bhai, imo, i would rather shelf this topic.
Americans haven't gone through even one full cycle of civilization. 400-500yrs since the Red Indians were pushed. Same with Australia and other such countries.
( Ghumne mein maja ayega
)
What i'm trying to say is you have also had the privilege of knowing 5000yrs of civilization. Big diff according to me.
Americans haven't gone through even one full cycle of civilization. 400-500yrs since the Red Indians were pushed. Same with Australia and other such countries.
( Ghumne mein maja ayega
)What i'm trying to say is you have also had the privilege of knowing 5000yrs of civilization. Big diff according to me.
Now that the trading got over, I will explain my point of view.
Our civilisation is fantastic. It may flow in our blood as we seem to assume. But the real strength of the USA (hereinafter referred to as America) is not in the visible history or religion or even political leanings. The real strength of America is in its readers. We Indians have fantastic civilisation but we do not even know what our religious principles, history etc stood for because we never read original books. In the USA, every neighborhood has a public library. There, you get books on many varied subjects, Many people often visit the library and read those books. There are book clubs, websites that encourage you to read. All of America's strength comes from this pursuit of knowledge. I have not seen this culture in India. We, in India, read for obtaining certificates and that is the end of it.
I once read a center page article in The Wall Street Journal written by Ex-IBM boss Louis Grestner (Author of Elephants can Dance). In this article he laments America's falling reading habits. Oh yeah! they conduct periodic surveys on the Nation's reading habits. He also runs a Not-for-Profit that encourages school children across America to take up STEM subjects(Science, Tech, Engineering, Math). He visits many schools and inspires children. In that article he said America's future wars are not fought in the desert. But right here in our class rooms. And our opponents are the Chinese and Indians. A couple of years after I read that article, I relocated back to India. I used to hire accounting graduates on my team in India(I guess I hired about 190 in different organisations and interviewed 10 times that number). But let me tell you none of the B Coms, MBA's in our country understand something basic like Accounting Standards.
While I was in the USA fellow Chartered Accountants used to make fun of American CPA exam because it is simpler and has an objective type component unlike our CA in India. But what most people do not understand is that an accounting graduate in America goes to a 4 year Bachelor of Science in Accounting course. Yes it is a science and I do not group it under Arts. He would spend atleast $200K by the time he graduates out of a normal State University. Guess what, he is reasonably good on Accounting Standards, US Tax laws etc. Now CPA after this course is a mere licensing exam. So even if it is easy by Indian CA standards, US CPAs' are not less knowledgeable.
If you believe civilisation is in our blood, reading is in their blood. I believe they win here, hands down. They win minds as well as hearts on this matter. I never learnt economics as a part of my academic courses. But, in my free time, I had read through the entire book called "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith sitting through my weekends in the New York Public Library in Manhattan. But let me tell you most MA Economics graduates in our country have not read this book. Adam Smith is considered as the founding father of Modern Economics. He was an Irish man and he wrote this book in 1776, the year America got its Independence. You know what, he gave a common chapter for America and India in this book and that Chapter is called "America and East Indies" He describes both the colonies as very prosperous lands. How may economics majors read such books in India? Well, by the way, I also read Karl Marx's book "Das Capital" in the American public libraries. So, many Americans are safe by their knowledge. They also read what theories their enemies follow. Now, do you think in the war that Louis Grestner referred to, India has any chance of winning? I am not so sure.
While I was in the States, I always wondered that if every thing is imported from China what the hell is this country exporting? Well, I came to know that Boeing contributes 10% to America's goods exports. That's it? My research took me to new discoveries. America's real exports are Microsoft Windows, Oracle Databases, Google, Cloud Storage, Hollywood movies, Investments across the world, higher end patented pharma products, medical devices. Investment in Oil fields, Research into biotech, patented products, publishing(I am sure most of us read American Trading, Management books), news services, education, branded products like Pepsi, Apple etc. Look, all these things are high margin and creative skills that we need to learn. Above all America exports lot of management skills. So in a trade war there are many American exports that are irreplaceable and invisible.
This nation has taught several skills across the world and its citizens are generally charitable by nature.
In 2003, when North Korea was suffering from famine(which was man-made), USA regularly sent plane loads of rice to its arch-rival North Korea from its rice producing state of North Carolina.
My father once told me that when he was in primary school, every day the school used to boil milk by mixing milk powder received from the USA as aid in our country in 1950s. He told me that the milk quality was far superior to what they got in their village.
Most Americans who did college are very knowledgeable people. They know what is happening across the world. Many have read a lot about European Culture, Indian Civilisation and Chinese Civilisation etc. This knowledge compensates for our civilisation that is flowing in our blood. They also elect their governments with prudence. Most Indians do not know the history behind World War, Korea War, Vietnam War etc.
As far as our civilisation goes, how many of us here read the original Valmiki Ramayan or Veda Vyas'a Bhagawat? Or even Chanakya's Artha Saasthra? Do you know that Ancient India had subjects like Nyaya Shaasthra, Tarka Shaasthra, Bharadwaja Vimaana Shaastra etc? How many of us even heard of this? Does this civilisation really flow in our blood?
I had seen lot of American bashing on this thread today and let me tell you we can do better than that.
We have a long way to go in our country. We will never see true prosperity until we develop reading habit at a national scale. The moment we start doing this we as global citizens are likely to be similar to Americans in our thoughts.
PS: I am planning to write a book. Now you know where I need to publish this book to have decent readership. For this specific reason, I chose English. Otherwise my preference could have been Sanskrit for the topic that I chose.
In addition to this just for fun I am writing a novel set in contemporary America. This one I may or may not publish at all.
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