WALL OF THE DAY

Israel-Palestine Wall: Banksy Graffiti
(There will be a symposium presentation on Banksy's graffiti, 11 am Tuesday)

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
A world without walls is the only sustainable world. . . . If the world is dominated by people who believe that their races, their religions, their ethnic differences are the most important factors, then a huge number of people will perish in this century. —
Bill Clinton

RANDOM WALL FACT
The wall separating Israel from the Palestinian West Bank is controversial. Supporters argue that the barrier is necessary to protecting Israeli civilians from Palestinian terrorism, including suicide bombing attacks. Opponents argue that the barrier is an illegal attempt to annex Palestinian land under the guise of security, violates international law, has the intent or effect to pre-empt final status negotiations, and severely restricts Palestinians who live nearby, particularly their ability to travel freely within the West Bank and to access work in Israel. Israeli Settler opponents condemn the wall for appearing to renounce the Jewish claim to the whole of "Eretz Israel."

WALL OF THE DAY

Fall of the Berlin Wall, ABC News

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect. —
Ronald Reagan

RANDOM WALL FACT
The fourth-generation Berlin Wall, known officially as "Stützwandelement UL 12.11," was the final and most sophisticated version of the Berlin Wall, which was first erected in August, 1961. Begun in 1975 and completed about 1980, the 4th wall was constructed from 45,000 separate sections of reinforced concrete, each 12 feet high and 3.9 feet wide. The top of the wall was lined with a smooth pipe, intended to make it more difficult to scale. It was reinforced by mesh fencing, signal fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wire, dogs on long lines, beds of nails under balconies hanging over the "death strip," more than 116 watchtowers, and 20 bunkers.

WALL OF THE DAY

Padua Wall, Serenissima Housing Estate

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
We build too many walls and not enough bridges. —
Isaac Newton

RANDOM WALL FACT
In 2006 Padua (Italy) officials, in just a few hours, erected a masssive steel wall to isolate the Serenissima housing estate, occuppied primarily by African immigrants and asylum seekers, from nearby residents who felt threatened by what they describe as "an atmosphere of constant violence." The wall is "a large and ugly barrier stretching for 84 metres, three metres high and made of thick steel panels, there is a police checkpoint at the entrance as well as CCTV cameras." An interesting analysis of the meaning of the Padua Wall is in the Peace & Conflict Monitor.

WALL OF THE DAY

Babylon, Iraq: Saddam Hussein Cunieform Brick

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control. —
Proverbs 25:28

RANDOM WALL FACT
The Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Babylon in the 4th Century B.C.E., wrote that the city walls were 56 miles around, 150 feet high and wide enough for a four-horse chariot to ride between the towers. In 1985, Saddam Hussein started to restore them. Some of the bricks of ancient Babylon still carry the message, "I am Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the world." In the modern recreation, they bear inscriptions such as "Saddam Hussein, the protector of Iraq, rebuilt civilisation and rebuilt Babylon," and "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq."

WALL OF THE DAY

Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
Words will build no walls. — Plutarch

RANDOM WALL FACT
The Maeslant Barrier (Maeslantkering), a huge storm surge barrier at the mouth of the port of Rotterdam, is the largest moving structure on earth. Like New Orleans, The Netherlands is two-thirds below sea level. Part of a complex $8 billion system of eleven massive dams, sea walls and sluices, this 130 feet high, six mile long sea wall is designed to protect the vunerable southwestern part of Holland from flood conditions that happen only once every 10,000 years. It has been used once, in November, 2008.

WALL OF THE DAY

Xi'an City Wall, China

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
When the wind rises, some people build walls.
Others build windmills. — Chinese Proverb

RANDOM WALL FACT
The Xi'an City Wall was erected in the 14th century Ming Dynasty. When Zhu Yuanzhang captured Huizhou he was advised by a hermit to "build high walls, store abundant provisions and take your time in proclaiming yourself emperor." Xi'an's city wall stands 12 meters high. It is 12-14 meters across the top, 15-18 meters thick at bottom, and 13.7 kilometers in length. Under each of the 5,984 crenels there is a square hole, from which arrows were shot and watch was kept.

WALL OF THE DAY

Lennon Peace Wall, Prague, Czech Republic

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
Imagine all the people, Sharing all the world... — John Lennon

RANDOM WALL FACT
Shortly after John Lennon's murder in 1980, mourners in Prague risked prison to slip into Velkoprevorské námestî Square at night to scrawl graffiti on a wall in honor of their underground hero. Ironically called "Lennonism," the wall became a monument to free speech and the rebellion of Czech youth against the regime. It helped inspire the non-violent Velvet Revolution that led to the fall of Communism in the former Czechoslovakia in 1989. Imagine!

WALL OF THE DAY

Blast Wall, Baghdad, Iraq

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way. — Gustav Mahler

RANDOM WALL FACT
Unending stretches of concrete blocks set up to prevent insurgent attacks have virtually walled in Baghdad, but in the process have also created a canvas for artists to paint Iraq's natural beauty. The wall sections, each 30 feet long and seven feet high, are part of the vast network of concrete blocks and concertina wires that carve up the capital.

WALL OF THE DAY

Great Zimbabwe Wall / Great Enclosure

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
A boundary is not that at which something stops, but that from which something begins. — Martin Heidegger

RANDOM WALL FACT
The ruins of the Great Zimbabwe undulate across almost 1,800 acres of present-day southeastern Zimbabwe. Begun during the eleventh century A.D. by Bantu-speaking ancestors of the Shona, Great Zimbabwe was constructed and expanded for more than 300 years. Its most formidable edifice, the Great Enclosure, has walls as high as 36 feet extending approximately 820 feet, making it the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara Desert.

WALL OF THE DAY

Peace Lines, Belfast, Northern Ireland

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
Peaceful circulation has been interupted by barbed wire and concrete blocks. For a city or a people to be truly free, they must have the secure right, without economic, political or police pressure, to make their own choices and live their own lives. — John F. Kennedy

RANDOM WALL FACT
The Peace Lines are a series of separation barriers ranging in length from a few hundred yards to over three miles separating Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods in Belfast, Derry and elsewhere in Northern Ireland. The barriers range from iron, brick, and steel walls up to 25 feet high, topped with metal netting, or simply a white line painted on the ground, similar to a road marking.

WALL OF THE DAY

Walled City of Nicosia, Cyprus

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
Walls show that politicians have reached the end of their ideas about what to do about a difficult situation with a neighbor...They can't think what else to do. — Frederick Taylor

RANDOM WALL FACT
The Peace Lines are a series of separation barriers ranging in length from a few hundred yards to over three miles separating Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods in Belfast, Derry and elsewhere in Northern Ireland. The barriers range from iron, brick, and steel walls up to 25 feet high, topped with metal netting, or simply a white line painted on the ground, similar to a road marking.

WALL OF THE DAY

Dingo Fence, Australia

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up. — G.K. Chesterton

RANDOM WALL FACT
The Dingo Fence is a pest-exclusion fence that was built in Australia during the 1880s and finished in 1885, to keep wild dogs out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent (where they had largely been exterminated) and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland. It is one of the longest structures on the planet, and, stretching 3,306 miles, the world's longest fence.

WALL OF THE DAY

Gated community, Dallas, Texas

WALL QUOTE OF THE DAY
The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy. — Jim Rohn

RANDOM WALL FACT
According to the US Census Bureau's 2001 housing survey, more than 7 million households — about 6% of the national total — are in developments behind walls and fences. About 4 million of that total are in communities where access is controlled by gates, entry codes, key cards or security guards.

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