Excerpts from 'A journey to finding me' Eps 18

Can the subaltern speak? Or not or how is post colonial theory relevant to your research and writing in human rights law. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/ahric/ajhr/V5N1/ajhr511.html Post colonialism can be described as a literary theory and written material by those who were formerly colonized. This theory provides frameworks that questions the discourses in the former colonial nations and critiques its motives, goals and use. it demonstrates the heterogeneity of colonized places by analyzing the uneven impact of Western colonialism on different places, peoples, and cultures. It also deals with cultural identity in colonized societies: the dilemmas of developing a national identity after colonial rule; the ways in which writers articulate and celebrate that identity, the ways in which the knowledge of the colonized (subordinated) people has been generated and used to serve the colonizer’s interests; Moreover, post colonialism recognizes that there was, and still is, resistance to the West. This resistance is practiced by many, including the subaltern, a group of marginalized, and least powerful. Post-colonialist thinkers recognize that many of the assumptions which underlay the "logic" of colonialism are still active forces today. In writing for human rights law, I am the subaltern, coming from a former colony of Britain I am in the category of those who have had ‘western education’ and should be criticizing the views and theories that we have adopted as our own from former colonial powers. A while ago I wrote in my journal about seeing children in Sinai selling jewelry instead of being in school and how that disturbed me and made me reflect on why countries sign up to conventions and treaties which they never adhere to. After reading SELENA GEORGE & SHILPA JAIN EXPOSING THE ILLUSION OF THE CAMPAIGN FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO EDUCATION (2000), I am starting to wonder whether it is my western education that has wholly embraced a formal system of education and not taken time to question it. Could universal schooling be one that demeans human dignity? George and Jain argue that schooling supports this effort to re-colonize by providing a ‘neutral’ veil behind which the north can pursue its dehumanizing and destructive agenda. They believe that the culture of schooling is a violation of human dignity (where dignity is a concept much more broadly understood than that in the narrow discourse on ‘rights’). On several occasions it has come to mind that whatever education I have received is a continuation of colonialism, the same law am studying has been developed and created by former colonial powers and minds and it is this law, treaties and conventions that we have to subscribe to. Do these governments feel this way when they do not keep committed to what they have signed, and in signing only want to be a part of the United Nations to advance national interests and nothing more? In reading DI OTTO EVERYTHING IS DANGEROUS: SOME POST-STRUCTURAL TOOLS, I am starting to question the universality of human rights. As I continue to receive an education I believe that the subaltern can speak, the more I am exposed to systems and allowed to critique them, embracing ontologism without understanding will become problematic for me. As a subaltern, the critiquing has just begun for me. The more I learn the more I am uncomfortable with embracing systems that are imposed in the most subtle and professional manner.