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321energy :: POWERFUL BULLMARKET IN US STOCKS LOOMS as the US prepares for GLOB…: May 13, 5:00pm 1 review energy-industry, energy, globalization, geopolitics
http://www.321energy.com/editorials/maund/maund042708.html; The US prepares for GLOBAL HEGEMONY via Twine by Steven Wears, in 321energy by Clive Maund
Complete control of the Mid-East, which the United States and the major oil companies are now close to having achieved, of course confers massive power over the rest of world, in particular over rising economic powers such as China and India and the immense leverage that this will in time afford can be used to steer these countries in whatever direction is desired. The US is believed to be involved in a strategic race against time to corner the bulk of the world's remaining oil reserves, the control of which can then be used to dissuade countries like China from resorting to the wholesale dumping of dollars or US Treasuries, along the lines of "Try it and we'll cut off your oil supply"... The US prepares for GLOBAL HEGEMONY A must read that gives the reader to think really hard. This article gives a general vision without proving each steps of its argumentation. For that reason we might be tempted to reject it. But the vision makes sense and it challenges our minds to open up to the unknown that possibly is fashioning our future. We always should be aware that reality is not made of morality. Human reality, as far as our eyes can see along the road of history, is the outcome of games of power. There is always a winner and a loser. Even if it is difficult to imagine that the US is playing smart in Irak Clive Maund's article gives a plausible conclusion that the US appearance of dumbness could be a tactic to avoid its strategy being uncovered. I know, I know. BUT... if Maund's conclusion appeared to be verified by the facts a few years down the road then we would have to recognize that its present posture was plain genius. The only shortcoming I personally see in Maund's argument is its US unilaterality. It's a plausible vision but it does not account for how other powers play. In a game there is never one player left alone free to take the road he wants; there are other players who counter his actions. And it seems to me that in his description of the present geo-political game Clive Maund forgot to account for the positioning of the historical masters of gaming that are the Chinese. Does he really believe that his vision has not reached the calculus of the Chinese? No way. If the game played by the US is as Maund describes it then the Chinese have been thinking about a counter play. But again only time will tell.

Tibet: dream and reality, by Slavoj Zizek: May 10, 1:40pm 4 reviews china, globalization, modernity
http://mondediplo.com/2008/05/09tibet; Tibet: dream and reality in Le Monde Diplomatique by Slavoj Zizek philosopher at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and author most recently of Violence, Big Ideas/Small Books
The West is projecting not only its own spiritual fantasies upon Tibet, but its own economic fears upon China, imagining a power struggle quite different from that which has actually happened in Tibet. We have to learn to look at Tibet as it is - and China too. Tibet: dream and reality This simple "good guys versus bad guys" story that we are being fed about the relationship between China and Tibet is indeed troubling, for, it is such a far cry from reality. The nine points offerered by Slavoj Zizek are a useful reminder of some hard facts that debunk this simple "good guys versus bad guys" story. What happens in Tibet is indeed no more than the imposition of modernity on a "pre-modern society". The same has been going on since centuries at the hand of the West while this time around the operation is conducted by China. We should thus be asking why the tyranny of modernity is never questioned instead of accusing the Chinese to commit a cultural genocide. China enters modernity so abruptly and with such devastating consequences for the West that it is tempting to refer to it as "the bad guy" but we ought to remember that it is the West that initially bullied China on the road to modernity. The entry of nearly 25% of the world population into a game that for centuries has been played exclusively by less than 10% of the world population is world-changing, no doubt about it. Without the knowledge that China acquired along its millennial experience in management of a huge bureaucracy the country could simply not have succeeded the rapid economic boom that we all are witnessing. Unfortunately the knowledge of this reality is not part of the Western analytical toolbox. Slavoj Zizek provocatively sketches this Western ignorance in the following question " What if the 'vicious combination of the Asian knout and the European stock market' proves economically more efficient than our liberal capitalism? Might it signal that democracy, as we understand it, is no longer a condition and motor of economic development, but an obstacle?"

EastSouthWestNorth: The Olympic Torch Relay Inside China: May 8, 4:57pm 6 reviews china, globalization, geopolitics
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20080509_1.htm; The Olympic Torch Relay Inside China via Fons Tuinstra / China Herald, in EastSouthWestNorth
Yes, the crowds were enthusiastic so far. But it also reveals the civic quality of some (but not necessarily all) Chinese citizens as shown in these photos The Olympic Torch Relay Inside China

We Westerners represent no more than 10 % of the world population. What a pity we know so little of what is going on in the rest of the world. We have been bombarded lastly with the coverage of the troubled Torch Relay in London, Paris and San Francisco and been force-fed with the idea that China was trouble. But what about the torch relay thereafter? Ziltch nada black hole. Did the flame not traverse the lands where 90% of the world population lives? Yes it did but we were kept in total ignorance. Why such a one sided news coverage? This is not the best way to succeed in answering the myriad of crises unleashed upon us by modernity but it is assuredly a recipe for tension between nations...

