Monday
Jan032011

What Would You Do If Your Country Disappeared?

We all have a homeland, we have a physical location or country, a nation of origin where we where born or where our families came from. Yes country’s change names and disappear into history through secession or conquest but the physical location remains.

Our sense of self is drawn from our national heritage we are shaped by the physical location that we call home. Our culture, our customs and souls are tied to our homeland no matter how far away that homeland is.

Many of us will never return to our homelands or have only visited our national homeland but its existence still shapes our lives. The physical existence of a place of origin centers our soul.

So what would you do if your country disappeared? Now I am not talking about your country being taken over, or changing its name I am talking about your country physically disappearing. I am talking about your country sinking into the sea like the lost world of Atlantis.

If you became stateless, nationless and with out a physical homeland how would it affect your personality? How would it change your culture? How would your national pride be affected? Where would the people of your nation go? How would they live? What would be the socioeconomic and political implications of a nation sinking into the sea?

These questions are quickly becoming a possible reality for the citizens of the Marshall Islands as their government and the United Nations confront rise concerns over the islands potentially succumbing to rising sea levels. Climate change has brought about some very real issues for the low-level island chain as rising sea levels threaten to submerge entire islands. Read more about the story here.