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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
It's always good to read books by people whose views are wildly different from your own. This is written by a Singaporean diplomat and former UNSC representative with strong views about the changes in world capitalism.
Boiling it down to simple points, I can summarise the messages of the book as:
Asian countries are on the rise and world institutions (national government in the East and West, the UN, G8 etc) need to adapt to take account of that fact.
People in Asia need to have more self confidence and in the West more humility.
Asia should not make the same mistakes as Europe and America have in allowing their social fabric to dissolve.
Free markets are good.
Political and social reform follows economic progress, not the other way around, and any insistence on free press and liberal democracy as a prerequisite for development is usually a hypocritical excuse by western governments to throw up barriers to development.
This boiled-down list may sound a bit dry, I don't know, but he writes with great flare and clarity, and I found myself challenging a lot of my assumptions in areas normally fenced off as unchallengeable axioms about how things should be. Sacred cows mooed in fear with every turn of the page.
Definitely recommended!
Boiling it down to simple points, I can summarise the messages of the book as:
Asian countries are on the rise and world institutions (national government in the East and West, the UN, G8 etc) need to adapt to take account of that fact.
People in Asia need to have more self confidence and in the West more humility.
Asia should not make the same mistakes as Europe and America have in allowing their social fabric to dissolve.
Free markets are good.
Political and social reform follows economic progress, not the other way around, and any insistence on free press and liberal democracy as a prerequisite for development is usually a hypocritical excuse by western governments to throw up barriers to development.
This boiled-down list may sound a bit dry, I don't know, but he writes with great flare and clarity, and I found myself challenging a lot of my assumptions in areas normally fenced off as unchallengeable axioms about how things should be. Sacred cows mooed in fear with every turn of the page.
Definitely recommended!
Easy to read, insightful, provocative, but a bit too snug in capitalism for my taste