Thursday, September 12th, 2019
Stephan: I found this story in a German publication, it's getting no attention from American mainstream media at all. Yet I found it absolutely gobsmacking, and the latest in an important trend. American governance overall, yes, yes, I know there are exceptions, is so incompetent, greedy, and shortsighted that we are literally falling apart. Whether it is Flint or Newark, or a 100 other cities, the most basic thing in life, the water, is unhealthful to dangerous. The bridges are collapsing, under-river tunnels have come into question. I don't need to tell you about potholes or airports. So, with that as context, read this story. Then ask yourself this question:
Can you imagine the United States developing the political will, and committing the necessary resources to build from scratch a new New York, or Seattle, setting it up and making it a major presence in the world?
No, neither can I.
So which country do you think will become the dominant economic power in the world in the second half of the 21st century? It is very strange to me to watch my country take its democracy, and itself apart.
The Ping An International Finance Center (Ping An IFC), centre left, and other buildings at dawn in Shenzhen are seen from the Ma Tso Lung district of Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, June 8, 2017. Shenzhen is pivoting from its legacy as ground zero for China’s manufacturing boom into a center for research, development and production of advanced technology.
Credit: Justin Chin/Bloomberg/Getty
At night, when the sky clears, it’s not difficult to guess where the bridge leads. The clouds on the other side of the bay glow orange, illuminated by the city of Hong Kong, with its population of 7 million, just beyond the horizon. Another glow can be seen farther north: the high-tech boomtown of Shenzhen, with 13 million inhabitants. There is a third and fourth patch of light in the sky even beyond that: Dongguan, with 8 million people, and Guangzhou, population 15 million.
In the haze of daylight, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, modern-day China’s most recent gargantuan building project, seems to end somewhere out in the open sea. But it actually […]
Trumpers find it easy even fun in a twisted way to wreck what has been built over generations to “MAGA” when it is entirely the opposite. There is so much rage and fear that any target dear leader points to is fair game for destruction and then others are in it to maximize profits. We can not build or maybe even maintain what we have because of this nihilistic madness that has seized nearly half the country.
I imagine that this fever will have to run it’s course. To what end I don’t know but it will be painful for all of us. Nature does not care how much we argue, it does not know mercy or care how morally good or bad-she “sends rain of the just and unjust”. While distracted by twits and media we slide towards a profound reckoning.