Today, in the warm LA sunshine at lunch, I discussed with a senior entertainment company executive what was going to be the next big thing in entertainment. Our conclusion was that it would undoubtedly combine the intuition and design elements of Apple’s sexy looking, but kind of techno chunky i Phone and a cut down, smaller even lighter version of their Mac Air, on which I’m composing this story. Married to this will be increased, enhanced flash memory, and “Tivo”, UK readers will be more familiar with the “Sky Plus” brand, type television adaptability.
Of course there will have to be quicker connectivity and even faster access. There won’t be a need for much hard memory as the years roll forward. The reason for this will probably turn out to be “The Grid” being currently finalized in Switzerland. This was developed to allow the processing of the incredibly large number of computations necessary to translate the huge atom smashing mechanism built into the mountains of Switzerland. This is so huge a computing project that it was necessary for The Grid to be created to free up the Internet. The result is that The Grid will create incredible spare capacity for all our information storage and moving needs. This, in turn will result in little or no need for the average user to store their information on their PC. We will all hold our information on the Grid, calling for it only when we need it. The Internet will be consigned to the dustbin of history as it simply will not have the capacity necessary to adapt to ever increasing demands.
The results will revolutionize the type of devices we use and carry with us. Super fast, super thin and light. They will all be very desirable but the winners will be those that have the best design elements. Content will eventually be freely available to everyone because advertising concerns will pay for you to have it as long as you carry their advertisements. Personally I will be the consumer who prefers the option to pay for what I want. I think many of my age group will choose the same path but it will be a progressively harder position to maintain.
I used to maintain that content is king but I believe that this position is no longer possible to maintain. This changed when the major distribution / production powerhouses in the entertainment factories decided to turn the creative industries into a paperback type industry. The idea used to be to get the maximum revenue from each area of the industry before it passed down the food chain. This kept the values optimized. Now, for reasons of market driven, short-term capitalism the idea is to get the biggest dollar figure as quickly as possible. It is comparable to harvesting all the trees in the forest and not re-planting because you want to move as much wood to the buyers as quickly as you can. Obviously, working this way you’ll bank a lot of money, but next year you won’t have any trees to sell.
As a consequence the strategic planning for and residual values of entertainment libraries are being very rapidly diminished on the questionable alter of this quarter’s figures. Even star driven, major company big pictures are being dumped into the discount bins so what chance do the little projects have in this economic model, none?
In a world in which you can compare shop in the very limited and finite linear shelf space of your supermarket, or surf the net to see what the universe has to offer, there will only be one winner. Everything in retail is migrating to the net because it’s cheaper, less labor intensive and easier to manage. This will result in even less city and town shopping centers turning some of our cities into progressively more shop and industry free places to live.
The question is can knowledge and creativity based economies such as those in the G7 club of the richest, old first world powerhouses, survive their transition from the old economic model to the new sufficiently to prosper enough to continue to consume from the new manufacturing and raw material supplying countries such as China, India and Russia? This is going to be essential to keep the world economy moving.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
My Heroes
Yesterday my favorite football team, (soccer for my American friends) Manchester United, qualified for the final of the European Champions League. They did so by beating Spain’s champions, Barcelona in the semi-final. In the final, set for Moscow in May, they will meet the winner of Liverpool V Chelsea, who are playing their game as I write. It has been quite a year for English club football in the world’s premiere club football tournament. This is like the Superbowl, the World Series and the Olympics rolled together. There will be billions of people around the globe watching this game.
All four of the English qualifying teams made it to the final stages of the competition, a feat never been achieved before by any national league’s representatives. In this sport England is treated as a separate nation from the other parts of the UK, so Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have their own leagues and representation.
There is a special importance for me related to Manchester United’s accomplishment this year that transcends normal soccer elements such as skill, tribal passion and athleticism.
The first game of football I was taken to by my father took place almost exactly a half -century ago. My family all supported one of the great old London teams, Arsenal. They were going to take me to see Arsenal play Manchester United so that I, like them, would naturally become a fan of the Arsenal.
How were they to know that, at age 8, I was to fall under the magic spell of the Red Devils, the nickname of Manchester United. They were led by a colossus who was then aged 21, called Duncan Edwards. Perhaps one of the best soccer players in the world, ever, he was already a star of the full England team. He was capable of playing in every position of the team. That’s like being an American football quarterback who could also kick all the goals and be a wide receiver!
