TIME TO GO FISHING, Brother Man. The People's Republic of Fishin' is a color-blind federation, a model of pure merit, where all that counts is your angling skill. No castes, no politics, no boundaries. "And it is discipline in the equality of men," wrote avid outdoorsmen and former U.S. President Herbert Hoover, "for all men are equal before fish."
HOW TO BALANCE economic growth with human rights in semi-democratic nations and dictatorships? The question of the 21st century will be the question of free trade vs. liberty.
HOPE THE LATINO reality TV show "Q'Viva! The Chosen" gains a cult following that keeps it on the air in the United States for another season or two. Modeled after "American Idol" and hosted by pop superstars Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Q'Viva is a ground-breaking talent show in three languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese) that showcases performers from Latin America.
WE MAY LOSE the global innovation race, if we don't get our act together real soon. Heed these Cambridge University scholars, who warn that keeping all R&D in the United States is an outdated Cold War strategy and "a recipe for disaster" in today's global economy and cross-cultural world. Rather, modern and emerging markets should blend their R&D expertise "to co-create breakthrough solutions that no single region could have developed on their own" -- what they call "polycentric innovation." The scholars -- Navi Radjou and Jaideep Prabhu and Blood Orange Media's Simone Ahuja -- write in CNN's GlobalPublicSquareblog:
THINK THE STREET potholes in your neighborhood are a pain? That's nothing. The vast global infrastructure (roads, ports, railroads, bridges, airports, telecom and energy/oil) has $53 trillion in investment needs between 2010 and 2030, according to a recent OECD report. Why? Because over that period, air passenger traffic may double, air freight might triple, and port container-handing could quadruple. The OECD urges the world's governments to start planning now to meet those needs. Good luck with that one. What hath globalization wrought? Scary.
GOOD NEWS AMID the usual horrific news. As civilians die in Syria and other war zones, new data by the World Bank shows that the number of people living in extreme poverty fell dramatically in the developing world from 2005 to 2008. Some 22%, or 1.3 billion, of the developing world's population lived on $1.25 or less a day in 2008. That's down from 43% in 1990 and 52% in 1981.
MOST OF US don't see the megatrends until they suddenly surface and smack us. Geopolitical experts have been saying for years, decades even, that the world economic order is shifting, that U.S. dominance will be challenged this century by our allies and rivals in Asia.Some in the West scoffed at the idea, or stayed stuck in denial. The latest blunt warning comes from former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd. The era of Pax Americana will be succeeded by "Pax Pacifica," he recently told the Asia Society in New York.
"The world today is approaching a turning point of truly historic proportions," Rudd said. "Historical trends are by definition slow to emerge. They then gather pace, often with a sudden burst of momentum . . . often well before the political community and broader public opinion has fully woken up to the fact. And so it is with the global economic power of the United States of America. For the last 130 years the United States has been the world’s largest economy. Within the current decade, that will no longer be the case when China takes its place."
