THE future belongs to the Philippines, and to the rest of Southeast Asia. There’s no other region in the world that can compare with the 10 countries comprising it, all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Sub-Saharan Africa has not changed much since the Portuguese established its first trading post on the coast of what is now Angola. The entire continent is underdeveloped and is being used in the 21st century by the Chinese in the same way the Europeans used it 400 years ago. It is nothing more than a cheap source of raw materials, primarily minerals.
Europe has become a fragmented tapestry of nations that have little in the way of mutual self-interest and common purpose, not unlike the period before World War I. Militarily and economically, Europe depends on the United States. What is good for Germany is not good for France or Spain.
Much of the Middle East is rich; the rest is poor. North Africa is mostly dominated by failed states. Political turmoil may never end in this region.
In South America the top four economies are Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela. Brazil and Columbia are doing all right, in some ways. Brazil continues to be a world leader in urban poverty, while Colombia is finally shedding its reputation as the globe’s biggest producer of cocaine. Argentina may be the global leader in government debt default, and Venezuela has been proven to possess the largest oil reserves in the world, as well as the longest lines of people buying food and toilet paper.
Five of the 10 most dangerous cities in the world are in Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia; the rest are in Central and North America.
It has been said that God must hate Mexico, since He put it next to the US. While all of Latin America is one large neighborhood of drug cartels, Mexico is regarded by many as the capital; its cartels rule the country, except Mexico City. Despite remittances from Mexicans in the US and a free-trade pact with Washington, Mexico’s economy only grew 1.1 percent last year.
Canada is a large, resource-rich nation with a population smaller than Luzons’. The US now holds the world title of “Shooting itself in the foot”.
Russia, China and Japan all have major population and demographic problems. China and Japan are growing older faster than they are getting richer. Russia and Japan’s population growth rates are so low, the size of their populations is shrinking,
South Asia is made up of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This is not the area you want to look at for global economic leadership for at least a decade.
So, as Dr. Peter Venkman said in the 1984 film Ghostbusters, “Who you gonna call?”
Image credits: Jimbo Albano