New Ethical Challenges

The boundaries of the geographic continent of “Asia” are clearly delineated on every world map, making it a specific readily identifiable land area with some nearby islands thrown in. But what it means to be “Asian” is not so readily defined, because Asia encompasses such a variety of topographies and climates and races and cultures and languages and religions, so that to have any specific meaning the word “Asian” needs to be qualified. Russians and Arabs and Jews and Indians and Orientals and Indonesians are all Asian. The Himalayan Mountains, the Gobi Desert, the Ganges Valley, the Russian Steppes, the Arabian Peninsula, the Philippine Islands are all Asian. Will the real Asian please stand up! Each one is really Asian; each one is really different. Can any single one truly represent what it means to be Asian? Is there any single Asian language or mentality that gives them all some corporate unity? Is there anything that distinguishes them from the rest of the world? I believe that there is.

The creation of a political union or a religious union would seem quite out of the question at this time, but what about a union of trade and commerce and mutual support and development, no longer yielding the initiatives to Europeans or Americans or Africans. The one thing that Chinese and Indians and Arabs have in common is that they are not European or American or African. They share an area of the earth that does not belong to and is not occupied by Americans or Europeans or Africans. Without turning off the flow of investments from abroad or the charitable involvement of outsiders in the improvement of undeveloped Asian minorities, it is time for the peoples of Asia to accept full responsibility and assume full control over the political and economic destiny of their continent, so that each culture not only continues to flourish, but each one is proud to be Asian and fully involved in making sure that Asia has a dominant role in global affairs.

Written by : Robert Ronald Send a message to Robert Ronald

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