Do the math

Historians and futurists are agreed and their agreement will have increasing implications for students and retirees right here in the Okanagan, Nicola and Highland Valleys.

Call it a wake up bell, call it a reality check, but don't call it 'nothing to get worked up about'. As a matter of fact 'getting worked up about it' is exactly what we do need to be doing.

I'm referring to nothing less than the shift of global momentum (and power) that is taking place right under our sun soaked view here at home.

Each us can probably recall the rare opportunity of standing back in awe and witnessing the phenomenal sight of a solar eclipse. Well, we are having the rare opportunity of watching what is at least a partial eclipse of global power and influence and a shifting of the planet in that regard.

Of course I'm not saying anything that is news to most of you. It's just that most of us weren't alive two hundred years ago when the last such shift was in its early days.

Then it was the onset of the economic and social rise to dominance of the United States of America. Now it's a similar chapter of global proportions being recorded about China and all that is happening there.

I'm not saying the US is no longer the centre of planetary influence. Or that China is the only nation whose citizens are experiencing elevated levels of prosperity (amidst ongoing deprivation of course).

Other regions of previous impoverishment are also beginning to taste the morsels of improving standards of living. It's just that what is going on in China (and India and other Asian countries) will continue to impact our own lives in the most tangible ways.

There is not enough space in this weekly report to catalogue all the changes coming at us. What I want to say is that we need to be doing much more than watching, as we did when we took in those solar eclipses in the past that happened right before our eyes.

Some of us may still be of the mindset that since Canada has so much to offer we will simply be the automatic beneficiaries of this global growth.

Not necessarily so.

Last year, for the first time in history, China produced more cars than any other nation. And 97% of their billion or so population still don’t own one. Talk about a growth market!

So some may say, 'Well they need our ongoing technology and resources to just help them in that one area alone.'

Really? A long list of aspiring 'partners' are clamouring at China's door to be suppliers in their countless new areas of development.

But at the same time, Chinese students of metallurgy at their own institute of metallurgy have just discovered how to make stainless steel (think auto making) without substantial need for nickel.

Big deal you say? When you think that Sudbury's main export for decades has been nickel you begin to get an idea of the implications of an increasingly capable China.

I'm not saying we're missing out. I'm just giving one of countless examples of how we need to be leading edge in all we do if we want to maintain our own significant standard of living.

That means that math and science and chemistry and physics etc., etc., must be pursued right here in Canada with as much vigour as ever if we are going to ride this current wave of global growth.

This week I will be fully reminded of that as I officially greet and meet as special delegation from China in Vancouver. This is the first group to arrive as a result of the breakthrough achieved by the Prime Minister of Canada being granted 'Approved Destination Status' from the Government of China. This will lead to a significant boost in our tourism industry.

It is a major breakthrough which previous governments were unable to achieve. It shows we can achieve strong partner status at a number of levels.

But these types of important levels of economic connection will only come as a result of unremitting energy and hard work. We have what it takes. But we won't get it by standing on the sidelines watching the eclipse take place.

It will take the relentless pursuit of excellence in all fields of endeavour to be a part of the potential that is before us.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.