The arc of freedom and prosperity for developing sustainable society in 21 st century Taiji Oashi, Ph.D.,

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1 The arc of freedom and prosperity for developing sustainable society in 21 st century Taiji Oashi, Ph.D., University of Maryland School of Pharmacy The concepts the Arc of freedom and prosperity and the value oriented diplomacy are originally proposed by the former prime minister of Japan Taro Aso when he was the minister for foreign affairs in These are at that time to establish the diplomatic partnership with foreign countries that would share the strategy and policy toward mutual economic growth. Now these concepts can be extended for the purpose of reducing poverty, fostering sustainable society, ultimately leading to achieve the universal values, freedom and prosperity. On October , the minister for foreign affairs Katsuya Okada stated that until 2012 the Japanese government will continue official developmental assistance (ODA), and TICAD IV for African development. But in a realistic aspect, due to the recent economic downturn, the emphasis may be shifting from financial to technical supports with initiatives led by private sectors. To achieve this goal, the development of strategic plans and prompt implementation are essential. The entire plan is ranging from transforming the African countries into one of the global electric power sources via solar and wind power, managing water resource for irrigation and industry, consolidating social infrastructures, and to establishing better health care and higher education systems. Constructions even in the initial phase themselves will create huge number of better paying jobs and raise the standard of living, possibly with the magnitude similar to the new deal policy in the 1930s in the U.S. These include (1) installation of solar panels and wind turbines with connections through grid network (Figure 1,2), (2) urban planning, (3) constructions and improvements of road, bridge, hospital, school and other public facilities, (4) flood control, water purification and supply (Figure 3A,B,C), waste and sewage removal, installation of sanitary sewer (underground carriage system) (Figure 3D,E), (5) health care (prevention and treatment of infectious diseases), (6) agricultural and industrial development, (7) food production and safety, (8) design of constitutional and legislative framework, and (9) public transportations, bus, train, and eventually high-speed rail system (Figure 4). Essential resources for sustainable society are electricity, water, plant, and health care. Fossil fuel is non-renewable resource that requires millions of years to form and

2 has been consumed in much faster than it forms, and will be depleted in the near future. In contrast, African countries for example has tremendous resource suitable for solar or/and wind power that will then be a solid basis for developing sustainable society with some ideas as follow. Installation of solar panels and wind turbines and establishment of electric grid system in Africa help to create a better paying job, secure electric resources that can be use locally and transferred to other continents, by which African countries obtain substantial revenues, based on which they will construct infrastructures. Once such systems are operated, next stage would be consolidating related infrastructures that will take advantage of wealth of electricity, including hospital, higher education system, communication and network, and transportation system as well as irrigation and industry. Energy conservation and efficient consumption of valuable electric resource can be achieved by heat pump technology. Irrigation and industry require substantial water resources. Those managements are critical in the countries with rainy and dry seasons. Water management include to 1) secure water, 2) control water supply, 3) help to prevent water related natural disasters in rainy season. These can be achieved by the construction of dam in the middle region of the entire river, water related disasters can also be prevented by the installation of levee and/or artificial slope that regulate water level. Drinking water can be supplied in combination with water purification technology utilizing resource above and other sources including well or seawater. Health care should not be neglected to secure human resource toward the successful implementation of the plans. Thus, preventive measures for infectious diseases including malaria and HIV, and the treatment will be critical part of the plan. To reduce poverty, two extreme solutions may exist; one is just to provide financial support without any educational support, the other is to educate people how to become wealthy without any final support. The former is temporary, while the latter becomes long-lasting solution. The same principal would apply to the scope of STI division of the World Bank. These efforts in turn will help the countries that are struggling with economic downturn especially donor countries in this forum by regaining economic growth through collaboration with developing countries. The results should be creating mutually beneficial win-win relationship, and should not be unilateral.

3 A B Figure1. Successful installation of solar panels. (A) On the ground (B) On the house roof Figure2. Successful installation of wind turbines. A B C

4 D E Figure3. Facilities for water managements. (A) Dam (B) Levee (C) Artificial slope (D) sanitary sewer (underground carriage system) (E) Installation of sanitary sewer Figure4. Nozomi (means hope in Japanese) superexpress from Japan Railway (JR) Central N700, operated since 2007 with maximum speed of 300km/hr. The government of Vietnam, for example, considers high speed rail networks as one of three biggest national projects. All of the figures were adopted from Wikipedia List of Governmental Agencies Prime Minister of Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry

5 List of Companies: Solar panels SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. Global KYOCERA Corp. Wind turbines Japan Wind Development Co., Ltd. Urban planning EX CORPORATION Infrastructures MITSUBISHI ESTATE Co., Ltd. KAJIMA Corp. OBAYASHI Corp. TOSHIBA Corp. Hitachi, Ltd. Dam, bridge, road MAEDA Corp. TOYO CONSTRUCTION Co., Ltd. Sanitary sewer NJS CONSULTANTS Co., Ltd. TOTO Ltd. Water purification Toray Industries, Inc. NGK INSULATORS, Co., Ltd. Transportation JR Central Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.