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Walls and Fences

For thousands of years men have built security barriers to keep out menace, real and imaginary. History tells us that while the track record of walls and fences to keep out a wily enemy is mixed, political barricades almost always generate paranoia and a misguided sense of power among those who guard them.

A week ago I wrote about the wall that Israel has erected to keep out Palestinians and the ridiculous commercial that celebrates the peaceful atmosphere supposedly created between warring populations as a result of separation. Following in the footsteps of Israel, India has built a fence on its border with Bangladesh to keep out smugglers, illegal aliens and terrorists. The area around the fence has become a killing zone. The Indian Border Security Force (BSF) is accused of firing indiscriminately and killing citizens on both sides of the fence.  Around 6:41 on the video, listen to the Indian minister supporting the right of the security guards to "exercise his right of private defence by using minimum force." Shooting to kill unarmed villagers qualifies as minimum force according to this idiot's standards! (video link via Sepia Mutiny)

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1184614595

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5 responses to “Walls and Fences”

  1. manoj

    Good fences make good neighbors– Robert Frost

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  2. Ruchira

    Manoj, the fence is not so much the problem. The indiscriminate killing is.

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  3. Sanjukta

    But Mum, I think you were also saying/showing that the fence is a source of the indiscriminate killing.

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  4. Ruchira

    Well, what I meant is that the fence as a structure is not the direct killer – it is not an electrified structure, for example. But it is definitely providing an excuse and a cover for those who want to kill unnecessarily.

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  5. D

    The proverb is older than Frost, as is exhaustively documented here. It’s actually a mildly amusing read; I found it interesting to note varying rationales and emphases behind various proverbs of the type (italics added):
    – “A hedge between keeps friendship green”
    – “Love your neighbour, but do not throw down the dividing wall”
    – “A fence between makes love more keen”
    – “poor fences make lean cattle and ill-natured neighbors”
    – “There has been an old Complaint, That a Good Lawyer seldom is a good Neighbour”
    Privacy among friends, well-specified, orderly boundaries, the allure of the forbidden, the problems of collective ownership, but also of nitpicky legalism…I got bored after the first five pages :)
    I do remember Frost didn’t think too highly of his neighbor’s views in that poem.

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