So many nations are breaking up. Ukraine is in pieces. Moldova is teetering. Libya has no government to speak of. Sudan broke in two last year; now both sides are fighting. Yugoslavia is seven countries. Nigeria has a Christian/Muslim split. Syria has split so many ways it's barely there. Even Scotland is thinking of ditching Great Britain. With every break, we get new lines, new fences, new borders — further evidence of our failure to amalgamate, to get along. The more borders we have, the more quarrels, the more wars. That's one way to think about borders — they're trouble. Bad Borders, Good Borders But here's an alternative view. This one celebrates borders. It says, the more the merrier — that under the right conditions borders add spice to our otherwise ho-hum lives, that borders can be fun. This is, of course, a minority view. Very much so. But border boosters have one extraordinary case for their side, so extraordinary it's almost unbelievable, like a fairy tale. Still, what I'm
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