THE GREAT WALL – TO BUILD OR NOT TO BUILD?

By Ruma Dubey

With President Trump issuing Federal orders to build a wall along the borders of Mexico, many have pursed their lips in disgust and rued at the ways of the world. But we adopt this “greater than thou” attitude, it is best to look inwards first.

India and Pakistan have one of the longest barbed wire walls across their borders. Hundreds of miles of fencing and floodlighting between the two countries can be seen from space. Many can argue that there is peace between Mexico and USA, unlike the situation between us two, which warrants a wall. Agreed but the moot point here is the presence of wall.

Building walls is not a new concept. It has been in existence from as long as human beings started expanding their territories and kingdoms. There was Hadrian’s Wall or the Roman wall – it was built in AD 122 to separate the Romans from the barbarians', the chief purpose being frontier control, just like modern frontier barriers. And who can forget the Great Wall of China. This wall was built to protect people and their territory from invasion, mainly from the Nomadic tribes. Berlin too had a wall, built in 1961 to prevent citizens from East Berlin going to West. Thankfully, that wall came down in 1989.

No need to go so far away into history – Austria is building a wall since 2015 across its borders with Slovenia to keep off immigrants – it is a 2.5 mile long fence, some 8-15 feet tall. Macedonia, Hungary, and Bulgaria have also started erecting border fences since 2014.

Yes, there is also the wall between South and North Korea - 2.5-miles wide and runs the approximately 150-mile length of the border separating both. Spain continues to have fences on the borders of Ceuta and Melilla, its two small coastal exclaves in North Africa, to separate them from Moroccan territory. The ongoing tussle between Israel and Palestine brought in a wall, first on the Gaza strip in 1990 and the other one on the West Bank is a work-in-progress – work began in 2002 and is still under construction, covering 283 of a projected 441 miles.

There are two ways of looking at it – those for it and those who oppose it. For most liberals, putting up any form of wall is a revolting idea. Walls of any kind are symbolic of the bringing in of a distance, a sense of animosity and enmity between two. Even when two people fight, it begins with first building a wall around their mind.

But then these are the same people, at least in India, who feel that the wall between India and Pakistan is a necessity. Does that mean that it is OK for some to protect their country with a wall because there is a real threat and not OK for others who merely perceive a threat? If we are trying to keep away terrorists, Trump is trying to keep away illegal immigrants. Yes, they are cheap labor and half of America will come to a standstill without them. Physically manning the borders is OK but when a wall comes up because manning is difficult is not ok. The moment physical manning comes in that in itself is the presence of a restriction; a wall only fortifies this restriction.

We do not live in John Lennon’s world of imagination, where there are no borders, no countries, where this is nothing to kill and die for, no religion. Such a world does not exist; the borders are very real. And when there are borders, walls have already come up.

Building walls is regressive but making it worse is the 20% import tax proposed by Trump to fund the construction of his wall. So trample over one to rise up yourself – is that the new math of the new world?

As America gets ready to spin into a world of chaos, the rest of the world is sure to feel the brunt – after all, the way it has always been is – if America does it, so can we!