End Game?

There are a lot of frets and hand wringing lately, over US's losing jobs to the rising economic powerhouses such as China and India. The crying bringing jobs back is loud and louder with mid-term election's fast approaching.

I have serious reservations on such notion. Even if it can be done, which is highly doubtful, I strongly believe that morally the US should not attempt it, rather adjust our lifestyle to face up the new world.

In the later half of the twentieth century, the US enjoyed an unprecedented economic boom, largely due to globalization which was highly beneficial to the US, on the burden of many other countries. It was a world order wearily accepted by other nations and eventually they eagerly embraced to play catching up. Now, the table turned and we found that globalization is not so benign after all and suddenly the advantageous years we enjoyed it were utterly forgotten and we demand a change of rules!

We are becoming a nation of crying babies.

World changes. Nothing will stay static forever. The US had a great run as the most economically advanced nation for a long stretch and those days are over and we must accept it as stoically as other nations endured their economical hardship.

The best President Obama and his successors could do is ministering the decline as gracefully as they can and usher us into second tier nation with least pain as possible. A second tier nation is not bad at all - there are many nations would die to be included in this rank. All feast will come to an end. End it with style, please.

Falling © Matthew Felix Sun

Friendship with Clientele Countries - China and North Korea, USA and Israel

Recent two events - the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, apparently by a North Korean torpedo resulting the death of 46 sailors on board, and Israeli raid on an aid flotilla headed to the Gaza Strip that ended with Israeli soldiers killing nine activists -made an unlikely connections to the two special international relationships: China and North Korea, and that the USA and Israel.

The refusal to criticize let alone condemn the aggression of their close friend, or more accurately, their clientele country, China and the USA are dancing the same dance. They both tried to maintain the appearance of neutrality and reason. They both argued for more thorough investigation, more deliberate approach.

It is inconceivable to image that China and the USA have so much similarity. Yet, it happened. As it happened, when the USA tried once again to stand by its friend and clientele country, it lost its moral authority to demand China to do obviously correct otherwise.

The Failing School or Failing Pupils

There are a lot of angst in the US - our school systems are failing and we cannot compete with China or India in the future.

I have to agree with this sentiment but I have to disagree with prevailing diagnose and it cure - more money, smaller classroom, No Child Behind, etc.

In our high school, students learned no practical skill but preparation courses for higher education. However, how many of them are built for and destined for a rigorous academic career? If not, then we are setting them up for their failure by failing to provide them a practical skills so they can learn to be a respectable technicians.

Germany sets a great example here. There, students are to choose either to head for a college training or technical skill early one (roughly our junior high school level). Therefore, they produce both scholars and high skilled workers and both camps are respected and well paid. No sense of failure is attached to those don't go to universities. Actually, their high schools are more like our colleges while their universities are more like our graduate schools.

People argued that high school educations are needed for every student to learn how to be a citizen. Those training can be provided at technical schools as well.

Recently, I read a disturbing story took place in China - a few college graduates applied for and was hired to clean manure in dry toilets. When confronted with the waste for resources, someone had the nerve of saying that the higher education enabled them to understand how to use the tools (ladles, poles and buckets) better.



With the declining of the American's economic power, I'm afraid that kind of joke will take place here too.