I was a small kid but was soon spellbound by this giant Edwards. He led this team of precociously brilliant young talent, which had been assembled by one of the best managers the game had ever been graced by, Sir Matt Busby. The team he had brought together was collectively known to the world as the Busby Babes. They were the youngest team in the top division of English football and had already won the competition the previous year. I remember watching them beat Arsenal 5 – 4 in one of the greatest games I was ever to see. I was in awe of them, as was the rest of the world. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they would dominate world soccer for the next decade.
They were due to play in the quarterfinal of the European Cup the following week in Eastern Europe against Partisan Belgrade in Yugoslavia. The game resulted in Manchester United qualifying for the semi-final. On the way home the team’s airplane had to refuel in Munich, Germany. It was snowing and icy. The first two times the plane tried to take off there were problems. The third time the plane was destroyed.
The result was a catastrophe. Several journalists, team officials and eight players from the squad, the backbone of the team, were to die, including Duncan Edwards. He fought a long, hard, heroic but ultimately futile battle against his terrible injuries whilst his manager, Matt Busby, was read the last rites. It was the older man, forged in the tough working class of his native Scotland, who survived. He was fated to lead his club to greatness.
Within weeks the club managed to put together a scratch team, which got to the final of the English Cup, the semi final of the European Cup and a respectable finish in the League. Within another decade there was a Manchester United team winning that European Cup. The first English team ever to do so. They won it again, along with the English League and Cup in 1999, the only team to have ever won all three competitions in the same year.
The club just held the dignified memorial for the 50-year anniversary of that awful tragedy and, as fate would have it, the team has again made it to the final of the competition. Win or lose the club has already won. They are already the best-supported, biggest sports team in the world, a testament to what can be achieved against the odds.
Like the Red Devils of the past they play sweeping, attractive football, which captivates the world. Their concept is buccaneering, attack minded and based on the concept that they are simply better than anyone they ever play, now all they have to do is prove it, again!
Manchester United, the best sports team in the world.
All four of the English qualifying teams made it to the final stages of the competition, a feat never been achieved before by any national league’s representatives. In this sport England is treated as a separate nation from the other parts of the UK, so Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have their own leagues and representation.
There is a special importance for me related to Manchester United’s accomplishment this year that transcends normal soccer elements such as skill, tribal passion and athleticism.
The first game of football I was taken to by my father took place almost exactly a half -century ago. My family all supported one of the great old London teams, Arsenal. They were going to take me to see Arsenal play Manchester United so that I, like them, would naturally become a fan of the Arsenal.
How were they to know that, at age 8, I was to fall under the magic spell of the Red Devils, the nickname of Manchester United. They were led by a colossus who was then aged 21, called Duncan Edwards. Perhaps one of the best soccer players in the world, ever, he was already a star of the full England team. He was capable of playing in every position of the team. That’s like being an American football quarterback who could also kick all the goals and be a wide receiver!
I was a small kid but was soon spellbound by this giant Edwards. He led this team of precociously brilliant young talent, which had been assembled by one of the best managers the game had ever been graced by, Sir Matt Busby. The team he had brought together was collectively known to the world as the Busby Babes. They were the youngest team in the top division of English football and had already won the competition the previous year. I remember watching them beat Arsenal 5 – 4 in one of the greatest games I was ever to see. I was in awe of them, as was the rest of the world. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they would dominate world soccer for the next decade.
They were due to play in the quarterfinal of the European Cup the following week in Eastern Europe against Partisan Belgrade in Yugoslavia. The game resulted in Manchester United qualifying for the semi-final. On the way home the team’s airplane had to refuel in Munich, Germany. It was snowing and icy. The first two times the plane tried to take off there were problems. The third time the plane was destroyed.
The result was a catastrophe. Several journalists, team officials and eight players from the squad, the backbone of the team, were to die, including Duncan Edwards. He fought a long, hard, heroic but ultimately futile battle against his terrible injuries whilst his manager, Matt Busby, was read the last rites. It was the older man, forged in the tough working class of his native Scotland, who survived. He was fated to lead his club to greatness.
Within weeks the club managed to put together a scratch team, which got to the final of the English Cup, the semi final of the European Cup and a respectable finish in the League. Within another decade there was a Manchester United team winning that European Cup. The first English team ever to do so. They won it again, along with the English League and Cup in 1999, the only team to have ever won all three competitions in the same year.
