Character of a Nation

It is very interesting to note the character of any Nation and how it evolves slowly over the years. It is also interesting that although there is some evolution, the basic character remains unchanged for centuries. There are interesting challenges each Nation across the world has and at the root lies how will the Nation, its people, their leaders as well as their actions on their internal and global issues impact their own future in times to come.

A lot of the character is reflected in how the people of a country deal with travelers from across the world on a day to day basis ie interaction at the grass root level. Also how the conduct business locally and globally and what is the business ethics and credibility / reliability perception. Character is also reflected in how the country plays its sports and the levels to which it will go to win and play the game. Most interestingly the Nation’s character is reflected by the views and actions it takes on global issues, and the actual helping hand / contributions they make to help others. I do not have too much of research but have populated the thoughts below based on the perceptions and information I have. Please do come up with your suggestions and information which will help us look at these matters more objectively.

The Americans are great sportsmen, very aggressive in winning at any cost, just as if it is matter of life and death and millions!!! Have they developed many new areas of global supremacy in sports or continued to develop and retain favorite areas such as baseball, basketball, athletics, and tennis, amongst a few others. As a Nation they speak and care a lot about freedom and particularly of speech and action. They pride themselves that liberty is above all. They have multiple internal issues, have and have-nots, and also other types of divide within their society and geographies, what they think about the rest of the world - do they largely look down upon the rest of the world and they believe they are superior to rest of the world. Their own survival and lifestyle is above rest of the world and in maintaining and enhancing their lifestyle and capitalist and consumption driven economy, could they have put other parts of the world into long term problems i.e. Middle East for oil and China for mass procurement which has led to a certain labor and human right situation in the world’s largest populated country. Have they allowed their technologies and products on armaments to be available directly and indirectly to both friends and foes both internally and abroad? Are they in any way responsible for mass destruction of human life across the world; can we blame them at all? What have they given to the rest of the world, what is their global contribution, well maybe lots of money to poor nations, security and stability by military interventions!! Have they created artificial barriers for free trade through trade agreements, sanctions, and other forms of negotiations tactics which have been largely to suite their interests etc? Do they believe in survival of the fittest and they believe with all their money and might, they will be the fittest to have global supremacy. Not to mention their immense contributions to global warming and environment deterioration!!

The Europeans (British, French, German, etc) do they still believe deep within that white skin or their race is better than rest of the world? They have for centuries been colonist ever seeking to expand their global territories, amass wealth and enslave workers across the world. To combine this with their internal religious wars between factions and various religious practices followed across their continent. Time and again it is visible that although the Europeans acknowledge that other parts of the world gaining supremacy in their pride sports or businesses and gaining edge over them, do majority Europeans deep within still find it difficult to digest this global change and are sometimes vocal or passive opponents to developing world success. The East and West German combine is historic and if the positive results are made visible to the world, perhaps it will provide an alternative solution to the current global issues geographies which are more divisive and intent on breaking the current maps or realigning rather than considering the benefits of combining.

The erstwhile Soviet Union was impacted by internal divide and regional battles and the maps were redrawn. Their experiment with communism worked or failed is a matter of debate but it has and will impact many generations till they get their governance structures working and creating opportunities for their people. The Russians are great sportsmen, great scientists and also culturally rich society which can achieve a lot. The cold war resulted in many wasted years of espionage and diversion of resources for war and science for weapons, hopefully some of that will change now. Are they looking to restore their lost glory and be a force to reckon with again the global order and how?

The Chinese has been a great society for sports and learning, but appear to have been chained!! So they had many issues across centuries dealing with internal rebellion, regional divide, huge divide between have and have-nots, human rights issues, diseases and healthcare, and a huge army, perhaps the biggest in the region, all other countries put together will be perhaps less than their armed forces!!

Canada and Australia have been more or less satellite countries wanting to be largely left alone from all the global mess. They have got involved in global affairs to the extent necessary and avoiding to muddy their hands beyond a point. They have adopted globalization by way of sports, business, trade and commerce. They have their local challenges in managing the melting pot of various nationalities migrating and settling and perhaps are doing better than a few other nations.

The Middle East appears to be always at war however back one reads into history. The have been wars for wealth, power and religion for centuries and centuries. This region has been a great melting pot for cultures and traditions. The place has never been at peace, there has always been a tension about the neighbors, insecurity for preservation of the religion and a very unique governance structure. It is confusing whether the current structures for managing the Middle East countries will help them come out of their past legacy issues and look at globalization more effectively. Have the masses that have migrated away from their home countries to other parts of the world appear to have done well!!

Pakistan has many internal and regional issues. All the real issues appear to have been clouded with the national passion i.e. liberation or conquest of Kashmir!! and the logic being that as a Nation, perhaps they have concluded that Islamic minorities will always be oppressed wherever they are in the world and they will liberate them and give them the freedom, whether those minorities want them involved or not. Have they used regional issues to their financial and political advantages? Do many nations across the world trust them? What is the image they have build for themselves in the global world?

Further, it is believed that mafia is fairly active in most of the continents, getting organized and wealthy and involved in the most lucrative businesses directly or indirectly, starting with bullion and metals, mining, drugs, construction and real estate, etc. Is the mafia influencing the way a Nation reacts to global issues?

India, there are so many things to say for centuries of culture and heritage, unity in diversity, and the numerous challenges faced by the country and its resilience, the freedom struggle and the effects of democracy, the wars with our neighbors, China and Pakistan, the sanctions by the US post nuclear tests, the global achievements by Indians, the spiritual leadership, etc. And then there is also large number of domestic issues. But the main issue is we are too tolerant? Is the way we will continue or we will learn to solve our problems rather than wish them away? What character we want to change if we have the ability to be a world power in a decade or two from now?

Somewhere India needs to rethink as a Nation whether it will only make a lot of noise globally on current issues and spend years to get global support or also do something and take concrete action which will drive change, will we demonstrate through action that we can take care of ourselves and also make the world a better place. Will we be vocal and state clearly without worrying about sanctions etc as to who our friends and who are foes are? Will we have the courage to firmly deal with internal divisive forces that are trying to separate and break-up the country and seeking autonomy under various pretexts? Do we need stronger leadership who will deal with the current issues as required in today’s global order and not the traditional ways of mere words? As a Nation are we as individual citizens and small groups as geographies, religions or whatever manner of aggregation willing to sacrifice and give ground on some issues that impact us so that National level reforms can be achieved? We have shown the Character as a Nation many times in the past to make sacrifices, not just wealth but sacrifices of a lifetime, so we have the Character. Perhaps what is required that we have the right leadership whom we can trust will deliver effectively so that the sacrifices are not in vain.