When I was a kid and the news of the European Union (EU) being formed was in the offing, my Dad used to say that this might be a great step towards a new concept of political geographical re-organization of the world. It was 1993, a time just after the Cold War ended. And as far as I look back, I can draw my senses to understanding politics and all what I was told and saw on the TV is the concept of the world categorically divided into two (or three) sheds - supporters of US and those of the then USSR. Dad used to tell me that though India was highly inclined to USSR, it rather maintained a neutral attitude (and there comes the third genre of countries) in terms of world affairs.
Things in the world political scene were dramatically changing, one with the end of the Cold War, and secondly this whole new concept of the European Union. As a matter of fact, the very idea of having a single GDP and currency among so many countries was intriguing!
Dad told me that may be this new culture would spread wider and deeper, and become more rampant. More countries would probably embrace this idea. Instead of fighting wars and spending millions on defense every year, countries could be stronger if they got geographically coherent in certain aspects. Only time had to tell what was going to happen. But even at that point of time, despite being a kid, I used to think that things could be so much nicer if the whole of South Asia could join hands together and form some kind of what EU was going to do.
And now we stand here today - the hatred and the tendency of countries to wage wars is only going higher. But look at EU. They did well - they are actually a big competitor for the US currently in so many terms, starting from middle-eastern oil purchases. Why can't the rest of us learn something from these guys?
I have so many times been faced with the question: why don't you plan to go back to India and do research? I am kind of speechless at those points. Not because I don't like going there, but because how does it matter? I believe whatever I wish to do would benefit the research community (and in far reaching effects probably the society), irrespective of the country I live in. But there is always this sense of "who is the better one among countries" thing going on - and the consequence, people really asking me to pick one place over the other.
All this sprang up into my mind when I watched the movie The Day After Tomorrow yesterday night. Though based on a really blown up science, the political surge in US was interesting. The fact that a US President makes his first statement on a foreign soil Mexico was a token to the very concept of "one world". But it took so much in the movie to reach that point - it took the whole humanity befall a massive climatic change like the Ice Age. Is it possible that we realize this, before we have to pay heavy prices as people did in the movie?
I want to live in a world where we live unbounded and work for the mankind. The political ramifications are only going to tear us apart. But I don't know who is to blame, or for that sake, who can really fix this. How do we start thinking of a much bigger picture than our little village or city or country?
Things in the world political scene were dramatically changing, one with the end of the Cold War, and secondly this whole new concept of the European Union. As a matter of fact, the very idea of having a single GDP and currency among so many countries was intriguing!
Dad told me that may be this new culture would spread wider and deeper, and become more rampant. More countries would probably embrace this idea. Instead of fighting wars and spending millions on defense every year, countries could be stronger if they got geographically coherent in certain aspects. Only time had to tell what was going to happen. But even at that point of time, despite being a kid, I used to think that things could be so much nicer if the whole of South Asia could join hands together and form some kind of what EU was going to do.
And now we stand here today - the hatred and the tendency of countries to wage wars is only going higher. But look at EU. They did well - they are actually a big competitor for the US currently in so many terms, starting from middle-eastern oil purchases. Why can't the rest of us learn something from these guys?
I have so many times been faced with the question: why don't you plan to go back to India and do research? I am kind of speechless at those points. Not because I don't like going there, but because how does it matter? I believe whatever I wish to do would benefit the research community (and in far reaching effects probably the society), irrespective of the country I live in. But there is always this sense of "who is the better one among countries" thing going on - and the consequence, people really asking me to pick one place over the other.
All this sprang up into my mind when I watched the movie The Day After Tomorrow yesterday night. Though based on a really blown up science, the political surge in US was interesting. The fact that a US President makes his first statement on a foreign soil Mexico was a token to the very concept of "one world". But it took so much in the movie to reach that point - it took the whole humanity befall a massive climatic change like the Ice Age. Is it possible that we realize this, before we have to pay heavy prices as people did in the movie?
I want to live in a world where we live unbounded and work for the mankind. The political ramifications are only going to tear us apart. But I don't know who is to blame, or for that sake, who can really fix this. How do we start thinking of a much bigger picture than our little village or city or country?
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