The Editor January 28, 2005
Free Press Journal, The Asian Age,
Pioneer, Statesman, Economic Times,
Sahara India, Voyage, Telegraph,
Afternoon, Deccan Herald, Indian Express,
Times of India, Pioneer, Hindustan Times
Hindu, Mid-day, Bombay Times.
Observer, Guardian, Mirror, United Kingdom
Dear Sir,
“All travel has its advantages. If the traveler visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own” said Samuel Johnson.
Having returned back to India on 55th Republic Day and after a rich experience of staying more than 5 months in Europe (Sweden, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, Finland), besides briefly studying the European Union system, it is my dream that one day India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan can all come together and atleast have open borders and one common currency, Rupiah (without photos of Gandhi or Jinnah etc) as an initial step in the unification of this part of the world.
Once that is done, automatically issues such as the Kashmir dispute will be solved, since any person will be able to move into and out of Kashmir as also all these countries. We can then have more trade and development among these developing countries which are otherwise always systematically isolated by the WTO and IMF regime. On completion of this basic unification, we can prosper by boosting tourism. For instance, if Europe and Russia can have the Eurail and the trans-siberain train respectively, what prevents us from building a Himalayan inter-govt. Glacier Express, or Khyber Express among these countries? Why not have economical Ship cruises from Bombay to Dubai and Karachi, like from Stockholm (Sweden) to Helsinki (Finland) and earn revenue ?
The problem is that it is the pea-brained politicians who cannot see beyond their narrow agenda. It is, therefore, imperative that concerned citizens like us advocate and build up a movement for begining such a united Asia and as a step towards a United world. In the future world, I believe caste and religion barriers will not be prominent, but it will be a question of only two kinds of citizens : those who can move freely and those who can’t !
Yours frankly
Ronald L. Rebello
28 Sunrise, Samta Nagar,
Kandivali (East), Mumbai 400 101
Tel: +91-22-28872741
Email:
Yoursfrankly@rediffmail.com 
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