The club just held the dignified memorial for the 50-year anniversary of that awful tragedy and, as fate would have it, the team has again made it to the final of the competition. Win or lose the club has already won. They are already the best-supported, biggest sports team in the world, a testament to what can be achieved against the odds.
Like the Red Devils of the past they play sweeping, attractive football, which captivates the world. Their concept is buccaneering, attack minded and based on the concept that they are simply better than anyone they ever play, now all they have to do is prove it, again!
Manchester United, the best sports team in the world.
Keeping our Nerve
My baby boomer generation is probably living in the last of the best days man has ever experienced. There have been the usual series of small, contained wars in places like Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan but nothing like the carnage experienced in World Wars One and Two. We have experienced unprecedented freedom, wealth and personal liberty and all of this whilst communications, technology, travel and entertainment have all become more available to more people than ever before.
We’re facing a very different, much more worrying world. Facing the twin threats of increasing terrorism and decreasing resources within the context of a diminishing economy will lead to major problems. We’ve seen the first signs of this. The sub-prime mortgage debacle in the States has now spread its contagion throughout the banking world. This has resulted in the juddering halt of inter bank lending which means you and I will not be able to qualify for a loan unless our name is Rockefeller or Rothschild.
This would be bad enough in normal times, but this banking screw up coincides with the general economy backfiring and the start of major food supply problems. Food riots have already happened in the past weeks in various disadvantaged countries. Oil prices have leapt above $100 a barrel at the same time as property prices begin to slump.
The planting of large swathes of agricultural land with ethanol crops instead of food, will, perhaps, have a short-term beneficial effect reducing our use of fossil fuels. However the concomitant, longer term cost in reducing the amount of land being used to grow our food is a disaster.
Economies depend on the general population having faith in the economic system, particularly its faith in banks and governments. That faith is unraveling and our leaders need to work on this as their priority or we will all suffer. We all saw the result in the UK when one of our biggest mortgage banks, Northern Rock, became a basket case about a month ago. Although bailed out by the British Government it is not ever going to be independently financial viable again. This all happened within days, almost immediately after the public realized the bank was under threat. That could happen anywhere operating from within our economic heartbeat in the City of London or Wall St.
This, in turn means that long term bonds, government backed, begin to look less desirable for some of their biggest investors. The big institutional Arabic and Chinese money won’t chase a losing concern which on paper we are. Right now they are, willing or otherwise, propping up our system.
We will be revisiting this theme more in the coming months as this all unravels. For now, the wise thing to do is to hold on to your cash, and hold your breath for the rest. The property market comparison for California is down 28% year on year. It will recover, because property is a finite resource that always will increase in value over the longer term, as long as the whole of society doesn’t crash and burn.
Common sense will prevail, and our economies will more forward, eventually. The amount of damage caused in the interim is going to be in direct proportion to the degree we all keep our nerve.
We’re facing a very different, much more worrying world. Facing the twin threats of increasing terrorism and decreasing resources within the context of a diminishing economy will lead to major problems. We’ve seen the first signs of this. The sub-prime mortgage debacle in the States has now spread its contagion throughout the banking world. This has resulted in the juddering halt of inter bank lending which means you and I will not be able to qualify for a loan unless our name is Rockefeller or Rothschild.
This would be bad enough in normal times, but this banking screw up coincides with the general economy backfiring and the start of major food supply problems. Food riots have already happened in the past weeks in various disadvantaged countries. Oil prices have leapt above $100 a barrel at the same time as property prices begin to slump.
The planting of large swathes of agricultural land with ethanol crops instead of food, will, perhaps, have a short-term beneficial effect reducing our use of fossil fuels. However the concomitant, longer term cost in reducing the amount of land being used to grow our food is a disaster.
Economies depend on the general population having faith in the economic system, particularly its faith in banks and governments. That faith is unraveling and our leaders need to work on this as their priority or we will all suffer. We all saw the result in the UK when one of our biggest mortgage banks, Northern Rock, became a basket case about a month ago. Although bailed out by the British Government it is not ever going to be independently financial viable again. This all happened within days, almost immediately after the public realized the bank was under threat. That could happen anywhere operating from within our economic heartbeat in the City of London or Wall St.
This, in turn means that long term bonds, government backed, begin to look less desirable for some of their biggest investors. The big institutional Arabic and Chinese money won’t chase a losing concern which on paper we are. Right now they are, willing or otherwise, propping up our system.
