ORIANA — Did you know that an estimated 670,000 Chinese businesses failed last year? Bankrupt.
I didn’t even know that could happen.
The Sunday Times last weekend ran a survey that compared views and trends between 1989 and 2009. Did you know that on average we are twice as cynical as we were then? Our trust in politicians, and other social institutions has dropped by half. But our standard of living has increased by 60%!
That’s radical.
In 2006 there were 106 billionaires in China. One hundred and six… in the world’s most populous and most communist country.
How cynical are they?
I read an article earlier this week about the shifting economies in the world. It spoke of the shift of global power from East to West. And suggested that the leaning towards America over the past 80-100 years has on large part been a result of it’s economic dominance. As that dominance fades, we will begin to see cultural and social interest move along with it.
We can already see that in Africa, where China holds sway that is quite surprising to outsiders. The locals aren’t always happy about it. But, like many years of visiting American dignitaries, they put up with it and carry on.
This recession. The swine flu… even the September 11 bombings of eight years ago… has taught us that the world still has lots of surprises for us. Just as we start to think we understand it, it makes up new ways to show us that we know nothing!
There’s lots for us to pay attention to. And yet we seem to be continually convinced that we know everything there is to know.
How silly is that?
/df
