ブックタイトル佐藤栄作　受賞論文集

概要

佐藤栄作　受賞論文集

Annan, more than 1 billion people live on less than one dollar a day and many of themlive on the African continent.The UN has been making efforts to promote cooperation in solving these problemsfrom the beginning. Many states, (some from moral and practical motives and othersonly from practical motives) have long tried to help to improve the condition in theThird World. As far as moral viewpoints are concerned, if, as some critics point out,the poverty of the Third World is caused by the overconsumption of the First World,or if their poverty is the result of the West’colonialism or other exploits, or if it isalso the result of free trade which the Western nations have promoted for their ownsake, we are responsible for the present situation in the Third Word. 14 (It is, of course,necessary to examine those critics. We cannot automatically accept the opinions ofthose who supposedly have authority).This moral approach may be unpersuasive, but even from practical viewpoint,eliminating the gap between the North and the South is necessary. The problems ofthe Third World are affecting the First World. Overpopulation in the Third World,for example, has caused food-shortages worldwide. This is just an example. I wouldlike to explain more from three perspectives: the environmental, the economic, andthe social ones, all of which are of course interconnected. First, deforestation in theThird World and the pollution caused by less advanced technology are becoming athreat to the environment. According to U.S.A. Today, developing nations often useout-dated technologies that squander energy and expend 40 % more energy thanindustrial countries to produce the same value of goods and service. 15Second, theworld is interrelated economically now. Some economic problems in the Third Worldaffect the First World. The Asian economic crisis, which started with the devaluationof the Thai currency in 1997, for example, affected the whole of Asia. When one of the5014 Ivy George,“First World Overconsumption Causes Third World Poverty”, in David L. Bender, ed., the Third World,(San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1995), 28; Jeremy Seabrook,“External Development Strategies Impoverish ThirdWorld Countries,”in Bender, The Third World, 36; John Madeley,“Free Trade Impoverishes Third World Nations,”in Bender, The Third World, 96.15 Nicholas Lenssen, U.S.A. Today, March 1994.