How does rise of China, India, and Brazil compare with the Western countries so far?

With the recent growth of economies of China, India, Brazil etc., growing cultural and religious clashes between Christianity and Islam thru war on terror, the questions that come to my mind are how the West would react and handle this whole mess? Somehow past history and imperialist culture that dominated from the 1800’s thru 1900’s tells me that, western countries are not just going to sit on their hands and take it in very easily. The West it seems is becoming more protectionists rather than an open society of the late 1900’s as this cultural clash and economic pressure builds up. The examples can be seen with recent uproar against the buy out of U.S. oil company by one of the big Chinese oil companies and this recent port security contract deal with United Arab Emirates. Even with all of the technological progress the man has made (mostly by west in the 100 years), somehow it just seems like we are going back in 1500’s or something, time when most cultures were isolated. In this month’s Global Affairs magazine, it is predicted that India will even outsmart China since India has better knowledge base of people when it comes to economic independence. The problem I see is that India unlike the west does not know yet how to efficiently plan, organize and harness the powers, skills and knowledge of her more than one billion people. This is kind of like, a person having 1000 volumes of best books and reads them, but if he or she does not apply and uses what was read, all those books and reading is worthless. At the same time, a person has two books and reads and applies them well; it is worth all of the effort. There is a great talent and knowledge base in India, but if India does not recognize the potential of this talent, somebody else like the western countries will and India will eventually lose out. I would agree with the magazine on the economic development front but India needs to continue to utilize its knowledge base of people and organize the information base properly. A few good men and women can make a big difference, let alone a billion people. Having been gone to schools in India and seeing the treatment of children in classrooms, and comparing the schools in the west, I say India has a long way to go when it comes to human development, encouraging creativity, and instilling ethics in the children. The teachers along with parents are the ones creating future of a country, and need to make sure they don’t fail to do their job of raising and creating future leaders with right ethics and skills. And that depends upon how honest, hard working, knowledgeable, spiritual and ethical these teachers are themselves becasue these are some of the essential traits of any leader.

Here is an interesting article about U.S. engineering decline and competition within U.S. and with China, India and others. Letters to the editors are even more eye openers. On the humorous side, to Indian and Chinese engineers, I say, you guys better role your sleeves up! U.S.A is not going down that easy. You have a long way to go!



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