"DAMBISA MOYO:  IT'S NOT SO CLEAR ANY MORE THAT THE BROADER INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY VALUES THE INSTITUTIONS THAT THE UNITED STATES CAN OFFER IN THE WAY THAT THEY DID PERHAPS A FEW DECADES AGO.  IT'S NOT OBVIOUS THAT INSTITUTIONS LIKE THE WORLD BANK AND THE I.M.F. HAVE THE GRAVITAS THAT THEY HAD, AND IT'S NOT OBVIOUS TO ME THAT COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD ARE STILL ASPIRING TO BE MORE LIKE AMERICA IN THE WAY THAT THEY DID WHEN I WAS GROWING UP IN ZAMBIA.

I THINK THE WEST MISSED A TRICK, BECAUSE IT ADOPTED - CERTAINLY IN AFRICA AND MANY OF THE POOR EMERGING ECONOMIES - AN ATTITUDE OF "DO WHAT WE SAY AND NOT WHAT WE DO."  THE WHOLE IDEA OF INCENTIVES, WHICH HAS BEEN THE BACKBONE OF SUCCESS IN WESTERN ECONOMIES, IS NOT SOMETHING THAT THE WEST TRANSPLANTED INTO PLACES LIKE AFRICA.  THE APPROACH TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA HAS BEEN FOCUSED ON AID; IT'S BEEN FOCUSED ON WHAT SOMEONE CALLED "LERNED HELPLESSNESS."

THAT'S LEFT QUITE A BITTER TASTE.  ECONOMICALLY, MANY COUNTRIES - NOT JUST IN AFRICA, BUT BRAZIL, CHILE - NOW TURN TO CHINA.  CHINA GIVES THEM A REAL OPPORTUNITY TO SELL AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS THAT HAVE BEEN LOCKED UP OUT OF THE WEST THROUGH SUBSIDY PROGRAMS.  IT'S AN OPPORTUNITY FOR AFRICA TO TRADE, WHICH IS A KEY PIECE OF THE PUZZLE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.  A CONTINENT OF ONE BILLION HAS BEEN LESS THAN 2 PERCENT OF GLOBAL TRADE.

THE WESTERN PRESS WILL SAY, "OH MY GOD, CHINA'S RAIDING AFRICA, IT'S COLONIZATION.  AFRICANS ARE BEING ABUSED."  BUT IT'S MUCH MORE NUANCED THAN THAT.  PEOPLE DON'T BELIEVE THAT AMERICA IS INTERESTED IN AFRICA'S WELFARE BEYOND PERHAPS A FEW CHARITY CONCERTS AND SENDING A FEW BITS OF AID MONEY.  PEOPLE DON'T REALLY BELIEVE THAT AMERICA IS INTERESTED IN JOB CREATION IN AFRICA AND CREATING LONG-TERM SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH."

- EXCERPT FROM 'THE SEESAW OF POWER' FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES 23/06/11, AN INTERVIEW BY SERGE SCHMEMANN OFTHE ACADEMICS JOSEPH S. NYE JR., DAMBISA MOYO AND KISHORE MAHBUBANI.

/

AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE - NOT VERY LONG AT ALL BUT YOU ARE TAKEN ON SUCH A VIVID JOURNEY QUESTIONING THE FUTURE OF WORLD POWER THROUGH THE MEDITATIONS BETWEEN NYE, MOYO AND MAHBUBANI.  AT THIS POINT IT IS MORE OR LESS FACT THAT THE SHIFT OF HARD POWER EASTWARDS IS UNSTOPPABLE, DESPITE THE SLOW RECOVERY OF WESTERN ECONOMIES AND THE DIFFUSION OF SOFT POWER (INFORMATION) INTERNATIONALLY.  


THE DISTINCT SHIFTS IN CONSUMER CULTURE HERE IN EUROPE HAVE BEEN GARNERING A LOT OF INTEREST - IN PARTICULAR FOR ME THE SUCCESS OF THE BURBERRY BRAND SINCE THE COMPANY'S STREAMLINING OF ITS OPERATIONS POST-RECESSION, AND OF COURSE CAPITALISING ON ITS 'BRITISHNESS' (DESPITE HAVING OUTSOURCED ITS PRODUCTION TO CHINA WHICH ALSO HAPPENS TO BE THE FOCUS OF THE BRAND'S CURRENT SALES PUSH AND THE SOURCE OF ITS LARGEST PROFITS).  THIS INCREDIBLY FERTILE MARKET ALSO MEANT THE LONG-AWAITED PRADA IPO ON THE HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGE WAS, AS EXPECTED,  A SUCCESS - BOLSTERING INVESTOR CONFIDENCE IN THE GLOBAL LUXURY GOODS SECTOR AS CERTAIN EUROPEAN ECONOMIES STRUGGLE AND AMERICAN NATIONAL DEBT LOOMS (SOURCE: SAVIGNY PARTNERS / REUTERS).


