What if …….. The United States was your colonial master? ..

Colonialism has been a powerful theme in world history. From colonized south America to the USSR to Africa, there is hardly a spot on the globe untouched by its influence. It is essentially a system of direct political, economic, and cultural intervention and hegemony by a powerful country in a weaker one. Colonizing nations generally dominate the resources, labor, and markets of the colonial territory, and may also impose socio-cultural, religious, and linguistic structures on the indigenous population. Brazilians speak portuguese (latin) because they were colonised by portugal, in canada, the official language is both english and french, because both england and france colonised canada. Notably, The US was not involved in the colonial race. She adopted the ‘Monroe Doctrine’ which regarded colonialism as oppressive and intolerable, and refused to colonize any country. We can all imagine that if the US colonised a country, it would have tried to impose its economic,social,political, and culture to the countries it colonized.

If the US entered the colonial race, would you have loved it to colonize your country? 

Do you think your country would be very different from what it is right now if it was colonised by the americans, like your culture, your language or political system?

WORLD WITHOUT AMERICA

A viral ad produced by the British website, 18 Doughty Street, which imagines what “A World Without America” would be like is going down a storm on YouTube and across the blogosphere.

“A World Without America” would be a world “with less freedom,” “without many medical advances,” “without Israel”, “poorer” and one “held to ransom by tyrants” the video argues with the help of a series of spoof news bulletins from recent decades.

What do you think? Would “A World Without America” be a better or worse place? Could you even imagine such a world, so central is the country and its culture to our lives?

What else would “A World Without America” lack? The computer you are using now and its software, for example? Would we in Britain even be speaking English in such a world?

Or do you take the opposing view that “A World Without America” would be one without junk food, the worst of Hollywood, global warming and even al-Qa’eda?

Does the fact that America has been responsible for great advances mean that we can’t criticise its defects?  Many think America is over critisized, and countries such as Rusia and China would commite more atrocities than than the US if they had her power. Is the video well-timed and enlightening or obsequious and patronising?

american domination

FALL OF AMERICA ?

 

                                       

          

  

IT’S NO SECRET, the markets are melting down, but the upheaval we are experiencing is more than a financial crisis, however large. Here is a historic geopolitical shift, in which the balance of power in the world is being altered irrevocably. The era of American global leadership, reaching back to the Second World War, is being affected.

America’s super-power status depends on many factors. It was achieved through dominance in military, economic, political, intellectual, technological and cultural realms. Some experts have been saying in recent years, and with the falling US economy, that power could shift to those nations with huge emerging economies.

Has a new era begun?

Now signs of changing times are more stark, with world leaders frustrated and even angry over a global financial crisis many see as caused by American policy mistakes. Meanwhile the monetary meltdown is likely to force cuts in the American public and private science, military and technology investment — a cornerstone of the American economic engine that has historically driven the nation’s preeminence.

 Most people have long accepted that the development of new economies that goes with globalisation will undermine America’s central position in the world. The EU (European union) is proving to be the main competitor.  And now we have a new breed of Super Power groupings waiting in the wings. IRC (India-Russia-China) and BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China).

The present combined GDP of India and China based on PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) is already bigger than that of the US, while the BRIC countries have among them a larger GDP than the European Union.

There is no doubt that in the foreseeable future, the economic and military potential of these new centers of power will inevitably get converted into political clout and will strengthen multipolarity. These countries would likely have less respect and fear for the Americans.

What’s in question is, would America loose its world number one status soon? Would the European union, or the emerging economies (China, Brazil, Russia, …..) be capable of reducing American influence on world business, and be the new “number one” ?