Theyre Global Citizens. Theyre Hugely Rich. And They Pull the Strings. - washing…: May 4, 6:48am 0 review politics, globalization
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/02/AR20080502033...

Informed Comment: Global Affairs: LET ONE HUNDRED BOYCOTTS BLOOM!: Apr 21, 9:05am 1 review china, globalization, worldviews
http://icga.blogspot.com/2008/04/let-one-hundred-boycotts-bloom.html; LET ONE HUNDRED BOYCOTTS BLOOM! in Informed Comment: Global Affairs by PHILIP J CUNNINGHAM
Boycotts are a blunt instrument, albeit drawn from the trusty democratic toolbox. That boycott fever seems to be the mood on the streets of China these days is a testament to how discontent with domestic problems has been eclipsed by disappointment with the West. LET ONE HUNDRED BOYCOTTS BLOOM! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rApn09pRZCk Excellent article. The beneficiaries of the recent demonstrations against the Olympic Torch Relay in Britain, France and the US are clearly the Chinese authorities, indeed, "discontent with domestic problems has been eclipsed by disappointment with the West." 25% of the world population are staying up, with their leaders, against the hypocrisy of the West. And let's not forget that the biggest losers are the Tibetans. Their case has indeed been eclipsed by something a lot bigger and to make matters even worse the Dalai Lama himself comes out of this story as a wounded leader whose Tibetan following appears to desert his middle of the road course. And, for the first time, the feudal past of Tibet has erupted in the Western public sight thus shedding doubts on what the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism really stand for. How to say? The only thing that comes to my mind is "how naive and dumb" the activist lesson-givers now appear to be. On manipulation of Western Public opinion about facts in Tibet: On Tibet and Propaganda: Follow the "Information" by Zwoof in the Daily Kos

Chinese Nationalism | MetaFilter: Apr 19, 2:29pm 1 review china, globalization
http://www.metafilter.com/70972/Chinese-Nationalism; Chinese Nationalism or how and why 25% of the world population is rising against the West in Metafilter by Tlogmer
The "sacred flame" winds its way towards Beijing, creating new flashpoints like a car bumper scraping sparks from the pavement.

The chinese public's anger at CNN now has a wildly popular theme song "You can't turn lies into the truth by repeating them a thousand times"

Chinese nationalism and an American backlash are both growing. Where is all this leading to? And even if we can't understand how China sees Tibet, or know whether the Shanghai Princesses will really give up their Chanel, can we at least assure the Chinese that we don't like Jack Cafferty either Chinese Nationalism or how and why 25% of the world population is rising against the West The 41 comments on Tlogmer's post on Metafilter are particularly interesting. Also see: My Western Friends, What Do You Want From Us Chinese? CHINA'S COMING OUT PARTY Tibet at war with the utopia of modernity The Baton Passes to Asia China's new intelligentsia "Capitalism with Chinese characteristics" overcomes the Weather Waving Goodbye to Hegemony

Asia Times Online :: China News, China Business News, Taiwan and Hong Kong Ne…: Apr 18, 2:10pm 1 review economics, globalization, change
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JD19Ad01.html; Asia pushes, West resists in AsiaTimes by Sreeram Chaulia a review of The New Asian Hemisphere. The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East by Kishore Mahbubani. PublicAffairs, New York, 2008.
Mahbubani asserts that a turbulent era of de-Westernization has commenced in Asia. With most Asians disavowing former beliefs that the West was the "most civilized part of the world", the latter has lost appeal as an ideal in human advancement. Chinese intellectuals, drawing on a history of insularity, have decolonized their mind the furthest and fastest. Accompanying China's accumulation of wealth and economic vitality is a popular rediscovery of its glorious cultural heritage and pride. De-Westernization is even more drastic in the Middle East. Hardly any Muslim society, perhaps not even Turkey, is trying to demonstrate that it is Western in spirit. Islamic publics view Westerners as immoral, greedy and insensitive to the loss of Muslim lives. Mahbubani considers India to be a bridge between the "West and the Rest". Indian thinkers do not see the West as the custodian of the highest values, but they also appreciate their country's historic place in constantly admitting and absorbing foreign influences. Mahbubani rides on China's geopolitical success to infer that "Asians are capable of delivering a more stable world order". Asia pushes, West resists Change is a process. Geo-political change is a rather long process and let's never forget that it often is fraught with violence. The root cause of the present geo-political change is the entry of China, India and the whole of Asia, Africa and South America into modernity. Modernity is first and foremost the application of the logic of capital to all aspects of life. Instead of continuing to eat the products that they grow on their fields people leave the land to go work in factories that have been financed by capital. From then on they will be forced to buy everything that is necessary to reproduce their daily lives and later everything that they think is necessary... This process of swelling domestic demand is satisfied by always more productions of goods and services. It becomes then evident that population size is going to be what differentiates the economic size of nations. Great-Britain was no match, in the 20th century, in term of population size for the US nor any other European country for that matter. After the 2nd world war Europeans took the path of unification and after half a century they got a unified currency and a European central bank and soon a president, a foreign affairs secretary and so on. But Europe is only marginally larger than the US... The story in Asia is definitely going to be far more world changing. China's population is not far from a billion and a half (official + not counted) and India is on the path to surpass China within a few decades. That gives us a population of 3 billion approximately versus a population of 3 quarters of a billion for the US + the EU. If those 2 countries can sustain for a few more decades their extremely rapid rates of economic growth each is going to surpass the economic size of the US and later the combined size of the US + the EU. This is going to have a decisive impact on how the world will be running in the coming decades not only economically but also politically and culturally. How is whiteman going to take those changes is the subject of Kishore Mahbubani's book.

