On January 9, 2011 whilst the rest of us were busy doing our own stuff, a new country was created. The people of Southern Sudan voted for an independent country. The new state will be officially created in July of 2011. The news came and has been forgotten by many however, it is important to become aware of the trend and where we are going.
The creation of Southern Sudan is not an isolated incident. In fact since 1990, some 33 new countries have been born. This is more than one new country a year!
Most were born resultant from a break up of their previous statehood status due mainly to political, nationalism and ethnic reasons. The largest number of states came around from the break up of the Soviet Union resulting in 15 new states being born. Then another 7 states were born from the break up of the Federation of Yugoslavia. Both these happened in the early 1990’s.
Besides the above two surges, other countries that have come into being include Namibia (1990), Marshall Islands (1991), Micronesia (1991), separate Czech and Slovak Republics (1993), Eritrea (1993), Palau (1994), Timore-Leste (East Timor, 2002), Montenegro (2006), Serbia (2006) and Kosovo (2008).
The only two examples of countries that have got together in recent times and formed a union is the merger of East and West Germany into one unified Germany and North with South Yemen into one unified Yemen.
It is important to think where all this is leading to. Is this a sign to a rise of nationalism and that of nation states? Did we not cross this bridge and became more broad-minded in accepting the diversity of our world as strength rather than a difference?
Mahmood Poonja/Bestway Tours & Safaris
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