We will be revisiting this theme more in the coming months as this all unravels. For now, the wise thing to do is to hold on to your cash, and hold your breath for the rest. The property market comparison for California is down 28% year on year. It will recover, because property is a finite resource that always will increase in value over the longer term, as long as the whole of society doesn’t crash and burn.
Common sense will prevail, and our economies will more forward, eventually. The amount of damage caused in the interim is going to be in direct proportion to the degree we all keep our nerve.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
The Fault Lines
Today in Los Angeles it is over 40 degrees Celsius, which is more than I am comfortable with. I love air conditioning. This is one of the best inventions along with hats and umbrellas when it’s this hot. LA has them all. It is the idea that this place might have to live with heat like this one day in the future without air conditioning that is the subject of this posting.
The reason for fat and flabby is that you don't have to be fit and fast. We have so ordered our world that we have to now find ways to get the exercise and discipline that has always been part of our everyday lives previously. We eat too much and move too little. It hasn't always been like this, and I suspect that this will not always be the case in the future.
We, in the affluent first world have become used to adjusting our world to fit our needs. We simply turn up the heat when it’s cold, the air-cooling when it’s too hot. Too dark and on come the lights, too far away and we get on a car, train, bus or airplane to bring it within reach. This all demands fuel, and that is finite. The primary source for future wars will be conflicting demands for raw materials such as fuel and food.
Will we choose to live less well to be fair to our fellow man? I don’t think we will unless we have to. That’s called losing the next war. It’s the people who were on the losing side who get the raw deal. They don’t get to write the history, or to be at the front of the line to pick up the goody bag.
We met some friends today from the UK in the bright sunshine in the excellent Marmalade café for breakfast. They were commenting on the fact that prices in LA were much higher than a year back. I think they’re right. The dollar’s weakness is beginning to impact on the price of imported goods.
Like most people, America is living in a bubble of suspended reality. We all tend to believe tomorrow is going to be much like today but have no evidence except yesterday to sustain this assumption.
The truth is that tomorrow is never like today. Most days the changes are small but sometimes they are much bigger. It’s a bit like an earthquake fault; many tiny cracks will appear before the big bang rips the place apart. That’s what I believe is happening to the World economy. I don’t expect that we are about to collapse, but I do anticipate a lot of fault lines becoming apparent. If we don’t address the problems we will get very big, potentially uncontrollable problems.
Will we in the old Anglo Saxon alliance sit back if we can’t obtain fuel or food or anything else of substance? I don’t think we will and I believe the rest of the world should be aware of this. I am not saying this makes everything we might do in the future right. Our pragmatism means that we have almost always followed what could be considered our enlightened self-interest. Most often that has turned out to be beneficial for the World community because our moral compass has been aimed in the right direction. That doesn't make us right, but it has generally made us less bad than we might have been. This might not continue to be the case.
The reason for fat and flabby is that you don't have to be fit and fast. We have so ordered our world that we have to now find ways to get the exercise and discipline that has always been part of our everyday lives previously. We eat too much and move too little. It hasn't always been like this, and I suspect that this will not always be the case in the future.
We, in the affluent first world have become used to adjusting our world to fit our needs. We simply turn up the heat when it’s cold, the air-cooling when it’s too hot. Too dark and on come the lights, too far away and we get on a car, train, bus or airplane to bring it within reach. This all demands fuel, and that is finite. The primary source for future wars will be conflicting demands for raw materials such as fuel and food.
Will we choose to live less well to be fair to our fellow man? I don’t think we will unless we have to. That’s called losing the next war. It’s the people who were on the losing side who get the raw deal. They don’t get to write the history, or to be at the front of the line to pick up the goody bag.
We met some friends today from the UK in the bright sunshine in the excellent Marmalade café for breakfast. They were commenting on the fact that prices in LA were much higher than a year back. I think they’re right. The dollar’s weakness is beginning to impact on the price of imported goods.
Like most people, America is living in a bubble of suspended reality. We all tend to believe tomorrow is going to be much like today but have no evidence except yesterday to sustain this assumption.
The truth is that tomorrow is never like today. Most days the changes are small but sometimes they are much bigger. It’s a bit like an earthquake fault; many tiny cracks will appear before the big bang rips the place apart. That’s what I believe is happening to the World economy. I don’t expect that we are about to collapse, but I do anticipate a lot of fault lines becoming apparent. If we don’t address the problems we will get very big, potentially uncontrollable problems.
