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There are boundaries in medical services. SS: We can offer medical services in refugee camps. But our services are limited to people living in refugee camps. Suppose we go to a village in the midst of a savanna and there are no medical professionals or facilities. Even under such conditions, our services would be illegal if we offer them without any approval. The local authorities might wink at us as long as our services are free of charge. But if we offer medical services for a fee, it would be a very big problem. If you have some money, you can use it wherever you are on the earth regardless of its source. (In case of a subsidy for a volunteer activity, it comes from taxes.) Medical knowledge as a science can also be used throughout the world. But when you use them, you need sociological knowledge. In this sense, medical services are one thing and medical science is quite another. For example, you cannot touch the heads of people in Thailand. Because Thailand people believe that a bad spirit in human heads and something evil happens to you if someone touches your head. So you must not pat children on the head there. Different peoples have totally different ways of looking at human bodies. Different cultures have different ways of thinking and values which do not belong to science. How does the stomach or heart lie in the body of a person? How do these organs function to make him or her live? How should the person be treated or supported when he or she is sick? Answers to these problems may differ according to the culture the person belongs to. You may feel uneasy accepting answers from someone from a different culture. So coping with such problems in a foreign country might be quite risky in various aspects. But such problems cannot be included in the National Examination for Medical Practitioners. Medical science can go beyond borders. But values, which involve and reflect complex elements of each culture, cannot really go beyond borders. Thus, medical services cannot go beyond borders. SB: But even in architecture, many subjective problems are involved, such as that of how good or bad a certain design is. If I go to a foreign country and show my design for a building to people there who have a different culture, history and religion, saying "It's good, isn't it?" , they do not always agree with me. Then I have to use a local architect. So I believe that you cannot work in foreign countries unless you have something truly appealing, something which can be understood and evaluated beyond mere subjective views. SS: Today's international community is regarded as a group of nations. Since the 19th century, when the idea of the self-determination of peoples appeared, the largest ethnic groups have usually been the strongest powers in most countries. There are two things which any nation never let go of in order to maintain its independence. One is tax systems because the nation lives on them. Borders are important because they determine the territory from which each nation can collect taxes. The other is medical services. That's why a license to practice medicine is highly valued in any country. In this sense, there are borders in medical services and taxes. On the contrary, there are no borders in art, music and architecture, your specialty. You can establish truly global networks on the Internet in such disciplines where borders did not exist from the outset. |