Through the Wall

It was back in 2013 that we set sail on a cruise to the Baltic. My father was nearing the end of his life and, somewhat to our surprise, he offered to pay for us to go on a cruise. So we chose this one, which took us to St.Petersburg in Russia. The star visit, while we were there, was to go to the Hermitage, which is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world and the largest collection of paintings anywhere in the world. Not only is the place filled with millions of pieces of art, but the building itself is a work of art. In one room alone we were told that, if they stripped all the gold-leaf off the walls, the weight of gold collected would be 9Kg. The Rembrandts require a whole hall for their display. Before we set off, my father commented that once we had seen the place we would understand why there had been a revolution. He was right. The extreme wealth represented  by what we saw was in stark contrast to the plight of ordinary people in pre-revolution Russia. This was never a situation that could be sustained indefinitely. The wonder is that, after the revolution, the people kept their museum.

It was on this journey that we stopped off in what had been East Germany. We went on the Molli steam railway. As is so often the case on such journeys, as enjoyable as seeing the sights is the opportunity to talk to local people. We found ourselves sitting with the guide and we asked her what life had been like in the old days and what had brought down the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall. She told us some of what the old days had been like. There had been a constant fear of informers and the secret police. Many would take their driving licence at the age of about eighteen, after which you could put your name down for a Trabant car. By the age of about thirty, some twelve years later, you might reach the top of the waiting list and actually get your car. What brought down the divide between east and west, she said, was television. They were not allowed to watch western TV, but everyone did. Seeing there was so much better a life the other side of the wall was what eventually turned the tide until a tipping point was reached and the barrier could no longer be sustained.

I have started reading the book 'End Game', by Professors Anthony Barnosky and Elizabeth Hadly. Their argument is that is any system there may be a tipping point in which sudden change occurs. Not much might have been seen to be happening beforehand, but many elements of the system were reaching their limits until, very suddenly, change comes. One element in their argument is that population size is out of control and we will suddenly reach a point at which the human species can no longer thrive or even survive. We already find that there is more traffic on the roads, greater competition for such things as jobs or college places and growing tensions over who owns which of our planet's resources. Extreme differences in wealth are creating instability within our society and we may be reaching a tipping point in which such injustice becomes unsustainable. Migration has become a global challenge, with more the fifty million displaced people in our world today. It seems to me that what exacerbates this situation is not television, as was the case in East Germany, but smart phones. We live in a complex world in which many factors affect people's lives, including overcrowding, war, famine, poverty, lack of water and so on. If it appears that there is a better life to be had the other side of the wall, then dissatisfaction can spread as instantly as social media allows and suddenly a lot of people are on the move, searching for that new life. It appears to me, in such a situation, that trying to limit immigration simply has no hope of working. Barriers exist to help the richer country maintain its wealth, often at the expense of the poorer country. The situation becomes a question of justice and what is unjust simply cannot ultimately win.

We have just voted to leave the EU and one of the major factors in that decision has been people's worry about immigration. Maybe we will be able to cope better with the challenge by having more control over our own borders, although we risk increasing isolation by doing so. However, if we think we can keep ourselves safe (and isolated) behind our walls, we are kidding ourselves. Thanks to social media, the 'others' can see what is on our side of the wall and, one day, the wall will come down.