issue197 by lesheng

qinleshengUID: 2309050

197-Interconnection of nations
"The material progress and well-being of one country are necessarily connected to the material progress and well-being of all other countries."

The recent years have witnessed the development of the global economy and a stronger tie between nation and nation than ever;In my eyes,our planet is more like a global village named Earth and thus the well-being of one person is closely related with other persons and the material and spiritual progress(es) of a nation are necessarily connected to the other nations, in other words no individual person could possibly success if he/she is an island entirely to itself and no single country could flourish without the cooperation between countries.
As it is impossible for anyone nowadays to grow the plant and cook the food after the harvest while at the same time fabricate his/her TV set or even a computer for entertainments, any country today could not satisfy all its citizen's need simply by its own domestic product and instead all countries across the globe have already benefited from the division of the global labor.On one hand,rarely does one country own all the raw materials in its land.Except for several big countries like US,Russia and China,almost all the rest countries would import some raw materials like steel,cotton,lanthanon from other countries.And even in China,which has a certain amount reserve of crude oil,still 1/3 of the oil consumed in China is imported from Middle East.On the other hand,obtaining all the raw materials does not necessarily mean the country would combine all the things together.Take Ford Motor,a US based company,as an example,the body of the car is produced in France,engine in the UK,radiator in Austria,steering wheel in Germany,windshield in Japan,and only wheels are manufactured in the US.These two points described above illustrate that the material process of one country would not be possible if it is disconnected with the whole world.
Besides material progress,the well-being of one country like economy,enviroment and international relationship is far beyond a single country's scope.As human populations and economies have grown,it has become impossible to improve one's own wellbeing without affecting other people's.Through trade,money markets,and enviromental change,the ripple of interactions,dependencies,and impacts among communities and nations has steadily widened.In economical areas,foreign investment income is an important part of a nation's GDP(Gross Domestic Product) and World Trade Organization is established to supervise and liberalize the international trade.Moreover, enviromental issues are also a global problem which requires global cooperation.Kyoto Protocol,an international enviromental treaty aimed at stablization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, is ratified and signed by 183 parties in 2008.In addition,mutual trust and understanding are also needed to deal with the diplomatic conflictions.
After assessing a coutry's well-being index from a macroscopic view which include economy,enviroment and international relationship, we could reconsider this issue from a microcosmic perspective,that is to say,by analyzing some individual's behavior nowadays could help us better grasp the essence of this issue.First and foremost,personal wealth is enhanced by the trend.As an indivdual, you do not need to bother if you intend to buy something only made in Hawaii, instead you just went to Ebay and click your mouse.Also,you could start your own online store there and make money out of it.Secondly,it is not rare today that many brilliant people from the whole world are busy preparing examinations like GRE,TOEFL, with the hope of getting an offer from a top US graduate school. Lastly, a recent case could enforced our knowledge on how collaboration between countries could affect an ordinary family.On Feb 1 2009, a Chinese tour bus crash in Arizona and 7 Chinese are killed.After the accident,the hospitals,the transportation departments of the US worked closely with the travel agency and the foreign affairs ministry of China and it is through their collective effort that the aftermath of the incident could be properly handled.
However,we should concede that despite the significance of cooperation,it is undisputed that over-reliance on other countries could be counterproductive or even harmful.For a nation,the harm could be palpable and profound.The citizens in the country might find it more difficult to land a job;And even when they obtain a job ,still their foreign counterpart have the lion's share.Also,while the precious raw materials are exported to foreign countries at a relatively low price, the products made of these materials,labeled with a good quality and a much higher price,are imported to the domestic market.
To put it in a nutshell, under the trend of globalization, it is almost impossible that a nation could survive and thrive without being connected with other nations.It is a nation's task to find its place in the global environment so as to fulfill people's physical and spiritual needs and at the same time avoid the possible drawbacks of the globalization.