Wagah Border Crossing

Borders are inherently funny.  Many times, they're like what my sister used to do on long car trips, when she'd run her hand down a shared car seat and tell my brother and I that we were not to cross some kind of imaginary line she'd created.

Earlier this year, Coca-Cola had a very cute commercial spoofing the same kind of behavior between two imaginary nations.  If you haven't seen it, you can watch it HERE.

Sometimes even real borders have a certain funniness to them.  For example, the Peace Arch at the US-Canadian border between Washington State and British Columbia.  The road goes around the arch instead of through it and the gates inside the arch are immovably affixed to the interior walls.  Symbolic of course.  Then you get to a real gate with barricades, guards, guns and stuff.

One of the funniest borders I've ever seen is the Four Corners Monument which lies in the middle of Navajo land at the intersection of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.  There's a raised platform where the spot is marked.  The whole area is surrounded by Indian trinket vendor booths selling turquoise jewelry and arrowheads.  In the center, there are mostly white folks contorting and prostrating themselves to to have the honor of being able to tell people that they were in four states at the same time.  If I were an Indian I'd be constantly asking myself, "How did we ever lose to these people?"

Then of course there are the less funny borders.  Like the Berlin Wall.

The photo above is from the tank standoff in October 1961 between the Soviet and American forces.  Curiously, it all began over a dispute regarding an American diplomat wanting to see an opera in East Berlin.  Seriously.

Of course there are still plenty of unfunny borders around today, like the Korean border.

However, today I want to show you one border that I think takes the cake for humor – the Wagah Border Crossing between India and Pakistan.  For two nuclear rivals, you couldn't envision a more humorous scene. The village of Wagah was divided between the two nations in 1947 and since 1959, they've had a flag lowering ceremony at the closing of the gate each night at about 5 pm.  It's become so popular that they've built grandstands on both sides of the borders as the rival militaries try to outdo each other in displays of military bravado.  It must be watched to be fully appreciated: