ARE WE KIDDING OURSELVES?

I can't fault Obama for his patriotism and his continuing declaration that American technology leads the world. It’s the kind of jingoistic proclamation that is right up there with “Streets paved with gold,” and “Most people would immigrate to America if they could,” and all the other American Dream declarations. Nothing wrong with a little bit of boosterism. Ironically it is often coupled with the sobering reality that technological scholarship in America (and in Canada) is diminishing while emerging countries take over: India, Brazil, and China. It is not without a kind of wistful self-examination that we wander through the campus of almost any university and are startled by the number of Asian faces.

This is not about the emergence of a new standard of excellence in our two countries. It is about the resiliency and the inventiveness of China. (I know, there are figures that show India is growing faster. Maybe.) I recommend to anyone interested in a truthful examination of the future of China in the world to read “When China Rules the World” subtitled The End of the Western World and the Birth of a new Global Order, by Martin Jacques. –

Recent statistics show that China has pulled ahead of America is the creation of renewable power, a sobering thought in the light of our belief that China is the world’s number one (or getting to be) polluter using enormous quantities of coal and with cities where it is deadly just to inhale.

Today I note that China has entered the high speed rail race. We know that they have already built high speed rail (some with people like Bombardier) but now they are, extolling their booming technology, actually bidding on the high speed rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Imagine, a country so many people still define as having millions living marginally and in poverty and with primitive resources. It may be that the contrast between the endemic poverty of rural China and the burgeoning technological sector is a contradiction. But it is certain that China says it can not only build the high speed link, but that it can offer a complete package which includes financing. China is also competing for a contract to use its technology in Brazil.

So much for the self-deluding fiction that China succeeds with millions of low-cost workers doing low tech production. Yes, they do, but this new step is one not to be taken lightly.

Read the book. Let me know.

P.S. Under the heading "too much self pity," I find myself on the one hand cheering for progress, and on the other, lamenting that I will not be around to "see how it all comes out."