Last week I heard the Singaporean Foreign Minister, a very impressive man named George Yeo, give a twenty-minute address about the rise of Asia and Asia-EU relations in which he did not mention the United States once. Not once.
The occasion was a conference of deans of public policy schools from around the world held at the Lee Kwan Yew School of Government here. To be fair to Minister Yeo, he may have been under the impression that the assembled deans were only from Asia and Europe; hence the focus of his remarks. But regardless, it is a very unusual experience for an American to be sitting listening to the foreign minister of another country, and a very small country at that, talk at some length about major global trends as if the United States didn’t exist.
Unusual, and salutary. After all, many other countries endure that treatment from us.
Unusual, and salutary. After all, many other countries endure that treatment from us.
eg Romney last week talking in Nashua NH to the employees of a British owned defense engineering company and using the opportunity to bad-mouth the UK and Europe. Well, I guess at least we rated a mention.
There’s little doubt that the US has hobbled itself in any number of way vis-a-vis the rest of the world. From our shabby public education system (though it still costs top dollar) and bloating our mind-numbingly inept central state to knee-capping legislation like Sarbanes-Oxley, we have gravely wounded our global standing.
But let’s face it, America-hating (see the comments in below the linked story) has been the sport of choice for the tranzi Left for decades. Every American sin decried therein can be found with ease, and in far greater degree, in every nation held up as the avatar of the future. This is just trotting out the usual litany of jeremiads that has been around forever.
Now I am going to feel guilty, the next time I hear an American official talk at some length about major global trends, as if Burkina Faso didn’t even exist!