Adroomi,

This is not an attempt to make light of the tsunami victoms.

I was wondering since you live, work, and travel in the area what where the actual figure for monies, men and aide donated by wach country? I thought you might have these since you did have the pledged figures.

Also, did you ever answer my questions from the "from a 25year old iraqi women post"?

Lance

Lance,

Thanks for the interest. I'm assuming (and actually hoping) that your interest is based upon real curiosity and concern and not just an attempt to bash me or something. Regardless, I'm glad you asked.

I'll get back to you on the Tsunami thing. That'll take some looking into.

About the questions from before about "are we able to deal with the democracy we are creating for others?" What I was implying towards was this:

America over the years has done more good for other countries than any other nation on Earth, all of us, past and present, have touched the lives of countless millions with our spread of democracy and the American dream. However there is a paradox. After the cold war we took a tragic u-turn. I've referred to it before as back-peddling. We are slowely secluding ourselves from the rest of the world. We sprinkled the world with stardust and globally inspired entire populations however now we continuously ignore the plight of others and show indifference to the millions that we inspired.

There are 1.2 billion muslims that are angry at us. In our dealings with over a billion Chinese we are unfair and very imprudent. For example, China is rapidly (and I mean like wildfire) becoming a highly capitalist nation with so much to offer, yet we now attempt to keep them "the way they were." We as Americans still refer to them as Communist, and have little realization of the huge spread of capitalism and free thinking that is going on over there. As they become more and more religiously diverse and politically stable, we turn the cold shoulder to them ever more. We wanted them to be a free nation, but now we fear this due to the realization of what this is going to do to us economically.

America is the most successful nation to ever rise up in the history of mankind. However our accumulated pools of wisdom that our founding fathers initiated and is still evident has been largely untapped in the past 30 years. We based our nation on the belief that the opinions and lifestyles of others should be respected, however we don't show it very well. The American dream is being realized worldwide, and the new Global Dream is evident.....we are sliding backwards though and further alienating ourselves.

There is a deepening distrust and resent of the United States due to our current political actions (since the cold war). We used to help "build" nations, now we hide from them and only "help" those that we have political interest in. We once dominated the world and in doing so we transformed it and unleashed globalizing forces that our political system is unable and ill-prepared to cope with.

We didn't respond to the Asian Financial crisis a few years back and are now paying for it dearly. Deals are being made behind our back, and we are angry about it. Asian countries are fastly becoming economic centers of the world, and the US Dollar is falling. Take a look at the top five most economically stable (and most expensive, an indicator of stability) cities in the world...not one of them is in the US.

We all in America preach "we are giving democracy to Iraq" and even posters on this board constantly brag about how Saddam killed so many in his country and that we stopped it, but what about the tremendous genocide that has been, and is still occuring in Africa? Not hundreds of thousands, but rather Millions of people are dying there as a result of tyrannical leadership, but most Americans are totally unaware of it. The Africans are angry at us too. The rest of the world sees us as self-serving in this respect since Africa has "nothing" for us, we simply don't respond.

Globalization is wide-spread and we started it all. However as there are now more English speakers in China than there are in the USA, we are now quickly becoming "behind" the power curve in regards to the "world."

I don't feel it's too late however. I have faith that the USA can pull itself out of this downward spiral. This is my reasoning for what some on this board refer to as "America Bashing." I'm trying to inform, and hope that others will think a little about it. Our children will hopefully live in the most powerful nation in the world, however as history tends to repeat itself, and all great kingdoms eventually fall, I fear that this may not be the case. The handwriting is on the wall, only most of us living within our four walls in "namethetown" USA don't realize it.

We preached globalization, we begged others to join us in our quest, and yet only 30% (that's a real stat by the way, not just made up) of Americans even have a passport.

I hope that helps our with an explanation of what I meant in that thread from before.

I'll check into the Tsunami thing......

Adroomi,

The asking of the questions is genuine. It is appereant that you seem to be in a particular position to have a birds eye few. My brother was an executive for Dupont for many years and his view was far and above mine, as much as I hate admitting that and I will never admit that to him.

