powers also had some influence.
The sun never set of the Empire. Queen Victoria ruled a quarter of the world or thereabouts.
Germany, France, Italy, even little Belgium had their own empires.
Then came the twentieth Century and two world wars which broke apart those empires
and bought the United States to prominence as the world’s economic and industrial
powerhouse. While the US did not directly rule other nations they were none the less an
Empire.
Now we have entered the twenty first century and the world turns again.
It is the East that is rising to power. The nations of the Pacific Rim are the new rising
empires and it is they that will drive the world economy this century.
China, Japan, South Korea, Australia. These are the new rulers.
Trade across the Atlantic will fall and trade across the Pacific will rise.
500 million people in Europe.
A billion plus in China, even more in India, another billion spread between the other
countries of the Far East. Half the world’s population are based around the pacific and
when you include India which is a short sea route from Thailand, Indonesia, Australia
and the pacific basin well over half of the potential buyers and sellers in the world are
PacRim citizens.
The West has spent a decade moving its factories to non European nations where cars
and washing machines and computers can be built more cheaply.
Now as the world turns all of those modern, highly productive factories are in the right
place to tend to the emerging markets of the PacRim.
Global companies can easily relocate to the new world, leaving the old world to crumble
and fade.
Global companies demonstrate this clearly, out of date nations trapped in the last century
complain about unpaid taxes and tax havens, about lack of control and accountability or
about how they cannot order them around as they can companies trapped by brick
buildings into a single country.
Intellect based companies can easily do business in the Digital Nation, borders, distances,
languages don’t matter that much when you areplugged into the online world.
Shame about our backward infrastructure though, ultra high speed fibre optic across the
entire UK would certainly help the whole country reach the new world markets and to
compete on a level field with the Eastern nations. Maybe when pigs fly and our politicians
come to their senses and look to this century rather than wasting upwards of £80 billion
on a Victorian transport system.
The fading power of the west is clear to see in the Middle East.
Europe meets to discuss withholding aid to Egypt to force the hand of the Egyptian
government and military, no one cares.
The US may be considering withholding £1.3 Billion in aid along with weapons and
equipment for the Egyptian army, probably never happen.
Western media raise ever more strident calls for action, no one is listening.
The entire Middle East is engulfed in violence, either directly or supporting one side or the other.
The western powers growl and grumble and no one cares. Europe’s entire aid budget is about
what Saudi Arabia can provide in a few weeks, the influence of Europe in the Middle East or in
the world for that matter fades month by month while European politicians continue to behave
as if we still lived in the last century or the one before that.
In the US those who call for the stopping of aid to the Egyptian army will be ignored. As much
as he and his administration keeps trying to support the Muslim Brotherhood, in the end Obama
will once more bow and grovel before the King of the house of Saud and will do what he is told.
Even if Obama were to be overruled or decide to go against his Saudi master he must still accept
that Russia is ready to step in.
Putin has already met the King of Saud and there are mutterings about a visit to Egypt, stories
about Putin meeting the Egyptian government and taking over as the main weapons provider for
the Egyptian army. A pro Russian Egypt having control over the Suez would be the clearest sign
of the change in world power.
US warships being told to wait because a Russian destroyer or Russian flagged cargo ship has priority,
that one will burn.
That is the consequence of the US doing anything against the Egyptian government and military.
Here in the western world we live in the splendour of history. We have rich well developed nations
and what is left of our once mighty armies and industries.
But the world is changed.
Much that once was is lost.
We live in the old world, the old markets. The new world is on the other side of the globe and so are
the new markets and the new buyers and sellers.
This is where we need to be looking for customers and trade partners, this is where we should be
focusing our efforts.
The UK is a global leader in the Finance industry; it brings in a significant tax return for the UKPLC
but is exactly the kind of industry that can easily move to the US or the Far East. The response of
our forward thinking masters in Brussels is to try and legislate them into oblivion. Net result, they
will up and move to a night shift in New York or Tokyo while still covering what is left of the European
markets.
The UK and Europe give aid to tyrants and warlords and to space programs and then wonder why
they have so little influence.
The UK pours money into the bottomless pit that is the, still, unaudited EU budget. While some of
this is used to benefit the people of Europe it is difficult to see what is achieved by this overall as the
books are, to say the least, well cooked in Brussels.
How much more could be achieved in the world if a large percentage of this was instead used to
increase trade across the world. Instead of growling at countries and then wondering why they do
not respond how about positive actions to build respect, instead of visiting a nation like Victoria’s
Agents bringing aid to the poor primitives how about helping them build the hospitals they need to
treat their own sick and injured. How about helping them build the plants to make vaccines and
medicines instead of standing aloof and dispensing support with Imperial arrogance.
The nations of the west all too often act as they did when they were colonial powers, bringing aid
and support to the locals as long as they behave the way they are told to. Damn savages getting
ideas above their station and acting for themselves, Queen Victoria’s ministers, jowls a jiggle, will
yank the aid they so generously provide. That will teach the peasants. How dare they ignore the
orders of their betters?
The world of the twenty first century is changing; the dominance of Europe and the US is so last
century. The governments and leaders of the West continue to deny what is happening and
continue to act as if they still rule the world.
They act like a defeated general, still moving tokens representing long destroyed armies across
a map that was long since conquered by his enemy.
The Economy of Egypt has crashed, poverty and starvation are a significant risk, it is even worse over
there than it is here in the UK with charities feeding the poor and the hungry.
Fighting continues, the Egyptians against the Muslim Brotherhood, the army against the theocracy.
People are dying as Egypt struggles to find its place in a changed new world.
Europe and the US mutter into their beards and bang their fists on the tables, bloody uppity third
world idiots trying to do things themselves. They should be listening to those Oh So Wise Western
Leaders who have done such a Stirling job of running Europe and the US.
Into the ground!
Want to have influence in the world, want to have influence in Egypt. How about you stop behaving
like 19th Century ministers with an Imperial gunboat squadron or army behind you and start doing
something to earn a place in the twenty first century.
The UK and Europe are fading powers. The US is going the same way it just started from a more
powerful position. On the world stage they are becoming increasing ignored as they continue to
do nothing worthwhile.
Egypt and its people have a great many problems. Instead of threatening them how about helping
them and then asking nicely if they can reduce the fighting. The people of Egypt are worried about
hunger, the banks of the Nile are some of the most fertile farm land in the fertile crescent which
was the birthplace of civilisation based around cities and farming.
Instead of withdrawing aid how about asking can Europe send in people and machines to increase
the grain harvests of the Nile. How about making a positive impact for once.
When a man has a full belly and a well fed family he is far more inclined to sit and talk to the person
that helped him grow that food.
But that is a modern way of thinking, too simple for our Victorian Leadership.