Shameless plug... an old site of mine (2005!), which attempts to democratically draw "non-political" borders within the US, based on user responses:
Remapping the world: maps without political borders
11–15 of 15 posts
Re: Remapping the world: maps without political borders
#12"One obstacle to the realization of a Palestinian state is the fact that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are not connected."
Yet if they were then Israel wouldn't be connected and there would be a war between Fatah (West Bank) and Hamas (Gaza).
Re: Remapping the world: maps without political borders
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Part of the problem is that he isn't even internally consistent. Sudan is too large, and should be split up. But also: "Africa can become economically viable only if its plethora of puny economies merge from more than 50 into just a few." So what needs to happen? Merging Africa into a few gigantic balkanized states with no shared interests (like Sudan), or splitting it up into many small city states, a few of which w…
"a few of which will be well run?" A few of which will serve as an example for the rest. But this: "Merging Africa into a few gigantic balkanized states [...] or splitting it up" is part of the reason they're doing badly. Being a battleground for foreign intervention has not allowed much in the way of economic development.
> A few of which will serve as an example for the rest.
Africa has always had a few well run countries. Why will their example help more in the future than it has in the past?
Re: Remapping the world: maps without political borders
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
"a few of which will be well run?" A few of which will serve as an example for the rest. But this: "Merging Africa into a few gigantic balkanized states [...] or splitting it up" is part of the reason they're doing badly. Being a battleground for foreign intervention has not allowed much in the way of economic development.
> A few of which will serve as an example for the rest. Africa has always had a few well run countries. Why will their example help more in the future than it has in the past?
Speaking in the context of a city-state/small-state fragmentation of the larger African states.
Re: Remapping the world: maps without political borders
#15Some foreigner (ie, not from either region) starts pontificating about how political borders should be redrawn in Africa and the Middle East. It must be Wednesday.
(Not removed - that's just the mind-numbing pitch that he steps back to just redrawing borders.)
Meh. I wish I could still flag articles, as this is one of those I-feel-stupider-for-having-read-it essays.