Will we in the old Anglo Saxon alliance sit back if we can’t obtain fuel or food or anything else of substance? I don’t think we will and I believe the rest of the world should be aware of this. I am not saying this makes everything we might do in the future right. Our pragmatism means that we have almost always followed what could be considered our enlightened self-interest. Most often that has turned out to be beneficial for the World community because our moral compass has been aimed in the right direction. That doesn't make us right, but it has generally made us less bad than we might have been. This might not continue to be the case.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Being Unwell
Let me start by saying I am now fine, but one day last week was heavy. I use the term heavy because it sums up what a fright it is when you’re suddenly unwell. I have long been fortunate with my health but yesterday was scary. I will, in fact, not post this blog until a few days have gone past since I want those of you who care to know that I have fully recovered before you read this. I am, in fact, now back to normal, but that day last week was a different story.
It started normally enough, for those of you who have traveled to wonderful foreign parts in a big cruise liner that is. I awoke in my beautiful room on the Golden Princess and looked out over the Mexican town of Mazatlan. I was eager to explore it and went to the bathroom to undertake my ablutions. There was a towel on the floor, I bent to pick it up and that was when the world began to spin on its axis in a most peculiar and undesirable manner. I felt awful, and it was unlike anything I had ever suffered from before.
I nudged my wife and sought help as I collapsed on the bed. She summoned the medical staff who first told her to get me to walk down to the medical center. I was totally incapable of unaided walking, so they sent a nurse with a wheelchair. I would normally do anything rather than allow myself to be wheeled in my pajamas through a shipload of fellow travelers, but somehow none of that mattered.
After arriving in the medical center they quickly took my blood pressure, which was unusually low, as was my heart rate. I then started to feel even worse and they now wheeled me to a more complicated room, full of monitors and curious machinery. But I have to admit I was unable to focus on anything as consciousness begin to ebb and flow. I felt like being violently ill as they were taking blood samples, and started pumping me with saline and injecting me with heart stimulants. I heard them call out my blood pressure readings as I was now being attended by two doctors and a couple of nurses who were simultaneously hooking me up to heart monitors. The readings were the kind of numbers you witness on U.S. television programs like “House” or British counterparts like “Casualty” just before the slap on the electric shock paddles. It wasn’t good. But the good news for me is that they soon got everything going again.
Within a short while my blood pressure started to move towards more reasonable levels and the color apparently came back to my cheeks. To be honest it scared the hell out of everyone in the room. Even the medical staff admitted afterwards that they were very concerned, but not half as concerned as I was when they were using me like a pincushion.
I then had to stay under total observation for twelve hours as a safety measure and then I was allowed back to my cabin. We missed Mazatlan totally and then we had to stay on board when the ship berthed outside Cabo St. Lucas in Baja, California. Do you know what, I couldn’t care less as I am just thrilled to be able to write this and to say thank you to Doctor Mark Mason, and the nurses Mark and Faye who were terrific to me when I needed them to be efficient, cool under pressure and unfailingly honest throughout my small ordeal.
I shall not bother the reader with my medical condition other than to state for the record that luckily there was absolutely no damage to my heart and it was not a heart attack. I’ll still be here, writing for a long while yet.
I would like to say an especially big thank you to my wife, Avril. Without her dealing with this emergency quickly and with great determination it could have all got a lot worse. She was very brave, bright and wonderfully supportive. Sometimes we lose sight of the more important things in life, we look at the bills, or the petty annoyances and people that aggravate and forget what really makes the world go round. My father used to say you’ve got nothing if you haven’t got your health. He was right, and how lucky I am, that today I’m here and I’m back to normal. I’ll sign off by wishing you all well. Tomorrow is another day.
It started normally enough, for those of you who have traveled to wonderful foreign parts in a big cruise liner that is. I awoke in my beautiful room on the Golden Princess and looked out over the Mexican town of Mazatlan. I was eager to explore it and went to the bathroom to undertake my ablutions. There was a towel on the floor, I bent to pick it up and that was when the world began to spin on its axis in a most peculiar and undesirable manner. I felt awful, and it was unlike anything I had ever suffered from before.
