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Tony Blair -The center of gravity is shifting eastward, politics shifting far too slow."

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Britain's Tony Blair spoke at Depauw Univeristy on March 3, 2008. I was in the audience and I was astonished! He spoke of the center of gravity shifting eastward saying in ten, fifteen, twenty years, the world power will be a country in the far east, not the United States. Three Abdulah's sit on the board of directors of the world's largest bank. China and India are other countries that are progressing faster than the United States in many areas. Hard power alone-meaning the military, is not going to work ten, fifteen, or twenty years from now. Soft power, meaning diplomacy will have to be used. Now is the time to influence democracy on our neighbors or the window to do so will be gone. It's time to move beyond democrat and republican and be open to function in the rapidly changing world or lose our place, isolate ourselves and be closed to global engagement.
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2 responses // Tony Blair -The center of gravity is shifting eastward, politics shifting far too slow."

  • Let's attend to our own knitting. We can mostly blame ourselves. Several mistakes American society is making:
    1. Chosing short-term consumption and materialism over long-term maintenance of our infrastructure and education/development of our entire population.
    2. Ridiculous military adventurism spurred on by our military-industrial complex and cowboy mentality.
    3. Choosing short-term gain over long-term investment in every sector of the economy. We need a penalty for short-term capital gains, and a benefit for long-term capital gains.
    4. Politicians who are ill educated about the world and ethno-centric. We have the blind leading the blind. New Congressmen and Senators need to be enrolled in courses on current events and world history. If I know more than they do, then they are truly ignorant. I know I am ignorant.
    5. Excess energy consumption with conservation efforts limited by energy special interests. Most of us drive white elephant cars, live in white elephant homes. The rest of the world sees our gas prices as ridiculously low and wasteful.
    6. Agricultural lobby is pushing the overgrowth of certain foods that are imbalancing the American diet. We are pushing high-calory grains over nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables. Hence, we are reaping diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. Ye shall reap what ye sow, and what Congress sows is subsidies for its biggest, most entrenched agricultural lobbies.
    7. We have a very inefficient medical care delivery system from cradle to grave, hijacked by insurance, pharmaceutical, and medical special interests.

    In conclusion, we are destroying ourselves, and the lubrication is provided by special interests and nearly universal greed.
    CyberCitizen
  • china has to become a democracy, free the people, have them be independent

    http://current.com/items/88870048_calls_for_olympic_boy...
    lfm
    • lfm
    • 6 months ago

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