The shift in global hegemony ( boarding a sinking ship...... ??)
An interesting article which I read yesterday was from the Guardian of London authored by Martin Jacques, with the above title... ( the text in parenthesis is my own..) It pains for many to read the article, particularly those who were so confident of the infallibility of the West, at least during their life time.. How safe would we feel boarding a sinking ship ? The migrants who came to US over the years feel the same now.
The article gives a historical sketch of how after the depression of the 30s, between 1931 and 1945, global power started shifting from London to New York. The end of Britain's financial ascendancy and its replacement by the US.
From a British colony which killed and silenced the natives ( the original owners) of the land, disguised in their attire to gain rights and independence from the British (
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/teaparty.htm ), supported big time migration of peoples from different parts of the world. Not to forget the brains from Israel, Werner Von Braun and others, it got international recognition as an international power to reckon with. Hiroshima and Nagazaki clinched the deal for the US.
Taoguand Yanghai - this Chinese word translated into English means hide one's capabilities and hide one's time. Exactly what China has been doing. It has been biding its time like a snake in the grass and at the opportune moment it has shown up with all its might ...
Though the rot had set in ten years back and the signs were visible from then with the ascendancy of the Bush team, the intelligentsia failed to grasp it. When the US started to show intolerance to any challenge to its hegemony over the world, little did it know it was the beginning of the end. It failed to realise that there is nothing permanent in this world. The attack on the twin towers irked US pride and prestige to the levels of the 1945 Pearl Harbour attack. Given the US intolerance to reason, this was the trigger which started it off. The utter failure of the government in bringing peace and reining its enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq added to its woes. Now it is totally dependent on China to help support itself with sticks to prevent what would be a virtual wash-off from the face of earth, if the Islamist radicals were to strike with full force.
There are three phases in this whole transition. The first was the coming to power of a black American as the President of US in 2008. US came to realise the hard fact that it was a weak power not able to prop its "own people" up and was dependent on other nations to retain its role in international affairs. The second was the active role China was willing to take, after its experience at liberalisation over the past three decades to willingness to take an important international role. The third was the onset of the global financial crisis, accentuated by greed and over-confidence of its people at the infallibility of the US economy, even violating basic economic principles.
China pressing for a new global currency ( immediately rejected by US for obvious reasons) and pressing for more rights for the developing countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, in international financial organisations, has sent the shivers down the US spine. Visible signs of imminent threats to a tottering US economy.
China assuming the role of a central player in the global arena and US dependence on it to boost its trade and manufacturing are imminent signs of a power giving into the natural turn of global events.
The tragedy would be to the freedom loving people and the personal aspirations of thousands of people living in bondage.. Freedom for them is still far far away ..
--
George Easaw