I nudged my wife and sought help as I collapsed on the bed. She summoned the medical staff who first told her to get me to walk down to the medical center. I was totally incapable of unaided walking, so they sent a nurse with a wheelchair. I would normally do anything rather than allow myself to be wheeled in my pajamas through a shipload of fellow travelers, but somehow none of that mattered.
After arriving in the medical center they quickly took my blood pressure, which was unusually low, as was my heart rate. I then started to feel even worse and they now wheeled me to a more complicated room, full of monitors and curious machinery. But I have to admit I was unable to focus on anything as consciousness begin to ebb and flow. I felt like being violently ill as they were taking blood samples, and started pumping me with saline and injecting me with heart stimulants. I heard them call out my blood pressure readings as I was now being attended by two doctors and a couple of nurses who were simultaneously hooking me up to heart monitors. The readings were the kind of numbers you witness on U.S. television programs like “House” or British counterparts like “Casualty” just before the slap on the electric shock paddles. It wasn’t good. But the good news for me is that they soon got everything going again.
Within a short while my blood pressure started to move towards more reasonable levels and the color apparently came back to my cheeks. To be honest it scared the hell out of everyone in the room. Even the medical staff admitted afterwards that they were very concerned, but not half as concerned as I was when they were using me like a pincushion.
I then had to stay under total observation for twelve hours as a safety measure and then I was allowed back to my cabin. We missed Mazatlan totally and then we had to stay on board when the ship berthed outside Cabo St. Lucas in Baja, California. Do you know what, I couldn’t care less as I am just thrilled to be able to write this and to say thank you to Doctor Mark Mason, and the nurses Mark and Faye who were terrific to me when I needed them to be efficient, cool under pressure and unfailingly honest throughout my small ordeal.
I shall not bother the reader with my medical condition other than to state for the record that luckily there was absolutely no damage to my heart and it was not a heart attack. I’ll still be here, writing for a long while yet.
I would like to say an especially big thank you to my wife, Avril. Without her dealing with this emergency quickly and with great determination it could have all got a lot worse. She was very brave, bright and wonderfully supportive. Sometimes we lose sight of the more important things in life, we look at the bills, or the petty annoyances and people that aggravate and forget what really makes the world go round. My father used to say you’ve got nothing if you haven’t got your health. He was right, and how lucky I am, that today I’m here and I’m back to normal. I’ll sign off by wishing you all well. Tomorrow is another day.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
America - Where Did You Go?
There was a moment some time in the recent past when America started to lose its confidence. Years ago it was its friends like me who saw its superficial excellence and thought it great. Americans seemed taller; the girls were blonder, figures more perfect, and eyes bluer, their teeth whiter and straighter. American roads were straighter, longer and wider, the buildings taller, the universities more plentiful and better and more widely accessible to a bigger percentage of the population.
The rest of the world bought into this image and sought to imitate it. As a child my parents rented out half of our small house in London’s West Acton to a U.S. Army Sergeant and his family who were stationed in England. I have always idolized black Americans in uniform, like my kind friend and mentor. The special magic of the man was that he worked in the PX, which was actually the forerunner of American style supermarket culture. These Aladdin’s caves of plenty ushered forth unimagined luxuries for a small boy borne when rationing still prevailed. This tall smiling demigod neighbor supplied me with different flavors of chewing gum that I can still taste. Exotic fruits like pineapple and pomegranates passed my eager lips. I thought America was somewhere to the West of England, but on a higher plane, nearer to heaven.
My uncle Eddie was living in Los Angeles and he would send me more multi flavored gum which I chewed as I avoided the cracks in the sidewalk, dreaming of America as I walked to school. The dominant films the television and the modern music were all pouring out from that shining light across the big shining ocean. We wanted to dress, eat, talk and even walk like Americans.
This started to dissipate when America and the world perceived the Vietnam War to be a mistake. Not many remember the now reviled Domino Theory in which the American State Department declared that if Vietnam fell to the Communists then so would the rest of Asia. The American withdrew in ignominy from Saigon. This was the first time in modern history that America’s step faltered. Many foreign missteps followed, but to my mind, and those of other friends I mostly felt that their motives were honest and well meant. But for those of America’s enemies, who are many, each perceived mistake was seen as an excuse to lambaste everything American.
Now America’s emblematic currency, the once mighty dollar, is openly sneered at everywhere from South America to the Middle Eastern Kasbah. I remember the same happening to the British pound about 30 years ago. It seemed an irredeemable situation for Britain. Like many Brits at the time I thought our country was ungovernable in the late 1970’s. Along came a woman called Margaret Thatcher, and the whole world, starting with the UK, changed for the good. Soon our pounds sterling became strong again, and our economy the envy of the World. The same can happen for America’s dollar.
