[BITList] China: A View After Olympics

[John Feltham]

Column by T. Friedman in NYT - A Biblical Seven Years

After attending the spectacular closing ceremony at the Beijing  
Olympics and feeling the vibrations from hundreds of Chinese drummers  
pulsating in my own chest, I was tempted to conclude two things: 'Holy  
mackerel, the energy coming out of this country is unrivaled.' And,  
two: 'We are so cooked. Start teaching your kids Mandarin.'

However, I've learned over the years not to over-interpret any two- 
week event. Olympics don't change history. They are mere snapshots - a  
country posing in its Sunday bests for all the world too see. But, as  
snapshots go, the one China presented through the Olympics was  
enormously powerful - and it's one that Americans need to reflect upon  
this election season.

China did not build the magnificent $43 billion infrastructure for  
these games, or put on the unparalleled opening and closing  
ceremonies, simply by the dumb luck of discovering oil. No, it was the  
culmination of seven years of national investment, planning,  
concentrated state power, national mobilization and hard work.

Seven years ... Seven years ... Oh, that's right. China was awarded  
these Olympic Games on July 13, 2001 - just two months before 9/11.

As I sat in my seat at the Bird's Nest, watching thousands of Chinese  
dancers, drummers, singers and acrobats on stilts perform their magic  
at the closing ceremony, I couldn't help but reflect on how China and  
America have spent the last seven years: China has been preparing for  
the Olympics; we've been preparing for Al Qaeda. They've been building  
better stadiums, subways, airports, roads and parks. And we've been  
building better metal detectors, armored Humvees and pilotless drones.

The difference is starting to show. Just compare arriving at La  
Guardia's dumpy terminal in New York City and driving through the  
crumbling infrastructure into Manhattan with arriving at Shanghai's  
sleek airport and taking the 220-mile-per-hour magnetic levitation  
train, which uses electromagnetic propulsion instead of steel wheels  
and tracks, to get to town in a blink.

Then ask yourself: Who is living in the third world country?

Yes, if you drive an hour out of Beijing, you meet the vast dirt-poor  
third world of China. But here's what's new: The rich parts of China,  
the modern parts of Beijing or Shanghai or Dalian, are now more state  
of the art than rich America. The buildings are architecturally more  
interesting, the wireless networks more sophisticated, the roads and  
trains more efficient and nicer. And, I repeat, they did not get all  
this by discovering oil. They got it by digging inside themselves.

I realize the differences: We were attacked on 9/11; they were not. We  
have real enemies; theirs are small and mostly domestic. We had to  
respond to 9/11 at least by eliminating the Al Qaeda base in  
Afghanistan and investing in tighter homeland security. They could  
avoid foreign entanglements. Trying to build democracy in Iraq,  
though, which I supported, was a war of choice and is unlikely to ever  
produce anything equal to its huge price tag.

But the first rule of holes is that when you're in one, stop digging.  
When you see how much modern infrastructure has been built in China  
since 2001, under the banner of the Olympics, and you see how much  
infrastructure has been postponed in America since 2001, under the  
banner of the war on terrorism, it's clear that the next seven years  
need to be devoted to nation-building in America.

Obama is more right than he knows when he proclaims that this is 'our'  
moment, this is 'our' time. But it is our time to get back to work on  
the only home we have, our time for nation-building in America. I  
never want to tell my girls - and I'm sure Obama feels the same about  
his - that they have to go to China to see the future.


ooroo

If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door.

Anon.



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