[Oe List ...] Fwd: OpEd Monday, Aug. 12

[Jaime R Vergara]

This is primarily for Jack who led us to the book mentioned in the article.  I am on the tailend of my writing stint with the Saipan Tribune as it has become obvious I will not be returning to the Marianas anytime soon, if ever.  My classes in China begin August 26, which may very well the be last day I submit an article.


The article is also an example on how the wisdom of the Order has seeped through our being - from the grid to playing with images.  For the curious.  Should any other that has been influenced by my association with this listserv, I will post it, with Tim's permission. 


Which reminds me, how do I assess a copy of the grid, the 54 areas, and the article on  gridding itself?


Thanks, Jack.


Jaime






Majulah Singapura
 
We chanced lastSaturday on the National Day Parade of Singapore, a live broadcast from TV’s NewsAsia,and live streamed in the Internet.
 
Singapore glowedin white and red - yellow, green, blue, gray, along all the colors of therainbow, as one group after another, from children to elders, civil andmilitary, paraded and performed for an island massively attired in tropicalcasuals led by the father-son Lee Kwan Yew-Lee Hsien Loong, leaders since thecountry’s inception without forced dynastic succession.  Wedged was Goh Chok Tong who followed LKY,was PM for 14 years before LKY’s son, a former General, took over.
 
What made usperk up while watching the show is the recent acknowledgement from the book, The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities andMetros Are Fixing Our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy, that metropolises in theUS fuel the nation’s economy and is defining a new local polity.  The account had columnist Tom Friedman write:“… if you want to be an optimist about America today, stand on your head.  The country looks so much better from thebottom up – from its major metropolitan areas – than from the top down … thegreat laboratories and engines of our economy are now our cities.”
 
Wepromoted a trans-rational geo-social grid of the world since the 70s.  We divided the world around major metropolitanareas: NYC, Chicago, Houston, LA, Vancouver, and Montreal, for North America, oneof nine continents we identified from three spheres.  Sphere West was North America, WesternEurope, and Eurasia (former USSR). Sphere East was SubAsia, China, and SouthEast Asia-Pacifica (SEAPac).  SphereSouth was South America, Southern Africa, and North Africa and the Middle East(NAME).
 
NAMEand SEAPac are nebulous.  SEAPac to us isa continent of six metropolitan areas: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok,Sydney, and Suva.  After the lead of theearthrise image from the moon, the national boundaries so precious to thepost-colonial arrangements faded in the new global configuration.  The metropolises were defining political andeconomic arrangements.
 
Singaporewent ahead even in the cultural pole. This year, its theme of “many stories, one Singapore” recognizes thefunction of stories and how unity can be attained in the recognition ofdiversity.  Just start with its threemajor languages of Chinese, Malay, and Tamil, and its overarching Singalish, andalready, the cultural challenge is formidable. We’ve felt that Singapore was too small a geography, and too specializedin its financial and commercial practices (thought of Singapore as primarily atransit point that encouraged a lot of bookkeeping shenanigans) that we earlierdismissed it as an exception rather than the rule.
 
Nowcomes an account in the aforementioned book of a metropolitan revolutionstirring in America.  Not content to waitfor Washington to get its act together, the authors relate how pragmaticleaders are taking the helm of governance in cities like NYC finallycapitalizing on its diversity; Portland, Oregon, deep in selling“sustainability” solutions to urban problems, and Northeast Ohio where groupsuse industrial-age skills to invent 21st C materials, tools andprocesses.  Then there’s Houston helpingimmigrants ascend the employment ladder, Miami forging ties with southern“neighbor” Brazil and other nations, Denver and Los Angeles buildingworld-class urban centers, and even Boston and now bankrupt Detroit findinginnovative ways into the economy of the new century.
 
Comingthrough strongly in their stories are the catalytic and facilitative nature ofthe network of leadership in the new metropolises.  Sounds like Singapore.
 
Obviously,Saipan is no Singapore, though some argue that with a Casino in Saipan, itcan.  Sorry, folks.  Zhongguo already has Macau and Hong Kong, andKorea has offerings we cannot even come close to duplicating for well-offNippon and nouveau riche Renmin.  Tinian Casino has yet to make a dime.  Nope. Pentagon looms too large in the shadows and we do not have the politicalmuscle of a Guam to assert ourselves beyond being a strategic militarylocation.  At best, we can stick ahandout further for more food stamps, or, surreptitiously promote baby tourismsince we do not do money laundering well!
 
Weare not being cynical here, though we are not surprised many of our youngare.  We can develop a catalytic andfacilitative leadership style, willing to look reality in the eye, forsake theillusory economic boom in the past (we could not even connect water pipes,though we did provide cushy jobs in government and its agencies) forego thedelusion of grandeur in the future (we are Pentagon’s strategic militarylocation), and live with what we’ve got: a handful of Chamolinians, lots ofChinese, Filipinos, sprinkling of other Micronesians and Austro-Polynesians,Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians, Caucasians via America, Australia, andEurope, Africans from all over, et al. Hey, we have enough ingredients to make up an incredible stew.  So, why don’t we?
 
That’swhat we can learn from Singapura – many stories, even many directions, but one concertedendeavor.  Biba, Marianas?


Jaime Vergara
pinoypanda2031 at aol.com

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!



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