The travelogue reminded me of a belief I’ve always had. Put simply, as the popular idiom goes, ‘home is where the heart is.’

If you have stayed in a whole lot of different places and countries, home is where, comparatively you have had the most pleasant experiences staying. I would stress on the word ‘staying’ here, because visiting a place as a tourist or as a casual visitor and living there on a day-to-day basis are totally different experiences. A tourist or a short-term visitor to a place can’t even begin to imagine the high and the low spots or the pleasure and the pain of living there on a day-to-day basis, in a place which may seem heavenly or dazzling during a short visit for pleasure or for work.

Where am I going with this? Putting it simply, xenophobia or a whipped-up nationalism are feelings which are aroused by catering to the subconscious fears and insecurities of people. It is a lot more difficult to arouse those feelings in folks who are reasonably well-educated and/or fairly well travelled. Once education levels rise globally and travel across countries by more and more people go up, it will be time to start really thinking of a world without borders. Boundaries delineating countries will be principally for the purposes of economic activities and the security of those staying in it mainly.