Pakistan, China and the US...Ready for Change?

As anyone not living in a cave knows, Pakistan has been in the news a lot recently. Whether it was lawyers protesting against corruption, Islamist students taking over the Red Mosque and being forcefully expelled by General Musharraf's military, or the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the "founding" of the country, when Britain divided up India and created two spanking new territories, along with Kashmir, which created some serious squabbles over the years. That is the past, summarized very badly and all-too-concisely. Therein lies a question: what is the future for the assumed hiding-place of Osama Bin Laden, the new headquarters of the Taliban, and the country run for its entire existence by the military? Is it ready for a real change, and if so, will it be heading right or left? The country has come to a crossroads, and it, like China and the US, must decide which road to take.

China, the economic juggernaut of the past years, has grown at exponential speed. Its economy has grown at more than 8% over the last decade, and with that, the lives of average Chinese citizens are changing, too. However, China affects the world, and not just its own people. It has been in the news recently for tainted toys, tooth paste, and pet food. Its pollution has gotten completely out of hand, too: it just passed the US as the worlds' worst polluter. With the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games coming up, is China ready to take stands, or just continue to make money. It finally reacted to Darfur after years of stalling, or worse. Most of the Sudanese government's fighter planes are Chinese-made. Dissent is still silenced with a heavy hand, and China is the world's leader in state-ordered executions. If China wants to lead economically, does it care to lead in other ways? The future holds that answer.

That leaves us with the US. The last seven years have been strikingly regressive in countless ways, which have been discussed at length here at the subversive garden. I will not attempt to summarize the damage that the Bush administration has done to the reputation of America around the world. The damage, I can only hope, is not beyond repair. We, American citizens, living in what is still called a democracy, despite the attacks to that title by our current president, must decide whether we are headed down the same road as 2000, or are we going to move America down a different path, one that puts justice, honesty, and diplomacy first.

The world we live in is too interconnected to fight alone. Each of these three countries I have so glibly discussed needs other countries. Each must decide whether it wants to move forward into modernity, and interdependence, or slide back into unilateral blindness.