Tim and the Tin Titan

23.9.03

Side I vs Side P, Fight!
They didn't allow each other real names, because they each refused to formally recognize the other's existence. Side I was the ultimate unassimilable ethnic group. Side P, which should have been doing at least as well as, say, the Lebanese or the Cypriots, preferred hating Side I to building a functional economy, civil society, or government.
...
The Wall is a practical solution of sorts - better than war and a lot more psychologically realistic than outsiders' blather about peace. After all, Greek and Turkish Cypriots, who once slaughtered each other's children with gusto, erected a wall in 1974, and it has mellowed them considerably. The DMZ between North and South Korea is now a wildlife refuge. The Great Wall of China is a tourist attraction. So what could be wrong with the Great Wall of the Holy Land, besides the fact that it fails to adhere to UN-recognized borders, traps innocent Side Ps in Side I territory, screws up the water table, and wastes useful farming acreage?


An interesting op-ed peice by Bruce Sterling in Wired about the wall that is being built between Israel and the Palestinian territories.