That The East Is Rising Is Great (Not Bad) News

The East and the so-called Third World countries are rising. More people in China, India, Brazil are pouring out of the system armed with university degrees. They have grandeur goals than their parents, no lack of motivation and a surreal amount of energy. In a sense, the "American dream" is going global. It's a fantastic thing. It's a revolution. And the West should make sure it joins in.

Unfortunately, there are signs that the West is not exactly embracing this upcoming change. Take, for instance, the keynote speech given earlier this year at the Universities Australia conference by Michael Wesley, executive director of the Lowy Institute, apparently a highly regarded foreign policy think tank.

Wesley's speech, as portrayed in a blog post by Australia's Cosmos magazine's editor, Wilson da Silva, is littered with gloomy predictions about an upcoming fall of the West at the expense of the East and the Third World. To support his claim, Wesley blames Western governments, and rightly so. But he also goes on an incredulous and misplaced rant against the young Australian generation.

Let's first start with Wesley's beef against Western governments though. His view is probably shared by scientists and researchers from around the world. The West, stuck in the turmoils of its unwell economies, are slashing funding for research and development (R&D). The move ensures that the knowledge sector of their economies will grow stale and shrink. In the process, it also makes sure that their bright minds will look for a better future elsewhere (the rising East and not-so-Third World-after-all countries) or worse, end up in the same financial sector that was largely responsible for the economic crash in the first place. R&D is the hand that can lift the head of this dying beast that is the economy out of the water. By casting R&D aside, the West is cutting off that saving hand and leaving the beast to sink, slowly but surely. On the other hand, China is not cutting funds. Instead, it is increasing them with estimates anticipating China to surpass the US as the world's largest R&D investor this year.

So Wesley's first point looks all well and good. Unfortunately, he then derails into the most absurds of arguments when he has a go at the young Australian generation:

"There couldn't be a greater contrast with the students we encounter on Australian campuses, who are provided with all their class readings in photocopied packs, and even then can't be expected to have actually read them; who spend their time in lectures on Facebook and Twitter, but expect notes of all lectures to be provided by the lecturer."

I have spent my university years in both Malaysia and Australia and I could not disagree more with Wesley. I have met some exceedingly bright young people in Australia, as I have in Malaysia. In addition, it was clear to me, that there exists a definite gulf between the two countries' education systems, with the Australian system encouraging students to be more creative while the Malaysian system placed much emphasis on grades and exams. (But this is bound to change sooner rather than later.)

Wesley's jab at Facebook and Twitter also illustrates the extent of his detachment from the young generation's way of life. He perceives those social networks as needless tools of procrastination and laxness. He seems oblivious to the fact that youngsters are also using those tools for communication to promulgate science, to collaborate with international partners on projects, etcetera. How can someone this unaware about the "culture" of the young generation criticize it? This "culture" is one of interconnectedness and perpetual motion. Young people communicate with others on the other side of the world and they are always on the move, living in Europe at one point before migrating to the US and then to Asia. To that young generation, oceans and continents and not barriers-the world is interconnected.

This is perhaps why Wesley interprets the rise of the East and the Third World as the West's doom. But my line of thought differs from Wesley's: as youngsters from the East and the Third World countries rise, so will their economies. They will increasingly find it more valuable to stay, study and work in their own countries. They will build their future in their own countries. And they will open up to foreigners. The revolution in these countries has the potential to spark a revolution in the West as youngsters move from the US, UK, Australia, etcetera to China, India, Brazil. And with the Internet, geographical barriers will increasingly be removed. A young graduate in Mumbai will telecommute with a company in London while his American friend, based in New York, will telecommute with a Chinese-based company in Beijing.

Casting blame on the younger generation is easy. It is such a passive process to stand before an audience of young people and criticize their generation. But Wesley should realize that telling young people that their future is doomed because they are not doing as much as they should is but an empty cry. This young generation is living in an exciting era that promises to bring an even more exciting future. Youngsters will work with "big data", the human genome, nanotechnology and they will do all this in an ever-increasingly connected world.

So, the youngsters from the emerging East and Third World are not really going to destroy the future of their counterparts in the West. Instead, they will spark a global embrace of sorts. A global friendship. Which, to me, looks like a great prospect.

Image credit: Sandia Labs (on flickr)