[Reader-list] Guardian Unlimited: Daring to dream

[Keith Hart]

Sanjay,

Thanks for posting our private exchange on the list. I hope readers can 
make sense of it backwards.

Your use of the word 'irresponsible' struck a chord, since one of my 
main reasons for sending the original piece was to raise the question of 
responsibility in publishing on the net. For you are an internet 
publisher and the issue is whether readers are entitled to know where 
you are coming from when you send out something that catches your interest.

I only raise this issue because Rifkin's pitch was so outrageous. 
Subsequently you have told me of your interest in the EU transnational 
experiment (which is undoubtedly important for the rest of the world as 
well as for those of us who are part of it) and in the evidence he gave 
that Europe is now in some respects a bigger economy than the USA. You 
have also acknowledged that my line offers a rather different angle to 
his. But I still don;t know if there are grounds for a debate between us 
and any interested onlookers. Maybe that too is the point -- let's keep 
it informational and not get upset about anything.

This is a week when the Republicans are trying to bully and con the 
American people into re-electing them because of fear of terror; when 
Putin's path to authoritarian rule is challenged by Chechen rebels, 
while the others (the US, Britain, France and Germany keep quiet because 
they think he is th ebest man to keep the lid on there. Let's not even 
discuss the mess in the Middle East. Anyone who travels internationally 
these days knows how security is being tightened everywhere and 
immigrants are a universal scapgoat for insecurity. In this highly 
contemporary scenario, Rifkin tells us that Europe offers the kind face 
of social democracy, transnational cooperation and ecological concern as 
an alternative to get-rich-quick America a.k.a. liberal democracy or 
corporate capitalism running amok. But he is not burning his boats 
there, since his pitch is that, if Britain can help the Americans and 
Europeans get into bed, they can rule the world safely together for 
another hundred years.

I just wonder how such a story plays in Asia. The Chinese government for 
sure is not backing down in the face of the US-Europe dual hegemony that 
passes for a world order at present. They have refused to fix the 
exchange rates so that America is less embarrassed by the balance of 
trade betwen them and they are accumulating massive dollar deposits as a 
result. It is worth recalling that offshore banking took off in the form 
of eurodollar market after Russian and Chinese were seized in New York 
at the beginning of the Cold War. Revenge is sweet and it may not be far 
off.

My bet is that India and China will become the superpowers of the 21st 
century, as befits their strategic economic position, size and ancient 
civilisation. After half a century of hiding from the world while 
generating one of the world's most successful diasporas, India is now 
back in the game. American newspapers make a big deal of outsourcing 
service jobs through the internet and there is some substance to this. 
India stands to become the next global centre for information services 
using English as a common language. All of this is embryonic. But I 
subscribe to this list to see if young avant-garde Indian intellectuals 
(and their fellow travellers) show any awareness of the possibilities. 
That's where I am coming from.

Keith