Blogged Pages 3110101003

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From the Blog PkColumnist.com: View from US: - Back in the day when Americans made science-fiction-style movies like China Syndrome, we were titillated by the American hold on earth. It was the master of all it surveyed and could afford to make fun of anyone it wished. Few knew that China would one day invade the US giant shopping malls to take its revenge by driving the Americans bananas with their 'how to' directions. What a novel way at getting back? Even the poor American kids got lost in translation. A 7-year-old sits to build a truck with his lego and guess what, he yells out to his mother: "Mom, where does this piece fit?" The mother instead of enjoying her Sunday tries to solve the puzzle but without any luck. By that time the kid has lost interest. I often wonder how Americans manage – from toothpicks to iPods – with goods that proudly proclaim 'Made in China.' America doesn't like making things. It only sells; even outsources its businesses. America is like a second-hand car salesman pushing sub-standard stuff our way. I once bought a desk. The price was marked down. Lugging the huge boxes upstairs to my apartment, I began the arduous task of assembling. Opening the boxes was a challenge. Cuts, gashes and bloody hands later, I began my assembly. The daffy directions drove me up the wall; the naughty screws, nuts and bolts refused to comply with the miserable illustrations contained on a scrappy bit of paper before me. Days of frustration were spent setting up the table. Finally, when it was up and standing, a strip of scotch tape happened to stick out. Mindlessly I pulled it out and with it was ripped the thin veneer of paper from the surface leaving behind an ugly cardboard patch! Serves me right for buying a cheap table, I said to myself. Apart from taking control of clothes, toys, furniture, electric goods…just about anything Americans own, the Chinese plan taking over the food production of the world. They have bid for Potash Corporation which gives almost half of the world its supply of fertiliser. Americans are now getting queasy about China dominating their daily intake of food. But let's not forget that 97 per cent of the world's supply of rare earths, minerals that play an essential role in many high-technology products, including military equipment are in China! "There is oil in the Middle East; there is rare earth in China," Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of China's economic makeover said way back in 1992. Last winter I went to Cape Canaveral in Florida to see the spot where the US sent its first humans to the moon on July 20, 1969. We saw the NASA computers – clunky machines – that had actually controlled Apollo 11's flight path from its launch to landing on the moon and back to earth. We watched the re-runs of the original recordings of the take off from Kennedy Centre and heard Neil Armstrong's famous words: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." There were thousands of visitors that day…but two ethnicities stood out: Chinese and Indian families with their young ones. Indeed, 20 years from now, these young ones will be leading the world as one believes that the next two superpowers are China and India. I'm in touch with Asad Wyne, 23, who lives in Karachi. He's just returned from China. He wonders why Pakistanis "whine" about the direction their country is heading in and why don't they do something about it? But reality has hit him after being in Beijing for two months: "Eastern Asia is now a 100 years ahead of us, with the Indians at least 30 years ahead and the West a couple of centuries more." Where has Pakistan gone wrong and why? "The Chinese have a stable government and they have a direction. Despite many failures over the past 200 years; horrible human rights abuses; this nation doesn't whine, it doesn't allow its history to become an obstruction in development," says Asad. "And they accept their history, every child there knows what happened in China and how China has emerged today. They embrace the humiliation they faced in the past. But at the same time they guard their heritage and never allow it to be vandalised. The best example is that of the Forbidden City in Beijing where their emperors lived. Pakistanis on the other hand change their history, manipulate it, even destroy it in the name of Islam!" Asad is presently studying chartered accountancy in Karachi, and got interested in the socio-economic conditions prevalent in Pakistan today. "What I see is we're no different from the so-called 'rogue nations', like North Korea or Myanmar, and my visit to China just affirmed my biggest fear." His advice to our leaders is to stop visiting China for photo-op sessions. Instead they should take along a team of engineers and planners to learn from the Chinese. As for himself, Asad is learning Chinese. . Read Full PostComments

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