The Future Of Asia

What would the future of Asia be? Derelict and substandard? Or nice and agreeable? It is, indeed, a question we are very anxious to answer. Some cynics may believe that the disputes and continouous wars in a few parts of Asia, added in a ghastly combination with the growing poverty rate may trigger a very unpleasant future for Asian nations. However, the future and fate of Asia truly lies in the “cleverness” of Asian peoples and mainly in the economic growth.
Why should Asian people be “clever”? “Clever” here, hardly means they have to get great scores in school, no. It means cleverness in promoting our cultural diversity to its fullest. Because, great sceneries, awe-inspiring cultures, stupendous traditions, and picturesque lands are everyday meal in Asia. If we promote all of them and show it to the world, our tourism rate would inevitably increase, thus improving the economic sector of Asia. Two jobs done in moment, eh? Of course, tourism is not the only modus operandi we have to improve our ecomony. Agricultural, industrial, and natural resources sector must also be a way of gaining more and more economic improvements.
As we all know so well, fertile and/or rich lands is easily found in almost every Asian regions. The Southeast Asian region is quite a good example of agricultural center. And despite not having fertile lands, Russia must pride themselves because of having the rich, frozen region of Siberia, that has almost all natural resources including oil, gas, copper, gold, coal, and iron ore. While nations such as China and Japan has proved themselves as some of the world’s most improved and important industrial and commercial center. All of this must be used either to improve economy by selling it to another country or using it for domestic matters. But, all of this must be used gradually and proportionally instead of using it in an ill-mannered way. Because, if not treated carefully, mining and oil digging can be a very dangerous job. And altough agricultural resources increases perpetually, natural resources such as gold, copper, nickel, etc. decreases perpetually. Moreover, unlike agricultural resources, natural resources cannot be reproduced, so that if we are out of gold, we will not be having gold again forever. Not a pleasant thing to think about, don’t you find?
But, it all would not have any benefits whatsoever if the next generations (a.k.a. childrens) aren’t prepared to carry the heavy burden of running the improving Asia. And so, how could we prepare childrens to lead and develop the future Asia? Simple. Education. Or rather, proper education.
But, what is proper education? In my point of view, a proper education is a type of education that nurtures a child’s talents. Example, if one child is good at architecture, and is interested in it, the government and/or other organizations must provide matters of education that suits the child’s talent. This also means that education nowadays needs a very large adjustment, especially the ones in, no offense, Indonesia, where education is largely robotic.
But, even if we have proper educations, helluva industries, terrific agricultures, and out-of-this-world tourism, would it all matter if we didn’t unite?
Take a look at Europe. Despite the fact that almost all of the European countries are wealthly, did they stand out by themselves? Did they become a wealthy country by themselves, without help from anybody? No. They unite as the European Union, thus becoming a major force in the modern-day world. They help each other should one of them get in any sort of trouble, they make decisions together, they even have the same currency, Euro. Imagine if we could unite like how they do, such great force we will be, don’t you think? Well, some of us may stubbornly persisted, “Yes, there’s already an organization that unites some Asian nations in certain areas!”. That persistance, is strictly correct. Example, Southeast Asian nations are united by the organization of ASEAN. But, has anybody established an organization or federation that unites the whole Asia? I don’t think so.
My point is, a type of organization similar to the European union must be established in order to unite Asian nations. Why? Because by cooperating, we would get extra benefits. Everyone knows that. Uniting could also prevent the conversion of everyday disputes into horrific war, and also stop the ongoing wars and civil wars, as negotiations and peace treaty signings would be encouraged by the organization. Actually, by looking at other countries that refused to unite and/or cooperate with other countries, we could also have a good example about what would happen if we don’t cooperate. Take a look at North Korea. The communist country refused to cooperate at all with other countries because of the juche philosophy made by their first leader Kim Il Sung. This philosophy depicts that North Korea can sustain itself and doesn’t need any help from other countries. This odd philosophy are still used by the present leader Kim Jong Il, who happens to be the son of Kim Il Sung. The result? A complete disaster. Famine in the 90’s which is caused by the withdrawal of foods subsidies from Russia and China proved it all. 3 million of people died because of severe illness and famine-related causes in 1998. Education and knowledge also become very substandard there. One day, I watched a television programme made by National Geographic Channel that shows all the things hidden by this country that, apparently and appalingly, refuses to communicate too with other countries and is in complete isolation from the rest of the world.
In that program, some reporters disguised themselves as assistant to a Nepalese doctor, who had a special license to cure thousands of cataract-infested patients. In the Pyongyang hospital, a technologically-advanced German medical machine was found, and nobody in that hospital even know what it does. All of the doctor doesn’t even know how to give an operation to a cataract patient! How absurd! The childrens are also given an unorthodox type of education. Imagine, since childhood childrens of North Korea is teached to hate the Americans. I even heard a lyric of their absurd nursery rhymes: “The dirty Americans bow before us,….” . I’m not saying this to insult the North Koreans, but I think, that is what becomes of a country that refuses to cooperate with other countries. They become derelict, shoddy and barbaric.
The ex-republic of Serbia and Montenegro is an example of nations that refused to unite. In 2006, after the continouous disputes between the Serbians and the Montenegrins, the republic parted. And did they become better countries? No. Instead, both of them become a rather poor country. And yet they aren’t tempted to reunite. Imagine again, what would become of Asia if we refused to unite and cooperate? Do we want to be torned-out like the Serbians or barbaric like the North Koreans? Of course the answer is no.
What happened to both of the countries I had mentioned is an explicit proof that if we don’t unite and snubs cooperation, whatever it is that we have achieved, whatever it is that we have toiled for, will be lost at last.
The thing is, we have a great future waiting anxiously for us. The question is, can we reach him in time before he departs? The answer lies in all of our hands.

Name of Author : Raka Ibrahim Anshafarie
Grade : 7th Grade
Age :11 Years Old
School : SAnDi KerLiP