Us, Through the Looking Glass

One of the benefits of having worked in Canada and in the UK (albeit for a short time) was an introduction and appreciation of the different perspectives their news broadcasts displayed towards the US. In Canada, I watch the CBC while in the UK and even today it is the BBC. While we here in the US are fed a steady stream of visuals and sound bites, which so reminds me of the lyrics in the Don Henley song “Dirty Laundry” - “…bubble headed bleached blonde comes on at five, she can tell you ‘bout a plane crash with a gleam in her eye…” in Canada and the UK the depth of analysis and commentary go far deeper.

You may be asking, at this point, where am I going with this? Well, after seeing a series of news stories both from our country and from abroad I cannot help but acknowledge that there are two different views on how we are seen. One view is from our own house, if you will, and the other views comes from outside. Now, I am not endorsing one over the other, just acknowledging that they exist (don’t want anyone to think I am unpatriotic).

We are the greatest country on the planet – there is no question about that in my mind. However, whether we know it or not our crown has been constantly challenged over the years. From the early days when the European powers exercised dominance over our fledging nation, to more recently when the Soviet Union bullied us with it military might or when Japan challenged us with its economic muscle.

Nowadays, our opponent, wearing the red trunks and weighing in at slightly more that a billion people (1,330,044,544 – but who’s counting) is China. Whereas, one could say our military weakness was exposed after Iraq (not to say we won’t be triumphant – just that it was harder than we thought) and our financial flaws were laid bare at the onset of this, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression (remember, we started it), we now look to China to prop up our financial system and to it people to stimulate the global economy.
A study by Goldman Sachs states that China’s economy will surpass our by 2027 and will be nearly twice our size by 2050 and since economic power is the foundation for military, political and cultural one can only wonder if, at some future time the world will be pegged to a currency other than the dollar. Could Shanghai cast a shadow over London or New York as the preeminent financial center?

This view is more easily obtained when one is exposed to different perspective, via outside news organizations, than through our own media and the benefit one can get out of it is that, at times, one can get a view from 30,000 ft. More often than not, tone looks at the landscape differently. One could concede the argument that we, as a nation, suffer from a bit of western conceit and that it is our way or the highway. We, packing our democracy in one holster and the rule of law in the other, should acknowledge that these are not prerequisites for economic might (but perhaps a coincidence) in that over time there were many other nation that were far wealthier without our way of governing.

In any case, the bottom line to this short-thought made long is, that when ever possible, look at us from the outsiders perspective – whether it be a foreign newspaper, magazine, news broadcast, or even a foreign citizen. It may make you go “hmmm...”

*btw – I had many a conversation with folks I met at one of my favorite pubs in Toronto – The Spotted Dick on Bloor Street – highly recommend it.