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| FROM Insead Admissions Blog: First, take out all the borders* |
![]() About borders Borders provide a means for separation, for keeping things within or without. In the structure versus freedom discussion, we must at least ask ourselves whether a border is a good thing or a bad thing. When a certain entity threatens to engulf another, a border can be considered a good thing, preserving the status quo. The border is supposed to ensure the integrity of what is kept within. I posit that external borders are a manifestation of internal borders. Internal borders are the ones preventing us from exploring possibilities, from opening up to new horizons… Borders exist because of fears. When celebrating differences, however, borders become irrelevant. Border challenge My personal negative experience with borders, travel restrictions, work restrictions and the like is not even close to the negative experience of some of my colleagues from other countries. Sure, I need travel visas for some countries, work visas or study visas for others. Overall, however, I have it easy. Other people have it a lot worse: getting a visa to cross a border can become a logistical nightmare. In several unfortunate cases it can become an insurmountable obstacle. The EU “borderless” reality comes to mind to represent the ideal opposite model to the visa restrictions. A vast expanse of land, equipped with regional individuality and proper local customs, integrated into an administrative reality which allows for a perfect choreography of movement. In other words, I can drive from the Netherlands to Austria and not meet a single border policeman, while speeding through the former customs checkpoints. The irrelevance of borders The November 16th Fontainebleau welcome day allowed me to better understand the immense diversity of the INSEAD MBA community and to conclude that we have it within us to demonstrate the irrelevance of borders. And if this seems like too ambitious a dream, we can at least set the stage for the future generations. I believe that our challenge for the year is to overcome our own internal borders and to start thinking about taking down the external ones. Sure, we live in a complicated world, and idealists are often disillusioned by the harsh reality, but I am a hopeless optimist and I believe that sometime in the not- so-distant future some of my colleagues will help shape a better, borderless world. * Article inspired by the France / Luxembourg border at Audun le Tiche and Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” – ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers’ |
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