Strong fences make good neighbours

Latvia has just completed a 90 km barbed-wire fence along its border with Russia.¹⁾Latvia builds a 93 km fence on the border with Russia, uawire.org 2019-03-12; Construction of 93 km of fence on Latvian-Russian border completed – media, unian.info 2019-03-11; Latvia Builds Barbed Wire Fence on Russian Border to Combat Migration, The Moscow Times 2019-03-12. The Estonian authorities are soon to follow suit.²⁾PM, interior minister look at Estonian-Russian border in SE Estonia, The Baltic Times 2019-01-19. Hungary built a wall along its border with Serbia some time ago.³⁾Hungary completes new anti-migrant border fence with Serbia, euronews 2017-04-28. President Donald trump has promised and is going to deliver on his promise to construct a wall separating the United States from Mexico.⁴⁾Trump’s full 2019 State of the Union address, YouTube 2019-02-05. Israel has long been building walls to shut off the Palestinian population from its territory.⁵⁾Israel Fortifies Borders with Lebanon with Large Wall, YouTube 2018-09-06; The Impact of Israel’s Wall, YouTube 2015-12-18. There is a heavily guarded border between North and South Korea. The UK built a wall in Calais to keep refugees out.⁶⁾‘Great Wall of Calais’ farce: Barrier costs UK £2.3m and is fitted with unlocked doors, Express 2017-12-13. The Spanish-Moroccan border is a fence.⁷⁾Walls of Shame: The Spanish-Moroccan Border, Al Jazeera 2016-07-16. Also Saudi Arabia has built an almost 1000-km-long wall along its border with Iraq.⁸⁾Revealed: Saudi Arabia’s ‘Great Wall’ to keep out Isil, The Telegraph 2019-03-20. Where will the next fence emerge?

Almost right after though Second World War there appeared an iron curtain separating the West from the east, with an isle of the Western world within the precincts of Berlin. When in 1962 East Germany decided to put up a wall around West Berlin, the western world’s criticism had no end.

The Great Chinese Wall was to protect the Middle Kingdom against the inroads of the mongols. Ancient roman emperors would also build a chain of fortifications – limes – or walls along the empire’s endangered borders, with the Antonine and Hadrian Walls traversing the province of Britannia from east to west. History has seen numerous walls or curtains or limes. Not only those separating countries or political systems but also those shutting off communities: consider medieval fortified towns, present-day urban residential gated communities that are fenced in, or no-go zones.

Fences and walls have been with us and are there to stay. A natural phenomenon. Despite the globalist wishful thinking, diverse societies – types of culture, economic development levels, ideologies and creeds not to mention political systems – cannot and must not be boiled in one cauldron.