campaigning is just beginning! No dogs running for elections though.

I’ll wait for the FNDB pictures:)

Licks n wags,
Oorvi

I hope that means everything is OK.

Parliamentary systems are different from presidential systems – a different perhaps not appreciated by CNN. African Americans are a significant and distinct minority group in the US. There is nothing to stop any person from a different background becoming prime minister, as in India.

The most obvious group not represented in Parliament, although they have in the past, are Aboriginal people. The same lack of representation applies in the US with respect to Native Americans.

You are very busy Oorvi. I do appreciate your comments.

Thanks for posting the pictures. The pictures are looking increasingly green every week. Sasha looks cool in her tub. That picture of Dexter without the harness is really nice – he looks free:)

Your discussion reminds me of a question that CNN had asked its viewers – “Could someone from a minority community become the president in your country?” The question sounded funny to my long flappy ears – The most important political position here is the Prime Minister’s – and our Prime Minister is a Sikh (and so from a Minority community.) This is also true for Dr. Abdul Kalaam Azad.

Symbolically we’ve made a point, but what exactly does it mean at the grassroots? I guess that it has a different meaning for each one of us…and how we take our lives forward is a personal decision. Probably there isn’t a community that didn’t have to carry an unwarranted burden some time or the other in history; but then some people made a difference – people who refused to accept the norms set by others!

In fact, humans do it all the time – some set bigger and more visible standards; others set smaller and less visible ones, but whether or not we agree to give our tormentors the satisfaction of feeling a sense of misplaced megalomania, is our individual decision.

…there’s someone at the door…I need to go check! A dog’s life is hectic – I could do with a pup-assistant!

I’ll be back through the cat-flap!

Licks n Wags,
Oorvi

It is the fact that we have a multicultural society, and equally many of us do not understand other cultures and beliefs, even those that exist within ethnically described that might include us. We have to achieve social integration as well as the acceptance of differences.

Funny thing, though, I don’t think white young people, for example, go around using the word, even in lyrics, though they buy most of rap music worldwide. It’s replaced with “bleep.” This seems slightly schizophrenic or at the least contradictory. The effort is appreciated, but I do not know what good it might do for these young people, black or white, in the long run. Maybe this is not the purpose. Perhaps pure expression is and those who feel the right to do so.

Colonization, and I think immediately of Australia and New Zealand, was consistent with the original Roman version, was fundamentally a form of military domination in which the cultures of the indigenous people were suppressed. For example, people were punished for speaking their mother tongues.

The song is interesting in retrospect, in that it was 25 years ahead of the Apology, so it is an example of cultural expression preceding political change. It is interesting, I think, to consider how that works.

Some days recently have been hot, although the weather has been up and down, but on warm days Sasha really appreciates coming back and lying in her pool. Dexter is not a big water dog. He is not the same tough guy he used to be.

Thanks for your comment Judith.

In reflection of the Nagel quote, at first I could not understand the use of “colonized,” as it often evokes images of oppression or an abruption from sustenance, often occupiers, leaving in its wake, devastation and a virginal governance which was perhaps more intact before colonization.

As I thought of term colony, I thought of people of the world as a cell from a common origin and then the quote became clearer. I also thought of a colony as a singular community which evokes oneness. This made sense. My thoughts, by the way, may have no relevance at all to the author’s ideas.

Here’s another thought. Can some words be rehabilitated?