The questions about the tsunami is two fold. First, I'm interested in the final outcome. Second, You did speak quite strongly about America's failures. Which I agree was embarassing(sp) and nothing will change that. But, I would like to know where america came out. If America came out at the top or close to it, I would be interested in hearing your stance. It seems to me that you opened up that line of discussion and that this is a natural progression. Some may bash you but I won't and to avoid that you can e-mail me directly if you like. I am just curious to see if your attitude changes, or if America still lags behind in the area of aid to the tsunami victoms. After all we Americans are under the impression that we help more then anyone. I would like to know if it is true.

It seems that America is used to being the economic and military world power, and is now using that stance to try and stay there for as long as possible. I'm not sure I blame us for that. The reason I say that is from reading what the leaders of the world bank have to say. That the dollar will most likely devalue(sp)another 10% and is heading for another recession that may last until 2007. They also said that the WORLD may be heading for a recession. At any rate it is appearent by what the econimists(sp) have to say that within 10yrs the U.S. will not be the world power. The pacific rim has been growing as a economic force since I was in college almost twenty years ago and we have been using that growth to supply US with cheap goods. It seems that soon the countries we have used to keep our way of life affordable will be demanding more as they gain in strength. Possibly on the back of China. I'm am of the opinion that we went to Irag over economic reasons. The rising gas prices here in the US has everyone up in arms, just think of the oil we use in the hands of Saddam. I'm sure that Africa is pissed because we have not helped them but I don't see what economic value there is in helping them so we won't, double standard here maybe. The US seems to be afraid of China, and we should be.

I guess I'm not sure what else we should do. I mean why shouldn't the US play its hand as long as it can? Advance as far as it can? Soon we may be at the point where we are being dictated to by the Chinese and need to have brokered every deal we can to try to keep our wa of life affordable. I don't think any other country would do anything different. I think to embrace China at this time though would send a contrary message to the world about what we have at least held as our standard, which may be partly your point about painting ourselves into a corner. I'm just not sure I call it back peddling as much as falling back to regroup so as to further the advance.

Note to self:

Type name at end of all postings.

Lance

China is a giant in the making> Lots of people and a good work ethic also alot of clever minds.They are probably the real reason for higher oil prices as the modernize and use more fuels. But one thing that will and does hold them back is they are a dictatorial society with few people wielding alot of power and no checks and balances. You could ague we are the same but we put the people in power and can put them out of power. The day they go democratic: and they will someday: wil probably seem like a joyus day to us but will really be economically bad for us. How to handle it best i do not know but being friendly aint a bad start.

LS,

Yes, please remember your name. After I was finished reading your well thought out and very informative post, I was uncertain who you were......lol.

I appreciate your seriousness in this.

I'll get some details about the end result of the Earthquake. I can say that the rebuilding has begun and fortunately at least the tourism industry has not suffered. Unfortunately there are hundreds of thousands of lives that are touched negatively by this. This event was a tragedy. One good side effect is that now folks on the Eastern Seaboard of the USA are starting to listen to, and become interested in the possibility of it happening on our soil as well. For many years, Geologists have been warning of the same outcome should we have a "highly possible" Tsunami hit us due to the eruption of the volcanoes in the canary islands. The big one there is called "cumbre vieja," but I may be spelling it wrong. I saw it once and it's a beauty.

If this baby ever blows it's top we are in trouble. Recently there have been 7 earthquakes in the region, and geologists are starting to move in to look at the volcano even closer. It's expected that in a full scale eruption, a portion of this mountain twice the size of the Isle of Mann will fall into the sea. End result 9 hours later is an anticipated 30-50 meter high wave to hit the entire southeastern seaboard of the US and carribean. This would effectively take out anything below that height, and also give NYC water 25 meters deep and 80 mph flowing down broadway.

Do a websearch on this, and you'll see the risk. It's scary. I'm glad I live on a hill.....

