Posted on 05/31/2005 4:06:20 AM PDT by aculeus
EDMONTON - China's doing things the rest of us don't even know about, and unless we change quickly they will streak past us, futurist Frank Ogden says.
"They are speeding ahead in so many areas because they have the ability to get big things done very quickly," the man known as Dr. Tomorrow told the Construction Specifications Canada conference here.
"They're very smart, they think differently from us, and they have no restrictions on anything," said Ogden, an 84-year-old world traveller who lives on a high-tech houseboat in Vancouver.
In three weeks they relocated the residents of a large city block in Shanghai, bulldozed the buildings and built a 1,000-bed isolation hospital using 10,000 conscripted workers, Ogden said.
On the last day of construction, a stream of ambulances was bringing in patients.
"They work 15 hours a day, every day, with no union interference, and that's what's going to beat us," Ogden told the gathering of architects, engineers and other construction-related sectors.
Their wages have also doubled in the last couple of years to 28 cents an hour, so the workers think they're making big money.
And China's not only manufacturing pots and pans any more. It's producing quality, intricate items such as scientific instruments, he said.
"The infrastructure stinks, but they're working on that. And when they decide to do something it happens in a hurry."
They also have no restrictions on reproductive technology so they could clone people and rent them out to North America, which is facing a shortage of workers, said Ogden, with a wink.
North America's future will be vastly different as China's economy grows and the world keeps moving ahead at warp speed, he said.
Nine-to-five jobs will become a piece of history as we put in almost full days on the job, he predicted.
"We also have to learn much faster or other countries will do it and sell it back to us. The current, inefficient university lecture system will have to replaced, and he sees a day when we're all using new Sony technology that puts information into our brain patterns while we're asleep. "That was in the realm of science fiction for years, but just imagine how quickly you can absorb information that way."
Companies will also have to become incredibly creative to compete globally, Ogden said.
"Don't even think of a box, never mind outside it. Every company should have a smart 12-year-old who thinks off-the-wall. In China they've just grown a monkey's heart, and if you can do that you can do anything."
dfinlayson@thejournal.canwest.com
© The Edmonton Journal 2005
Did I miss the memo? Is it All-kneel-down-for-the-Communists day in Canada again? I thought that was last week.
Since a bunch of the Chinese are women, I would imagine that some of the feminists (epecially the college types) will be making a lot of noise about this statement . . . . . . . . . . . . or maybe not.
If they don't self destruct through pollution. Most of their rivers and ground water is incredibly polluted and you don't want to breath in their big cities. Read somewhere that the average mainlander gets less than 1/3 the average clean water of the rest of the world, and it's getting worse.
Before taking this guy seriously, take a look at his website. He lives on an igloo house boat in Canada and calls himself Dr. Tomorrow.
http://www.drtomorrow.com/
He doesn't actually seem to have "qualifications"
And who's the benefactor??? It's certainly not the regular people...
George B and company is doing his best to take us down this path...And he's doing a good job of it...
Funny thing is, too many Americans think they're going to get in on this scheme and make their money at the hands of the working guy...And right now, it's working...Buying this cheap junk from China at pennies on the dollar and selling it to Americans for what a similar American item would cost is makeing more than a few heads turn...
Before long, we will be working for the same wages the Chinese are...Have to just to have a job...
The same was said of Nazi Germany and the USSR. By trampling indivual freedom and political dissent, it was thought they were unbeatable. I'll keep my money on personal liberty.
Guess I'll be living in a cabin somewhere in the backcountry.
Doncha remember?
This was done previously by the USSR in the 1950s, then by Japan in 1980s. It looks like that China will do it before Brazil which is poised to surpass the West in 4822 A.D.
ping
Except they don't have free speech, can't critique their own government, and their Internet is filtered for 'subversive' content. Other than a million restrictions like these, they have no restrictions on anything.
Bullsh*t, Mr Finlayson.
Bullsh*t!
"They're [chicoms] very smart, they think differently from us, and they have no restrictions on anything" ...
yet admits they used "10,000 conscripted workers" to build that hospital.
All this as he sits dreaming his socialist thoughts in the comfort of his "high-tech houseboat" in Vancouver.
Methinks Ogden may be a bit put off by his accomodations in Heaven, though I have heard it said there is no slavery there.
The talk of delinking China's yuen from the dollar .... perhaps could cause a quick spike, but it seems to be they can't hide their corruption forever. Just a thought.
The author is a space case. Not that China isn't a huge menace but ....
On the internet anyone can anything to anyone at anytime. From your high speed connection on your high tech houseboat, in Vancouver.
Yeah sure. Actually, the rug can be pulled right out from China if their cheap labor becomes too pricey. You'd see foreign manufacturers pull their operations out of China fast looking for a better deal. China has a long ways to go when it comes to innovating ideas which really creates wealth, and may I point out, the US is world leader at innovation.
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