One manifestation of this is the recent upheaval in the horn of Africa where some Somalis have been forced to recreate the all but dead art of pirating. Long the scourge of international trading, pirating has become less and less necessary over the years and, since WWII, very little of it has existed anywhere on Earth. Even though sea traffic has never been greater, with oil tankers and merchant vessels crisscrossing the high seas with ever increasing frequency, the amount of pirating has never been lower. To wit, the haphazard and near-comical approach that the destitute Somali pirates have displayed on the world stage demonstrates just how abandoned this once lucrative industry has become. Whenever I watch one of these acts in progress, I can't help but visualize Beavis and Butthead at the helm of the pirate ship laughing and giggling in their adolescent way while pointing to potential victims and trying to assess their potential capture, "Wow! I bet that boat has chicks with real big t*ts. Hehehehe. Let's attack them."
In fact, our twin pillars that form the foundation of the US superpower, GDP and military capabilities, have been severely eroded over the past few years. While our abuse of them is clear for all to see, there is also ample evidence of how they have proven to be helpful over the same period. Stabilized world sea commerce, increased and steady improvements in technology that shorten the transit time, lengthen the shelf life and improve the quality of products moving everywhere, and an ever enlarging group of users have all been very beneficial for commerce since the last world war.
We have pioneered advances in hundreds of different industries, sometimes even creating them as we go along. The computer industry has been driven by US ingenuity ever since the earliest times. The Eniac, one of the world's first major computers, was made in USA. Advances in both hardware and software are overwhelmingly American. Just a casual review of computer terminology used in other countries reveals the overwhelming incorporation of English words. To this day Microsoft leads the world in PC programming, Intel leads the world in chip technology, Google is the daddy of search engines, and Apple leads the way in graphics and gadgetry. The US has led the world in computers since the very beginning and its status has never been threatened.
I remember early on in 1997, having just recently connected to the internet, that the French sites were using a word I had never seen before, "Ouaibe." I looked at all the dictionaries I could find, both at home, at the library and on the internet, but I couldn't find a definition of it anywhere. I remember being extremely perplexed and confused at this new find. I knew, for example, that "Ouais," is sometimes used in French slang to mean, "Oui." But I'd never seen "Ouaibe," before. One day, I decided to conquer this word and began to pronounce it very slowly. "Ooo" (as in the word, "food") - "Ay" "Beh." Then, "Ooo - ay - beh." then it donned on me, "Web!" The French were taking the word, "Web," and writing the sounds using French phonetics.
Another area of high-tech accomplishment is in medical equipment. The US is not alone in its ability to improve health sciences, but it is among the elite in nearly every category. State-of-the-art facilities can be found in nearly every state and the doctors who graduate from US universities are among the best in the world. We have pioneered new technology from the micro to the macro level and have the educational infrastructure to teach modern medicine using the latest in equipment.
We were among the first to explore outer space and have been instrumental in the innovations across that industry. This was perhaps one of the healthier competitions between the US and the USSR. Both industry and science greatly benefited from the Space Race, as it was named.
Let's not forget the entertainment industries. Though it is true that Hollywood has long been the cheerleader for our illegal military incursions, it is just as true that Hollywood has produced some of the biggest and most memorable movies in the history of cinematography. During my years in Europe, I was always amazed how revered many of our actors were. In fact, almost every time a French TV station aired a movie from the US, they would spend an hour or more afterward discussing the film's underlying message, as if it were a product from Aesop meant to enlighten others. Jazz and Blues are both American made. And from the Blues we get Rock and Roll. We may not be alone in creating new sounds in rock, but no one can deny our presence. The many innovations in the past few decades have inspired a lot of others around the world to create their own versions in these same genres.
For more than 100 years, the US has pioneered the creation and uses of carbon-based polymers in everyday life. The US is far from the origin of plastics, but its huge domestic economy, coupled with the many R&D facilities in our universities and major companies, has given the US a very prominent position in the development of all things plastic. We brought out nylon for the first time at the 1939 World's Fair in NYC. To this day, the US is at the vanguard of new creations and usages of plastics.
The US is also known for its ability to allow anyone to follow their dream. In European countries, one must often decide by age 12 whether or not they want to go to college. Only in America do you hear about nonagenarians graduating from college with a bachelor's degree. Likewise, the US is more conducive than other nations to allow one to start up a business.
When I decided to leave my job at Swissair at the airport of Geneva and return to the US in 1979, I was approached by one of my coworkers with an unusual proposition. He told me he was willing to pay me $50,000 to start a business for him in New York state. Apparently, he had created a new version of the white board which was resistant to rain; that is, whatever verbiage was written on them would not run or wash away due to rain. This is extremely important in European countries because most small restaurants, as well as other retail industries, would often write their menu or their sales offers on white boards that they displayed outside their boutiques. When it rains, the water would destroy whatever message was written. But with his invention, that would be a thing of the past.
I asked him, "Why would you want to give me $50,000 to start up a company in the US when your major clientele seems to be European shops and restaurants?"
His answer echoed the sentiment of most Europeans, "For every white board I sell here in Europe, I could sell 1,000 in the US." He was convinced that any good innovation would be a thousand times more salable in the US than anywhere else. Even more recently, I was asked by my good friend Pavel to begin distributing his innovative rope magic tricks in the US. Pavel is renowned worldwide. He was on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1968 and has been on many different shows around the world. His mastery of all things magical with rope has earned him the Lifetime Achievement Award at the famous Magic Castle in Los Angeles. His sentiments echo the same belief, the American economy is just that much bigger than anywhere else.
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66 year old Californian-born and bred male - I've lived in four different countries, USA, Switzerland, Mexico, Venezuela, and currently live in the Dominican Republic - speak three languages fluently, English, French, Spanish - have worked as a (more...)
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