Word: homeness
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...recently in the town of Sendai, north of Tokyo. It snowed, which was a lovely treat, something I never see at home in Hong Kong. Japan is a respite from the rest of Asia in many other ways. While much of the region is still hurtling along the path of development - a blinding whirl of frenetic construction and perpetual change - Japan is a vision of stability, a nation that has everything others in Asia want, and has already had it all for decades. Money. Technology. Global brands. A seat at the table with the powerful countries of the industrialized world...
...looking at Japan, we can get a good idea of the damage it can do. Unwilling to make hard choices, the government simply threw taxpayer money around, attempting to keep people employed without fundamentally changing the economy. The result is government debt approaching 200% of GDP. Overly protected at home, Japan Inc. has missed out on the globalization game; its companies, unable to adapt to a changing world, are losing global market share to more nimble competitors. The nation that once led the way toward prosperity in Asia is sitting by while its influence is being usurped by China...
...Sendai, looking warily across the Pacific toward my home country, I shuddered to think America was heading Japan's way. Everyone in Washington knows what problems the nation faces, but there is a Japan-like inability to take the necessary action. The broken U.S. health care system is an embarrassment, yet efforts to change it have been stymied for almost as long as moves to revive Japan's economy. The government's finances are deteriorating as politicians refuse to make the hard decisions on what the country does and does not need. The education system requires far more attention...
Upon returning to Bagram, Obama changed from his suit into a brown bomber jacket before addressing a makeshift hangar full of troops. "There is no visit I consider more important than this visit here," the President said. "Everyone back home is proud...
...tour of a mess hall, where the President worked the room as Michigan State played Tennessee on the television screens hung around the walls. (Before Obama entered, White House aides had the channel changed on the television, from a motorcross event to the NCAA tournament.) "Let your families back home know that we know they are going through some sacrifices too," Obama said as he left the mess hall...