The world on Thursday, July 13, read with bated breath the scary news about a massive chunk of ice breaking off the coast of Antarctica, the continent of snow. The ice has an area of 2,240 square miles, which is the size of the American state of Delaware and a volume as twice as that of Lake Erie, and its separation from Antarctica might necessitate redrawing of the continent's map in the future.
Now, just to divert the attention from the dangerous implications this development could have, let us make some speculative gestures. How it would have been had some chunks of Asia too broke off from the continent, perhaps the most volatile in the world in the current times?
Frankly, we would be happier had the following three countries had been separated from the Asian mainland immediately, just like that massive ice block for it would allow peace some chance. Now, which are these three countries?
Pakistan: A landmass which has only flourished as a haven of terrorism ever since it was separated from India in 1947. The failure of the political leadership never allowed democracy to have a stable root there and when it did, the country has been engulfed by the evil called terrorism.
Pakistan's rulers are committed to fight with India for their own survival for the country has little other incentives for national growth. The terrorist strikes originating from its soil have remained a serious headache for India with bloodshed continuing for decades.
What if Pakistan was separated from its current geographical position and drifted away from India and surroundings (it is a country which has no happy neighbours except strategic ally China)? New Delhi will not mind it. In fact, the entire international community will be happy if Pakistan, like that separated mass of ice, floats away from its current position and become an insignificant island lost somewhere.
North Korea: The pariah state which test-fires missiles as if it is celebrating Diwali every day, is another severe headache for Asia and the world. The eternal leadership of the country is just bothered about its own muscle-flexing even if the people of the country suffer.
North Korea's ambitions are multiplying as is its arsenal and the international community, including powerful states like US and China, have so far failed to rein it in. Perhaps, the only solution for the North Korean crisis is to see it getting cut off from the mainland and drift into oblivion in the Far East.
However, if North Korea gets physically cut off, South Korea will also drift away as the two form the Korean Peninsula together. But Seoul will not mind drifting away as a separate island-nation if that eventually sees a physical divorce with Pyongyang. It might calm down North Korea as well and give a welcome relief to Washington, Beijing and Tokyo.
Syria: Syria is one state where the global policeman United States refused to make a direct interference, allowing others to fill in the vacuum and turn the country into a hellfire. Nobody really knows how the Syrian crisis can be solved because the parties involved in the problem are too divided and have their own antagonist equations.
The presence of the Islamic State has made things worse. It's an ultimate fantasy but had Syria got disconnected with its current geographical location and got shifted as an island-nation into the Mediterranean Sea which it touches to its west, it would have been such tremendous news for international politics.
Bashar al-Assad would be the happiest man on the earth with the physical isolation while Syria's current neighbours would be glad that there would be no refugees ready to jump over the face and put pressure on their own economy and security apparatus.
