AFTER TWO LOST DECADES, JAPAN IS SLIPPING

In the 1980s, Japan was the dragon of the world. All cutting edge technology ­ cars, gadgets, cameras, medical equipment and new management systems ­ came from Japan. Then the country started to slow down, and it basically went to sleep.

Serious Conflict Brewing Between China and Japan

From time to time, we read about the confrontation between Japan and China over some insignificant islands, called the Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China, which are also claimed by Taiwan. Japan also faces claims by South Korea over the Dodko islets, called Takeshima in Japan.

Banks and Politics: A Dangerous Mix

Hardly a week goes by without the disclosure of some new banking scandal. The most recent is the New York State Department of Financial Services' accusation of Britain's Standard Chartered of laundering 250 billion dollars in transactions considered potentially supportive of terrorist activities. Standard Chartered, until now believed to be one of the cleanest banks, agreed on August 14 to pay a gigantic fine of 340 million dollars to stop criminal prosecution.

Europe: Finance Takes Over Politics

Like passengers on a ship in a storm, European banks and governments are holding onto each other in a precarious embrace.

CHINA: WAITING FOR NEW GOVERNMENT AND MAJOR REFORMS

A recurrent prediction of western politicians says that China, with its economic development, will inevitably transform itself into a democracy. Nonetheless, after five weeks traveling around the country, I have no doubt that if there were elections today, the Communist Party (CCP) would win elections with a wide majority.

CHINA: THE ECONOMY GROWS WHILE CULTURAL IDENTITY DISAPPEARS

Xie Jing is 15 years old and belongs to the generation that in 2020, according to predictions, will see China transformed into the major world economic power. But Xie has no political or cultural interest. His generation is very different from previous ones. She lives in her own world, completely globalized, where the North American life style is the main reference point. She dresses herself as a North American teenager, listens to the same music, has the same idols and the same relation with the Internet and virtual world. The governmental newspaper, China Daily published two striking articles. On the 28th of October it revealed that electronic matrimony became very popular amongst youngsters. A game called cybermarriage registered one million participants in the first month. It is calculated that the electronic matrimonies have reached 30 million subscribers, and that 70% of the "married couples" are under 18.

BANKS DO NOT LEARN THE LESSONS OF HISTORY

There is not one day going by now without devastating news of the eternal tug-of-war between finance and states. Now we are informed that the Greek government, in order to continue receiving useless subsidies (since it won't solve its problems) will lay off another 30,000 employees. It is difficult to understand how a country that is suffering a critical contraction of its consumption will be able to exit a cruel downward spiral that will cause serious social deficits, without solving its fiscal deficit. However, the banks are not willing to eliminate any of their bad practices that have caused the current crisis.

IRENE, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE CARIBBEAN

Anyone who discusses international affairs with Americans quickly becomes aware of a fundamental change in syntax without which they find it impossible to converse. The subject of every sentence has to be the United States. If China, India, or Germany, for example, are the focus, the attention of the American interlocutor will waver -unless, perhaps the subject is Israel. The US is the only possible subject of discussion for Americans,with the obvious exception of the cultural elites and US citizens doing business around the world.

A PLAN OF ACTION FOR EUROPEAN POLITICS

Before anything else what we need today is a paradigm to diagnose and address the many grave global problems that face us all but are experienced differently in the various regions of the world. Because in Europe the crisis is more evident and is causing the suffering of tens of millions of people, the young especially, we must take it as reality.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO WALL STREET

The behaviour of the banks reminds one of the Balkan folk dancers who face and applaud each other and then turn their backs. They lend more money than they have available to creditors who will not be able to repay it, knowing that the government will rescue them with public funds to keep them from going bankrupt and causing economic chaos. Once they get their hands on the money, the cycle begins again.

WE NEED BETTER, NOT MORE, INFORMATION

Not long ago we were convinced that the more information we had the more aware we would be as citizen and the more likely to make informed decisions at the polls. Today it seems the more information we have, the more questions we have. Ultimately, rather then feeling more secure, we feel more uncertain.

EUROPE: THE FISCAL DEFICIT VS THE SOCIAL DEFICIT

President of the Council of European Finance Ministers and Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Jean Claude Junker, won sudden fame when he stated, "We all know what we have to do, but if we did it we would all lose in the next elections." This comment reflects the impotence of politics and the road that Europe now finds itself on.

CUBA: BETWEEN SOCIALISM AND THE MARKET

The process of change now taking place in Cuba has given rise to radical analyses in which a part of the left denounces the betrayal of socialism while a part of the right proclaims the collapse of the regime. Seen from the island itself, things are no where near so simple. Quite to the contrary.

A NEW CONSENSUS FOR AN HABITABLE WORLD FOR ALL

History will judge us severely if we are incapable of responding to the challenges and opportunities presented by the global crisis. Instead of using 50 billion dollars to eradicate poverty, which was one of the agreed Millennium Objectives, the consensus among governments was to grant fifty times that amount to save the speculating banks that “are too large to let fall”, contradicting their own neo-liberal doctrine of allowing the market to regulate itself without government intervention.

GLOBALISATION: ENGINE OF A NEW WORLD ORDER

Citizens around the world have been hit with a flood of startling news recently: the Wikileaks revelations about how US officials see the world and how speculative financial capital takes advantage of the weakness of states, now also in Italy and, it seems, on the verge of moving into Germany. Meanwhile national budgets are being slashed in all the industrialised countries and waves of layoffs imposed.

THE FALL OF THE WEST

The last G20 meeting showed us that we are far from global governance. It's clear that national interests, although interdependent, do not coincide, and that the era when the West could impose its will on developing countries is over.

THE US MOVES TOWARDS THE FUTURE UNPREPARED AND UNSEEING

The Tea Party's giant rally in Washington drew 300,000 Americans protesting taxation, a government that is suffocating its citizens, and a marxist, Kenyan-born, Muslim Obama. These people are calling on the United States to be a world leader again and dispense with debate and vacillation.

CRISIS OF THE EUROPEAN POLITICAL CLASS

It was sixty years ago this May that French foreign minister Robert Schumann made his appeal for a United Europe that would prevent the wars and traumas that had haunted European history. It would be hard to imagine a less auspicious time for celebration.

US, EU, AND CHINA: GLOBAL GOVERNANCE GROWS HARDER AND HARDER

In the few weeks since President Obama succeeded in passing his health reform bill, we have seen numerous developments that clearly indicate the search for global governance is growing more and more difficult. Let's begin with the United States, where the lesson to be learned is that politics, in matters of greatest importance, can simply ignore public opinion. Various Democratic senators whom Obama pressured to support the reform bill now run the risk of losing re-election for doing so.

EUROPE. THE CRISIS OF THE LEFT

The victory of the right in January's elections in Chile has stirred reflections on the crisis of the left. Of the 15 countries in Europe that had leftist governments in 1992, only five do today, and of these three -Portugal, Spain, and Greece- presently find themselves in grave financial and social difficulty. For people under fifty, it is hard to grasp how deep the roots of this crisis go. The solution does not seem to be a quick one.

A BAD START TO THE NEW CENTURY

Sadly one would have to agree that the first decade of the new century is not a cause for optimism. Not only have we not solved the problems that we had, other even more difficult ones have been added to the list.