[Paleopsych] Edmonton Journal: Why China is poised to streak ahead of the West

[Premise Checker]

Why China is poised to streak ahead of the West
http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/news/business/story.html?id=f30d1819-c2f2-41fd-a8ca-0bd32671751c

Chinese are smart, hard-working and ready to take on the world, futurist says

    David Finlayson
    The Edmonton Journal
    Friday, May 27, 2005

    EDMONTON - China's doing things the rest of us don't even know about,
    and unless we change quickly they will streak past us, futurist Frank
    Ogden says.

    "They are speeding ahead in so many areas because they have the
    ability to get big things done very quickly," the man known as Dr.
    Tomorrow told the Construction Specifications Canada conference here.

    "They're very smart, they think differently from us, and they have no
    restrictions on anything," said Ogden, an 84-year-old world traveller
    who lives on a high-tech houseboat in Vancouver.

    In three weeks they relocated the residents of a large city block in
    Shanghai, bulldozed the buildings and built a 1,000-bed isolation
    hospital using 10,000 conscripted workers, Ogden said.

    On the last day of construction, a stream of ambulances was bringing
    in patients.

    "They work 15 hours a day, every day, with no union interference, and
    that's what's going to beat us," Ogden told the gathering of
    architects, engineers and other construction-related sectors.

    Their wages have also doubled in the last couple of years to 28 cents
    an hour, so the workers think they're making big money.

    And China's not only manufacturing pots and pans any more. It's
    producing quality, intricate items such as scientific instruments, he
    said.

    "The infrastructure stinks, but they're working on that. And when they
    decide to do something it happens in a hurry."

    They also have no restrictions on reproductive technology so they
    could clone people and rent them out to North America, which is facing
    a shortage of workers, said Ogden, with a wink.

    North America's future will be vastly different as China's economy
    grows and the world keeps moving ahead at warp speed, he said.

    Nine-to-five jobs will become a piece of history as we put in almost
    full days on the job, he predicted.

    "We also have to learn much faster or other countries will do it and
    sell it back to us. The current, inefficient university lecture system
    will have to replaced, and he sees a day when we're all using new Sony
    technology that puts information into our brain patterns while we're
    asleep. "That was in the realm of science fiction for years, but just
    imagine how quickly you can absorb information that way."

    Companies will also have to become incredibly creative to compete
    globally, Ogden said.

    "Don't even think of a box, never mind outside it. Every company
    should have a smart 12-year-old who thinks off-the-wall. In China
    they've just grown a monkey's heart, and if you can do that you can do
    anything."

    dfinlayson at thejournal.canwest.com