Borders

[Ayreonaut]

Originally Posted by emathias

Detroit and Windsor?

[sznter]

Märket Island in the Baltic Sea, equipped with a lighthouse, divided by the Finnish-Swedish national border:


Wikipedia


Shore in the background: Finland
Pond on the left: Sweden
Lighthouse buildings: Finland
Bay on the right: Sweden

[Bootstrap Bill]

Originally Posted by emathias

Detroit and Windsor?

I agree! Detroit reminded me of pictures I had seen of Beruit - block after block of burned out buildings. Crime is so bad that dry cleaning businesses have bullet proof glass.

Windsor was the exact opposite. Really nice place.

[NYC4Life]

Border crossing between El Paso, Texas & Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Though the two cities are divided only by the narrow Rio Grande River, they are World's apart in terms of livable and social conditions and crime. While Juarez has the world's highest city murder rate, its sister city across the border has one of the lowest crime rates of any city in the U.S.

[vid]

Originally Posted by emathias

I can see you've never been to China. Far easier, in my experience.

Originally Posted by staff

What makes you think it's difficult to get into China? The border controls in the United States are far more time consuming (and harassing).

Two different experiences I guess. I assumed it would be harder to get into China because of the kind of government they have, they would want more control and restrictions over who is going there and where.

When I last went to the US, we just showed them ID and they waved us in, we didn't wait more than a minute. Now you need a passport, and most people here don't since like Europe, until recently you could cross the border without one. We got close to being like Europe is and it was even considered, but then 9/11 happened and the Americans got all paranoid.

[mwadswor]

Originally Posted by bbeliko

I think that the smaller US/Mexico crossings are even worse that San Diego-Tijuana

I would think that the contrast would be less stark at smaller crossings. Mexico might not be any better, but the US side isn't nearly as nice in places like Nogales or Yuma.

By the way, the contrast between Thailand and Cambodia is pretty stark at the Poi Pet border crossing. I'll post some pictures tomorrow, I'm too lazy tonight. The Thailand side isn't the nicest... but not that bad either, but as soon as you pass the border check you're immediately surrounded by mobs of begging children, the road goes from paved to rutted hell, and there are almost no motor vehicles on the Cambodian side.

[tablemtn]

The border fences between Spain and Morocco are quite impressive, but there aren't really buildings jutting up against each other, due to the wide swath that the border cuts. However, conditions are much poorer on the Moroccan sides than the Spanish ones.

[Nantais]

Spain-Portugal :


by Shahbaz MOMTAZ
http://www.panoramio.com

[tayser]

No national land borders in Australia (deerrrr), but a weird state border: VIC/NSW border is the Murray River (except for the far east) and you'd expect the border to run in the middle of the river - wrong, the border is actually on the Southern bank (VIC side) - therefore the Murray River is technically NSW territory.

Conjures up memories of primary school and the old agade "if you went duckshooting in Victoria (legal depending on season) and it landed in the Murray, you would be fined (Duckshooting = illegal in NSW)" etc etc.

[/random]

[R@ptor]

Originally Posted by vid

I assumed it would be harder to get into China because of the kind of government they have, they would want more control and restrictions over who is going there and where.

Not at all, they just check if you have a visa and then stamp it...that's it. And getting a Chinese visa is really easy as well. Just go to your neareast Chinese embassy, fill out a form, pay the fee and include 2 passport photos, then come back 4 hours later and pick up your passport with the visa. No questions or anything like that.

I've been to 44 countries (46 if you include Hong Kong and Macau which also have border controls) so far and in only 3 of them (USA, Canada, Singapore) was I ever asked anything at the border (reason for visit, intended length of stay,etc.), the US being the worst by far. In all other countries (including dictatorships, communist countries,etc) they simply stamped my passport and wished me a nice trip, no matter if in Asia, Africa or Australia.
Well, of course those are my experiences with a German passport...I suppose you'll get harassed a bit more if you show up with a Yemen passport.


As for borders with huge differences in standards of living...

North Korea - South Korea
Spain - Morocco
Greece - Albania
Greece - Macedonia
Israel - Palestine
Israel - Egypt
Kuwait - Iraq
Thailand - Myanmar
Thailand - Cambodia

[Nantais]

Originally Posted by R@ptor

As for borders which huge differences in standards of living...

