Teaching children about fairness is the wrong thing to do. The world is about power.

The world is about power. Not fairness.

We have spent generations after generations teaching children about fairness and giving them a very idealitic view of the world that is not real. The world is run by opposites and a status quo is established when all parties know that there is a risk when trying to go beyond that status quo. This is why borders tend to be respected but borders can suddenly change as a consequence of a conflict. If a party is not strong enough to prevent a change of borders then it becomes a conflict leading to a fait accompli and a new status quo is established.

The history of the world is a history of changing boundaries and conflicts. Is there a country that wasn't born because of conflict? Wars of aggression, wars of independence, wars, wars, wars. The United States of America celebrate today the 4th of July and the Declaration of Independence, but even after the 1776 Declaration of Independence fighting went on. So the creation and further expansion of the United States of America happened because of wars. Bloodshed allowed the expansion of the United States of America.

The same can be said of many other countries and this tends to be the rule rather than the exception and it is still happening and will continue to happen.

When you look at the map of the British Empire, after a series of expansions came contraction. Territorial acquisitions overseas were lost and even the borders within the British Isles changed. Until 1920, the United Kingdom comprised also the entirety of the islando of Ireland. Since 1920, as a consequence of a treaty, the Republic of Ireland with its capital Dublin was established and Ulster/Northern Ireland in the north remained as a integral part of the United Kingdom. Should movements towards the independence of Scotland eventually succeed or if suddenly Ulster becomes part of a united Ireland because of the Sinn Fein/Ira electoral successes in Northern Ireland caused by both a sudden change of the mood between communities or simply because of demographics - Catholic families tend to have more children, once again the borders of the United Kingdom will be redrawn. One thing we can take from history is that the presumptions in terms of borders can suddenly change. Yugoslavia is a perfect of example of a country that imploded leading to many different countries. In the case of Yugoslavia, the fact is that Yugoslavia itself was from the beginning like pieces of a puzzle. You can go as far as the Austro-Hungarian Empire that included regions or entire countries in terms of countries that are a reality today. Austria and Italy - throughout the history of Europe have exchanged regions. France and Germany's example - Alsace and Lorena - at one time part of Germany and now part of France. Britany and Normandy - once part of the British Empire are now part of France. And we could mention many other cases not just in Europe but across the world. At one point Bolivia had costal waters and that was the case until a conflict between Peru, Bolivia and Chile left Bolivia isolated and having to pay a fee to have access to the Pacific Ocean.

When it comes to Palestine we have yet another example of changing borders and changing owners. The history of Palestine is a history of conflicts between empires and between countries. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed many countries were born, one of them Iraq that itself comprises three distinctive regions. For a brief period Palestine was in the hands of the British until partition led to the creation of the State of Israel and fighting continued between Palestinians and newcomers from Europe that continued the process of expansion taking land from within Palestine and from neighbouring countries. How long will the status quo last? Presumably as long as the parties involved are strong enough to maintain such status quo and this is not a guarantee for any lasting peace.

Going back to Europe, Poland keeps asking Germany for war reparations in spite of the fact that much of the Germany that was before World War Two and before World War One was taken over by Poland and this include a huge chunk of Easter Germany including Danzig and Memel. Danzig is now known as Gdansk. The birthplace of Immanuel Kant, Konisberg is now Kaliningrag in what used to be Eastern Prussia. 

We don't know the outcome of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine - another country that was made up with bit and pieces taken from other countries including Poland, Hungary and Russia. In fact, the present conflict is very much the consequence of the way Ukraine was made with Western Ukraine in direct conflict with Eastern Ukraine - one predominantly Polish and Hungarian and the other predominantly Russian. The conflict is a mix of geopolitical divisions and ethnic divisions.

Borders can change and borders will change. So we can expect that there will be conflict along the way and further bloodshed can be guaranteed. Whether China decides to recover what is know today as Taiwan remains to be seen but there is certainly the prospect of yet another conflict as the multipolar world replaces the bipolar world created by World War Two.