An agreement about all the budget or resources available to achieve a specific goal or target in a given period is generally considered an Investment.
The investment aims to enhance, flourish, grow, and develop in a particular field. A businessman mainly invests in getting financial benefits, but investment by a statesman and a businessperson is never the same. So, ultimately the outcome or results are also different.
Let’s discuss how, when, and where a politician invests while being the head of a state.
A Businessman mainly owns a company, industry, or factory that provides various products or services by investing a significant amount and charges some fee for these products or services, generally considered as profit. The main interest of his investment can be his flourishment or the flourishment of his family business.
Let’s come to the Statesman.
A Statesman is usually not a businessman, but he controls a country’s financial resources and is responsible for correctly utilizing all the public resources.
So, the main difference between a businessman and a statesman includes their investment priorities.
Let’s turn the tables in our discussion and look at the Western education system.
The Western world is primarily interested in things that may not have immediate results but have better results soon or long-lasting effects in the upcoming years.
This is the main difference between Asian and Western Methodology towards any plan. Mostly it is seen in Asian countries that people love shortcuts ways or searching for methods that lead to their destination in a short period. For this, they don’t care if they compromise on the fact that they will become more effective and efficient if they give proper time and attention before reaching a specific destination, nation, or target. This is something like Short-Term Planning.
On the other hand, the Western population is primarily interested in gaining skills and making their skills quite efficient so that they will not be defeated or fear competing with any other individual in
their respective field. The people in the West usually ensure their physical and mental presence when they start working on anything. Their aims are not limited to a specific period. They mostly want to polish their skills, which demands operating under any person or organization, considering oneself as a student and the other with a better experience in their respective talents as their master or teacher. They are primarily interested in permanent and future benefits. Time is the main requirement, and they are ready to wait and work. This relates them to Long Term Planning.
Anyhow, we came far ahead of our discussion topic.
The Western way of democracy is interested mainly in the public’s flourishment and progress. When a Western Statesman plans for his nation, he considers education an essential point to invest in and work on. The Western governments usually claim partial free or free Education for students and invite students from other nations to come and study in their educational institutes. It is seen that the countries like Austria and Germany Offer free Education to international students and also ease their settlement in these countries. A question that arises in everyone’s mind is:
After a lot of observations and reading the mission and vision policies of many universities, it is evident that they want to provide better facilities for the world’s great minds to study, work and settle in their countries. In short, these nations want to pick up all the cream of the world. So, these intelligent minds will play a significant role in the progress of these nations. The governments of
such states provide better opportunities and environments for these foreign minds to work in the interests of such states (Western States). So, this is a very long-term plan that will have results after many years, but the Western nations are so much planned that they foresee their benefits in coming years and don’t work or invest for sudden results.
On the other hand, in Asia or underdeveloped nations, the Statesman usually wants to invest in those works that will result in some political benefit to them. They also have a mindset that investment in Education will not be a good-scoring political act, as most of the general public of these nations are not aware of the importance of Education. People of such countries are responsible for such actions from the head of the states. The people usually want to see immediate progress whenever a new politician is appointed as their head of the state. This mindset of people urges their politicians to adopt a short-term policy that will allow them to get elected again. Such short-term policies don’t have any immediate benefit or neither upcoming benefit. Such policies are
to attract voters, and their purpose is nothing else but to gain some attention or appreciation from the public. Mainly, politicians’ self-interest involves planning or policies adopted for specific causes.
Education or building schools, colleges, and universities in the West are to provide the area’s public with a quality environment and Education that will produce responsible minds and ultimately responsible, loyal, and qualified ( in their respective fields) citizens. The private sector school, colleges, and universities are not just running a business; their primary purpose is to educate the public. Mostly, the government subsidizes private institutes to provide free Education to the public so their abilities are polished.
Come towards Asia (mostly underdeveloped nations), and they are mostly less interested in promoting Education because of their interests or corruption. Mainly, the politicians or heads of state of underdeveloped countries are involved in crime, so they don’t want to make the general public aware of their corruption. In other ways, they don’t want their people to become educated to differentiate between right and wrong, as this will lead to a stage when someone from this public will rise and ask questions from them about their social rights.
Further, Education is considered a source of business in underdeveloped nations, unlikely the West, where Education’s purpose is to shape the nation’s future. Many private schools are open that charge a considerable tuition fee, which is only affordable for the elite class. The syllabus difference is also a significant problem in underdeveloped nations. The more each student pays, the better he will avail the opportunity to learn. While the government schools and colleges do not offer proper Education as the government does not subsidize these institutes. This creates a class difference in Education.
Moreover, it is seen that teachers in government schools and colleges do not offer proper Education at school or college, and they suggest students attend their private paid classes at any academy or some school opened by these government teachers in the private sector.
So, overall, the conclusion is that the West is focused on nation-building. At the same time, the elite class of underdeveloped Asian nations concentrates on setting up buildings where there can rule, and the rest of their generations can enjoy all the benefits. As mentioned above, in the definitions of Statesman and Businessman, we can conclude that the Western investment mindset is not limited to personal flourishment. In contrast, the Asian perspective still indulges in investments only suitable for their interest.