North Korea - South Korea
Spain - Morocco
Greece - Albania
Greece - Macedonia
Israel - Palestine
Israel - Egypt
Kuwait - Iraq
Thailand - Myanmar
Thailand - Cambodia

France (French Guiana) - Suriname
France - Brazil

[dimondpark]

Santana do Livramento-RS, Brazil and Rivera, Uruguay

Nothing but these 2 flags separates the two nations. As easy as crossing the street. LOL

I loved living in these border towns. The people were so awesome.

[Lexy]

Originally Posted by mongoXZ

I live near this area.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I can't think of any other border areas in the world besides the US/Mexico border (particularly San Diego-Tijuana) where the differences in the standard of living are practically on opposite ends of the spectrum as this picture exemplifies.

On the US side (bottom) you have the large shopping center with parking lots galore. Just next to it is your typical California cookie cutter suburban neighborhood. Less than 100 yards across the rusty steel curtain lies a crowded, third worldish hell hole.

Any other places similar in that fashion?

El Paso and Juarez come to mind here.

[Swede]

Originally Posted by sznter

Märket Island in the Baltic Sea, equipped with a lighthouse, divided by the Finnish-Swedish national border:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...nd_map.svg.png
Wikipedia

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/1500/mrket.jpg
Shore in the background: Finland
Pond on the left: Sweden
Lighthouse buildings: Finland
Bay on the right: Sweden

I didn't know about that island! looks to me like the result of the peace negotiations when we lost finland to Russia.


As to the earlier question of when will the EU be considered one country? I'd say it will the day the armed forces are integrated into one permanent command structure. Then we'll go from trans-national confederacy to a plain confederacy. Hopefully there'll be other reform along the way (more towards federalism, more openness, more democracy, less lobbyist rule).

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Bootstrap Bill

Crime is so bad that dry cleaning businesses have bullet proof glass.

Where are you from?

[Bootstrap Bill]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Where are you from?

Currently in Murrieta, California, but I've spent most of my life in Orange County.

I've been to the worst parts of LA and they don't compare to what I've seen in Detroit. Businesses in skidrow don't have bullet proof glass....

[iheartthed]

This is a snap shot that I pulled from the Wiki of the actual border while driving through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.



Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...dsorTunnel.JPG

Here is a shot of the international boundary on the Ambassador Bridge (excuse the felon in the suit on the right):



Source: http://www.windsoronphoto.com/Ambass...ep04%20160.jpg

(I hope that I properly adhered to the citation rules. It's my first time posting photos...)

[JMancuso]

I stood in the NL, Belgium and Germany all at the same time.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Bootstrap Bill

Currently in Murrieta, California, but I've spent most of my life in Orange County.

I've been to the worst parts of LA and they don't compare to what I've seen in Detroit. Businesses in skidrow don't have bullet proof glass....

I find that hard to believe. I can find businesses with bullet proof glass in nearly every major city in America, including Los Angeles... Which is a city with enough of its own fucked up areas to keep you preoccupied without ragging on Detroit.

I have a friend who works for Lockheed in L.A. as an operations engineer. He was harassed and threatened once for driving through the wrong neighborhood after work while wearing his blue Lockheed vest. I've never heard of something like that happening in Detroit.

[Yankee]

US - Mexico border:


LA Times

I wish our entire southern border looked like this. I have nothing against hard working immigrants - I myself am a 1st generation American born in Europe. What bothers me though is drug smuggling, human trafficking and gang violence spilling over the border just to name a few. I mean right now it's possible to smuggle a nuclear weapon into the US and detonate it anywhere, say downtown LA - we're so strict about air traffic but what's the point when literally anything can be smuggled across the southern border right now, and I don't imagine it's too difficult to smuggle anything into Mexico or countries bordering it either. It would cost a few billion to build a reliable fence along the entire border with cameras and sensors that can detect crossing or gunfire - that's how much we spend in Iraq every week, so why not do it. I'm pro-immigration and a liberal, but I'm also pro-security and pro-spending money on our own country

That's really off-topic though, sorry for digressing.

Some amazing examples there, thank you for posting. I started the thread by posting the Belgium / Netherlands border image and then the question came up about businesses straddling Schengen area borders, which as it turns out is fairly common - my question is doesn't that present certain jurisdictional difficulties? Like, if a business is in two countries which country's laws do they follow when it comes to taxes, payroll, anything really...?