Wiebe Ruijtenberg and Neske Baerwaldt have been working on creating and developing the podcast series De Verbranders for years, alongside and in synergy with their academic work on national borders and migrants. Inspired by their work, I gifted this writing of mine in which I shared my personal thoughts and ideas about borders, together with a drawing that represents how borders, personal boundaries, and human connection feel like to me.
Borders and Boundaries
The world is made of borders
National borders sow seeds of strife,
Biological borders breed sexism’s sway,
Racial borders foster hate’s embrace,
Borders that divide
Borders people defend with clenched fists.
Liberation of ordinary man and woman needs, above all,
The equal distribution of the pain and the joys of mothering between the sexes.
Yes, a celebration of womanhood and motherhood,
While sharing beyond, and despite of,
The biological border between the sexes.
Sharing of pains.
Sharing of joys.
Trusting the others is made possible when your pain becomes mine.
Personal boundaries, too, hold sway,
In being and elements,
For in coexistence lies a force,
Born of will, desire, and need.
I, the others, we, him, her, and you.
So is wind, seasons, time, and rain.
Freedom can be found in
Reacting to these limitations of freedom.
Freedom lies in, and arises from, choosing.
As lines redrawn expand our horizons,
Limits embraced, rules set, boundaries formed,
Can also be an act of love and presence.
Wiebe, you burn borders and walls
While the world creates more.
Admits the ashes, I wonder
What treasures do you unearth?
Tell us about it.
Show us, the possibility,
Of dwelling in freedom, non-violence, equality and justice
Beyond, and despite of, the borders the world erects.
That deepest desire of all, hope,
Seems native to many,
Even when laughter claims the impossible,
Wiebe, untamed by the world,
In your words and deeds, however small,
Lies the defiance of neutrality on a moving train.
For the future is an infinite succession of presents,
To live now as we think human beings should live,
Is itself a meaning men have long searched for.
Hoko Horii 