BORDERS: BOON OR BAN?

 

BORDERS: BOON OR BAN?

I am sorry but I am not sorry that i am not a nationalist and that i dont support this irrelevant disputes and war over the borders and so called "Nationalism". Of course, I know many wouldn’t agree with my views as there is a wave of trend for proving our ownership over a land area in the name of nationalism. What difference does it make to the world if Budhha was born 20km southward or northward. Do the people really think that “The Buddha” would be proud of their struggle to prove that he was born within a manmade and articulated enclosed bordered geographical area which people now call as nation? Does it make any difference to his enlightened self, teachings and knowledge he wished to bestow upon the people? If only one would take his teachings more seriously than these rallies, mass gatherings, social media war and the race and struggle to show his birthplace, and why are the people fighting over the birthplace of "The Buddha" and not some Mr Ramesh, Suresh or Miss Kanti and Shanti? Buddha was Buddha not because of his birthplace but because of the enlightment that he achieved along his life. How about spreading his teachings over the debate on his birthplace?

Millions and billions of dollars, thousands of manpower, are involved over "maintaining the national integrity" and protecting of "nations' geographical area". BUT for what? Poor humans teach a five year old kid, "united we stand and divided we fall" but do not realize how they are dividing their own species over a manmade artificial geographical lines, and again fighting and wasting their own time, brain, and natural resources for these imaginary lines. Humans need to realise that they donot live in Nepal, China, America, Syria or any other nation. They live on EARTH and mother earth is not going to expand or contract for their war and struggle for borders. Unfortunately, Earth is round or rather oval  and does not share a boundary with Venus or Mars, so there's less scope for encroachment over the other planets, so the smartest species on the earth decided to create these imaginary lines within the earth and fight over it.

What percentage of world population really worked for it when Earth was burning with pain over the Amazon forest fire? Why? Because that forest does not belong to any one nation! How much more selfish can a species entitled as the "most intelligent" ever on earth be? If only if was a single nations’ property it would do anything and everything within its limits to protect it. But sadly, it was not the human's responsibility to protect the Amazon which habitats thousands of species and provides more than 20% of world oxygen. The rivers, the air, the clouds, the mountains, even the animals don’t have the borders. They belong only to the earth, and so do we if only we realize that earth can obscure these lines with a single jolt. Slow drowning of Maldives is a good example of earth destroying the borders itself.

I am not trying to put on that the discretion of the world into nations as a wrong thing. A natural boundary is created by the earth itself in the form of hills, mountains, desserts, oceans, islands and so on and the lifestyle, habitat, culture of the species is naturally adjusted along these earth-made boundaries. The boundaries of certain type and form is necessary for the uniting the people, setting up a culture and creating a union within themselves. But these boundaries should act in favor and to ease the life of the people. It should evolve us as humans in a better way. It should help us make the best use of the natural resources around us instead of deplecting the resources to alarming level. Moreover, It should unite us instead of dividing us.

In the ancient times when there were number of colonies ruled by the emperors and the kings border was to the best benefit of the one who is ruling. Anciently, the role of the kings was more to solve the contemporary issues of the areas like draught, some vicious disease, and natural disasters, resolve the differences between the people and unite the people for different works and measures to create a resourceful and independent community. But with the passage of time, the role of king or the leader was more shifted towards expanding the borders. Larger his kingdom, more the people under him and more the power he gains. And power is something that has always enticed the mankind into the most dreadful and vicious act in the history. More power always meant more wealth and better luxury not just to one person but to his off springs as well. It is no new thing that time and again many number of leaders and emperors have misused their powers to an inhumane level and created dominance more than the unity among the people. In the quest of acquiring more power, expanding of the borders had become the trend and this led to the wars. Wars meant destructions, numerous deaths of the capable and youthful group and wastage of large amount of natural resources.

The concept of the emperors might have changed with the growing democracy, but the jest remained the same i.e. power. Power have always been more or less directly dependent on the land or area controlled by the leader. The prominent leaders, good or bad, but who have had the capacity to change the direction of the world have always been those who were in charge of the nation enclosing larger area and more number of people and for this reason even in today’s time the war for the borders is ongoing. Be it the border issues between India-Pakistan or the infamous wall between US and Mexico. The approach of the leaders in terms of borders have always found a place in their quest for candidacy and issues in election. Let us take a time and think, would Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi be as powerful as they are if there were no borders on earth? Would the United Nations be required if earth was not cutoff into pieces with numerous nations? Would there ever be World wars? Would the atom bombs and nuclear bombs be developed to hurt and harm the national enemies? Would it be required to develop numerous dreadful weapons? Would the weapon industry flourish as much as now at all? Would any nation require to invest large number of young capable manpowers as national armies for the sake of protecting the borders? These are some simple but insightful questions whose answer is known to each and every one of us.

The world is always in the hands of the majority. People create, mark and demark the borders. If only we as a generation would raise our thoughts and voice for a purposeful borders instead of war, ownership and ego-oriented borders, the world can still be a much better place to live. We can save the life of hundreds of youths who die in the quest to protect these borders. We can use the resources and manpower for better purposes than the war. We can raise the unity in the mankind and create a better space for the generations to come.