ISSUE 5 求批
Claim: Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive.Reason: It is primarily in cities that a nation's cultural traditions are preserved and generated.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.
The statement claims that governments must ensure that the major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive, on the basis that it is primarily in cities that a nation’s culture traditions are preserved and generated. I do agree that receiving enough funding is important for major cities to thrive. However, the reasoning of the statement is flawed, as it is not in major cities that a nation’s cultural traditions are preserved and generated. Besides, it is not the duty of the government to help preserve culture traditions financially.
To begin with, I do agree that the government indeed should make sure that the major cities receive adequate financial support. Major cities are the center of the economy in the country. In most countries, except those few that are the least developed in the world, the population in the cities consist more than half of the population in the whole country. The GDP produced by major cities also contribute the majority of national income. If these major cities cannot receive adequate financial support, many companies, especially small business, may not be able to survive, leading to a rising unemployment rate and a decreasing living standard. Hospitals would not have updated equipment and even enough medicine for the patients. Schools may be shut down, resulting in loss of students’ valuable opportunities to receive education. Therefore, major cities must be adequately supported financially.
However, the reasoning of the statement is rather questionable. First, it is not in major cities that the cultural traditions of a nation are preserved and generated. If one walks around the major cities in the world today, like New York, Toronto, Shanghai, Tokyo, it seems that there is little difference on the surface. People dress in the same fashion, live a similar life style, worry about the same kinds of problems everyday. It is only when you visit the cultural museums in these cities can you tell a difference in the culture. After all, in today’s globalization, we are becoming increasingly like each other, especially in major cities, where the commercialization has broken down the national and cultural boundaries. It is in the rural areas that many cultural traditions are still preserved. Some aboriginal tribes in Australia and the States in rural areas still preserve their long tradition of living styles, like religious ceremonies and performances, which cannot be seen in cities most of the time. In some rural areas in China, people are still living in old fashioned housing, as their ancestors thousands of years ago, which may be unbelievable to city residents who are used to skyscrapers.
Besides, it is not the duty of the government to preserve the culture and traditions. In most countries this is done by NGOs and private sectors. Government has a limited budget, which has to be spent over many areas like social security, education, health care, law enforcement and so on. There are many more urgent needs than preserving culture and traditions. Furthermore, if the government is required to support financially to preserve culture and traditions, they have to first of all judge which is worth preserving and which is not. This process alone may be biased and unfair, as the government officials may have their own preferences, which may not reflect the true needs.
To sum up, governments should indeed ensure that the major cities receive financial support in order to thrive, but not on the basis of preserving culture and traditions. After all, culture and tradition is better preserved in rural areas than in cities. We should encourage private sectors and NGOs to help reserving the culture and tradition, instead of the governments, who has limited budget and biased view of culture.
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