If such mismanagement of infrastructure, as resulted in the I-35 Bridge Collapse in the USA-which is supposedly, the richest and most powerful land in the world--, how could they ever have hope or expectations that their own governments could or would provide safer transport and better quality of life & safety standards in places as diverse as Indonesia, Philippines. Kenya, Nigeria, Bolivia, Nicaragua-where good governance has traditionally been lacking?
Any Third World Nation can see that the U.S. is dangerously shifting way too much of its economy into projects that blow things up-e.g. billion-dollar jet fighters of bombers & tanks that sit around in Iraq instead of being deployed some place that would make the world a safer place for all Americans.
These under-developed nations will eventually simply turn their eyes to China [5], Japan, and Europe to look for future role models in development. Meanwhile America will continue to be seen a second-class place to work (and second class piece of work in the third millennium), i.e. where foreigners may indeed continue to have more access to coming and working in than in the other 3 aforementioned regions due to America's more open immigration policy.
However, at the current rate of underdevelopment and mismanagement of the American infrastructure, America will be off the radar screen as a model of good governance by the end of this first century of this millennium. That is--if Americans don't take back their government and make governance, infrastructure, and society work better FOR ALL!
NOTES
[1] "Following Minnesota Bridge Collapse, New Scrutiny for the Nation's Ever-Privatizing Roads", http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/03/1348236
[2] Ibid.
[3] "Testimony of Concerned Foreign Service Officers at the February 14, 2006 Testimony Congressional Hearing on National Security Whistle Blower Protection", http://www.worldcrafters.com/legislativeaction.html
[4] "2007 Budget Favors Defense", http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020401179.html
[5] In "A Survey of China's Public Diplomacy" http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/newsroom/pdblog_detail/070502_a_survey_of_chinas_public_diplomacy/
, author Gary D. Rawnsley notes that:
"China has a long, distinguished and reasonably successful history of public diplomacy, a subject best saved for a future posting; but the current Chinese leadership has conceded the value of public diplomacy and soft power in a way that their predecessors, locked in an ideological straitjacket, never could. This renaissance is made possible by, and is extremely significant because of, China's embrace of economic approaches to globalization, its opening to world commerce, and its greater involvement in international regimes. China is no longer an insular power, but is now firmly embedded in, and more tolerant of, the interdependent global environment."
The last three or more decades have seen a major decline in overall expenditures and support for public diplomacy from American government agencies. This contrasts greatly with what Europe and Japan have been up to over the same period. Only the Arab, Chinese and Persian regions have received any where near-appropriate increase in American public diplomacy in the last two decades-especially since the United States Information Service was gutted.