Based on America’s can do attitude, innate ability and it’s tremendous but momentarily repressed sense of optimism, I believe America is not yet doomed. I also fervently hope that this is the case. The World needs a successful USA to survive and prosper. This, more than any other single factor will probably result in America and the world coming through its present difficulties.
However there might well be bigger, long-term problems to come for which will need an American / European alliance to lead the way forward, out of the mess. There is nothing inherently wrong with the rest of the world but for their inexperience in taking a broader, not totally nationalistic view of our world. Both Europe and America recognize that they must lead the way forward to solve truly global problems with the kind of thinking that leads to a broader, sweeping and strategic plan. In this instance, enlightened self-interest might well be the guiding light for the rest of the world. America must not lose confidence now that the sound of the economic gunfire is getting closer. America, join with Europe and lead.
The rest of the world bought into this image and sought to imitate it. As a child my parents rented out half of our small house in London’s West Acton to a U.S. Army Sergeant and his family who were stationed in England. I have always idolized black Americans in uniform, like my kind friend and mentor. The special magic of the man was that he worked in the PX, which was actually the forerunner of American style supermarket culture. These Aladdin’s caves of plenty ushered forth unimagined luxuries for a small boy borne when rationing still prevailed. This tall smiling demigod neighbor supplied me with different flavors of chewing gum that I can still taste. Exotic fruits like pineapple and pomegranates passed my eager lips. I thought America was somewhere to the West of England, but on a higher plane, nearer to heaven.
My uncle Eddie was living in Los Angeles and he would send me more multi flavored gum which I chewed as I avoided the cracks in the sidewalk, dreaming of America as I walked to school. The dominant films the television and the modern music were all pouring out from that shining light across the big shining ocean. We wanted to dress, eat, talk and even walk like Americans.
This started to dissipate when America and the world perceived the Vietnam War to be a mistake. Not many remember the now reviled Domino Theory in which the American State Department declared that if Vietnam fell to the Communists then so would the rest of Asia. The American withdrew in ignominy from Saigon. This was the first time in modern history that America’s step faltered. Many foreign missteps followed, but to my mind, and those of other friends I mostly felt that their motives were honest and well meant. But for those of America’s enemies, who are many, each perceived mistake was seen as an excuse to lambaste everything American.
Now America’s emblematic currency, the once mighty dollar, is openly sneered at everywhere from South America to the Middle Eastern Kasbah. I remember the same happening to the British pound about 30 years ago. It seemed an irredeemable situation for Britain. Like many Brits at the time I thought our country was ungovernable in the late 1970’s. Along came a woman called Margaret Thatcher, and the whole world, starting with the UK, changed for the good. Soon our pounds sterling became strong again, and our economy the envy of the World. The same can happen for America’s dollar.
Based on America’s can do attitude, innate ability and it’s tremendous but momentarily repressed sense of optimism, I believe America is not yet doomed. I also fervently hope that this is the case. The World needs a successful USA to survive and prosper. This, more than any other single factor will probably result in America and the world coming through its present difficulties.
However there might well be bigger, long-term problems to come for which will need an American / European alliance to lead the way forward, out of the mess. There is nothing inherently wrong with the rest of the world but for their inexperience in taking a broader, not totally nationalistic view of our world. Both Europe and America recognize that they must lead the way forward to solve truly global problems with the kind of thinking that leads to a broader, sweeping and strategic plan. In this instance, enlightened self-interest might well be the guiding light for the rest of the world. America must not lose confidence now that the sound of the economic gunfire is getting closer. America, join with Europe and lead.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Being a Consumer
Today this is an unashamed lifestyle blog. Sometimes I think we’re put on this earth to consume. As you look around it does seem that way. Everyone is seemingly consuming food all the time. However I don’t mean to discuss the consumption of food, but the consumption of brands. Before I continue I want to make the point that I know things are just an assembly of atoms in a particular form, but that doesn’t render them any less desirable if you hanker after their particular shape or style, whatever the substance.
