Posted by: Dale Franks on Friday, August 22, 2008 Barack Obama made the following statement in a speech yesterday: Everybody's watching what's going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics. Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business you're starting to think, "Beijing looks like a pretty good option." Well, maybe Beijing is a spiffy place. After all when you can expropriate the wealth of a billion people by fiat, and spend it anywhere you want, you can probably spruce up a single city pretty nicely. Or not. I mean, I'm sure it looks nice.
Leave Beijing, and go out into the countryside, and you'll get an even better glimpse. Yes, China has spent a lot of money on infrastructure. China's rapid economic growth and equally rapid integration into the global economic system is putting huge strains on its infrastructure. This has led to a spate of spending on transport. Between 2001 and the end of 2005 more was spent on roads, railways and other fixed assets than was spent in the previous 50 years.There's spotty utility coverage and lack of indoor plumbing out in the provinces, but overall, China's infrastructure is probably every bit as good as America's...in 1930 or so. Still, entering the 20th century infrastructure-wise counts as a Great Leap Forward. And the $300 million or so the Chinese have spent in Beijing to put on a super Olympics has certainly allowed them to put their best foot forward. You gotta hand it to totalitarian dictatorships. They certainly know how to put on a show. And when you can expropriate all the nation's wealth, if necessary, to fund the thing, money's obviously no object. And, I suppose the incentive to dance well—even flawlessly—at the opening ceremonies is always increased by the thought of a cold steel muzzle at the nape of the neck for failure. Yep, whether it's the annual Nuremberg Party Rally, or the big May Day parade in front of Lenin's tomb, you can always count on dictators to go all out for a good show. Complete with goose-stepping soldiers. You really don't have a top-flight dictatorship if your soldiers don't goose-step. and the Chinese have that sharp goose-step down cold.
Still, as long as you remember that it's only a show, I guess there's no harm done by admiring the artistry of it. |
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