Priority Change For Survival

A relative of mine – Peter K – reports from South Africa:

“The Business Report section of our Cape Times for April 11, 2005 carried
several stories about the visit of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to
Bangalore, India. He and India’s PM, Manmohan Singh, announced cooperation in
many vital areas, but particularly in the area of information technology.
‘India’s software skills combined with China’s dominance in hardware could
trigger a tectonic shift in the global technological landscape.’

A smiling Wen Jiabao told reporters: ‘Co-operation is just like two pagodas,
one hardware, one software. Combined, we can take the leadership position in the
world.’ The two Prime Ministers spoke about the coming “Asian
Century”!

Didn’t we see it coming? Together India and China have a
population of two billion. That’s some market, some labor pool.”

Peter’s analysis is that countries like South Africa, Britian and the United States are already losing out to countries like India and China. He also tells us, “Headlines warn that China is constructing a smaller, tougher military.” So what is the United States doing about all this? Little or nothing… since we invest hundreds of billions in a war to protect our sources of oil and spend valuable political time arguing about how long to prolong an individual’s death (the Terri Schiavo case). In the meantime, we cut spending on education, research and many important social programs for our own workers in order to give tax breaks to the rich and powerful. What is going on?

Of course, we know what’s going on. As a proud, powerful, wealthy nation we have attained “our day in the sun” and we are headed for disaster… down the road just a bit. We are caught up in debating self-righteous, extremist religious views. We are getting fat and lazy purchasing everything in sight and protecting our fortress on the hill. Moreover, we are degrading our environment and wasting our resources. The bottom line is that we have our priorities all messed up and we will pay for that oversight… eventually. If we want to survive as a decent example of democracy, moral credibility and intellectual insight, we will need some radical change in the near future. Don’t count on the Christian God to bale us out!