USA Lording it over others: No more

the show i watched said they all pretty much destroy each other and the nrothern hemisphere is covered in nuclear fallout and a democratic peaceful land of the south - presumably australia - will take the role of establishing a new world order and they all lived happily ever after.
My wife read a book which she loved in which the mystical Southern land that the post-holocaust Northern Hemisphere-ites all dream aboue escaping too is called Zeeland. It turns out that they're all trying to escape to New Zealand which is the land of plenty, and the only pocket of Nirvanna to have escaped the exchanged Nukes...

Did I mention that my wife also wants to get dual Kiwi citizenship and buy a house over there now as an "escape hatch" if we need it. She reckons Aus is on a hiding to nothing with global warming and water scarcity and Zeeland may turn out to be that abundant Nirvanna sooner than we think. :D

Cheers,
Michael
 
Now that's a radical concept :)

glad youre at least humoring her.

Did I mention that my wife also wants to get dual Kiwi citizenship and buy a house over there now as an "escape hatch" if we need it. She reckons Aus is on a hiding to nothing with global warming and water scarcity and Zeeland may turn out to be that abundant Nirvanna sooner than we think. :D

Cheers,
Michael
 
Now that's a radical concept :)

glad youre at least humoring her.
Of course I am. Would be approval to purchase another IP! :D

And I've got agreement that it needs to be somewhere nice like the Bay of Islands so I can have my yacht in the Marina if we ever do move for a while.

Cheers,
Michael
 
My wife read a book which she loved in which the mystical Southern land that the post-holocaust Northern Hemisphere-ites all dream aboue escaping too is called Zeeland. It turns out that they're all trying to escape to New Zealand which is the land of plenty, and the only pocket of Nirvanna to have escaped the exchanged Nukes...

Did I mention that my wife also wants to get dual Kiwi citizenship and buy a house over there now as an "escape hatch" if we need it. She reckons Aus is on a hiding to nothing with global warming and water scarcity and Zeeland may turn out to be that abundant Nirvanna sooner than we think. :D

Cheers,
Michael

I mentioned in another post the movie on the beach which was filmed in Melbourne in the 1950's. It was about a nuclear war where Melbourne was the last surving pocket of life before it too was snuffed out by the radiation from the prevailing winds from the northern hemisphere.
 
but.

The place is also seriously ****ed up in many ways. Its pretty easy to move from the third world to the bottom row of the first world. Its a hell of a lot harder to work your way up the rungs. No one in the first world is going to buy your products if you keep putting melanine in the milk. At least toxic bonds dont kill you outright.

For starters they are going to have to deal with their massive corruption problems. And the state of their banks, which no matter what the Chinese prudential regulator may say, are worse off than the US (its just that they are openly propped up the government).

Nah China has a lot of work to do. 20 years is way too ambitious.


I agree.

China is the place with big problems coming up. They can hardly feed them selves now. They are doing OK now when people will work for bugger all, [just like Japan 40 years ago], however their competitive advantage will fall as the wages rise.

Polution, rapidly falling water supplies, rapidly falling arable land, Nearly half the workforce are farmer peasants, earning bugger all and producing bugger all. China is is big trouble.



The US will bounce back. That place is just so naturally wealthy. The people have a natural innovative desire. The US would produce more food than the whole of China, with one 5th the population and 1% of the farm workforce.

Heaps of high quality industries that would be hard to replicate.

I reckon the US have just got a bit soft. This will be a big signal for them to get their act into gear. There is no way China is taking over from the US for generations I reckon.



Only 4 places in the world you would want to live this century. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the US, thanks to our relatively low populations and excessive natural wealth.

See ya's.`
 
Michael,

I wonder if the book your wife read is The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham?

Post nuclear world, ultra religious, those 'deviant' (different) are outcast. The main character can communicate with 'thoughts' and has to hide this fact from everyone. He tries to escape to the southern land referred to as "Sealand".

