Don't go away!

I never understood why regions wanted independence. A decent country is a country where anyone can live happily. If you want to build a country that only suits the people of your own culture, you build a wall against the rest of the world. If you want to leave a country which is built around a culture that isn't yours, you will cowardly leave other citizens of that country to their fate. If you want to show courage, stay and fight for all the citizens. Don't waste time moving borders between friends.

Imagine if India had never left the British Empire. Imagine if they instead of babbling about "independence" had said:

"We like this. We like you Brits. We like you so much that we want to send our own MPs to London, elected according to one man - one vote. We want you to spend as much on roads and the school system in Andhra Pradesh as you do in Wales. Per person. No, you cannot go away. You cannot grant us independence. You conquered us fair and square. Now you have to keep us - and give every Indian the same rights as every citizen of the British Empire."

Or if Tchad had never left France:

"You French are excellent people. Just make sure you give our farmers as much subventions as you do to our compatriots in Périgord. And don't forget to build that TGV line to Algiers to bring our products quickly to our clients."

But one of the most peculiar independence movements I know of started in Concord, Massachusetts, 1775. There were people of the same native language, who were unable to discuss properly with each other, and instead started killing each other in a bloodshed that lasted for eight long years.

The really strange thing is that there still today are people, who are proud of that lack of standard communication skills more than 200 years ago.