The Mediterranean sea as wall

Dear Sir or Madam,

US president Donald Trump proclaimed it loud and clear - that a wall should be built between the USA and Mexico. European politicians shake their heads in disbelief about this, but in large areas, a border fence is already in place. The wall should first reduce and then stop the flow of migrants into the USA. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, there was one wall less, yet another one goes up. A wall also exists between North and South Korea, as a consequence of the Korean War (1950 – 1953). The costs of any reunification would be higher than Germany’s, and the political and economic differences would be even greater.

There is also a wall separating the Turkish and the Greek parts of Cyprus. Since the Turkish invasion in 1974, this Mediterranean island has been split in two. The economic differences are vast. There is a 20 metre high and impenetrable wall between Israel and Egypt. Unchecked border traffic is impossible. In places; Israel and the West Bank are separated by an eight-metre high concrete wall, in many other parts by a border fence. The Spanish exclaves Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera in Northern Africa are also protected by border fences. Swaziland has been girded by South Africa with a high fence. Currently there are the border protection facilities within former Eastern bloc countries - Poland, Hungary and Romania wish to protect themselves against immigration. The Balkan route, used by refugees from the Middle East to travel to Western Europe, has become increasingly narrow.

Countries are setting themselves apart, and nothing much has changed since the ancient Romans who tried to protect their territories with the Limes and with Hadrian’s Wall.

The biggest wall is the Mediterranean Sea
However, the biggest wall for Europe is in fact the Mediterranean Sea. We only register this via the refugee tragedies. If Europe and Africa were not separated by this sea, then there would be a wall here too, one that would not stand in the shadow of the planned wall between the USA and Mexico. The cultural and economic differences between Europe and Africa are too great to allow similarities to support a union. What only partially works in Europe would not work across continents.

The Roman Empire fell due to several reasons
One important reason was climate change. Temperatures decreased, accelerating Germanic migration and thus increased the pressure on the Roman Empire. Another important reason was the award of Roman Citizenship via the Constitutio Antoniniana in 212 A.D. to almost all free residents of the Empire, which led to the loss of homogeneity among the Romans.

The Western industrialised nations are also undergoing major changes. Growth of population, economic growth, secularisation on the one hand and religious fundamentalism on the other, are a burden on both state and society. The enemies of an open society, so to say - as did the philosopher Karl Popper - are chewing on its columns from the inside. Will those walls hold?