Jack,

You've hit the nail on it's noggin'

Check this:

Air China: “Looking forward, Air China expects the Chinese economy to continue to grow at a rapid pace and, as a result, demand for air traffic will increase rapidly over the next three years, with an anticipated growth rate of 13% to 15% annually. We expect international demand to grow faster than domestic and demand for cargo traffic to grow faster than passenger traffic. However, the Company also faces challenges such as increasing competition and high jet fuel costs”, Media Release. Source: Air China, 12 April

As a side note, the Chinese Airline industry has for the past 4 years grown a record average of 13-15 percent per year. This is absolutely amazing bro' and it's also scary. Airbus is reporting that China is now 30% (yes, 30%!) of it's entire customer base. China is also the first customer to buy the A380, followed by Singapore, Japan, and Korea. Emirates are in there at number two I think. The fact that Asian airlines are showing (and I mean ALL of them) record profits and financial gain, while most US airlines are suffering record losses should throw up some red flags. Not in terms of we Americans suck in regards to making money for some reason, but rather in the respect that "Asians are flying!" What does this mean? This means that while we aren't going anywhere, they are going everywhere! Why do they travel? Business and pleasure both, regardless, they are leaving their countries and expanding their horizons into the rest of the world. When people travel to other countries, they have a tendency to like the places they go, and some of them start doing things such as purchasing land, starting businesses, and investing in the places they go to. In other words, as Asians (particularily the Chinese) start to build "global" business, we still sit on our thumbs and never think outside our own borders (or outside the box as you business managers can relate to). China and Japan are battling it out over business deals right now. This has never happened in the past, China stayed at home and didn't care what happened outside it's borders. Now they are fighting the Japanese over international business deals.

China recently lifted the tax levy on foreign made "high end" consumer goods such as Louis Vuitton, and Gucci. They have also enacted some very tough laws against counterfeit goods. What does this mean? It means that Chinese are now buying $1000 purses and $5000 watches, and the cheap fakes are soon going to be a thing of the past. How does this affect us? Well, the $10 t-shirt that is made in China for $1.00 will soon cost us $25 if we can even get it all all. We live and survive off of this countries cheap consumer goods, but in the future they may just hold us by the b*lls in relation to them "having it," and us "needing it."

Adroomi,

Thats why I'm asking why the US shouldn't get what we can now. It also seems the better we are at furthering our cause now the longer it will take to being placed in the back seat. Being friends with China is great but it goes against the message we sell to the rest of the world. How would the US explain a friendship with China? Sorry guys but what we have been preaching for 250yrs is up for sale for the right price, or is it?

Lance

Adroomi,

I remember seeing a tv show about tsunami's when I was a teenager. This show(can't remember the name) discussed the eventuality not the possibility of a tsunami hitting US soil. Mainly Hawiian islands, but mentioned Kaliafornia.

Lance

LS,

Actually, we've been preaching democracy. Now that they've joined the team, we should really hold up our end of the deal. That was my point. We preach and teach, and even assist in democratic convention to others, but once they take the bait and join the team, we seem to let them slip away.

With Kyoto, we really p*ssed off a lot of folks.

With China for example, they are "this close" (hold fingers together for a visual aid) to achieving what we've been preaching for so long, and it is now going to bite us in the butt.

So, back to my point on the "Iraqi woman" thread.......now that we have brought democracy to Iraq, are we able, willing, and ready to deal with the repurcussions? We will soon no longer be able to take advantage of these people, steal their oil, and get cheap goods and such from them. They will hopefully become a consumer in the world market.....another competitor of ours instead of someone "under our thumb." This is my point in a few previous topics when I say....."the more we give them freedom over there (there being anywhere else but US soil), the more we lose it over here.

Adroomi,

I thinking last night as I lay in bed. If part of our problem is a growing trade deficeit, and the evntuality of foriegn goods becoming more expensive. Wouldn't US products become more able to compete abroad and at home? Of course the US economy would have to switch back to producing rather then serving. Wouldn't this also help with the trade deficeit?

Lance

FWIW...

I could very very well be wrong, but I do not believe that the US has had a positive trade balance since around WWII.

This is an interesting thread, but that's my $02 (or less...)

I've long wondered why our trade IM-balance has not received more attention.

BottomFeeder

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Amberwaves/February04/ 

Features/USTradeBalance.htm

if you want more:

http://dataweb.usitc.gov/scripts/cy_m3_run.asp 

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/crisis/2003/tradebalchart.htm 

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Amberwaves/February04/Features/USTradeBalance.htm