WALLS

This summer, our touristic outings seemed to be dominated by walls. In Germany, we saw the remains of the Berlin Wall and in England we saw what was left of Hadrian’s wall. My colleague Ghada set foot on the Great Wall of China. So between us, we’ve seen a good number of historically significant walls. The first wall only survived a few decennia, the latter two, a few centuries.

The Berlin wall was mainly constructed to keep the people in, the Great wall of China and Hadrian’s wall’s main purpose was to keep the “enemy” out. (Historians are still debating the various purposes of the walls).

Anyway, whether the walls in question were high, wide, long or short, and fell into decline after a few or many years, the entities or systems that built them, have not survived the test of time. The Scots and the English live in relative peace with each other, the Germans are happy to be reunited and the Chinese have definitely given up their xenophobia.

With today’s world a global village, airplanes having replaced yesteryear’s donkeys, and with the lessons of history readily available on Wikipedia, I can only say, whoever wants to build a wall now, save your resources and your energy. The people of the world want to do what they were meant to do from the beginning: live in peace, cooperate and enjoy each other’s company. That’s why Dubai is such a great place to live. Dubai opens it’s arms wide to anyone who wants to do just that. And we all know how that unleashes creativity and energy.

What would happen to the world if we all stopped living in fear and started being really curious about each other?

What would happen if we all let down our own walls and could embrace each other (figuratively speaking:) ?

What do your walls look like? Who do you want to keep in, and who do you want to keep out, and why?

What needs to happen to make you feel safe enough to open up your wall?

José de Heer
jose@authenticity.ae

Advertisement