Stanley Scism

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign was hurt by its ‘sleazy nature’ says Karen Johnson of Aurora, Colorado, and Helen Javennes of Kristiansand, Norway, says, ‘Clintons would do anything and say anything to win the White House. They’ve lost their sense of value and are not really concerned about serving people or helping the less fortunate’ (both on p12, ‘Letters’, Newsweek 2008/5/12.

Clinton didn’t give up until Obama had the delegates to clinch. And Obama’s candidacy is now racial—90% of blacks in recent contests vote for him, so he does well where blacks are a large portion of the Democratic Party, but that won’t help him as much in the general election because blacks vote for the Democratic Party anyway—having them on board doesn’t represent an increase unless they vote in larger numbers than before.

Indian Fareed Zakaria wrote in ‘The Rise of the Rest’ (Newsweek, 2008/5/12, p16-23), ‘The world’s tallest building is in Taipei, and will soon be in Dubai. Its largest publicly traded company is in Beijing. Its biggest refinery is being constructed in India. The largest investment fund on the planet is in Abu Dhabi; the biggest movie industry is in Bollywood….largest Ferris wheel is in Singapore. The largest casino is in Macao….most recent rankings, only two of the world’s ten richest people are American….In 2006 and 2007, 124 countries grew their economies at over 4 percent a year. That includes more than 30 countries in Africa. Over the last two decades, lands outside the industrialized West have been growing at rates that were once unthinkable….overall trend has been unambiguously upward….25 companies most likely to be the world’s nex great multinationals….four companies each from Brazl, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan, three from India, two from China and one each from Argentina, Chle, Malaysia and South Africa.’ True, but then he misrepresents the past by saying America was the most powerful nation in the world from the late 1800s. Wrong. America came to dominance on the ashes of World War II, was quickly caught up with by the Soviet Union, regained ascendancy in the late 1980s due to the Ronald Reagan military buildup, and is still today called the world’s only hyperpower, although the Bush administration has helped weaken America by making it impossible for America to respond to military challenges other than in Iraq and Afghanistan—for instance, the carnage in Sudan and Congo continues because we can’t stop it.

He says Muslim nations during the last five years have stopped favoring violence. Why won’t he notice that this is the same time America has been making violence not pay in Iraq and Afghanistan?

He says ‘the share of people living on $1 a day has plummeted from 40 percent in 1981 to 18 percent in 2004 and is estimated to drop to 12 percent by 2015. Of course. That’s 34 years. He doesn’t point out, though, that $1 doesn’t buy what it did a third of a century ago. A better comparison would have been to use terms adjusted for inflation. And this guy wanted to advise presidents? He calls the United States the ‘biggest of the bunch’ of small nations that have dominated the industrial world, then says ‘the real giants—China, India, Brazil…’ When did Brazil become a nation of larger population than the USA? When did it rank with India and China? India has more people than South America and Europe combined. Brazil might have 160 million—India has one state with that many people.

He’s got some good points: ‘Russians have long chafed over the manner in which Western countries remember World War II. The American narrative is one in which the United States and Britain heroically defeat the forces of fascism. The Normandy landings are the climactic high point of the war—the beginning of the end. The Russians point out, however, that in fact the entire Western front was a sideshow. Three quarters of all German forces were engaged on the Eastern front fighting Russian troops, and Germany suffered 70 percent of its casualities there. The Eastern front involved more land combat than all other theatres of World War II put together.’

He seems to feel that national media outlets newly provide alternatives to CNN and BBC, and uses NDTV as an example, but India had Doordarshan (the government media) giving alternative views decades ago, so that’s no argument for American non-dominance. As Zakaria admits, ‘The United States is currently ranked as the globe’s most competitive economy by the World Economic Forum. It remains dominant in many industries of the future like nanotechnology, biotechnology, and dozens of smaller high-tech fields. Its universities are the finest in the world, making up 8 of the top ten and 37 of the top 50, according to a prominent ranking produced by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. A few years ago the National Science Foundation put out a scary and much-discussed statistic. In 2004, the group said, 950,000 engineers graduated from China and India, while only 70,000 graduated from the United States. But those numbers are wildly off the mark. If you exclude the car mechanics and repairmen—who are all counted as engineers in Chinese and Indian statistics—the numbers look quite different. Per capita, it turns out, the United States trains more engineers than either of the Asian giants. But America’s hidden secret is that most of these engineers are immigrants. Foreign students and immigrants account for almost 50 percent of all science researchers in the country. In 2006 they received 40 percent of all PhDs. By 2010, 75 percent of all science PhDs’ in America ‘wll be awarded to foreign students. When these graduates settle in the country, they create economic opportunity. Half of all Silicon Valley start-ups have one founder who is an immigrant or first generation American….If these people are allowed and encouraged to stay, then innovation will happen here. If they leave, they’ll take it with them. More broadly, this is America’s great—and potentially insurmountable—strength. It remains the most open, flexible society in the world, able to absorb other people, cultures, ideas, goods and services. The country thrives on the hunger and energy of poor immigrants.’ He’s right to ask if the US government is in step with no longer having everyone coming to it. London is ‘now the world’s leading financial center—less because of things that the United States did badly than those London did well….the US health care system, which has become a huge liability for American companies. US carmakers now employ more people in Ontario, Canada, than Michigan because in Canada their health care costs are lower. Twenty years ago, the United States had the lowest corporate taxes n the world. Today they are the second-highest’ because other nations’ came down. If America wants to lead the system, it must be part of the system. ‘It is the global rule-maker but doesn’t always play by the rules. And forget about standards created by others. Only three countries in the worlddon’t use the metric system—Liberia, Myanmar and the United States.’

Japan’s economy has declined from 2^nd (15 years ago) to 18^th in per capita GDP, yet they restrict foreign direct investment. An attitude of ‘we are very good; we don’t need you at all. If you want to come to Japan, work on our terms…

just sort of encourages foreign investors to look elsewhere, where investment rules are more transparent,’ says EU trade delegation head to Japan, Peter van den Heuvel. Japanese governments say they must grow robustly, then plan for 5%, which is unlikely, but even if achieved, is low for East Asia. Japanese companies fear ‘a new investor wll come and force them to change doing business the way they have for years. They have the same level of resistance to domestic agents of change’, says Tony Miller of investment fund Ramius Capital. If Japan doesn’t watch it, the world will pass it by.

First China called the Dalai Lama a ‘devil’ with a human face and beastly heart. Nice of them. Now they want to talk to him. Strange. No wonder Tibet’s government in exile, in Dharamsala, doubts the clean and tender hearts of the Chinese government. While criticism threatens to spoil their Olympic event, they’ll offer talks. When demonstrations die down, Chinese officials will stall. And they insist the Dalai Lama be ‘sincere’? Tibetans demand no more clampdowns in Tibet, withdrawal of security forces from lamasaries, no more ‘patriotic education’ demanding monks to denounce the Dalai Lama, release of political detainees, fair trials for those accused of rioting. Good luck; they’ll need it. China’s state press still slams the Dalai Lama, soldiers still occupy lamasaries, foreign journalists and tourists can’t come, and secret trials sentenced people to terms from three years to life for rioting.

The Dalai Lama, meanwhile, says Taiwan’s future must be decided by its own people, that Tibetan culture and environment be protected. China thinks he still wants to redraw Tibet’s borders to include all ethnic Tibetan areas near it—a quarter of China’s land.