Good fences make good neighbours

Good fences make good neighbours.

As civilisations grew, came the concept of the nation-state, sovereignty and borders. we have come a long way from the time of constant wars for more and more territorial control to broader consensus for peaceful coordination and respect for each other's Sovereignty. 

Despite this we do face minor and major skirmishes on the international border now and then, therefore to continue the peace and improve relations with your neighbours, it is imperative to have clarity over where the fences lie. Thus, ROBERT FROST rightly said- " Good fences make good neighbours."

It is said you can choose your allies but you cannot choose your neighbours. Having friendly and cordial relations with your neighbours is of utmost importance to be able to focus the energies and resources on real human development and the overall growth of the nation. 

while the above interpretation rules the general discourse around fences and neighbours, there is yet another perspective that we will dwell upon in this article and that is, fences divide people into us and them.

We need harmony instead of insecurity. For centuries fences separate the two neighbouring countries. These borders that are surveillance by forces have kept their citizens protected from invasions of lethal enemies. For example Great wall of china.

Take, for example, India and China are yet to arrive at a mutually negotiated agreement on the questions of entitlement, let alone delimitations of their territory or demarcation of the region in Ladakh.

 This has led to frequent face-offs on border sometimes even threatening the cordial relations between the two large economies and countries. The whole of South Asia is considered militarily volatile because of unclear boundaries and multiple disputes regarding the same.

Boundaries and fences are not only the important perspective for boundary dispute but also executing important laws of the land on respective sides, for cooperation in fighting anti-social and anti-national activities and also for fighting against the menace of terrorism.

The responsibility of maintaining the fences is jointly upon the neighbours. Thus, the framing of the boundary-making strategies should be in a way that the countries can carry out joint surveying and mapping according to international protocols. 

Impactable border management requires technical skills relating to positioning and mapping and the ability to exchange mapping data, regular boundary visits and surveillance to stay away from further disputes and to protect the demarcation investment which can lead to the betterment of relations in near future.

While some fences are good for keeping the world peace and order, there are some which have separated people brutally and have left tormenting memories for the generation to come, such as the wall constructed between East and West Germany and the border patrol of Russia that had guards shoot those who tries to flee the controlled territory. 

The phrase contains the indisposable tensions between boundaries and countries, between the demarcation and mutual land, between personal and public, and between other conflicting issues that separate people from each other, be it as neighbours in a town or as nations. 

Much is at stake when building a fence or a wall, no matter for what the structure is meant for protection or separation, for example, the Great Wall of China, The Berlin wall, recently built walls that separate Americans from Mexicans, Israelis from Palestinians, and one neighbour from another.

Fences divide people into us and them. Fences can be visible as well as invisible. let us talk about invisible fences in our minds and society. 

We create fences in our minds and we judge people in terms of our confined thoughts and belief systems. Caste, religions, race, sex are some of the fences that are invisible to our eyes but they have a huge impact on our lives.

Who we marry, what we do, who we vote for are to some extent are determined by our fences. people have been living in their fences for a long time but now with the increase in awareness and spread of ideas owing to the advancement in technology and communications people started coming out of their fences to become more responsible citizens.

Gay marriages, intercaste marriages and inter-religion marriages have posed a question to our value systems which was a kind of fence for pretending to be protecting us from the unknown cultures. 

Ireland has legalised gay marriages recently. People of Ireland have come out of their fences. But our Indian Supreme Court verdict criminalising Homosexuality has proved that we haven't come out of our biased fences.

The recent matrimonial advertisement by an Indian mother of a gay man seeking a groom for her son is admirable and could be considered as a sign that people are coming out of their fences. But the mother's preference for a specific caste has exposed her casteist mindset, therefore Fences remains.

Discrimination against Muslims, the northeast and Dalits in our country have exposed the fences in our people's mindset. Gender discrimination, caste preference, religious intolerance have all been acting like fences obstructing our development. 

When we talk about a fence, we talk about privacy. Good fences make good neighbours. Everyone knows their limit and behave within that limit. But how much privacy do we have? 

we find ourselves weak by existing invasions of our privacy. we find ourselves embowel by unconcealed violation of our personhood. The media has trespassed our personal lives. Invoilated personality is a myth.

Instead, gossip has become a trade, which is pursued with industry. Facebook, Twitter are all digital tattoos that will remain forever in the cyber world exposing our lives to many strangers. 

Intimate moments, stolen on cameras are published for stealthy gains. carefully guarded secrets are broadcast to an unforgiving society, mired at present, in a deeply moral conflict within itself. 

In this age of the internet, we need fences in the social networking world. we should learn to respect other people's privacy. only the good fences will make good neighbours.

Thus good fences make good neighbours proved to be wrong in case of the invisible mental fences that we have constructed based on religion, caste, sexuality, race and so on.

Physical entities can be separated through fences but in this rapid age of communication and technology ideas cannot be stopped from spreading further. 

Terrorist agencies like ISIS are using social networking sites for recruiting people and also influencing people by sending videos and images that contain visuals of hatred for a specific religion. 

Open-minded and liberal individuals without any invisible fences in their minds can act like good fences against religious extremism.

Rising nationalism among countries has led to World war 1 and World War 2. we cannot afford another war. Expanding their fences was the motive behind many wars in past human history.

 Humans should learn to live in peace. In this world of globalisation where economics decide everything, the importance of fences started to diminish. we need to open up our fences to make our neighbours become a part of our development. 

A person can be killed for crossing an international illegally but an idea cannot be killed. peace has been said to be invisible, like freedom, prosperity and now a disaster, in this one world that can no longer be cut into remote fragments. 

In this 21st century, the world is truly joined together as never before. safety of people depends not only on local security forces but also on guarding against terrorism, warding off a global spread of pollution, diseases and weapons of mass destruction. 

And also on promoting human rights, democracy and development. 

Conclusion-

we need good fences against our enemies and extremist forces, but we do not need any fence towards the liberal idea of democracy, peace and equality.

This age-old belief of good fences making good neighbours holds in many cases but like everything, these boundaries should not become a restriction for people to communicate with each other.

 Robert frost, the author may have had felt that removing fences for ensuring obstacle-free communication and interaction between people was ideal fences must be put in place correctly to ensure that privacy is not hindered, borders are not invaded and there is righteousness in every relationship at all time.