The US/Mexico border: an iron curtain across the desert that actually leaks like a sieve – and I’m talking about music. The border is a meltingpot of Mexican and American race and culture. Where romance meets with reality. It’s a place of nostalgic escape and a broken road to the American dream. Reginald D Hunter’s Songs of the Border, BBC 2018
Since the late 90s Mexican drug cartels have fought an all-out war to control this lucrative American gateway. ibid.
The border with the US: drugs triple in price as soon as they cross it. Jason Fox, Meet the Drug Lords: Inside the Real Narcos I, Channel 4 2018
In 1998 the Good Friday Agreement was signed, brokering a peace deal between Republicans and Unionists in Northern Ireland. Nearly a decade later Al Jazeera visited Belfast to explore ongoing divisions in the city. Walls of Shame: Northern Ireland’s Troubles, Al Jazeera 2016/2007
The modern history of Northern Ireland has been dominated by one thing: the Troubles. ibid.
What Northern Ireland has now is not so much peace as an absence of conflict. ibid.
Today there are believed to be 41 deliberate barriers across Belfast. ibid.
This is the US-Mexican border: a harsh landscape that’s become the focus of a bitter debate between the two countries. Walls of Shame: The US-Mexico Border Wall, Al Jazeera 2016/2007
The current administration is spending billions of dollars on enforcement. ibid.
Many who attempt illegally will do so again and again until they success. And that means zero tolerance. ibid.
2015 was the deadliest year on record for migrants and refugees attempting to get into Europe. Over 3,700 people died, the majority on sea crossings between Libya and Italy, or Turkey and Greece. Walls of Shame: The Spanish-Moroccan Border, Al Jazeera 2016/2007
The Mediterranean enclave of Ceuta is one of the last vestiges of Spanish rule in northern Morocco. It’s been European for more than 500 years, and Madrid insists it will never relinquish control. ibid.
The crossing between Morocco and Spain has become a magnet for tens of thousands of workers and migrants, legal and illegal. For this is the backdoor into the prosperous European Union. ibid.
Another divide – a social division that is religious and economic between the wealthy Christian Spaniards and their poorer Muslim compatriots of Moroccan descent. ibid.
A double fence – most of it paid for by the European Union – four metres high, six kilometres long. ibid.
‘We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs, and to stop the drugs pouring into our communities.’ US & the Wall: Deportees in Mexico Unwanted by either side after decades in US, RT 2018, Trump
Tijuana is one of the most dangerous places in the country: ‘They are all people. Some have been deported.’ ibid.
‘Bandits use night vision. They rob and kidnap people.’ ibid. local
US Army service doesn’t entitle veterans to US citizenship. ibid. caption
‘We find shotgun shells; people firing at the migrants.’ ibid. water-aid local
123,508. ‘The Wall doesn’t stop people; it kills people.’ ibid. local
‘They don’t want you over there, and they don’t want you over here .. in the land of no-one’ ibid.
Once a week, authorities allow illegal immigrants living in the US to talk to relatives on the other side of the fence. ibid.
The Irish border and the people who live and work here: why has it become such a stumbling block for Brexit? And could we see a return to violence? Tonight: The Border Blocking Brexit, ITV 2019
The border became not just open but effectively invisible. ibid.
A [US/Mexico] border crossing experience that turns an illegal migrant into a tourist attraction. Dark Tourist s1e1: Latin America, Netflix 2018
Mexico is chock-full of epic landscapes, beauty and rich history. But on the border with the US there is an unfolding migrant crisis in a region gripped by a deadly drug war. The Americas with Simon Reeve IV, BBC 2019
About a third of the border is already fenced. ibid.
There’s now more than 30,000 killings in Mexico a year. ibid.
The Mexican cartels have 1,500 miles of border between them and the greatest drug-consuming nation on Earth. A Man Apart 2003 starring Vin Diesel & Larenz Tate & Timothy Olyphant & Geno Silva & Jacqueline Obradors & Steve Eastin & Juan Fernandez & Jeff Kober & Marco Rodriguez & Mike Moroff & Emilio Rivera & George Sharperson & Malieek Straughter et al, director F Gary Gray, opening remarks
If I had compassion I’d shove a 357 up your arse and blow your brains out. The Border aka Border Cop 1980 starring Telly Savalas & Danny De La Paz & Eddie Albert & Michael V Gazzo & Cecilia Camacho & Robin Clarke & Mary McCusker & Herman Blood et al, director Christopher Leitch
It’s a region that’s been at war for more than 70 years: Kashmir, a place rich in culture and tradition, home to Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. A state which has for decades fomented hate and fanaticism, driving apart two countries who were once one. Secret Wars Uncovered s1e5: Kashmir Powder Keg, History 2020
Each nation secretly seeks to assert its control over the region. But with every clandestine confrontation the stakes get higher. ibid.
In 2019 Indian prime minister Narendra Modi revoked Kashmir’s special status in India’s constitution, taking away its autonomy. ibid.
What dark deals have been done by world leaders to prolong the conflict in Kashmir? ibid.
‘The conflict between India and Pakistan goes back to 1947: Partition was a sudden and fairly brutal process, and the problem was that Kashmir which is both Muslim and Hindu was made into a special territory.’ ibid. Michael Clarke, military specialist
Bigger battles were yet to come between these fierce and ultimately nuclear rivals. ibid.
Pakistan launched a series of air strikes against Indian airbases in Kashmir. India responded with force. Its army [December 1971] captured some 90,000 Pakistani troops in Eastern Pakistan … On 16th December 1971 Eastern Pakistan became the new sovereign state of Bangladesh. ibid.
Pakistan became the third largest recipient of American aid. ibid.
In Kashmir, the Islamic insurgency ramped up the pressure on India. ibid.
After decades of conflict, Kashmir still remains an open sore between these two nuclear giants … A wound that doesn’t look like it will be healing any time soon. ibid.
31/32,000 vehicles a day that come into the United States – and quite frankly they can’t screen every vehicle. The Trade s1e1, border rozzer, Sky Documentaries/Showtime 2020
Hadrian’s Wall: An awe-inspiring defence system manned by 10,000 soldiers and measuring more than 4 metres in height. Dan Jones, Walking Britain’s Roman Roads III: Dere Street & Stanegate, 5 Select 2020
Hundreds of thousands landing on Europe’s shores. The beginning of the long road north ... Many fleeing the war in Syria. Others are escaping poverty. All desperate for something better ... Europe is divided. Panorama: Europe’s Border Crisis: The Long Road, BBC 2015
107,000 people landed on the Greek islands this August alone. ibid.
This is chaos in slow motion. ibid.
She’s on the bus, but the little girl isn’t ... It’s up to the people in the crowd to reunite mother and child. And all this to move people a mile. ibid.
‘Between 1920 and 1922 Belfast is the most violent place in Ireland. It is really the epicentre of revolutionary violence. What we see again and again is violence in one part of Ireland leads to violence in another part.’ The Road to Partition s1e1, historian, BBC 2021
On 22 June 1921 King George V and Queen Mary arrived in Belfast for the first official opening of the Northern Ireland parliament. Fearful for their lives, they had come to a city scarred with sectarian division. The occasion marked the creation of the new state of Northern Ireland. ibid.