At least there is some good news in the world (or, a billion links with what I read recently)

I am so glad to find news that is not related to the mid-term elections in the United States. Even all of my regular foreign and international focused news sources have been running material about the elections.

Other than a new mysterious writer in China, the PRC government trying to throw it's wight around (once again, like an immature schoolyard who has suddenly realized that he is bigger than most of the other kids on the playground) bully to influence European governments and some entertaining multicultural iconic romance, there has been a lot of writing about India recently, presumably due to the upcoming Obama visit. I assume it will made away after Obama leaves south Asia.

I just read that, according to a UN study, the world is now better off since people are, in general, "healthier, richer and better educated than ever before, with most developing countries registering huge gains over the last 40 years." With a more critical perspective, however, a Foreign Policy article on the subject mentions how inequality is still high. Fortunatly, alternatives do exist, even if many of them are a bit idealistic rather then practical, some make a difference.

In what I see as positive news, two fairly bright fellows have made a comparison between China's current state and that of the United States of America in the mid 19th century. I think zooming out to this kind of a big picture is something that Americans (myself included) do not do often enough, but I suspect that it may be a basic part of Chinese culture to look at the bigger picture and interpret things more holistically and with more context.

Okay, so add in a plane nearly crashing into Singapore and a volcano and I guess that more things are happening in the world than just the U.S. mid-term elections.

A few quick references

Just a quick reference to a blog entry written by Daniel W. Drezner of Foreign Policy (a blog that was introduced to by through the writings of a former classmate, actually): it speaks fairly straight forward and clearly as to the domestic political issues of the Unites States and the tension that these issues have with Foreign Policy issues.

Also, a fairly long narrative about the political experiences of Thomas M. Engelhardt and his view of the most recent mid-term election. It struck me as a piece which was very nicely put together, and it lacked a lot of the anger or the passion that it often present in political writings. I very much enjoyed reading such a calm and contemplative piece.

Anti-China sentiment in the U.S., protectionism & nationalism

A fear mongering video which seems to predict the coming fall of the United Stated alongside the rise of China had become a bit of a sensation. It is very high-quality, and its nationalist/xenophobic message is shortly (but nicely) critiqued here. It has also spawned a parody which signifigantly alters the political message. This add in particular, and the anti-China/pro-China retoric in the United States in gerneal, is critiqued quite well in one of my favorite China watcher blogs.

There have also been some very xenophobic and anti-Chinese attack adds paid by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee as a part of the U.S. election. One add implies that living outside the United States is somehow bad (one of the last things we need is fewer U.S. citizens going aborad and experiencing the greater world). These attack adds are nicely analyzed here. Indeed, since seeing the Obama presidency, taking a class in which the professor stressed the inefficiency of the U.S. political process, and now seeing some of the lunacy of this election, I am pretty much fed up with the current United Stated style of democracy, which I think consists of insults, the loud stating of claims without significant factual basis, and one's favorite color of a binary option. Seeing the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's homepage just amplifies my view of U.S. democracy as a one-on-one fight between two giants in which money matters more than anything else. I am gonna have to get dual citizenship in another country someday.

There is a brief call for logic and sanity when thinking about international economics here. Indeed, the very way that international trade and the assembly of products works nowadays makes traditional ideas of national origin rather obsolete. Using the example of Apple's iPod (how ubiquitous can this product and brand become?), Shikha Dalmia writes:

"Think about the IPod, for instance. It is designed in America and its 451 parts are made in dozens of different countries. But just because it is finally assembled in China, it officially counts as a Chinese import and therefore a contributor to America’s trade deficit — never mind that the Chinese add only $4 to the IPod’s $150 final value. Imposing duties on IPods to slash the deficit, then, won’t just cost Chinese jobs  in Beijing assembly plants, but American jobs in Cupertino (Apple’s headquarters) computer labs."

A recent WTO speech by Pascal Lamy focused on a nearly identical topic, and I consider it well worth reading in full as a reminder to not get caught up in the rhetoric of economically protectionist and politically nationalist arguments.