I am just as bad as anyone else. I find the latest brand irresistible. I look at my daughter’s IPhone and feel an incredible, almost unbearable compulsion to possess one myself. I don’t know the reason, since I already own a great mobile phone, my trusty BlackBerry, and it e mails better than the IPhone. But does it tell me the traffic conditions on the nearest freeway? No, it does not. Do I need to know these traffic conditions? No, of course not, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want the facility.
It has a screen that flips from the horizontal to the vertical, how have I lived without this? I am mystified. It is truly touch screen, not a bit but totally. I think I am falling in love, and it’s the real thing.
Mind you I was equally besotted when I purchased, at enormous expense my Sony Viega 42” plasma flat screen television a few years back. Since that time I bought, for much lesser prices, various makes of LCD flat screen televisions. I know the technical arguments why the plasma screen set should be superior, but the truth is, that to our eyes, the opposite is the truth. In this instance cheaper has proven to be better.
Unashamedly I drive a car that others will consider a gas guzzling car of enormous and conspicuous consumption. It is a top of the line Cadillac CTS Sports Luxury model that makes a wonderfully satisfactory growling noise when you stamp on the accelerator, and takes off like a big scalded cat, faster than almost any other big car. When you are stuck in traffic it makes almost no noise at all, and it’s a bit like sitting in your favorite leather armchair. Of course the computer system contains a TV, DVD player and sat navigation system and does everything else you can imagine except give you a rub down with the latest edition of your chosen girlie magazine. This isn’t a good car, it’s a great driving experience. Now, don’t for a second get this beauty confused with its smaller sister, the crappy Cadillac based on its European sister company car, the Saab. This might look like a slightly smaller version of the Detroit super car, but it’s a fake with a capital F. I drove one as a loan out when my car was being serviced and it’s a travesty that the two models have the same brand name of Cadillac. If you want to drive a Cadillac in Europe insist on the import or don’t bother.
But back to my compulsion to buy the new, the flash, the must have gizmo. I did the same when Bose made their more fitted ear phones for noise reduction or listening to my magnificently designed Apple iPod. This is surely one of the great combinations for enhanced and comfortable listening designed. You can wear and listen through this combination of kit for an entire London to Los Angeles air trip and feel no discomfort. Sometimes buying the desirable is also the wisest course.
I am just as bad as anyone else. I find the latest brand irresistible. I look at my daughter’s IPhone and feel an incredible, almost unbearable compulsion to possess one myself. I don’t know the reason, since I already own a great mobile phone, my trusty BlackBerry, and it e mails better than the IPhone. But does it tell me the traffic conditions on the nearest freeway? No, it does not. Do I need to know these traffic conditions? No, of course not, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want the facility.
It has a screen that flips from the horizontal to the vertical, how have I lived without this? I am mystified. It is truly touch screen, not a bit but totally. I think I am falling in love, and it’s the real thing.
Mind you I was equally besotted when I purchased, at enormous expense my Sony Viega 42” plasma flat screen television a few years back. Since that time I bought, for much lesser prices, various makes of LCD flat screen televisions. I know the technical arguments why the plasma screen set should be superior, but the truth is, that to our eyes, the opposite is the truth. In this instance cheaper has proven to be better.
Unashamedly I drive a car that others will consider a gas guzzling car of enormous and conspicuous consumption. It is a top of the line Cadillac CTS Sports Luxury model that makes a wonderfully satisfactory growling noise when you stamp on the accelerator, and takes off like a big scalded cat, faster than almost any other big car. When you are stuck in traffic it makes almost no noise at all, and it’s a bit like sitting in your favorite leather armchair. Of course the computer system contains a TV, DVD player and sat navigation system and does everything else you can imagine except give you a rub down with the latest edition of your chosen girlie magazine. This isn’t a good car, it’s a great driving experience. Now, don’t for a second get this beauty confused with its smaller sister, the crappy Cadillac based on its European sister company car, the Saab. This might look like a slightly smaller version of the Detroit super car, but it’s a fake with a capital F. I drove one as a loan out when my car was being serviced and it’s a travesty that the two models have the same brand name of Cadillac. If you want to drive a Cadillac in Europe insist on the import or don’t bother.
But back to my compulsion to buy the new, the flash, the must have gizmo. I did the same when Bose made their more fitted ear phones for noise reduction or listening to my magnificently designed Apple iPod. This is surely one of the great combinations for enhanced and comfortable listening designed. You can wear and listen through this combination of kit for an entire London to Los Angeles air trip and feel no discomfort. Sometimes buying the desirable is also the wisest course.
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