Hello dear listeners and welcome to show 303 of our podcast “Absolutely Intercultural”. Today, we are going to talk about the cultural aspects of “national borders”, human-made geographical lines separating two countries or regions. Some see borders as the ugly scars on the face of the earth – when others say “Where there is a border, there is a story.” I am speaking these words to you from South Africa where I am on a teaching assignment and on my flight here I probably crossed a dozen such boundaries, a bit like a migrating bird blissfully ignoring the national borders on the ground.
Thank you for tuning in and I hope you bring with you your own culturally diverse opinions on borders. This is the Absolutely Intercultural Podcast – and we appreciate diversity and different views on the same subject – and absolutely everyone is welcome to think absolutely everything about this contentious topic!
National borders are causing most conflicts all over the world. From our guests, we will learn how borders can be viewed very differently, depending on your cultural and political background. In the cultural context of holidays, borders can be cute instagrammable opportunities for a selfie, in others they present an impenetrable barrier and keep inhabitants imprisoned in a confined area.
By the way, today, we are transgressing a border ourselves, for the first time in the history of this podcast. We are hosting a very unusual guest here today. Anne Fox one of the makers of this podcast, will be joining us today on the other side of the microphone as our interviewee.
absolutely human
In our first story, we will listen to Ilja, a travel agent who regularly finds himself crossing borders somewhere in Europe. Ilja seems to have thought a lot about borders and has come to the conclusion that borders are not natural, but are rather abstract lines that humans have drawn to organize their cultures and communities.
absolutely secure
In our second story, we will listen to Serhii. He believes that unrestricted freedom of movement could lead to increased immigration and possibly a rise in crime. He also believes that going to another country shouldn’t be as easy as it is in Europe nowadays but instead, every traveler should be “trusted but also properly checked” in order to protect our distinct cultures.
absolutely privileged
In our last story, we will listen to Anne Fox, who is one of the regular moderators of this podcast. Anne thinks that her home country, Britain, has lost a lot of its former privileges and travel freedoms by leaving the European Union five years ago.
What about you? What is your take on this? Do you think we should tighten border security, or do you think we should remove borders between countries wherever possible? Could getting rid of the borders in fact destroy some unique cultural identities and reduce cultural diversity? We would love to hear your stories! Get in touch, feel free to share your opinion with us here on this podcast.
Write a comment or mail us, we could do a follow-up interview with you in one of our next shows. On our web page, absolutely-intercultural.com, you can get more information about this show and previous episodes, and you can leave comments. And if you enjoyed the show, please like us on Facebook too.
By the way, did you know we are also on iTunes or Apple Podcasts? You can subscribe to us there for free and give us a rating and a comment.
Our next show will be coming to you from Anne Fox in Denmark on 7 March
Until then – listen to stories from the other side of the border and
Bleiben Sie absolut interkulturell!
The host of this show is: Dr. Laurent Borgmann (German)
Chief Editor: Iryna Krupa (Ukrainian)
Technical Editor: Michele Varvara (Italian)
Assistant Editor: Xavier Sutton (Australian)
