Thursday, March 01, 2007

Walls and Contradictions

Global Guerrillas:
  • India and Bangladesh. A 2,500 mile (~$1.2 billion dollars) fence to seal the border from what India fears could become the "new Afghanistan."
  • US and Mexico. A 2,000 mile state of the art barrier being constructed in incremental installments.
  • Israel and the West Bank. 436 miles of concrete barriers.
  • Saudi Arabia and Iraq. A 550 mile wall at a cost of $600 million (part of a ring to encircle the entire country, as with the fence to the south with Yemen).
  • Spain and Morocco.
  • Thailand and Malaysia. 75 km border fence.
  • Pakistan and Afghanistan. A 2,400 km fence.
  • Kuwait and Iraq. Upgrade to the 215 km fence with Iraq.
  • Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
  • UAE and Oman.
Question: if the Berlin wall (et. al.) were a sign of a fundamental contradiction in the communist system that ultimately destroyed it, are these walls a sign of a similar contradiction (albeit different, given the change in directionality)?

2 comments:

troutsky said...

I remember crossing quite a bit of water to get from Spain to Morrocco. The basic idea of fences is anti-global, anti-cosmo,Ming dynasty.

Anonymous said...

Right on! Tear down walls and annex everything from the Yukon to the Yucatan!