Great People

I recently watched Frost/Nixon and it was a rather enjoyable movie. First and foremost, it didn't feel like a movie at all, I thought I was watching everything live and everyone was so 'natural' that it just took my breath away. I was a little deep when Nixon commented in jest that Frost should have been a politician instead.

And while Frost was picking up Caroline, her description of Frost - A man who achieved so much fame without any desirable traits - was spectacular. Do I want to be such a person? Is it more vain to want less but to have some desirable features or characteristics? I don't know

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Speaking of politics, I couldn't help but to think about Taro Aso or 麻生太郎. Following a very optimistic presentation by Peter Schwartz on Thursday, I couldn't help but to do a comparison with US and China as well.

My sense is that Japan deserves much more celebration that US and China. First of all, the US. The US has been recognised as an international superpower and it is this respect for the US as a world leader that the country managed to get around with so many things.

Firstly, the US society is not sustainable by the way it lives. A country is not able to function well when it is perpetually in debt. The US could do it because of its status and if we bring the whole scale of things down, the US is just a company that became too big to fall. The American consumption has long kept the world going and everyone is used to the idea, the manufacture society is primarily catered to US but it is not something I can be proud of. The Americans are just born lucky. Yes, US has been kind and noble and assisted us (the other parts of the world) but I still feel that a normal American citizen is very much a Paris Hilton.

China, I have always felt that the analyst had been too optimistic. I know that such consultancy firms will look at trends but to be frank, the Chinese society has a long long way to go before reaching maturity, the maturity of a First World country. The 8% economic growth during these times could be explained by the stagnation over the years, and the issue in Xinjiang just manifested the many potholes along the road of prosperity for the population. I may be biased but my emphasis has always remained the same, that the maturity of the society is more important than the economy.

Japan, on the other hand is very mature in the social aspect. And even economically, Japan has no reason to be the second largest economy to start off with, it lost the war, it has limited resources, it continues to restrict immigration, etc. And that's why Japan would deserve more recognition. The imminent change in the political landscape is nothing to fret about and when I see the shrinking economy, I think it was just back luck for the LDP because there was little it could do when the entire world was in recession.

And most of all, the industries in Japan, in general, are working auto-pilot. It is so successful that the manufacturing, banking, R&D, etc are doing much without government intervention. The companies are competitive, yet driven by moral values which could have come from 武士道. That while being competitors, they would rather offer assistance than to contemplate exploitation. The healthy competition comes from the offer of better products or services and it is more successful than our competition between NUS and NTU or between Starhub and Singtel.

I suspect Israel is another country that deserves such recognition when it became so successful with so much going against it. I spoke to my Dad and sometimes, he would say that I'm thinking too much or looking too hard to achieve a mature society that I can be happy with. But I believe in sharing such thoughts so others may start thinking and in this way, we may be able to end the courtesy campaign because the society has become more sophisticated.

I spoke about the need to get the church to leave the comfort zone but to discuss the social issues, as a way to encourage thinking but Dad was not very agreeable to it. I can see why, I mean, I have my doubts too: was reading Exodus and the Israelites didn't appear to be thinking people. Sometimes, I do wonder if it is in accordance with Christian living to think so much. Perhaps God would be more happy with my Mum because she doesn't feel the need to think about issues at all but would be more than willing to use the time and energy to store up treasures in heaven.

It leads me to think too, so ... are religions meant for the weak? but it will be another long story.