Dash of Calabash

From Dr. John Rutledge’s blog:

“This is important. India has crossed the 250 million mark with the addition of 8.53 million mobile phone subscribers in February. India will become the second largest wireless network in the world after China in the first half of April 2008. (Hint: That makes the U.S. #3.) Click here to read the full article in the Economic Times.

Future growth of income, productivity and jobs will depend on who has the best information and communications technology, because high-speed communications allows the economy to perform as a massive parallel-processing information network. Hats off to China and India for making R&D and investment in new networks a priority. Wouldn’t hurt if the U.S. government were a positive force for investment here too.”

An article from the Christian Science Monitor highlights how China is making strides in becoming a modern, humane society… or at least pretending to if a foreigner is watching:

On a Beijing street a few weeks ago, a man began to beat his wife. A small crowd gathered, but nobody intervened until an American leaned from his apartment window overlooking the scene and began to shoot photos.

Noticing him, a spectator stepped up to the assailant and told him to stop. “There’s a foreigner taking pictures,” he pointed out. (more…)