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29/04/2008

Kishore Mahbubani - HardTalk

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many years ago Kishore Mahbubani wrote the book "can asians think", using asia's economic success to deny western journalists' assertion that asians lack ability to think for themselves; after doubts were thrown on the thesis by the prolonged recession after the 1997 asian financial crisis followed by 2000 dotcom crash and 2002-3 sars epidemic, asia, in particular china, made spectacular economic progress, whereas usa produced its own crisis through overconfidence with real estate and financial engineering prodcts, allowing a revival of the thesis

I find necessary to point out however that the anxiety to prove to the west that asians can think, is itself an indication of a cultural deficiency, that asia requires affirmation by the west; the keenness, even haste, shown by GIC and Temasek to become shareholders of Merryl Lynch and CitiBank, the way asian universities desire to copy MIT/Stanford, even Ma Yingjiu's being almost moved to tears by Bush's congratulation message saying that Ma's election was a triumph of asian democracy, all point in that direction

perhaps kishore need to address the issue of this feeling of inferiority in future books and talks

Posted by: yuen | 30/04/2008

@"GIC and Temasek to become shareholders of Merryl Lynch and CitiBank" - in my view is an agressive business move. I don't think in any ways it should be seen as a desparation for "affirmation or acceptance" by the West...what's your stand on biggies from the west trying to tap the upcoming Asian markets...it's all number game in business.

@"the way asian universities desire to copy MIT/Stanford" - may be we need to go back and check history and we may find the roots of world's first Universities in eastern India...Nalanda...that's centuries back...I don't think east needs any lessons in those terms from the west, as Nalanda was the school for great scholars from East, South East, Japan, Korea, China and many more places...and even today some of the best scholars hail from Asia..pretty ironically though, serving in the western institututions like NASA and the likes.

@"Ma Yingjiu's being almost moved to tears by Bush's congratulation message saying that Ma's election was a triumph of asian democracy" - This is an instance of one individual reacting profusly on his achievement...this I don't think should be used as an identifier for the emotions of the entire Asian continent.

Mr. Mahbubani in his book attempts to present the world with a few scenarios which he predicts may occur due to the upcoming of Asian countries consequently making the West share their power with them. He predicts that if this upcoming is not understood correctly and accepted by the West may lead to disaster. And thus, we all, collectively, should understand it to avoid any uncalled for global events.

Posted by: Ashit Bali | 30/04/2008

about GIC/Temasek: you call their move "agressive", I call it "keen" even "hasty", since doing it later, with share prices falling further, would have been better; I wont comment on your rather philosophical words on the other two issues

a related point: when monks in tibet demo holding english signs "we want human rights", they were not addressing tibetans or chinese, but western reporters and TV audience...

Posted by: yuen | 30/04/2008

The Real Video on the BBC site doesn't play well on my Linux computer, so here is the YouTube link:

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=bbc+Hardtalk+Kishore+Mahbubani&search_type=

This dude has got a chip off his old mentor's/boss's (Lee KY) block: Attack the (western) journalist and tell him he doesn't know what he's talking about.

It is inevitable that geo-political power will be shared by MANY nation-states of the world, as economic conditions improve as individuals in countries, especially poorer countries, become wealthier. For example: there is little doubt that China and India will become the world's bankers as they have increasing amounts of money to lend. But let us not forget South America...and Russia, as well as the new market economies of the old Soviet Republic.

Posted by: Matilah_Singapura | 02/05/2008

I second your view on the tibetan protestors demonstrating to the west; but, what choice do they have? Are you saying that they should rope in Chinese civilians in their protest....or may be the other South East Asian countries including India? when the known fact is that these Chinese neighbours are too scared to risk their prospects with this emerging economic and military giant? they have no choice but to cry in front of the West as thier brothers in east have 'No Balls' to say/do the righteous.
Though, I don't think if even the west is going to come for thier rescue...nothing more than a few hard statements by far and some human right demonstrations at max on the streets of London or NY...but the issue will remain there. This issue has always been there, Olympics has given it a fresh flame...once the event is over, no one is going to talk about this and it'll again be quoted as the "Chinese Internal Affair", as always.

What about Burma? The list can go on. But all this cannot blurr the reality and the reality is that the East is emerging and West has stopped. It's just a scenario. These political and humane issues surely deglorify the success but do not disapprove of it.

Posted by: Ashit Bali | 05/05/2008

>East is emerging and West has stopped

maybe you dont know how old that is; Chairman Mao, for example said in 1957 (at a Moscow meeting) "East wind prevails over west wind"; even earlier, British colonists would bring Indian sages back home to teach eastern philosophy to European barbarians

I suggest to those who believe it to stop writing books propagating it; you dont see american authors writing books about "america is the richest nation in the world", do you? instead, they write on topics like "the wonder of hedgefunds", to persuade wealthy people all over the world to hand over their money so that the hedgefund managers can pay themselves a few billions per year for their kindness in taking care of other people's money...

Posted by: yuen | 05/05/2008

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