Can we ever have a borderless world? How would it change the way we live?
Many people think the lines on the map no longer matter, but at the prestigious TED conference Parag Khanna says they do. Using maps of the past and present, he explains the root causes of border conflicts worldwide and proposes simple yet cunning solutions for each.
Watch the video clip here: The Future of Countries
Many people think the lines on the map no longer matter, but at the prestigious TED conference Parag Khanna says they do. Using maps of the past and present, he explains the root causes of border conflicts worldwide and proposes simple yet cunning solutions for each.
Watch the video clip here: The Future of Countries
21 comments:
Wow, a borderless world is what many dream isn't it? Actually this is a very good link to our earlier thunk about whether humans are peaceful at heart. Actually, I believe that border conflicts have actually resulted in extreme violence been shown from humans. There have been countless wars for land. But no blood would have been spilled or no lives would have been lost. A world without borders would mean that anybody would be able to visit any country without any discrimination. I mean, how many countless cases have we seen where African people have been denied visas to certain countries. A good example, was during the Under 17 cricket world cup. The young Ugandans were denied a visa to Canada, as the Canadian embassy felt that the Ugandans wouldn't return. If we had a world without borders, that embarrassing incident and many more before it wouldn't have happened. This incident can be linked with racism, and I have to believe that racism is linked with human violence. A world without borders would mean a world with unlimited possibilities. Of course the major concern here, is whether humanity would actually be civilized as we are if we had no borders. The whole world would be considered as one country, and governing such a large place would be nearly impossible. Would we have been as technologically advanced as we are now? Some countries would be completely deserted. Most people from Africa or some parts of Asia would move somewhere else. This would result in massive amounts of people in certain areas. The implication of such events could be disease and crime. Another thing to consider is whether humanity would actually exist if we had a border less world. I mean just imagine the Spanish influenza taking place. There would be no border control or no stopping the disease at all. Infected people would be moving from place to place and spreading the disease all over the place.
So a borderless world could be great, but could be chaotic at the same time.
Was I the only one who noticed the island of Sri Lanka didn't appear in any of his maps? I wonder why?
Would that annoy Sri Lankans?
A world without borders, huh? Well, I think that as lovely as it sounds in theory, it won't be as lovely in practice. I'm all for a borderless world, but humankind has become so used to having these borders that nothing will really change.
This was a really interesting video and it had some very good points. But I don't have a set opinion on it as yet.
Also, I did notice he didn't cover some other, very significant problems that the world is facing. Perhaps he deemed those too sensitive or irrelevant to the point he was making. Whatever the cause, I would have liked to hear him talk about those.
Mr Roberts:
Yeah some Sri Lankans would be quite offended. But we are used to it by now. Not much of a problem. We aren't included in many maps actually.
And honestly, I didn't notice it in the video!!
And, by the way it just occurred to me. If the world was actually borderless imagine the number of lives it could have saved during the 25 year civil war that took place in northern and most of Sri Lanka actually. And come to think of it, most separatist groups want a land of their own isn't it. Just imagine the number of lives we could save?
If the world had been border-less, it would have been worse than today. Actually, many more people would have died, for everyone would be thriving for independence, something I consider to be irrelevant. Humans are so predictable, that I laugh to myself when my mind predicted the next word, or move, my friend will make.
If countries were border-less, than you would have so many people arguing and fighting for their "rights", and for the unstoppable urge of greed for money and other really stupid reasons.
I wont talk much, because it is obvious that you will know what I will say. Just a point, there would have been no stopping what would have happened today.
Intense topic. A borderless world would cause more chaos, more disturbance. People would be fighting for land, for independence and designation of being from one particular region/country.
It would be quite interesting to see a border-less world. I think it would be rather disorderly but then again, racism probably wouldnt be too much of an issue if there weren't borders dividing so vastly. Theres pros and cons to both but then again, humans are pretty violent, hence either way there wouldnt have been a stop to the many destructive wars that have happened so far.
I think a borderless world is pointless. We just can't live without politics. Form one big cosmopolitan world, with only natural georgraphic borders setting land apart by water, and it's my strong belief that we'd have to start from scratch and borders will be formed all over again. So why go through the trouble?
Disputes are bound to start. There will be a struggle for power. Tyranny will start surfacing once more.
It might sound great in theory :WOW, A BORDERLESS WORLD! We're all just fellow cosmopolitans, there'no German, Indian, English, Chinese or American. Every one has equal rights and access to any part in the world. No passports and bans. No invasions? You really think so? Don't you think migration will occur? Then hostiltity in some cases. Then maybe a civil war? Then division. Then borders. Then we start building a new infrastructure for this newly formed bordered in country. Why, why would we do that?
We already have infrastructures. They're flawed, let's just work on them then. But ablosh borders. I'm not convinced.
I think a world without borders would be interesting, but I agree that because of the world being borderless, many problems would arise.
