Posted on 11/06/2009 6:14:08 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Comparing the relative strengths of India and China is a time-honoured parlour game. Which nation can grow faster? Which will be the more important power in the 21st century? Which one has a better model for growth?
After China’s dramatic Olympic showcase and its ability to get its economy growing quickly after the global financial downturn, many have wondered if China has the jump on India today.
But courtesy of an innovative London-based think tank, we have a comprehensive way of comparing India and China—one that is far more useful and comprehensive than anything that has come before it—and the results might surprise some readers.
The Legatum Institute recently released its 2009 Prosperity Index (you can find the results at www.prosperity.org). The purpose of the index is to be able to compare and contrast countries against benchmarks that best reflect the richness and variety of what matters most in people’s lives.
In this index, economic growth and performance matter a lot. But they are not the whole story and not the sum total of what it means to be prosperous. The folks at Legatum understand that while man needs bread to live, and economic growth is indispensable for seeing to it that man has bread to eat, man does not live on bread alone.
And so they compiled an index that ranks countries according to several criteria that are based not just on economic wealth but quality of life issues as well. In other words, it is a measure of overall well-being in an effort to include those elements that make a people not just rich but happy, healthy and free as well. These include economic fundamentals, entrepreneurship and innovation, democratic institutions, education, health, safety and security, governance, personal freedom and social capital.
(Excerpt) Read more at livemint.com ...
The author concludes after a long analysis :
"My colleague at the American Enterprise Institute Roger Bate notes that “China outperforms India in both of the main economic sub-indices because it provides greater economic certainty to investors, receiving far more foreign investment than India. Still, the overall index implies that trouble is brewing for China as it loses out to India in all other sub-indices, especially in its lack of democracy and personal freedom”.
Indeed, on my visits to India, I am always struck at how vibrant Indian democracy is and how robustly pervasive the sense of personal freedom is. There is a rowdy, even chaotic, spirit in India that is refreshing and lively and is the hallmark of a free people enjoying their rights and liberties.
There are, of course, areas in which India needs to make significant progress. Education, health, and safety and security are all areas in which India’s performance is badly lagging much of the rest of the world.
But the overall picture is quite encouraging. And in this version of the India versus China parlour game, we must tip our cap to India."
India...they love their children and have a soul...China, not so much...
They both have a demographic timebomb ticking. China’s is probably worse.
Yes. That has struck me also in India. Somehow I've felt refreshingly unconcerned about such heavy U.S. yokes as lawsuits, regulations, government micromanagement, and intrusive, controlling politicians.
And I love Indian chaos. It's freedom.
On the other hand, corruption and inefficiency are burdonsome.
It has been my opinion that Australia might not be the best refuge if the world falls apart because it's right there within striking distance of the Chinese Dragon who seems determined to dominate the Pacific.
However, it occurs to me that India would be the natural ally of an ascendant Australia and the Indian Ocean a natural pond for them to share.
Also, I expect that there are valuable natural resources, untapped and unknown, in Antarctica, right there in the Australian backyard--with Tasmania as a stepping stone.
China and India have the *illusion* of prosperty caused by a much worse division between rich and poor than present in the U.S.: everything the leftists claim of greedy companies in the U.S. is actually TRUE in China. India is somewhere in the middle.
Cheers!
Cheers!
I remember it verbatim from many years ago, but I can't remember where I read it.
It's very uncharacteristic of me to quote someone without a solid reference. I merely remembered this one because it's so good.
When I received your message I made a googlesearch--of the remark in English, which is how I read it some time ago. Quite a few websites give the quotation and give reference to Hilaire Belloc, but none says where the quotation came from.
Then I decided that maybe he said it first in French:
"J'ai oublié le nom du lieu, le nom de la fille, mais le vin ... était du Chambertin."
I googled that and got lots of hits, all attributing it to Hilaire Belloc but none saying where the quotation originally came from.
Interestingly, Google Books (a very interesting source of obscure books) gave a citation of this very remark, in French, in the book Mémoires d'un médecin Joseph Balsamo by Alexandre Dumas, dated 1863, page 38.
Unfortunately this book cannot be read online; so I can't check page 38 for the quote.
I'll continue to look for its origin. I would like to know myself.
Meanwhile, if you should find out, G.W., please let me know.
-Savage
P.S. Note tagline.
from http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOC_Chambertin...
Your next assignment: find the earliest reference, from a more-or-less reputable source, for the supposed quote that Jimi Hendrix called Phil Keaggy the greatest guitarist in the world.
I once tracked it back as far as (IIRC) the Feb. 1976 issue of The Saturday Evening Post but got no further.
Cheers!
As for Jimi's quote-- It'll have to wait until I can finish this coffee and get the bugs out of my head... Sorry. (It's not an emergency, is it?)
Cheers!
BTW, have you tried that Rosenbloom Vinyards zinfandel--the reserva, not the cuvée?
P.S. I changed the tagline until I can find out who actually said it. I know Huckabee said this one. I heard him.
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