Hey - where did that week go?

I thought a week ago that I was going to be in the groove posting every day. Then I suddenly realized it has been over a week since my last post. Things have been happening and I have not been taking note. Well actually I have been taking not I just have been posting.

Two major events erupted this week. Both may mark crucial turning points but we really may not know that for decades. The first was the opening of the Olympics in China. By all accounts this even may serve as a benchmark for subtly shifting the relationship between China and the Western world. That really is the relationship that the Chinese care the most about. It seems the Chinese are a resilient people something that is monumentally obvious given their history.

Yes, Egypt is the oldest nation state in the world but unlike China, it can hardly be called a giant among modern nations. China is a country that is transforming itself. I cannot begin to imagine what it will look like in twenty years but I can hazard a few guesses. If we are willing to suspend our ideological criticism of the existence of the Chinese Communist Party, we may actually discern a faint pattern of cultural, social and even political evolution. Yes it remains a totalitarian state but if we measure it against itself instead of Western Liberal Democracies we can detect the faint beginnings of true democracy and freedom.

The real problem is that we tend to gloss over our 700 years of struggle to achieve the state of freedom we have today. Somehow we expect everyone else to accomplish it overnight. "Hey - just follow the instruction kit we included in the Insto-Demo-Cracy kit!" This does not mean we should not encourage them. It means we need to take a longer perspective on it all and recognize that isolating China is not a sound strategy. It is not like we can say, "Go to your room and don't come out until you have your homework done!"

The second thing that happend this week is uglier and less hopeful. We may be seeing the emergence of an even more beligerent Russia, ready to make war on its weaker neighbours. The conflict under way in South Ossetia may destabilize the whole region. And here is where the chickens really start to come home to roost for George Bush and the US. Not that many years ago Bush was sitting on the one of the biggest piles of political currency any American president had acquired. But like a kid in the proverbial candyshop George managed to squander it on Iraq. Then he frittered away more on Iran. Now, just when he could be stepping in between Russia and Georgia he is weak and broke. Bush will complete his last term as president with his tail firmly tucked between his legs or his head shoved up his ass [pick the image that works best for you].

America, once the world's cop is now a toothless wastrel. It has little currency in Europe, less in the Middle East and cannot even flex a muscle at Russia. The road back will be a painful and perhaps humiliating one. There is no ability to maneuver. The political system in the US prohibits a major shift such as the no confidence motion which can bring down a Canadian government. No, the world has to wait while America stumble its way through ridding itself of this hapless loser of a president. Meanwhile war rages and people die.