This past weekend I had an opportunity to tour around Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. It was one of my rare forays into the United States.
I saw some amazing places, ate amazing food, and met some amazing people. In short, I had a great time. I’m planning to cover my trip in depth in the next few weeks, but today I want to talk about something that all countries share with each other: borders.
The Least Interesting Border on Earth?
As I slowly waded through the security line at the airport, I was reminded of a short video I saw a few days prior that talked about the crazy border between the United States and Canada. Given that I’m a Canadian and had just spent my weekend in the good old US of A, I figured it would be worth sharing with you. Though our relationship is peaceful, there’s a lot more to our border situation than a person might expect. Check this out…
I never expected the border between the US and Canada to be straight, but I also didn’t expect it to be so fragmented either. In fact, it’s rare that I’m thinking about borders at all. After all, they’re just imaginary lines on a map. I’m usually more concerned with finding an inexpensive flight into the U.S. than worrying about the subtleties of the border, but still…
The next time you’re crossing between the US and Canada, or any other border for that matter, remember: at some point in history, a whole lot of people had to wander around blindly with balls of string to divide the imaginary lines between countries. Some are well guarded, with giant walls and people with big guns, and others are simply jagged deforested lines through marshes and mountainous terrain, with awkward bends around (or through) lakes and airports.
Yes, that’s just how we roll here in North America. Seriously, though… how much land have we made completely useless by screw ups like these?
Who the heck is C.G.P Grey?
He’s the fellow who made this video, that’s who. His about page is mysteriously barren, but if you head over to his website you’ll see that he’s done a disgusting amount of videos in a similar vein. They don’t necessarily talk about borders (though some do), but they all aim to teach and inform, even if it’s just about Reddit. They also happen to be really enjoyable to watch.
This made me chuckle…especially the video.
I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