Imagine there are no countries and what would the world be like then?

By Ahmet Abdulaziz ….

“Imagine”  by John Lennon – there has been no other song that has made such an impact on my life.  Ever since I listened to it for the first time during the early 1970s, I kept on thinking about the words, and the theory that he has put up in very simple words.

I was a teenager at that time, but serious enough to understand what was going on in this world. Those were the days when the Vietnam War was going on, and every day we were seeing photographs displaying the brutal killings of civilians in the hands of powerful forces.

But it was my late father, who had first told me of his dream. Even before John Lennon came up with his list of imaginations in the form of “Imagine”, my father used to discuss the idea of a world ” without borders”.  That was his belief, and through his whole his life he never stepped back from believing in it. He always believed that the whole world belongs to all human beings. He believed that nature is very honest by filling the whole world with all sorts of things beneficial to the residents of this world. Above all, nature has given all this “for free”.

My father strongly believed that when nature is so kind to all of us, how come we cannot be kind to others.  Through his life he tried to pursue this belief, but of course it was of no use, since everybody agreed with what he said, but never believed in it.

But I still believe in what he believed. Very honestly, I tried and am still trying for the idea of a “free world”.

I strongly believe that the whole world belongs to every one of us. None of us have the right to say ” this is mine and that’s yours”. In the same way, no country has the right to say that “this is my country, and that’s yours”. In fact due to the very basis of my belief, there is no sense of charting out borders on earth. Each of us has got the right to go anywhere, and enjoy what nature has gifted to us. I simply cannot stand the very idea of stopping anyone from going anywhere in the world.

Some argue that the European Union has given people a right to move wherever they want to, within the boundaries of the European Union. But I do not accept it. It is totally wrong. They have basically divided the world between the wealthy and poor.  The European Union has segregated an area on the world map to provide all sorts of facilities only to those who live in that particular area. All those living in that particular area are generally those who are wealthy and have all basic and secondary facilities to a relatively high standard, as compared to most of the remaining world, where in some areas people do not even have water to drink and shelter.

The European Union in fact has further made people of a major area of the world to believe that they do not have the right to enter the world segregated by the wealthy people for themselves.

This and so many points like this keep on pinching my mind always, as I see the poor African people trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach the European shores, and losing their lives.

However I still believe that we all need to think again and again to the words of John Lennon.