Portfolio Entry # 16 - Walls All Over the World

Walls all over the world

“I feel sick of this, so tired and bored. Just waiting for nothing, I wait, and wait, and wait and then… there´s nothing. I know there´s nothing at the end but I am still waiting”. Who says this is a young man, probably in his twenties, a man that we could see in any street in any neighborhood. He is probably coming from Syria or Afghanistan and is trying to reach Europe in order to escape from the horror of war and dictatorship. He stages protest over Macedonia border closure. For most European governments he becomes a persona non grata just because he is a migrant and eventually could become a refugee. The cordial response of the United Nations members to needy people was putting barbed wires along their borders and building high walls and fences.
According to experts, walls are not effective in stop people from crossing borders, although there are 65 walls either completed or under construction, around the world. They give a false sense of security although governments and politicians adore them. Psychologists call “wall disease”  the disorders such as psychosis, schizophrenia, phobias, rage, dejection, alcoholism, tendency to suicide and other disorders directly associated to living near a wall such as Berlin´s one. They are the direct and visible results of a security system that has given ample evidence of inefficiency. Instead of security, walls have provided division of families, suffering and the emerging of illegal organizations that smuggle weapons, drugs and people. 
On the whole, it does seem that walls are not the solution for avoiding migration. They are presented as innovative strategies but in fact are uncreative solutions for a growing problem. There is no evidence that wars, famine, poverty, political or religious persecution, natural disasters or armed conflicts will be solved in the medium term. So that, it is less probable that walls along borders will be torn down. That will not happen until all nations give a global solution to a global problem. 

Source: 

• World of walls: How 65 countries have erected fences on their borders - four times as many as when the Berlin Wall was toppled - as governments try to hold back the tide of migrants. Simon Tomlinson (2015) Mail Online. Available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3205724/How-65-countries-erected-security-walls-borders.html [Accesed 22 October, 2016]
• Macedonia closes its border "completely" to migrants. Colin Freeman. (2016). The Telegraph. Available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/macedonia/12188826/Macedonia-closes-its-border-completely-to-migrants.html. [Accesed 22 October, 2016]