I think there is justifiable reason for anger of the common man and rise of right wing, as the main stream parties in power, ran the economy to the ground using neo-liberal free trade shipping most jobs to China and India, while poor Latino's and African's flood their land. Friedman is off the mark in most counts, I read his paper and heard his video on Youtube. There is a simple solution to handle both problems that you described for the West, it will be to bring in Russia as a partner, as well as the rest of the world and then kick both China and India out of the trading system, where they get last preference. All this done very gradually of course. If FDI and job creations happen in Latin American, Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Indonesia they wont flood into US, EU or ANZ. But Murdoch type elites stand in the way, so it needs kind of a democratic revolution. I am not sure if it will happen, but if it happens, things will get really interesting.

Actually i have a reasonable admiration for Friedmans short term forecasting. i have followed his stratfor for about 10 years and his forecasts have been pretty close to the mark. him trying to forecast the next 100 years was a good attempt at fiction writing, but as i said earlier he uses some factual statistics, trends and demographic patterns that if u read the book u will understand how those dynamics will play out and influence the future. The problem with Russia is that its own population is shrinking fast and will have difficulties maintaining Russia as it is today. there are several minorities in distant regions that far away from Moscow that it would be quicker to go from dhaka to paris than for these minorities to go to their capital city (Moscow) do a bit of research on how the Slavic Russians discriminate against their Turkic people of the caucus region, and there are lots of more examples of other religious groups and minorities under heavy pressure of discrimination in Russia. basically don't hold out much hope 4 Russia as u know it today.

in summary reading his book will give u a perspective through the statistics, trends and demographic patterns that he gives that we normally wouldn't see

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Here is a good summary of Friedman's book and the major point he makes:
http://www.europeaninstitute.org/Februa ... ntury.html
Here is his bio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Friedman
He is essentially an academic with some experience in Defense industry.

Incidentally I went to the big Univ. in the town where he currently lives and graduated in a technical subject with Honors and Magna Cum Laude, so I can claim a little academic prowess in comparison with his BA degree and PhD in govt., specially in analytic ability. Secondly I built a manufacturing plant from scratch in Bangladesh, lived in Korea for significant time and immersed myself in Korean culture and by bad luck , still immersed in it unfortunately. If I did not choose the wrong item for manufacturing, I would probably be a billionaire or at least close to it. People that started with me in the right industry, my former factory owner colleagues, Korean and Bangladeshi, have reached that level, some of whom have mega corporate groups with more than 50,000 employees. So I was out there in the trenches of economic warfare, in South Asia and in North East Asia. This academic Friedman, who was a Holocaust survivor, knows Eastern Europe and the US well. I know the West, because I grew up and has been in the US most of my adult life and I know South Asia and North East Asia much more intimately than he can ever dream of in his whole life time. I can confidently tell you, he has no clue, what is coming up in the future. In fact, the problem of America starts with the clout of so called advisers and experts like him. I should not boast about myself, but I simply have seen more with my own eyes than he has.

Well the way i see it is that the west miss managed the political development of the developing world, with its support of autocratic regimes and double standards all in the name of national intrests. now the victims of these double standards. Have grown into ecconomic powerhouses. South America doesnt want anything to do with America neither do the Middle east or any region that is powering ahead. these new powerhouses r seeing what happens when u get into bed with America, like what is happening in pakistan. So they prefer to deal with nations like China who dont play the double standards card......Yet

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Guilty as charged, the West definitely mismanaged. Victims who are now economic powerhouses are glad that there is alternatives to the West, such as China.

But China is not ready to lead, not like the West is now, even after all its faults and defects. You grew up in Australia, I would advise you to visit China, specially Xinjiang and Tibet and see with your own eyes what they are doing to minorities, whose land they have occupied by force, not in 17th, 18th or 19th century, but in 1950's. I have, and I know the Chinese are not ready to lead the world, not in 50 or even 100 years, they will mess things up. I hear the same thing from my wife, a Korean, who hates the Chinese with vengeance, she says that the Koreans may even work with Japanese, if they have an effective way to face the Chinese threat. Koreans had a much bigger land that extended deep into Siberia, but they lost it within the last 2 thousand years and the peninsula is all they have left. But they had enough strength to make it very expensive for the Chinese to take it over.

The West has mismanaged world affairs for the last 3 centuries, why should the world trust them now. It is because of this, that after this mismanagement, others are rising and they are at the risk of being side lined. They can no longer bully the world, people are too well informed and empowered for the old nonsense.

So if, and that's a big if, the West and the Russians get together, they can lead the world, but if they do not see the light and not wake up in time, they may loose their last chance. This may very well happen. The next 2 decades or even next 10 years are critical.

If the West does not change its current path and eventually China is able to achieve the highest technology from its own R & D, then China's time will have arrived and the West will be doomed for good.

Whoever among the West or China wins this war, mainly economic for the time being, for us the rest of the world, we need to get united soon, find our partners and not waste any time. Why is that? Its because world hegemons do not like competitors. For them, divide and rule is always the best policy. So they will prevent any powerful new bloc to emerge and work to break them apart.

For us in Bangladesh, I would like to see a new Union with ASEAN 10+Bangladesh+Maldives+Japan+Korea, which would be large enough to withstand both the Chinese and Indian threat, regardless of what happens with the West. I would recommend Turkey to think on similar lines. Countries with small population such as 70 million will not matter much in global geopolitics in the future, this is where I differ with Friedman.

the death of the west hahahha keep dreaming france and its allies will never die we are the strongest

thats interesting my friend, good