When Russia moved its battleships alongside the coast of the Crimea earlier this year under pretext of safeguarding Russian citizens, no one could have foreseen that it would lead to its de-facto annexation, that tensions between the pro-European West and pro-Russian East would re-ignite and set tempers ablaze culminating in an ongoing war. Then, our geopolitical border maps would change yet again, illegally, and with no regard for the people on the ground. No one could have predicted this, but they could have guessed.
Borders have never been rigid, unyielding or unchanging, yet we continue to think so. Forgetting that nearly every scrap of land on this planet has passed hands and been paid for in blood countless times over. From the splitting of Sudan to the annexation of Crimea, we’re seeing yet again how porous borders really are when people are violently opposed to them. Scotland’s recent attempt at independence fizzled out, but showed how the political landscape can be changed just as radically in a non-violent way.
This need to build walls to keep others out is self-destructive - has accumulated deaths in the millions over the entirety of human history. So, where do we go from here?
One would think that the idea of a “world without borders” would solve everything, yet this is misguided. There will always be borders of sorts between people, be they political, societal or cultural in nature. However, that should not be a cause for alarm. They do not necessarily make for enmity in and of themselves, but it is what people choose to do with these borders, these differences, that matters.
If your cultural identity becomes a shield to you or if your borders turn to fortresses, tension naturally follows. Isolate yourself from those who seem strange to you and gradually see your fear of them turn to hatred. Diversity should not mean division. Something to take from the Crimean situation; personal identities are important but should not be something we must go to war to achieve, because that is something we could all do without.
- The reader is an Irish journalism graduate based in Dublin, Ireland.
