Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JongnoGuru]

Bye bye birds
Bye bye animals
Hello polluted skies
I think I'm gonna cry-y

Bye bye hope
Bye bye drinking water
Hello resource wars
I think I'm gonna die-ie
Bye bye, Planet Earth, goodbye

[Moldy Rutabaga]

If we can survive to the 22nd century, I'd just be thankful that we have a future-- let alone who runs it.

Ken:>

[manlyboy]

I think the issue of where the best minds are being channeled is important here. I don't know about China, but it seems that in the West, our geniuses are being channeled into things like iPod technology, film production and computer software.
This seems like a surefire way to get overtaken.

[funplanet]

What does it matter who it belongs to? There is money to be made regardless...and that, my friends....is the bottom line

[Homer]

[Paji eh Wong]

Besides Hwang Woo Seok, can anyone here name a famous scientist educated in East Asia? And I mean before the Mongols showed up.

Thought not.

Hey Homer. So you've got no problem with Chinese values? Nothing against the systematic eradication of Tibetan culture? How about Mao being the bloodiest despot of the twentieth century? How's their environmental record?

I'm for a little cultural reletavism, but lets not be ridiculous.

[Homer]

Oh Paji..there you go off the deep end again.

Where did I say I have buy into all chinese values or more ludicrously support the oppression of Tibet?
Also...I never said I had no problem with bad environmental policies in China and other countries (I do)...


I was answering the question in the OP....what are you doing besides taking a shot at me by implying I said something I didn't?

Grow up please.

[tomato]

It would give me malicious pleasure.

At the time I was growing up, the United States was unchallenged as having the world's highest per capita income. The grade school principal would call us into the gymnasium for assemblies in which she would tell us how wonderful our nation was. Therefore, any grievances against parents or schoolteachers were trivial. ("You don't know how lucky you are!")

In my mind, then, any demotion of the United States' per capita income ranking counts as a promotion in empathy-worthiness for the children in the United States.

[Butterfly]

[EFLtrainer]

It's all going to fall down and go boom! After that, who knows?

[travel zen]

China? Superpower? Never.

All they can do now is to execute its citizens for not knowtowing to the party line.

I went to China and found the biggest haox in the twenty first century. Korea has a better chance at domination than that rickety mess called China.

Go there and see for yourself.

[Paji eh Wong]

Fair enough, Homer. I wasn't responding to the post.

[Homer]

Ok Paji,

Good response.

However, this good values vs bad values runs the risk of glancing over many particularities.

I mean Chinese government policies are by no stretch of the imagination "good". On the flip side you cannot condem all chinese values as bad (much like you could not do this about an other nations values).

For example, does the current US administrations policies in world affairs truly represent the entire US population and its beliefs and values towards the world? There is a trap there...a very big trap.

China is a big country with over a billion people, most of them are not truly involved in what you call the bad values of China (government policies). In fact, due to the government being a one-party no questions asked one, the population has basically no say on the policies and values that are being put forth by the Chinese government. A difference must be made between the people and their government in a society that does not have a full representative democracy.

Back to the question...does Asia running the show worry me?

Nope.

Why?

Because this is not the 18th or 19th century. The world of international affairs is not the same and does not allow for the same options for a powerhouse nation. Hence, those bad values or that bad country you call out could not run things like China of the 18th or 19th (by the way...those centuries pretty much belonged to the British as far as world domination goes).

The 18th and 19th centuries were basically Pax Britannica and back then you would not have called the Brits a good country by your standard of values. They were an empire based on exploitation of colonies for their benefit. Today, they are no longer that way and have now entered the "good values country" association?

it is a given that the US will be replaced one day as "world leader". Many political scientists and economists seem to think that it is not one nation that will replace the US but rather a regional grouping along the lines of the EU. Now, given that, China would be a leader as part of an asian economic coalition that would no doubt include countries such as Japan and Korea among others. This means a consensus building process and not a lone gun superpower. That also means that those "bad" values you mention would be countered by the need to work within a grouping of nations.

As for your final sentences, I cannot disagree more. They do not want to emulate us in every way. They want economic prosperity. Those are two different things. Also, if you simply consider demographics in North America, we (whites??) will not be wearing the "pants" for much longer as we (whites) are not making many babies and our North Am nations are compensating for this with immigration, a growing slice of this coming from asia....hmmm...

Also, we wear the "pants" only to some extent as any look at an import-export sheet will tell you.

They will not become us, they will advance and be themselves. They can adopt certain values while retaining their core values. Japan became the 2nd biggest economy in the world and it is still very much Japanese in its social values and norms. It has adopted some western values but Japan certainly did not become "us"...and I don't see why other asian nations would either.