Great author, great book. Thanks for the reminder. I'm going to read it again soon.

:)
Lily
 
We in the West always critisise China for corruption but recent events have shown how corrupt the US is.

They couldn't have got themselves into this mess simply because it seemed a good idea at the time. This is a result of the thousands of highly paid lobbyists in Washington, peddling influence on behalf of every biz or group with a few mill in their slush fund. The resulting law is bad law. The ethanol subsidy/mandate is typical.
 
We in the West always critisise China for corruption but recent events have shown how corrupt the US is.

And greed has been a great driver too - almost like the nouveau riche phenomena - or that of a child who inherits a great deal of wealth from a parent/grandparent - abundant opportunity but dont really know how to manage it.
 
Michael,

I wonder if the book your wife read is The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham?

Post nuclear world, ultra religious, those 'deviant' (different) are outcast. The main character can communicate with 'thoughts' and has to hide this fact from everyone. He tries to escape to the southern land referred to as "Sealand".

Great author, great book. Thanks for the reminder. I'm going to read it again soon.

:)
Lily


OMG i LOVED that book in High School - one of my favourite books of all time.
 
How to choose ?

Hiya

My son has to decide on a second language elective in year 7 next year.

He is struggling to choose between French /German/Chinese?

For those who thinks the sun is setting for the great USA and rising in China, does it mean you would encourage your child to learn mandarin chinese then?

Cheers
jennifer
 
Chinese (Mandarin) was compulsory at both our son's schools from Year 1 (and they are both adults now!) On the other hand, I am doing some online surveys in China at the moment and the locals speak Cantonese not Mandarin! Sigh.
 
cantonese, japanese, mandarin, malaysian, vietnamese, maori.

these should be our language options - not french, italian, german etc.
 
Jim Rogers, author, investment banker, guru, billionaire, has a Chinese nanny for his daughter who is not allowed to speak English to the child.

He is totally convinced that this is China's time.
 
I think there is a new world order emerging; the ancient cultures of China, Vietnam, and India, and (fingers crossed) a responsible US. Hoping for Obama; how the world has changed for us oldies who saw some of the KKK atrocities - a black American President - please please....
 
There seems to be a lot of JFK about him and that is probably what they need more than anything now.

Wonder if he will be able to top JFK's: Think not what America can do for you...... speech?

Some of his policies are flawed though, especially on energy.
 
There seems to be a lot of JFK about him and that is probably what they need more than anything now.

Wonder if he will be able to top JFK's: Think not what America can do for you...... speech?

Some of his policies are flawed though, especially on energy.
Yes, the concern about policies is real, and he will need to surround himself with talented people to deal with this.

But right at this moment, the US as a people and a country need a person with Vision, and who has the power to make people feel as though they have direction and leadership. And that is what Obama brings. Hope he is better than JFK but I do fear for his longevity! :(

I mentioned on another thread that a colleagues daughter (who is 13) has been invited to attend the Inauguration. :eek: She is excited, but really not fully cognizant of what an honour this is! To cap it off, she isnt an American citizen, but is English, but her parents have the green card to work in the US! She happened to be school captain the year before when nominations were received! Lucky, lucky girl!

My son was school captain and was invited to attend Sir Donald Bradman's funeral. He wasnt all that excited, but we were!
 
Lets just hope he hasnt got too much JFK.... i'd like to see the guy serve out his term and possibly a 2nd term in full.


As for the China factor - I have to agree with topCropper.
If anyone has actually been into mainland china (ie. not the big cities like Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, etc) will know that there is simply no way a country that runs so inefficiently as outlined by TC can be a world leader.
I find Thailand to be more "developed" than China.

China has a LONG way to go yet - they need a few generations of change to catch up to the likes of the 1st world countries.
Like TC said - half their population are peasant farmers, and yet the nation can hardly feed itself.
 
yeah just saw - very interesting times ahead. i wonder how central america is taking the news that their opinions are not shared by 2/3 of the countries voters...
 
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