China Digital Times & My Friends, What Do You Want From Us?: Apr 13, 12:31pm 6 reviews china, globalization
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/04/my-friends-what-do-you-want-from-us/; My Western Friends, What Do You Want From Us Chinese? in China Digital Times via China Herald.
(A Chinese response to the protests against the Olympic Games Torch Relay. The following text is quoted from cbc forums, via C'est la vie blog) What do you want from us? When we were called "The sick man of Asia", we were called peril, When you bill us the next superpower, we are called the threat. When we closed our doors, you smuggled drugs to open our markets, when we embrace free trade, you blame us for taking away your jobs. when we were falling apart, you marched in your troops and wanted your fair share, when we are putting the broken pieces together, "Free Tibet" you scream! "it was invasion". So we tried communism, you hated us for being communist, So we embraced capitalism, you hate us now for being capitalist. Then we have a billion people, you said we're destroying the planet, Then we limit our numbers, you say it is human rights abuses. When we were poor, you thought we were dogs, When we loan you cash, you blame us for your debts. When we build our industries, you call us polluters, When we sell you goods, you blame us for global warming, When we buy oil, you call that exploitation and genocide. When we were lost in chaos and rampage, you wanted the rule of law for us, When we uphold law and order against violence, you call that violation of human rights. When we were silent, you said you wanted us to have free speech, When we are silent no more, you say we are brainwashed. Why do you hate us so much? We ask. "No". You answer, "we don't hate you". We don't hate you either Bud, but do you understand us?? "of course we do", you say, "We have CNN, BBC, and CNBC". But why, do we still feel, you western people are not happy with us. What do you really want from us?? My friend, What do you really want from us?? My Western Friends, What Do You Want From Us Chinese? Ho, Ho! Hum.. I certainly understand what is being meant in this poem and I certainly also understand where the anger comes from that, rightly so, underpins those words. I fear that the Euro-centrism that animates so much of the Western discourse about democracy and human rights will not even permit or allow Westerners to hear what is pronounced in the words here above. But I nevertheless urge my white race-fellows to open their eyes, their ears and their minds and harts to what our yellow-race friends are asking us here. I humbly believe that we Westerners have no moral ground to stand on that would justify us to start lecturing others and especially the Chinese. On the contrary our history shows us that from the crusades on, passing through the great discoveries, then enslaving Africans and exploiting non Europeans along so many centuries we have killed and plundered on a scale never seen in human history. There is nothing in our historic behavior that could justify our present moral superiority; we should be ashamed of that history of ours. The proceeds of our plundering over so many centuries helped us to industrialize and modernize. But now that we impose on the whole world to follow us on the road of modernity we should remember that morality was never our stronghold and we should thus avoid lecturing those who only recently entered modernity. And we should also refrain from envy at the sight of the Chinese beating us at our own game. It's we Westerners who bullied them in following us into modernity.