 THE NEXT TWENTY YEARS IS INDEED GOING TO BE VERY EXCITING.

BURBERRY BEIJING APR '11 /

"CHINA IS SET TO BECOME BURBERRY'S BIGGEST SINGLE MARKET IN JUST FIVE YEARS AT ITS CURRENT RATE OF GROWTH - WHICH IS ALREADY THE COMPANY'S FASTEST...LUXURY BRANDS HAVE BEEN TRYING TO SEDUCE CHINA WITH PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT...BY LAUNCHING EXCLUSIVE MODELS, PRODUCTS AND OCCASIONALLY EVEN ENTIRE RANGES FOR THE MARKET."

- ROBB YOUNG, 'CHINA FIRST: COAXING OR KOWTOWING?'

THIS MADE ME SAD

THE DECADENCE OF DACADE-ISM

by Glenn O'Brien

(from 10 MEN no.20, winter/spring 10)

"...And where are we now, in this nameless decade? What is the zero-zero look? There is no dominant fashion direction but a competing spectrum of retro looks. We now choose which past decade we want to live in...It's as if the 20th century's whole life is flashing in front of its eyes.

What is the future of fashion in this next century?

The futuristic future has been out of fashion since 1982, when director Ridley Scott imagined a failed future, a postmodern future dominated by the ruins of progressive modernist ambitions. And when the twin towers fell in 2001, it was a devastating symbol of the failure of monolithic futurism. The towers were about hubris and the assumption that the future would always be bigger and brighter. The towers were ugly, arrogant and unrealistic and, as conspiracy theorists will tell you, these buildings that stood for only 30 years were completely obsolete. But now, after decades of pessimistic or at least cynical postmodernism, at this moment of hesitant transition, we seem to have a nostalgia for futurism. Cynicism isn't working any more. We want to look back at the time when the future was bright and progressive..."

this article really struck a chord with me. not least because caffeine and solitude tend to make me emotionally hypersensitive and i'd had a considerable amount of both by the time i came across this.

growing up where i did in such a transitory environment in all senses of the word - cultural, political, historical, physical - our generation wasn't really made aware of or at least feel involved with any form of history that wasn't just on a superficial level. it was as if we had spent 16 years in a waiting room with nothing but a few back-issues of Vogue/Hello/TV Guide and maybe a few Disney films and the latest Hollywood historical/war epics (all on VHS) to inform us of a world and a future that lay outside of our bubble.

(note: a world and a future that lay in the west)

so the past wasn't something that we could particularly grasp conceptually, or at least those of us diaspora that never returned regularly to our homelands. all we knew was a weird kind of present/future that was never fixed, or that was unfolding right before our eyes. our outlook was bright, it was modernist and it was extremely progressive, but like the twin towers after 30 years is now seemingly obsolete. postmodernism was an exciting enough actuality but as i think about how it has run its course coupled with the obsolescence of my former 'futurist modernism' outlook it leaves me with nothing left to grasp idealistically.

I was reading something for my tutorial on thursday by Louis Althusser about subjects being created by and existing within their own ideologies so i guess what i'm saying is that as my own ideologies are apparently succumbing to obsolescence i myself am too. and the part that really gets me is that it's not even my fault but because of how poorly equipped i was in 'the waiting room'.

the future has just been made that much more cloudy for me. i know i'm letting this one guy's opinion get to me too much but it's made me so aware of my own need to change and to evolve if i want to continue doing what i'm doing and survive.

(photo :: Duane Michals / The Illuminated Man)

EVENING STANDARD 17/11/09

came across this article in the Evening Standard last night (hooray for free newspapers). some useful highlights:

"..in economic terms China is probably the most important phenomenon of not only our but also our children's generation."

"China's GDP has increased by about $3 trillion in just seven years. By the end of next year...it will have comfortably overtaken Japan to be the world's second-largest economy."

"...the credit crunch, forcing the beginning of a new, more sensible US consumer, has obliged China to deal with the consequences of reduced exports. In its place there is a new phenomenon: welcome to the age of the Chinese consumer."

i like this idea of the chinese consumer. obviously Condé Nast will have timed GQ China's launch perfectly, considering the emergence of what market researchers refer to as the 'Little Emperors' - large numbers of young, affluent male consumers...a result from the country's birth control policies in the 70's (an interesting subject in itself actually).

times they are a-changing.