Why should we bother about things happening far away from us?

In whichever aspect, a country would definitely be affected by an event happening in another. Nowadays, the world is getting increasingly connected, and we will have to be aware of the things happening far away from us, things occurring in faraway foreign places.

Events occurring in faraway places can affect our economy. For example, in the recent earthquake that shook Japan that started on March 11 2011, the economy of the areas affected by the earthquake came near to a standstill, causing a decrease in the overall Japanese produce. As Japan is the third-largest economy and exports large amounts of goods, many countries are dependent on the goods produced by Japan. A decline in Japanese produce would result in an increase in the prices of the products of Japan. Another example, which has caused mass economic devastation worldwide, would be the 2008 US recession. Although the sub-prime mortgage only occured in the US, the crisis resulted in many economies around the world to plunge into recession. Therefore, no matter how far away the event is from us, it would still affect us economically.

Knowing about and caring about events happening in countries far away from us would allow us to react to them on time. Perhaps, knowing about the things happening far away from us could even save our lives. Take the 2004 Asian tsunami for example. The epicentre of the tsunami was off Aceh, Indonesia. Although the epicentre of the quake was hundreds of kilometres away from countries like India, tha Maldives and Thailand, these countries, which have coasts facing the Indian Ocean, were not spared from the huge waves. If these people were had kept up with the news, had known that a tsunami had hit the west coast of Sumatra, and had some knowledge about tsunami, they could have escaped on time before the tsunami whipped the shores of these countries. From the above example, we can tell that being aware of events happening in other countries would allow us to react on time.

Being aware of things happening in other countries can also help improve political relationship between countries. When a country experiences trouble, other countries who are aware of the situation can offer help. When the troubled countries would be thankful to those who rendered assistance, and this will improve ties between these countries. For example, during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Japan was one of the first countries to offer help in rescue services. China appreciated the help to a certain extent and during the recent Japan earthquake, China sent a rescue team to Japan to reciprocate their previous assistance.