By stewartb
I‘ve just received the latest newsletter from the estimable Edinburgh-based publisher, Luath Press. It informs me of the programme of events planned for its annual ‘ScotlandsFest’, held as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. And an excellent programme it is offering too!
This sentence from caught my attention: ‘For being such a small nation, Scotland can contain so many ideas of what it can be. ‘
Is Scotland ‘such a small nation’? Of the c. 197 independent nation states across the world which have membership of the UN, c. 81 have populations smaller than Scotland’s c. 5.5 million!
This ‘such a small nation’ notion may foster what IMHO is an ‘unfortunate’ mindset and one not justified by the facts!
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_(United_Nations)
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
exactly
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Hugh McDairmaid started a poem with the question- ‘Scotland small?’
Worth a read.
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Ah, but Scotland is too wee in a special sense because its people are not genetically programmed to manage their own affairs.
Alasdair Macdonald
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Scottish invention changed the world. The first country to have tertiary education. 14 years. The ability to learn. Not the ability to pay. Universal.
‘Scotland the land of discovery and invention’. Chinese.
TV, radio, telecommunication led on to the internet.
The Declaration at Arbroath. The Enlightenment influenced democracy throughout the world. The French Revolution. The philosophers. Liberty, equality and freedom. The US founders. One person, one vote. Universal Suffrage, eventually.
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Focussing on the “small” in ‘For being such a small nation, Scotland can contain so many ideas of what it can be. ‘ is perhaps a tad over-sensitive – I doubt Estonians would take it as other than the intended compliment, but there again they do not suffer from a political/media class relentlessly seeking to undermine their confidence and aspirations.
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