Borders

Through out my trip I have crossed a number of borders and they never cease to fascinate me. For example, when Heather and I left Victoria all those nights ago we were checked by American border officials in Victoria and then again when we arrived in Seattle. Two things about this were really interesting to me. First, the fact that we have people from the US in Canada which stamp your passport and usher you into a small waiting room. What country am I in at that point? Is it Canada? Because we are certainly on Canadian soil in a Canadian owned and operated building. Or is it like an embassy in which it is sovereign land of the other country gifted by the host country. Furthermore, if a murder was committed there whose law is tried under and is the death penalty a possibility?

A second complicating factor in my mind is the fact that I again was checked by customs officials when I arrived in America. Between the time I was first checked by American guards in Canada and those in Seattle what country was I in? Did I have rights under either the American Constitution or the Canadian Charter? It is this kind of grey air that allows Camp X-ray to exist in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

As I travelled South some more strange things happened on borders. The border between Mexico and Guatemala is demarcated by a bridge of about 300 meters in length (as was the one between Honduras and Nicaragua is likewise demarcated) This seems a petty question, but as the bridge is in no man´s land whose laws govern its construction and who pays for and does the upkeep on it?

On a more serious level is what borders represent. They rarely, if ever, demarcate clear lines between regions or ethnicity's. For example, the people of Washington state speak, sound are pretty much indistinguishable from people in BC. For the most part we can see all their newscasts, share the same climate and geography.

So what is the point of borders when it seems pretty clear that people change by regions and not arbitrary lines. To see how arbitrary those lines can be look at a map of Africa! It is pretty safe to understand that the straighter a line is the more arbitrary.

So are borders a tool of peace or war? I ask this because the obvious answer seems to be of war, the fact that there is a line dividing groups from others they identify with or resources they cover creates a desire and an impetus for military conquest. However, what would happen if there was not clearly demarcated lines? The Ottoman Empire used to work very much like this, their authority or border essentially ended where ever their ability to assert control ended. However, this meant that for the people far removed from the center and living on the regions that there was frequent warfare on and around their land.

It seems clear to me that the European Union has the correct solution to this problem because with free trade it eliminates the coveting of people/resources, allows for people to settle where and with the people that they identify with. The one reservation I have is that the surrender of sovereignty that things like a common currency entail. Although I think I shall save my thoughts on what currency represents for a later date.