No wall is high enough

TWENTIETH century US poet Robert Frost published his second collection of poetry, North of Boston, in 1914 and it has become one of the most anthologised and analysed collection in modern literature.

Let’s analyse it again today in vein of US President Donald Trump’s administration.

We will focus on one specific poem, Mending Walls, from that collection.

This poem resonates on one of the two executive orders, immigration, that Trump signed this week. The other is on border security. This immigration order will see a multibillion-dollar wall being built along the roughly 3 200km stretch of the southern border with Mexico. Trump said Mexico will pay for it.

I was a little confused when I saw a tweet that read:

“US President Donald Trump Orders 2 000 Mile Rahul Dravid to be built on Mexico border.”

Since Google knows everything, and cricket isn’t the biggest sport I follow, I did one search and found that Rahul Dravid is a former Indian cricketer and captain.

He had an ability to face the wrath of bowlers and shield his team from tough encounters over and again (cricket pun intended) much like a fortress wall protects an empire from any external attack. He was nicknamed “The Wall”. Now, Mending Walls speaks of a wall that separates the speaker’s property from his neighbour’s.

In spring, the two meet to walk the wall and jointly make repairs.

The speaker sees no reason for the wall to be kept; there were no cows to be contained, just apple and pine trees.

He does not believe in walls for the sake of walls.

But his neighbour will not be swayed and resorts to an old proverb: “Good fences make good neighbours”.

Back home #WarRoom and #PaidTwitter trended on social media when the ANC reportedly intended to disempower their political neighbours, DA and EFF’s campaigns and set a pro-ANC agenda using a range of media, without revealing their hand.

News reports said the ANC had allegedly planned to spend R50 million on a covert campaign, through a team called War Room, targeting opposition parties in the 2016 local government elections.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the party was not part of any covert operation to spread fake news and pay social media “influencers” to discredit their political opposition.

Experts say that the proliferation of fake news targeting political parties and certain politicians is “newage propaganda” that is not likely to stop and political leaders have to brace themselves for the online onslaught.

Simply put, this means there isn’t a wall high enough that you can build to protect yourself on social media.

In Mending Walls, Trump would be the neighbour.

Hours after his signing of the orders on immigration and border security made the news, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who would be the speaker in the poem, demanded “respect” for his country in a nationally televised address.

“I regret and condemn the decision of the United States to continue construction of a wall that, for years, has divided us instead of uniting us,” Peña Nieto said.

“I have said it time and again: Mexico will not pay for any wall.”