A post in World Changing asks Why do People Desire walls? and lists an impressive number of walls that have been build in recent years:

The list of walls she gave is absolutely alarming, especially considered that she focused on the ones that have risen since the much celebrated fall of the Berlin Wall: the U.S. border with Mexico and the Israeli West Bank barrier these two share high technology, sub-contracting and they also reference each other for legitimation, Post-Apartheid South Africa’s internal maze of walls and check point, Saudi Arabia concrete structure along its border with Yemen, India’s reinforced border with Pakistan and Bengladesh, Botswana’s electric fence along the border with Zimbabwe, the wall between Egypt and Gaza, etc. But also walls within walls: gated communities so popular in the U.S. in particular in Southern Californian communities living closer to the Mexico border, walls around Israel settlements in West Bank, walls around the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem and the walls that partition the city itself, the triple layer of walls around Spanish enclaves in Morocco, the wall of Via Anelli inside the Italian city of Padua that separate white middle class with immigrants living in an “African ghetto” i’d recommend Italian readers the documentary Stato di Paura, you can find the trailer here, the Baghdad wall built by the U.S. military, etc. [original post contains links]

Do people desire walls? or do they simply not see any other solution to guarantee security in the short term? How can you reach short-term security without undermining long-term stability? What economic, social, and political interests are linked to building walls?

Check out the interesting video projet by the Israeli NGO B’Tselem mentioned in the post.