Europe

BELGIUM Europe is becoming much stronger economically, relative to the United States and the Asian countries. And since the euro represents a fixed value, there will be less financial speculation. People will benefit from that.

Resources, I like to think, are spiritual. So they don't belong to a particular country and are always present. Globalization, for me, represents the fact that God controls His universe.

Vïolette Talbot, employee of an international institution, Brussels

FRANCE To have one currency can be a base for a stronger unity among the European nations. Of course, not everybody is for the euro, because a country may feel that it loses some of its sovereignty by adopting it. But integration in the European Union can bring us to the next stage, which is a greater coordination of economic and social policies. Spirituality of thought is what actually unifies people and nations.

Professor, University of Paris

RUSSIA My country has not yet realized what kind of global community it is entering. The most efficient tool for dealing with the challenges connected with globalization is a universal ethic. Not a new ideology, but something more meaningful — universal moral principles that are beneficial not only in the economic sphere but also in all other spheres of human activity.

If humankind takes the road of high moral principles and explores the positive potential of religious or spiritual influences, globalization will make humankind prosperous.

Dr. Sergei Chugrov, Deputy Editor, The World Economy and International Relations Journal, Moscow

GERMANY Some people might fear that with globalization they are governed by material circumstances outside their control. The idea that we all serve God, however, leaves the government to God. It replaces fear with trust, joy, and confidence.

Christina Schlüter. Attorney, Munich

UNITED KINGDOM Some people have felt rather concerned here, perhaps because we're an island. Some feel anxious about the thought of losing our independence. But, fundamentally, everyone realizes that you can't do it on your own anymore. You've got to have a sense of brotherhood and pulling together. Even more important is the need to acknowledge one supreme intelligence, or divine Mind, that reveals solutions beyond what the human brain can devise.

The real need is to get the right moral attitude in place relative to globalization. Mary Baker Eddy identified the following qualities as “moral” ones: “Humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance” (Science and Health, page 115). This, I feel, is an important role of Christian Science — to see that spiritually we go in this right direction.

Recently I did some white-water rafting for the first time. I was clinging to the edge of the raft because it really was quite hair-raising. Then, I felt this tap on my helmet, and the chap in charge said, “I can't have anyone in this boat who doesn't pull their weight.”

It does seem that the world is on turbulent waters, and that we're hurrying along and don't quite know where we're going. But we all need to pull our weight and to humbly pray, as Christ Jesus taught us, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

Josephine Pickup, Christian Science Practitioner, Winchester

FINLAND Regarding globalization, I think there is much that's positive about it; the negative is only a little part. Finland belongs to the European Union, which has proved to be a very good thing.

But there are other developments — for instance, the situation with Russia. Our exports there have been notably diminished, at least temporarily. I think Finnish companies can compensate for this, however.

God is supreme in all the meetings where leaders of nations make international decisions. God is also Love. And the leaders of nations, reflecting Love, can find solutions that can help nations in need — not only from a governmental point of view but from the individual's point of view, too.

Irma Puranen, Protocol Bureau of Parliament of Finland, Helsinki

GERMANY

Nicole Raukamp: Globalization is “daily bread” for our company.

Thomas Raukamp: Of the people I deal with on a daily basis, 90% I know only through the Internet. I've never seen them in my life. We work globally, without making distinctions between people, racially or otherwise.

Nicole: When we see the other person in the same way we see ourselves, and realize that we have the same origin — a divine origin — we begin to understand other nations, customs, cultures. And, indeed, to understand the whole world. Every time somebody changes his or her perception this way, even a little, it reflects spiritual growth.

Nicole Raukamp, Marketer for an international translation agency; Thomas Raukamp, Internet Home Page Designer, Rendsburg

RUSSIA The possibilites of humanity can be achieved on only one basis, namely on fulfilling the laws of nature that are called spiritual laws. They are the laws of spirituality and morality — the laws of happiness, love, and goodness. We are obligated to live according to these spiritual laws; in this lies humankind's only redemption.

Grigory Borisovich Dvoirin, President, Universal Academy of Science, Art, and Culture, St. Petersburg

DENMARK In the new Europe, countries that were foes during World War II are becoming friends. For me, someone who experienced that war, this is an astounding thing. Now there is respect — and even love — between German, French, and British people.

The international money in Europe can knit these people even more tightly together. And this interdependence will make any threat of war less likely.

Denmark chose to be outside of this system in the beginning. But a productive sense of globalization must come. And it will bring spiritual unity. The Christian Science Weekly Bible Lesson is an example of this. The truth in the Lesson is global. It's present anywhere and everywhere. And the world, as the Christian Science textbook says, “feels the alterative effect of truth through every pore” (Science and Health, page 224).

Ole Sorensen, former Professor. Arhus

PORTUGAL Globalization gives us an opportunity to learn that we're all responsible for our neighbor, and that whatever we do has an impact on the world. Never before were we fully aware of this. Each of our countries was living in a sort of cocoon. Now we have to pay attention, because what happens in Russia and other countries affects us, and vice versa.

I used to think just as a European. Now I need to learn to think as an African, as a Latin American, as a Chinese. We all have the love for good in common. That good is also God. That's what globalization means to me.

Fatima Trigueiros, anti-drung agency official, Lisbon