editor
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 Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 11:09 am Post subject: |
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The Post-American World
Hardcover
By Fareed Zakaria
| Quote: | We are now living through the third great power shift of the modern era. It could be called "the rise of the rest." Over the past few decades, countries all over the world have been experiencing rates of economic growth that were once unthinkable. While they have had booms and busts, the overall trend has been unambiguously upward. This growth has been most visible in Asia but is no longer confined to it. That is why to call this shift "the rise of Asia" does not describe it accurately. In 2006 and 2007, 124 countries grew at a rate of 4 percent or more. That includes more than 30 countries in Africa, two-thirds of the continent. Antoine van Agtmael, the fund manager who coined the term "emerging markets," has identified the 25 companies most likely to be the world's next great multinationals. His list includes four companies each from Briazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan; three from India; two from China; and one each from Argentina, Chile, Malaysia, and South Africa.
Look around. The tallest building in the world is now in Taipei, and it will soon be overtaken by one being built im Dubai. The world's richest man is Mexican, and its largest publicly traded corporation is Chinese. The world's biggest plane is built in Russia and Ukraine, its leading refinery is under construction in India, and its largest factories are all in China. By many measures, London is becoming the leading financial center, and the United Arab Emirates is home to the most richly endowed investment fund. Once quintessentially American icons have been appropriated by foreigners. The world's largest Ferris wheel is in Singapore. Its number one casino is not in Las Vegas but in Macao, which has also overtaken Vegas in annual gambling revenues. The biggest movie industry, in terms of both movies made and tickets sold, is Bollywood, not Hollywood. Even shopping, America's greatest sporting activity, has gone global. Of the top ten malls in the world, only one is in the United States; the world's biggest is in Beijing. Such lists are arbitrary, but it is striking that only ten years ago, America was at the top in many, if not most, of these categories.
... in fact, the share of people living on a dollar a day or less plummeted from 40 percent in 1981 to 18 percent in 2004, and is estimated to fall to 12 percent by 2015. China's growth alone has lifted more than 400 million people out of poverty. Poverty is falling countries housing 80 percent of the world's population. ... In .... China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Turkey, Kenya, and South Africa - the poor are slowly being absorbed into productive and growing economies. For the first time ever, we are witnessing genuinely global growth. ... It is the birth of a new global order.
A related aspect of this new era is the diffusion of power from states to other actors. The "rest" that is rising includes many nonstate actors Groups and individuals have been empowered, and hierarchy, centralization, and control are being undermined. Functions that were once controlled by governments are now shared with international bodies like the World Trade Organization and the European Union. Non-governmental groups are mushrooming every day on every issue in every country. Corporations and capital are moving from place to place, finding the best location in which to do business, rewarding some governments while punishing others. Terrorists like Al Qaeda, drug cartels, insurgents, and militias of all kinds are finding space to operate within the nooks and crannies of the international system. Power is shifting away from nation-states, up, down, and sideways. In such an atmosphere, the traditional applications of national power, both economic and military, have become less effective.
The emerging international system is likely to be quite different from those that have preceded it. One hundred years ago, there was a multipolar order run by a collection of European governments, with constantly shifting alliances, rivalries, miscalculations, and wars. Then came the bipolar duopoly of the Cold War, more stable in many ways, but with the superpowers reacting and overreacting to each other's every move. Since 1991, we have lived under an American imperium, a unique unipolar world in which the the open global economy has expanded and accelerated dramatically. This expansion is now driving the next change in the nature of the international order. ((From the chapter entitled, The Rise of the Rest, pgs. 2-4) |
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Last edited by editor on Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:56 am; edited 3 times in total |
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editor
Site Admin
Joined: 09 Nov 2003
Posts: 2940
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| Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 9:03 am Post subject: |
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Salad Days
Hardcover
By Francoise Sagan
| Quote: | "What's this?" shrieked Mauchant, conscious of the righteousness of his cause and of Gueret's guilt. "What's all this?" Baring his teeth, he turned toward the culprit, but the latter was lounging in his chair, his long legs stretched out.
He answered in a voice just as loud as Mauchant's "This is fresh air, oxygen, Monsieur Mauchant. There is a law against suffocating workers, a law against poluttion, Monsieur Mauchant, pollution and abusive language! Didn't you know?"
And as Mauchant, who by now had turned purple, took a step toward him, the normally retiring Gueret got up and, towering over the assistant manager by a head and shoulders, escorted him with a firm hand back to the door.
Events unrolled in the same vein at noon at the Three Ships, where the timid Gueret, letting it be understood that he had won a bet, treated everyone in the cafe to a round of drinks. He laughed loudly and Nicole even observed him pinch Muriel, which he did with a cocky expression she had never seen before. For the rest of the day the once diffident Gueret strode through the factory in his old tan woolen jacket, his tie loosened, humming, looking free. And indeed Gueret did feel free, young, and triumphant. He did not admit even to himself that it was not really the admiration of the office boys or the new way some of the women looked at him or the compensation for past humiliations that had given him the biggest charge on this memorable day; it was the look of terror, the wild desire for flight, he had caught in Mauchant's eye as soon as he had risen to escort him to the door. (-- pgs. 28-29) |
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