If, incredibly, there was a way to have a world without borders as an experiment, I would love to see the various situations and decisions that mankind would create.
I think that Parag is right….may be the world would be a better place is it was borderless.
i noticed that quite a few people think a borderless world would be great but actually i think it might actually cause more problems. with a world like ours, where discrimination and crime is so high, people would just invade into other countries and end up destroying the world. borders are a kind of safety net that restricts people into socializing with people of their own kind so that they dont cause more harm than what there already is
if we never had borders in the first place, i actually believe there might not have been wars, or colonies or invasion or any such thing
Western Europe was once filled with borders and defined by borders. Back then they waged numerous wars against each other. Today they have open borders and no passport control and they're more peaceful than they've ever been in the history of their existence.
I really love the ideas this man has for a borderless world, but as much as i would like to see it promote more peace, it cant possibly happen. Wars don't break out because of countries independence, independent or not the government will always be the ones who decide to break out a war or not. It is not like the countries have actual physical borders stopping them. Basically what i'm trying to say is, it'll always be the people who affect how our world handles conflict, rather than the lines on a map, or the earth itself.
A bordless world is only a dream. A dream that we fantasize and all would love to have, moving to country to country without any passports however this is not possible, I agree with Nadine that it is pointless as there would be to much of a struggle and fight to acheive this and many would not like it.
---- Border Less World-----
2 Sides Of It !!
1st !! Fun, cause every day you can go to another place enjoy meet people come back !!No Passports No Visa So yeah !!!
2nd !! It would be quite pointless! Causing Many problems such as racism, fight and all !!
Got To accept it! its only in dreams
A borderless world, could be a good thing and a bad thing. Having no borders, as most here said, would really reduce the rate of people being discriminated and segregated. I also agree with Sonal when he says that racism is linked with human violence. On the other hand, a borderless world would only result in more wars and revolutions, seeing how power-hungry the world has become. It would be India-Pakistan and Palastine-Israel all the time, except taht this time it would be all over the world. On the whole, a world with borders would be better, seeing how out-of-hand things could get without them, as ruling the entire world would either be impossible or even if it was possible and if the said ruler wasn't efficient, then the whole world would succumb under his tyranny.
A BORDERLESS WORLD ..
hmm these 3 words in itself is hard to comprehend ..
first off i would like to say , bluntly that we may never achieve this it is simply to big a feat for our tiny selfish minds to comprehend .
we like to call things our own. to rule over .or to have power over something , weather its another person or even vast stretches of land, personally , i wouldn't want to share something that is precious to me, with anyone else ; the same with anyone else .
a criminal on the loose ... where does he go? ANYWHERE HE WANTS, the world is literally his.
there will always be a tug of war between man ..for the precious commodity we call land .massive wastage of natural resources .as humans can set up mining stations and oil rigs anywhere in the world and start extracting whatever little we already have. today each country has rules we need to follow in order to enter their lands . but in a borderless world we can just enter freely , do as we please and walk away without a care in the world
there aren't any borders fencing anyone in . we will have one global super economy where the recessions , inflations we face today will be a common happening . currency , rates of exchange values will have to be re-structured , globes and atlas's will have to be remade to comply with the ''FACE'' of the new world a borderless world.
this is never going to happen not without wars or some kind of revolt or rebellion .
WE JUST AREN'T READY TO GIVE UP WHAT WE CALL OUR OWN !! . wayne11b1
"A BORDERLESS WORLD"
hmph... in your dreams.. one word "impossible"!!!!
I just cannot fathem a world without borders. What's the point?? Yes i know it would be amazing if we all could live together in peace, but this can never happen, as a matter of fact it would just create chaos!!!!
Just think of it for a second,the only reason we have countries and divisions is because people have the tendancy of sticking and living with others that share the same, views, traditions, cultures and ways of life!! we are comfortable that way!! humans have the ability to adapt, but lets get real not many of us want to adapt!!
lets take India for example a country full of politics, different cultures and religions all living together yet there are millions o cases of fights, strikes, killings, rapes just because of these differences, now add a European style of living to the already complicated situation and you have yourself in a complete mess!!! but keep that aside because anyways there are millions of people that migrate each year, look at Dubai for example!!!
as humans we crave and demand order and a direction in life, each country has a head either kings or queens, a government who weigh and manage natural and man-made resources,this way they are able to plan for the future in terms of schools, hospitals etc linked to their population. without borders we would never have a record of who comes in and out and therefore planning would never be possible!!
wow I think we all would be over the moon if we didn't need to have piles of paper work when it comes to visas and passports but lets take a deeper look into why we need this!!! criminals would never be caught if they could run wild around the world without restrictions, the statics of drug users would increase as drugs would not have to be smuggled but could easily travel form north to south and east to west!!
To me borders and customs are a must!!
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