Another Brick In Another Wall

One of my favorite Pink Floyd albums is The Wall. I saw Roger Waters in concert recently and he put on a fantastic show. He opened with "In The Flesh", the first song on The Wall and it brought the house down, it was perfect. During the encore, he did "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" ("We don't need no education," etc) and the crowd went crazy, stood up, and sang along. Why is a story of isolation, anger, and the barriers we build around ourselves still so popoular? The Wall by Pink Floyd is the 3rd best selling record of all time (tied with Led Zeppelin's fourth album @ 23 million copies sold). On the big video screens behind the stage, we saw images of the wall that Israel is building through Palestine, with its fresh graffiti and kids climbing on it. I reflected on how crappy it is that the world is still not lacking for new "wall" footage, and began to wonder why it is that walls still seem like such a good idea to so many people.

With a large fence that can't be scaled, isn't it a fine line between "secure" and "trapped"? I see the obvious: they're big, they keep things out. But I'm presupposing a standard at which we are elevated beyond such simple means. Shouldn't we be beyond walls by now? After thousands of years of human evolution, I feel like we should be. But we still use our guns and our bombs and our fists, and sticks & stones. When we feel really civilized, we use lawyers. We tend to make it a confrontation. We're building empires, and they need to be fortified. Unfortunately, wall-building seems to be a pretty big business these days.




U.S.-Mexico Border Wall: "Our Wall" National Geographic Magazine, May 2007 Feature

Newsweek article from OCT 2006, (when the Senate had just passed the Secure Fence Act, authorizing 700 new miles of fence on the U.S.-Mexico border) points out lots of reasons why we don't need to build walls, like children, to solve our problems, and that by doing so, we cause many new, significant problems.



According to this FEB 2006 San Francisco Chronicle article at sfgate.com, "The plan already has roiled diplomatic relations with Mexico [before the bill was passed]. Leaders in American border communities are saying it will damage local economies and the environment. And immigration experts say that -- at a cost of at least $2.2 billion -- the 700-mile wall would be an expensive boondoggle."

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The Apartheid Wall
Israel has built about 170 miles of the barrier separating it from the Palestinian-dominated West Bank. Another 140 miles are planned or under construction, and 155 more are under review. The barrier, a wire fence in some places and concrete wall in others, has additional enhancements such as barbed wire, electricity, sensors, watchtowers and sniper posts. Supporters say it has been routed to foil terrorists and critics say it unfairly incorporates Palestinian land into Israel.

There's a fact sheet at the Palestine Monitor (a voice of the Palestinian people through the Palestinian Non-Governmental Network - PNGO).


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Walls around the world: Can't we just all get along?

Great Wall of China:
One of the greatest construction projects in world history, the Great Wall runs, with branches, about 4,500 miles. Large parts of it date from the seventh through fourth centuries B.C. Built of dirt, stone and brick, the wall ranges from 15 feet to 25 feet wide and 15 feet to 30 feet tall with a 13-foot-wide road on top and watchtowers at regular intervals.

Berlin Wall:
The barrier that separated West Berlin from East Berlin and surrounding areas in the former East Germany from 1961 to 1989 was a series of concrete walls up to 15 feet high topped with barbed wire and enhanced with watchtowers, stationary guns, mines and electrified fencing. By the 1980s, the wall ran 75 miles around West Berlin and 28 miles through Berlin.

Morocco / Western Sahara:
The Moroccan Wall is a 1,600-mile system of sand berms and rock walls built in the 1980s by Morocco to control Western Sahara, where tensions continue between Morocco and Polisario Front separatists despite a U.N.-brokered cease-fire. The wall is an earthen mound about 7 feet high fronted by a 23-foot-wide ditch and studded with bunkers, barbed wire, and anti-personnel and anti-tank mines.

India / Bangladesh:
India has built more than 1,300 miles of a planned 3,034-mile barrier at its border with Bangladesh. The fence will be patrolled by 50,000 officers and key stretches will be electrified. Construction of the $1 billion double fence -- which is 10 to 12 feet high, floodlit and razor-wire filled -- began in 1986 and will be done next year. It may extend near a demilitarized zone separating the two countries, to enclose Indian villages on the border.