World Neighbors and Neighborhood Today

A bad neighbor is a misfortune, as much as a good neighbor is a blessing. Neighbors are the people who live near us, and their behaviour influences our daily life. Good neighbors can make us feel comfortable and help us in many ways, and everyone will be benefited from a good relationship among neighbors. Though we like or dislike our neighbors it is very important to keep a good relation with them. Not only our next-door neighbors, our relation with neighboring countries must as well be good.

The area of the place that surrounds our home or the area we live in is called neighborhood. Good neighborhood is as important as neighbors because a good neigborhood reflects the community’s character, encourages the people living in that neighborhood to involve in social development projects and other activites. Not only in the area we are living but the country also needs a good neighborhood in order to be developed.

Special relationship between neighboring countries increases the possibility of development of those countries. In perspective of South Asia, the relationship between all the eight countries (i.e. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri lanka) that lie in this part of the world is good. All these countries have a good relation with each other and have proven to be good neighbors by helping the country that is in need. A good neighborhood is required to all the countries as they will be of great help economically, politically, culturally. Relation between the countries of South Asia can be seen from different perspectives: Economical view, cultural view, political view, trade relation.

If we look at the recent updates, we can see that the economic status of the countries in South Asia is growing rapidly. This part of world is experiencing positive economic momentum. Since decades, South Asia has focused on improving overall health and primary education levels and upgrading infrastructures, areas of particular importance for future diversification. Health and primary education and infrastructures have proved significantly in South Asia but the latter remains the region’s second weakest pillar. Investment in these areas will be essential to fully unlock economic growth. This rapid economic growth has become only possible due to the unity they have in them and also because they are in a good neighbourhood.

South Asian countries are characterized by tremendous socio-cultural diversity, which, in the first place is observed within each country of the region. Nevertheless people of the region share social, cultural, linguistic and religious practices across the national boundaries. One can either see the diversity as too overwhelming to see any relevance in the region as a civilizational enitity or one can point out the similarities and see them as symptomatic of cultural continuities across the subcontinet. Similarities are also observed in the social realm as people from South Asia also share analogous hierarchical comceptions of society, with the caste system largely replicated by people as its epitome. South Asia is a land in which people have managed to introduce caste into all religions, be it Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, or Islam.

On the political level, despite the intermittent difference in regimes, some practices are strikingly similar, such as dynastic tradition that has enabled women to occupy the highest position in several countries of South Asia. The fact that discrimination against women can reach high levels in these socities can not be resisted. Political parties has played an active roles in decolonization, freedom struggles and social change in the region. All the countries in the South Asia has almost same history too. India, since its independence has practiced democracy and is most matured democracy in the region while Bangladesh and Pakistan have both experienced military and civilian rules. While democracy has been stablized in Bangladesh, democratic practices are weak in Pakistan. Nepal has now abloished monarchism and opted for federal democracy. Though Sri lanka demonstrated a stable political development, in recent years politics has been turbulent. Bhutan has been the only South Asian country with a monarchial rule. Inspite of many experiment and innovative efforts to streamline public administrations, government has remained weak, unresponsive to citizen’s need, transparent and unaccountable. These have made wicked problems such as corruption, poor service quality and delivery, energy crisis, unemployment, more precarious in all the countries in South Asia.

The trade relationship withing the countries of South Asia is also good. Pakistan and Sri lanka are considered as the export base of the four major South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri lanka). While some countries export the goods and necessities, the other countries import. Though the south Asian countries don’t trade with each other extensively, they have a good trade relation. Intraregional trade mainly consists of food commodities and agricultural raw materials.

South Asian countries have established a regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of nations which is called The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). SAARC was founded in Dhaka on December 8, 1985. The organization was founded in order to promote development of economic and regional integration. SAARC maintains diplomatic relations at the UN as an observer and has develpoed links with multilateral entities. SAARC not only maintains relations but also focuses to support individuals and organizations within the region. It gives awards to individuals and oraganizations based in South Asia in order to encourage them to undertake programs that complement the efforts of SAARC, to encourage them to contribute for bettering the conditions of women and children, to maintain peace, development, environment protection and regional cooperation.

The neighborhood in South Asia is good if we see it from the perspective of economy, culture, trade and politics. In addition with that a good neighborhood must also be of help when in need. Climate also plays a major role in making the neighbor and neighborhood good or bad. When the neighboring countries face disasters or calamities, the neighbors must help the country that is suffering. Not only economically but the whole neighborhood must be able to help the country in every way possible. Being supportive just economically does not make the neighborhood a good one. In todays world, neighbors play a very important role in our life. Be it next-door neighbor or be it a country next to ours; nobody is complete without neighbors. But as nieghbors, neighborhood is equally important because having a goof neighbor but not living in a goo neighborhood wouldn’t be of any help because to be strong not only our neighbor but the whole neighborhood must be supportive.

The climate in the South Asia is almost similar and all the countries have to face the same kind of climate, so all the countries know how the climate feels like and how it feel when the weather is bad. Therefore the countries in South Asia don’t take a step back when it’s time to help the countries in the region. (concluding para maybe) For proper security among the regions, neighborhood is important. If a nation has no neighbors and does not live in a good neighborhood then it will have to face lots of problems which inclued economic problem, security problem, political problem. The nation has to face problems in trade too. Instead of developing, the nation would degrade and would lose it’s identity too.