" We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations, far away.... We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Former US President, 1945.
Although global peace is a very complex topic, it can be understood through simple scenarios. To put global peace into a basic comparison, let’s compare it to a food chain. Food chains are primarily a food pathway that links different species in a community. Energy and nutrients are passed from one organism to another. In order to achieve balance in the environment, all parts of the food chain must depend on each other to perform their specific roles. If one organism decides to act against their role, chaos will occur. This is similar to our global community. Almost all countries in our world depend on another country. Specifically, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s quote is extraordinarily accurate to the world we live in today. Not only does he reflect upon the concept that our world is a global community, but he highlights that countries could not achieve this peace or happiness without interacting with the rest of the world. We no longer live alone at peace. This is visible in many events in our world today. For example, the disparity in African countries is a major obstacle that countries around the globe are trying to fix. From the conflicts in certain African governments (e.g. Libya, North/South Sudan etc.) to the lack of nutrition and education provided amongst the African people, many countries are trying to volunteer themselves to assist in achieving peace and solutions. Even though Africa is not necessarily economically interconnected with most countries around the world, in time of need many countries connect with countries to achieve tranquility. However for the countries outside of the continent that do rely on Africa economically feel this ‘ripple effect’ that conflict has on our global community. This shows a true illustration of countries depending and interconnecting with each other. This interdependence uniting countries provides both pros and cons regarding events that take place in our world. As our global community continues to shrink we must learn to engage in times of trouble and success to reflect on our preceding steps into the future. Steps I believe our global community has done well is the international organization, United Nations which was also founded in 1945. Other organizations that have helped make our world more interconnected and aware is Amnesty International. This is an organization that raises awareness in protecting human rights around the world. I think this is a very important aspect we should keep in mind as our world continues to become more interconnected because it allows individuals to be educated on conflict in their global community and shows us how others can help them to live in peace.
Great analogy to the food chain! It is true on how our global community reacts to disruption - chaos occurs. Roosevelt`s quote, I agree, is very accurate to the world we live in today!
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting that you compared our global community to a food chain for this implies a hierarchy. I've never really thought of our global community like this before but it's actually quite correct. At the top of the world's "food chain" likes countries like The United States, Russia, Britain etc. whose actions ripple down this "food chain" and affect all nations beneath them. Countries such as Libya or Rwanda would be lower on this food chain as their actions do not tend to have a huge affect on the international community. This being said there still is the potential for one of these less powerful countries to have a big difference, for example the protests in Tunisia that started revolutions across two continents.
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