should we think about countries other than our own?
By andygogo
@andygogo (1579)
China
January 1, 2007 11:52pm CST
On the Taiwan issues forum, Raymondusa said ‘A politician’s first responsibility is to take care of his or her own people in the homeland.’ (http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forumpost.shtml?toppid=402050&page=3)This sounds reasonable. However, although it may be the first responsibility, it is not the only one. The world today is highly inter-connected. What happens in one country affects another, and just out of simple humanity this needs to be considered.
For example, the USA is the world’s largest consumer and polluter. I don’t believe that the US government can disregard the rest of the world in this matter. If the US people want cheap fuel, big cars, extravagant lifestyles, it affects the whole planet.
The situation Raymondusa mentioned was Blair taking the UK to war in Iraq, and how this was wrong because it didn’t support the British people’s best interest. The London bombings were cited. I feel Blair genuinely believed going to war was the right thing to do, to help the Iraqi people (though I think his evidence was highly dubious) I don't want to discuss here whether his decision was correct. I want to ask, should the UK have kept out of the war, purely out of selfishness and fear of reprisal?
I accept it’s easy for me to ask this in the relative safety of northern England. I didn’t lose any family or friends in the bombings.
My question is, is this ‘As long as my country is happy, I don’t care what happens elsewhere’ attitude reasonable in the world today?
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