Justin sent me this very interesting article in the Armed Forces Journal a while back. Reading material in his work staffroom has clearly gone highbrow.
Anyway, the article argues that the major problems in the Middle East stem from borders, and argues that the simple solution would be to redraw them all. The author offers a new prospective map of what he thinks the region should look like. The suggestion is radical – Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia would be significantly changed, and there would be new states for the Kurds, Baluchs, Arab Shias, and the holy Islamic cities.
While I both agree and disagree with elements of what the article proposes, it raises the bigger picture of how much fun you might have rearranging borders throughout the world.
And it got me thinking. What other revisions could we make to the world map? An independent Texas? A left-handers’ homeland? The People’s Republic of North Kessock? Or how about uniting Slovakia and Slovenia so nobody gets them confused any more?
Let’s have your suggestions – but no marks for the boring, obvious ones such as Scotland, Tibet or Palestine…
Well, there is always a raging debate about the lack of daylight saving in Queensland.
Maybe we could chop it up and let the Nth and Far Nth Queenslanders stay as they are and the southern part could switch over like the rest of the place…
Canada is not immune to infighting either. The obvious one is Quebec wanting to be it’s own independent state (but they don’t want their portion of the national debt to go with them), then there’s British Columbia wanting to separate as well. Last I heard Alberta was also making a fuss seeing as they have wiped out their provincial debt and are also running on a surplus. I don’t think there is any county out there that “has it together”.