Understanding Australia

I think that one of the things I found hard to understand, returning to Australia from Asia is this: So much of Asia is preparing for and dealing with huge populations and diverse economies but Australia isn't; and it won't need to.

There is enough stuff to dig up, export, basic unimproved minerals etc, for decades to come. The problems here more relate to an ageing basically homogenous population and, as always, the huge costs of the distances between cities/settlements. No great problems, no great challenges, no great pressure to innovate or pursue a new definition; no population pressures, not much suffering...and it won't change. It's understandable.

I was surprised, upon returning here, how many old people there were...people my age and older, compared to anywhere in Asia...and how many very large, fat people; but this is what happens in all First World countries I think. Mildly overweight people generally live longer than slim people anyway.

It's an uncrowded country and no one here much wants that to change. There is great anger whenever anyone suggests Australia should have a larger population now or in 30 years time, and there is the usual xenophobia about Asians and Arabs in particular. This great fear; as always unfounded, yet persistent now for more than 150 years does not vary. I think it's because Australia doesn't have any neighbours on the border...there is just the ocean. The Ocean Continent...so there has never been any need to interact much with anyone, or to solve problems...because there have been no problems with the ocean.

You can see the same kind of Mentality with the UK...and also with the USA who only have Canada and Mexico to have 'issues' with. None of these cultures know much about resolving problems with neighbours, per se.

It may well be a defining thing about UK and USA culture...the absence of negotiation in so many areas over so many  hundreds of years, so there is no particular skill development; thus in its absence is an odd chimera of 'Independence' and what is defined 'Freedom'...not by any struggle, innovation and effort but just conferred by geographical reality.

It can't be a criticism, and it's not. At the same time a city like Sydney has just about the most ethnically diverse 4-million-people-urban population on earth, and all or most doing reasonably well.

China Rising

I know I tend to go on about it, but I do find China's Rise so remarkable. Sure it's been accellerated in the past few years, relatively, simply due to the various financial collapsing dominoes in the West... but then you can't blame China for being wise and financially conservative, and careful. This is hardly a sign of aggression; it is in fact a sign of thwe opposite...a certain stoic and steady track forward.
What I see with China Rising is the most remarkable arrival of Dominant Culture, outstripping in size and power and impact everything that has come before, including the Romans, British, American empires. The Chinese 'Empire' is travelling faster and investing more in its own future, in its infrastructure, in its people, industries, education, etc and in its relationships, especially with its 16 border neighbours, than any power on Earth has ever done.
Whilst being a significant player within Globalisation, per se, it is also the leading and only Alternate to the US-Euro Globalisation 'system' and will outstrip it as time goes by.
The China Model, the Walled World Model, will dominate as time goes by and without invading and blowing up and pillaging other sovereign nations and in this way alone is a far superior model for human growth and development than any we have seen on Earth to date.
Also what is rising is not Chinese Communism at all...what is rising is Confucianism, as a thought-action discipline and as a social-system, for the first time outside the mainland.
I think the impact of both Zhonguo's Rise and the Rise of Confucianism, world wide, will provide the largest change to all human systems on Earth and will have a much greater impact and last far longer than any before it.
I think that we do live in remarkable times, to witness this unstoppable rise. It will be mostly beneficial to China, of course, as it should be; at the same time, we, on the fringe of this massive change, will do well enough to trade fairly and peacefully.

Visit to China February 2011

We will be visiting Schezuan Province in China in February for New Year Celebrations and visiting the municipality of ChongQing, with its population of 38.4 million. A city-municipality slioghtly larger than the Australian island of Tasmania...which, I guess, means it's a big city.

Very Very Fast Train, Beijing-Shanghai

On Dec. 3, 2010, a China-made CRH380A train set a new speed record of 486.1 km per hour on a test run on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.

Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Rail

The Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway will be put into operation by the middle of June this year, Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun said at a conference Tuesday.


The high-speed link connecting the country's two most important cities will open ahead of its original schedule, previously set in 2012.

The construction of the 1,318-km railway was started in April 2008 with total investment estimated at 220.9 billion yuan (around 32.5 billion U.S. dollars).

The railway is expected to cut travel time between Beijing, China's capital in the north, and Shanghai, the country's economic center in the east, to less than five hours, compared with the current 10-hour rail journey.

On Dec. 3, 2010, a China-made CRH380A train set a new speed record of 486.1 km per hour on a test run on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.

Also at the conference, Liu said the combined length of China's operating high-speed railways had reached 8,358 km by the end of 2010.

Total length of high-speed railways would reach 13,000 km by 2011, and 16,000 km by 2015, Liu said.

China plans to invest 700 billion yuan for the construction of railways this year, Liu said.

He said the total length of China's railways had reached 91,000 km by 2010, and the railways would reach 120,000 km in five years.
In 2010, 1.68 billion passenger journeys were conducted through the nation's railways, up 9.9 percent year on year. The railways had also transported 3.63 billion tonnes of goods, up 9.3 percent.

CHINA President to visit USA President for Official State Visit

Chinese President Hu Jintao will pay a state visit to the United States from Jan. 18 to 21 at the invitation of U.S. President Barack Obama, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei announced Friday.

RABBIT YEAR

The Ten Kilo Gold Coins made by the Perth Mint (Australia) are very nice and I think it would be good to have some pockets full of them.