The Automatic Earth: We have not yet conquered folly: Apr 12, 3:40pm 1 review economics, globalization, finance
http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2008/04/we-have-not-yet-conquered-folly...; We have not yet conquered folly in the Automatic Earth By Matthew McClearn with Comment by Ilargi
The one thing I take away from pieces like the one below is a question: Why doesnu2019t anyone seem to ask if perhaps we could have entered a crisis that will be worse than the Great Depression? I guess perhaps we see this all far too much from the restricted point of view of economics, and the Great Depression is a benchmark that economists cannot look beyond, a horizon they cannot scale. Iu2019ll admit, I have already seen the term Greater Depression used, but the notion is exceedingly rare, and there are certainly very few, if any, specifics being laid out of what that would mean for our daily lives. Still, I would personally think the risks of sinking deeper than in the 1930u2019s is very much present. That, to me, is the scariest thing about all this. It led to a world on fire, and 40-50 million dead just from warfare. Todayu2019s world population is over 3 times larger than in the 1930u2019s. At the same time, there are much fewer -prospects of- resources, particularly energy, and much higher senses of entitlement among the now 1.5 billion prosperous guests of this planet. Because of this all, I find it even hard to see how we could ever climb back out of the hole weu2019re busy digging. And if we can, how many of us will make it? We have not yet conquered folly Brother Can You Spare 10 Grand? by Peter Schiff in SafeHaven Economic woes hit American stomachs Associated Press on CNN Online Itu2019s a Crisis, and Ideas Are Scarce by FLOYD NORRIS in the NYT Business 'Okies' on their way to California, 1933 (via Automatic Earth) The financialization of the economy that started in the eighties under Reagan and was set forth under Clinton comes presently to its conclusion and that conclusion is that it all has been been hot air that was not sustained by solid work generating solid savings. The US is now largely indebted and the creditors are going to collect. But the whole game having been only hot air not much will be found worth collecting. No problem with internal debts. But not so with debts towards foreigners! They will take whatever can be taken. They are already busy buying up US companies. The defense against what shall soon be perceived as an outside financial attack will be inflation in an attempt to melt away the dollars that they hold. The only problem is that this will also melt away the buying power of the US citizen. Paradoxically inflation will be paralleled by deflation in housing and financial assets. But what of the anger of the US citizen seeing his savings melting away? Is the establishment going to deflect that anger with the only thing that the US possesses more than all other nations together? It seems to me that the human story always repeats itself. The only thing making sense, in my eyes, is to observe the circus while trying to find a niche to protect oneself...

For Many, a Boom That Wasn't - New York Times: Apr 9, 8:47am 1 review economics, globalization, finance
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/business/09leonhardt.html?ex=1365393600&en=...; For Many, a Boom That Wasn't in the NYT Business by DAVID LEONHARDT
...The ... now-finished boom was, for most Americans, nothing of the sort. In 2000, at the end of the previous economic expansion, the median American family made about $61,000, according to ... inflation-adjusted numbers. In 2007, in what looks to have been the final year of the most recent expansion, the median family, amazingly, seems to have made less - about $60,500. This has never happened before, at least not for as long as the government has been keeping records. In every other expansion since World War II, the buying power of most American families grew... You can think of this as the most basic test of an economy's health: does it produce ever-rising living standards for its citizens? ... For Many, a Boom That Wasn't It will be tempting for some to lay the blame on George Bush. But the decline in living standards, that those figures are illustrating, is not related to US internal politics. It is related to the great re-alignment of economic forces around the world. The present round of globalization that started in the seventies has flattened the economic and financial level playing field. After 3 decades of free capital flows around the world the production of goods has largely been de-localized from the West to the South. Western factories that once procured good paying jobs closed and the jobs that were thus lost have been replaced by low paying service jobs. To keep their living standards from falling many have been obliged to take on a 2nd and in some cases a 3rd job. But longer working hours have not succeeded in maintaining the past standard of living. What is going on is a global re-balancing of the standards of living among nations that is taking place as a result of the free flow of capital: - Western incomes are coming down. (in most Western nations) - Southern incomes are going up. (in some Southern countries) Globalization has essentially been the bestowing of free movement on big capital. This allowed big capital to crunch once and for all the labor movement with whom it had been politically obligated to sit with a bargaining table. Once free to move over borders big capital went where no social bargaining tables had yet been politically imposed which helped in reducing its work costs which in turn helped it supplying cheaper goods to its traditional consumer bases. Economists and politicians of all stripes have defended globalization thinking that it gave their nations the advantage of scale economies. Those advantages were real but they did not benefit their nations. They benefited the multinational companies invested by big capital holders. So now what? - Capital has gone global and, in so doing, has gained a bargaining power with nations that weakened the application on itself of their regulatory framework while simultaneously imposing the weakening of organized labor and workers' historically gained benefits. - Work remains a national affair. Put in a position to compete for the localization of big capital the political elites have accepted to weaken organized labor in all nations. - Conclusion: Big capital is not going to abandon the bargaining chip it gained over labor through this last round of globalization but a reaction is nevertheless in the making at the level of nations in the form of protectionist barriers. Let's just remember that this has historically been the ferment of nationalism and wars...