Some of you may know an old song, “This land is your land, this land is my land, this land was made for you and me...” by Woody Guthrie, an American folksinger. It may have been first recorded in 1944, but it addresses one of the most pertinent issues of our time. Nearly every conflict making the headlines these days has something to do with a territorial spat. From Ukraine-Russia, Libya and Nigeria to Somalia, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Iraq and of course Israel-Palestine, thousands of people have lost their lives over something we are neither born nor buried with. Ever heard of anyone whose grave stretches across an acre? Six feet is all most people get and yet we continue to fight each other! The 298 passengers on board Malaysia Airline Flight MH-17 would not have met such horrible deaths if it hadn’t been for Russia’s land grab. And in just a month, over 1,800 Palestinians and 67 Israelis have been killed in a conflict that’s about to enter its seventh decade, with one party convinced they must occupy the ‘enemy’ territory in order to guarantee the safety of their citizens and protect their land even when the said land was seized from the ‘enemy’ in the first place. Courts around the world have their fair share of land wrangles to settle and you don’t have to look too far to see caveat notices on fences of contested properties. Like I said earlier, land is a contentious issue, but it doesn’t have to? All we have to do is apply a common sense approach. Land is a natural resource, like water and air and we should treat it as free for all. At any given point, any country has a good idea of the size of their population. Wouldn’t it be great if governments could come up with a system that ensures all citizens have access to land? We could go about it the same way we go about social security and retirement benefits. Parliaments would deliberate on the age at which people can claim their land; and the size would be determined by things like how much tax one pays or the size of their family. I think that would be a fair distribution system. With all its strong points, capitalism has sidelined the poor and that’s why I believe it would also be nice if there was a limit to how much property one can acquire. I don’t even think we should have to lease land out to people. Instead, farmers can be availed land on which to grow food or rear livestock to ensure that our markets always have food. Similarly, industrialists would also be allowed to put up as many factories as they want in designated areas and in exchange for the free land, they would be required to provide steady employment for our youths. At the end of the day, everyone would be happy and maybe there wouldn’t be so many conflicts and wars around the world.
