Last but not least....

Wall Cartoons!

Portfolio Entry # 18 - TED and Walls

In the 60s, Canadian intellectual Herbert McLuhan coined the term “global village” to describe how the world contracted into a village by information and communication technologies. However, alongside this phenomenon nationalisms and ethnocentrisms emerged. These movements create individualism, mistrust and hatred to everything and everybody that is different; migration is one of the processes that exacerbates these feelings. Historically, governments responded to unwanted migration erecting walls and fences, which have proved to be inefficient. On the other hand, voices in favour of confraternity have appeared. Hugh Evans, and George Papandreou´s TED talks go in the same direction, they plead for a global citizenship, global solutions to global problems and a new democracy bargain.

In his talk, Hugh Evans exemplifies the idea of global citizenship through two experiences of people doing something for others. Davinia is a Jamaican girl that collected money within her friends to fund girls education. Hugh Evans joined a group of college friends, took the Make Poverty History campaign to Australia, and persuaded the government to “act to fix problem miles outside our borders”. He uses the term “global citizens” for people like Davinia and himself that identify themselves primarily as members of the human race instead of Jamaican or Australian. Besides, Evans states that it is pointless to “isolate ourselves and our nations from one another”. Moreover, he calls people for a stronger commitment to find global solutions to global problems such as migration and global warming.

George Papandreou, the Greece former Prime Minister ponders on his administration and the debt crisis of 2010. He resumes it as a failure of politics, leadership and democracy. He affirms, “Our democracies are undermined by the growing inequality and the growing concentration of power and wealth, lobbies, corruption (…) and they have constrained our capacity to imagine and actually use the potential (…) in finding solutions”. Succinctly, he urged people to get involved in democracy and common decisions to global problems such as cross-border problems, climate change, migration and financial system. Moreover, he strongly encourages people to abandon “unfounded” stereotypes and xenophobia in order to deepen and widen democracy beyond European borders. Overall, both lecturers criticise the idea of building walls or barriers in general as a solution for the problems mentioned above. They do not protect nor provide people with security. Evans and Papandreou propose creative answers for these times, a strong commitment on democracy, participation and citizenship. 

Source:

·         Hugh, Evans. [TED-Ed] (2016, May 4). What does it mean to be a Citizen of the World? (Video). Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODLg_00f9BE

·         Papandreou, George. [TED-Ed] (2013, June 12) Imagine a European Democracy without Borders. (Video). Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOTWO0gSPqw

George Papandreou: Imagine a European Democracy Without Borders




Hugah Evans: What Does it Mean to Be a Citizen of the World?

Portfolio Entry # 17 - Sidewalls

Film: Medianeras / Sidewalls

Set in a contemporary Buenos Aires, “Medianeras” tells the story of two lonely young singles, Mariana and Martín, who live in the same street but do not know each other. The main themes of the film are loneliness, isolation and love. Director Gustavo Taretto uses city landscape (concrete jungle), scenes of the everyday life, music, drawings and special effects to create an atmosphere of loneliness. Martín and Mariana have developed some anxiety disorders such as claustrophobia, hypochondria, agoraphobia, obsession and compulsion. Those disturbances lead them to avoid social situations and withdraw from society, especially Martín who has spent several months without leaving his home. Their apartments, though smalls, are their world and walls separate them from an unpleasant and menacing world. They realize that their lives are unsatisfactory and at times, painful. Eventually they decide to open a window in their apartments and let the outside world enter.

“All buildings have a useless side, the sidewall, big areas that divide us and remind us the passage of time”, said Mariana in a sequence. Walls, sidewalls, fences are physical barriers that delimit our world; they set what belongs either to the inside or the outside. Walls help us to leave out what we consider dangerous, painful or threatenening, and let in what gives us security, welfare and protection. We are “the king” or “the queen” of our own world! Although, it feels sometimes lonesome, as Mariana and Martin discover in the film, and a kingdom can become a prison. However, walls are so marvelous that allow us to open a gap in them and connect with the outside. When the two young singles understand this, they start to change their lives, connect with the outside world without leaving their cozy and friendly home.

Source:

·         Musaluppi, Hernán and Cervi, Natacha (Producers), & Taretto, Gustavo (Director). (2011) Medianeras. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7RdzYsomQQ

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]