Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Way Things Are

The Way Things Once Were:

1. World's Tallest Building--in the U.S.
2. World's Richest Person--in the U.S.
3. World's Largest Publicly Traded Corporation--in the U.S.
4. World's Biggest Airplane--built in the U.S.
5. World's Largest Factories--in the U.S.
6. World's Biggest Ferris Wheel--in the U.S.
7. World's #1 Casino--in the U.S.
8. World's Biggest Gambling Revenue--the U.S.
9. World's Biggest Movie Industry--Hollywood in the U.S.
10. World's Biggest Mall--in the U.S.

The Way Things Are Now:

1. World's Tallest Building--Taipei and soon Dubai
2. World's Richest Person--Mexican
3. World's Largest Publicly Traded Corporation--Chinese
4. World's Biggest Airplane--built in Russia/Ukraine
5. World's Largest Factories--China
6. World's Biggest Ferris Wheel--Singapore
7. World's #1 Casino--Macau
8. World's Biggest Gambling Revenue--Macau
9. World's Biggest Movie Industry--Bollywood in India
10. World's Biggest Mall--Beijing

This according to Fareed Zakaria in his newest book, The Post American World, published by W. W. Norton and Co., New York (see pp. 2-3). If you don't recognize the name, Zakaria has been editor of Newsweek International and a news analyst for ABC.

He issues a warning--that "just as the world is opening up, America is closing down" (48). He postulates that future historians might say that the US globalized the world in the 21st century, but "along the way . . . it forgot to globalize itself" (214). He insists the real test for the US is a political test--can it stop cowering in fear and move toward the kind of engagement and openness that is its greatest strength?

The jury is still out on this one.

All I can tell you is that most Americans I know eat Chinese food with a fork.

Oh, such a small thing, you say.

Okay, why don't the Chinese eat a hamburger with chopsticks?

We're in trouble.

Read the book.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Garbage in, Garbage out!

It's a good day when you win an argument with the guy who picks up your garbage.

The doorbell rings. I open the door.

Sanitation worker: "Now why'd you go and do a fool thing like that?"

Me: "Fool thing like what?"

SW: "Call my boss and tell 'em I didn't pick up your garbage yesterday."

Me: "Well, first of all, I didn't call your boss and, second of all, you didn't pick up my garbage yesterday."

SW: "Well, your cans weren't out there!"

Me: "Yes they were--I rolled 'em out on Wednesday night."

SW: "I swear to God, they weren't there."

Me: "Man, I promise you they were!"

(At this point, I'm expecting fisticuffs!)

SW: "What's your last name, buddy?"

Me: "Nash."

SW: "It ain't Johnson!"

Me: "Nope."

SW: "Sorry, man!"

Me: "No problem."

I pumped both fists in the air.

Right after I closed the door.

Those guys build some muscle lifting that stuff.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

A Disastrous Week

One of my favorite morning rituals is the walk to the front of the driveway with my dog Nemo to pick up the newspapers.

Not any more.

I even have to steel myself when the alarm clock goes off because I know that the good folks at NPR will be sharing the latest news from Myanmar, where some 100,000 people or more have died in a cyclone, and in China, where the death toll is rapidly climbing into the 10s of thousands. We've had volcanoes erupting in Chile and tornadoes tearing across Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Georgia and other states . . . again.

In the midst of all of this, I've found myself reflecting some about my own response to disasters here in the US and on the other side of the world.

I'm not alone.

A friend sent me a blog from the New York Times. You might find it interesting.

I'm not surprised that we gave much more to Hurricane Katrina relief than we did to tsunami relief in Southeast Asia. What surprises me is the author's argument that we often let the media dictate how we respond to the sufferings of people all over the world and that we tend to ignore the disasters that the US media chooses to ignore!

I want to confess my own complicity in this. Mea culpa! I'm certainly not above it. We tend to read what our local newspaper wants us to read and we tend to listen to what our radio stations want us to listen to. And we tend to ignore whatever it is that they want us to ignore.

While this may be the reality, it certainly doesn't absolve us from the need to keep up with more than just the stuff that is force-fed to us each day.

Yes, there is a nomination fight going on in the United States--and an election will take place in November. And these realities will force the disasters off the front page of the paper and toward the end of the hourly news reports.

But this doesn't change the reality. The danger here is that disasters will become so routine in the world that we will cease to "connect" with the suffering and the pain and the grief. The danger here is that we will let others (the media especially) tell us what we want to hear instead of what we need to hear.

And that morning radio report and the trip down the driveway for the newspaper will become once again the soothing rituals that make life so nice and calm and that lull me into thinking that all is right in the rest of the world.

Newsflash--it's not!