Issue11 by zephyrqq

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ISSUE11 - "All nations should help support the development of a global university designed to engage students in the process of solving the world's most persistent social problems."
字数：412   590       用时：00:45:00          日期：2008-3-3 16:22:11
怎么都写不完，不知道自己怎么回事。。

Should all nations help to support the development of a global university to engage students in the process of dealing with the worlds most persistent problems, as the title statement claims? As far as I am concerned, to some degree this saying has its own merit regarding to its concentration on solving the enduring problems worldwide, however, the speaker overlooks some problems about this university itself.

Nowadays, as the rapid development of technology and science, many lasting problems facing our human beings are more complex and international than ever before. These questions including old ones, such as shortage of energy, unemployment, poverty, drug abuse, crime, violence,  etc.  While there some new question brought by the progress of science and the boom of industry. For example, the deplete of ozone layer, deforestation of rainforest, global pollution, even the ethic debate on human cloning, euthanasia and the like. Moreover, internationalization links nations all over the world together and global environment is shared by all the countries. A economic crisis in France might influence the economy of many countries in Asia, even the economic situation worldwide. Grave air pollution generated by a certain area would exert detrimental effect to the whole atmosphere instead of limiting its harmful compact within that area Under this circumstance,  a global university designed to solve the most persistent issues seems a compelling idea. Since these questions could not solve effectively by just one country or several countries,  and this university would promote cooperation among all the nations to search solutions to these questions. People from all over the world bring various cultural perspectives and opinions to this university, it might be hopeful that abundant wisdom resource provided by the communication of different cultures would make possible the solution of many important enduring questions.

However, we could not lose sight of the troubles within the establishment and development of such a university. Can we persuade all the nations to participate in this plan? Actually, some nations might thought is unnecessary for them to do so. Or perhaps they real would like to do it, but they could not spare any money to support this university for their lagging economic conditions. Consequently, the fund of this university could only be offered by some rich countries, especially developed ones. Then, the research of this university might be interfered by these countries who are main patrons. Moreover, students and scholars come from different countries would have different standpoints. As a result, when it comes to the determination on which problem should be studied first, they might hold opinions contradict with each other. Each of them would tend to solve those problems which is most close related to the interests of their own countries, or the group they belong to.  For example, one who is a black American might think that the issue of racial discrimination is of great importance, while a student from Africa might regard poverty and famine as the most urgent problem. Hence, it might be quite difficult for them to reach a consensus on which problems are most worthwhile and significant. This conflicts would undermine their cooperation, and might even render this university ineffective and useless.

In conclusion, developing a global university to solve the consistent social problems seems an attractive proposition, but it is somewhat naive and idealistic. However, to solve these lasting questions of modern society, what matters is not whether we could develop a global university or not, what matters is whether all the human beings could work together to solve, at least, alleviate these problems.