Dreaming of a World without Borders

i seldom follow the lives and lines of international or national movie stars, but a recent quote that i came across got me thinking and did tempt me to pen down my views.  

“I am the kind of person who doesn't recognize borders. I don't understand why we think it is okay to keep someone within one border when they are unable to feed their family when they could be getting help somewhere else. I don't see people as different so I don't understand the idea of borders in this world.”

These words by Angelina Jolie make so much sense today with countries combating poverty, hate crimes and militants, all at one go. It is appalling to know children are dying out of hunger and disease in some part of the world for the only reason that they were born in the wrong country; that a hapless government, with its own set of international debts and internal agitations, hasn’t got funds enough to feed its people.  How fare is it that while one country strives to put together these funds to feed and nurse its ill, another spends billions on putting together ammunitions for the Armageddon?

Couldn’t there be a way that the United Nations or the World Bank probably, like many other international regulations, makes it mandatory that every developed nation puts aside a fixed sum of money for the les misérables of the world. When the good-fortuned can glide past physical boundaries of a country to fix their businesses and salaries, why shouldn’t there be some way that the ill-fortuned get treatments, food, or even shelter across borders at minimum expenses. 

Picture epitomising our world today

When there’s no census on how many birds flew past the border and how many remained in the country, i wonder why we bother to have the same for humans. When nature doesn’t confine itself within borders, why then would a part of the desert be India and the other Pakistan! Why should one end of the road be in the US of A and the other in Mexico, while they could have rather been a part of one unified nation, that which belonged to the whole mankind. Couldn’t the world tread along in the direction set by the European Union?

From the current standing of the nations of the world, visa regulations to travel from one part of the moon to another, could soon be the norm, even before we decide who’s gonna travel next to the moon. On a lighter note, if this was a world without borders, i could be an Indian and still be saved from the months-long visa process to travel abroad for a vacation! True, that wouldn't be called travelling “abroad”, then!

Let the divine lamp light the lives of one and all! Happy Diwali all!

This Diwali, when it’s time to celebrate the festival of lights, i pray for a world without borders, one that would bring life, light and peace to all, across borders, religions and ethnicity. i pray for a world that is united in a mission, to bring smiles on the faces of the less-fortuned.

The forgotten people of Australia

i first learnt of these Australian people while watching the well known television show of yesteryear, Surabhi, on Doordarshan. The hosts were speaking about the origin of Boomerang, the hunting weapon used by tribal communities in many parts of the world. Then is when i first heard of the Indigenous people of Australia, the Aborigines, who are considered to be the inventors of the Boomerang. This was something new, since i'd never before known of this lost culture of Australia.

Various articles and accounts that on the indigenous people of Australia narrate how, ironically, the native people were living in an apartheid society since the arrival of the Europeans 200 years ago. With no access to modern education, and basic human rights, these people were marginalised, abused and pushed to extinction in their own native land of nearly 40,000 years. The rich cultural heritage of the Aborigines now lives as mere artefacts and sepia-toned pictures in the museums.


People have short memories, and the older memories, if any, are conveniently altered to one's comfort. It's truly dismaying, the fact that all our technological advances haven't really made way for intellectual advancements! While browsing through BBC's Magazine section i came across this article about an Indigenous Australian human rights activist, Eddie Koiki Mabo. The originally uneducated Eddie Mabo fought for Aboriginal land rights throughout his life. Success did come, in 1992, when an Australian Court passed the Mabo law for native Australian-held lands, though Eddie Mabo, Australia's own Nelson Mandela, was already dead for 5 months by then.

Among the most barbaric chapters of Aborigine-abuse was the era of the Stolen Generations of Australia. These were the children of the indigenous people that were snatched away from their families by State-funded missionaries and agencies. Some were killed, some abused and the others grew up hundreds of miles away from their families, thus losing all contact with the Aboriginal culture.

Photo: Bill Bachman, Courtesy: australiangeographic.com.au 

Be it with the Native Americans of North America, the Dalits in India, the black inhabitants of South Africa or the Aborigines of Australia, the limit of human-induced abuse and torture on another human being was surpassed. 

It’s surprising how one human race can be considered superior to another; and how somebody can do to a fellow human being what you don’t do to an animal! There are people who treat pets as family, how then can you consider a person lesser and take away his basic rights!

"You can play a tune on black keys, you can play a tune on white keys, but both are needed for perfect harmony."

PASTOR DOUG NICHOLLS