<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Jaime,<div><br></div><div>You can get all the work we have on the golden pathways on grid and gridding by putting the following into your Google search. <grid site: <a href="http://wedgeblade.net">wedgeblade.net</a>>. Here is one of the sites that gives the 54 areas. <<a href="http://wiki.wedgeblade.net/bin/view/Main/PlacesIndex">http://wiki.wedgeblade.net/bin/view/Main/PlacesIndex</a>> Now that Hong Kong is part of the China continent rather than Seapac so new work needs to be done. I would guess that Manila becomes an area rather than a region. Would love your take on it.</div><div><br></div><div>Good writing!</div><div><br></div><div>Jack</div><div><br><div><div>On Aug 10, 2013, at 11:08 PM, Jaime R Vergara <<a href="mailto:svesjaime@aol.com">svesjaime@aol.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
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<div style=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: medium; ">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.</span></div>
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<div style=""><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">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. </font></div>
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<div style=""><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Which reminds me, how do I assess a copy of the grid, the 54 areas, and the article on gridding itself?</font></div>
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<div style=""><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Thanks, Jack.</font></div>
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<div style=""><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Jaime</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Majulah Singapura</font></b></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">We chanced last
Saturday on the National Day Parade of Singapore, a live broadcast from TV’s NewsAsia,
and live streamed in the Internet.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Singapore glowed
in white and red - yellow, green, blue, gray, along all the colors of the
rainbow, as one group after another, from children to elders, civil and
military, paraded and performed for an island massively attired in tropical
casuals led by the father-son Lee Kwan Yew-Lee Hsien Loong, leaders since the
country’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.</font></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"> </font></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">What made us
perk up while watching the show is the recent acknowledgement from the book, <i>The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities and
Metros Are Fixing Our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy,</i> that metropolises in the
US 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 the
bottom up – from its major metropolitan areas – than from the top down … the
great laboratories and engines of our economy are now our cities.”</font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">We
promoted a trans-rational geo-social grid of the world since the 70s. We divided the world around major metropolitan
areas: NYC, Chicago, Houston, LA, Vancouver, and Montreal, for North America, one
of nine continents we identified from three spheres. Sphere West was North America, Western
Europe, and Eurasia (former USSR). Sphere East was SubAsia, China, and South
East Asia-Pacifica (SEAPac). Sphere
South was South America, Southern Africa, and North Africa and the Middle East
(NAME).</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">NAME
and SEAPac are nebulous. SEAPac to us is
a continent of six metropolitan areas: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok,
Sydney, and Suva. After the lead of the
earthrise image from the moon, the national boundaries so precious to the
post-colonial arrangements faded in the new global configuration. The metropolises were defining political and
economic arrangements.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Singapore
went ahead even in the cultural pole.
This year, its theme of “many stories, one Singapore” recognizes the
function of stories and how unity can be attained in the recognition of
diversity. Just start with its three
major languages of Chinese, Malay, and Tamil, and its overarching Singalish, and
already, the cultural challenge is formidable.
We’ve felt that Singapore was too small a geography, and too specialized
in its financial and commercial practices (thought of Singapore as primarily a
transit point that encouraged a lot of bookkeeping shenanigans) that we earlier
dismissed it as an exception rather than the rule.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Now
comes an account in the aforementioned book of a metropolitan revolution
stirring in America. Not content to wait
for Washington to get its act together, the authors relate how pragmatic
leaders are taking the helm of governance in cities like NYC finally
capitalizing on its diversity; Portland, Oregon, deep in selling
“sustainability” solutions to urban problems, and Northeast Ohio where groups
use industrial-age skills to invent 21<sup>st</sup> C materials, tools and
processes. Then there’s Houston helping
immigrants ascend the employment ladder, Miami forging ties with southern
“neighbor” Brazil and other nations, Denver and Los Angeles building
world-class urban centers, and even Boston and now bankrupt Detroit finding
innovative ways into the economy of the new century.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Coming
through strongly in their stories are the catalytic and facilitative nature of
the network of leadership in the new metropolises. Sounds like Singapore.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Obviously,
Saipan is no Singapore, though some argue that with a Casino in Saipan, it
can. Sorry, folks. Zhongguo already has Macau and Hong Kong, and
Korea has offerings we cannot even come close to duplicating for well-off
Nippon and <i>nouveau riche </i>Renmin. Tinian Casino has yet to make a dime. Nope.
Pentagon looms too large in the shadows and we do not have the political
muscle of a Guam to assert ourselves beyond being a strategic military
location. At best, we can stick a
handout further for more food stamps, or, surreptitiously promote baby tourism
since we do not do money laundering well!</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">We
are not being cynical here, though we are not surprised many of our young
are. We can develop a catalytic and
facilitative leadership style, willing to look reality in the eye, forsake the
illusory economic boom in the past (we could not even connect water pipes,
though we did provide cushy jobs in government and its agencies) forego the
delusion of grandeur in the future (we are Pentagon’s strategic military
location), and live with what we’ve got: a handful of Chamolinians, lots of
Chinese, Filipinos, sprinkling of other Micronesians and Austro-Polynesians,
Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians, Caucasians via America, Australia, and
Europe, Africans from all over, et al.
Hey, we have enough ingredients to make up an incredible stew. So, why don’t we?</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><span style="color: rgb(23, 42, 70); ">That’s
what we can learn from Singapura – many stories, even many directions, but one </span><span style="color: rgb(23, 42, 70); ">concerted
endeavor. Biba, Marianas?</span></font><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13px; "></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; clear: both; ">Jaime Vergara<br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</i></div>
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