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October 2010: A Great Leap Forward? In October 2009, China announced to make the transition to a green economy - an event that Thomas L. Friedman of the International Herald Tribune identified as the Sputnik of the 21th Century (read the commentary, and/or see my October 2009 Thought of the Month). In August 2010, an articles in IHT illustrate the seriousness of China in making a rapid transition to a green future (see the August 2010 Thought of the Month). Having spent the last few days in Shanghai, a even clearer picture emerges. It looks to me that China is in the middle of a very successful "Great Leap Forward", and I am inclined to believe that historians will look back at the current and next decade and identify this period as such. While a new high-speed train has been built that connects Shanghai and Hangzhou in as little as 45 minutes and will have 50 bullet trains running per day that are expected to move 70 Million people each year between the two cities, others make use of whatever means they have to participate in the rapid upward spiral of the country's economy. The wide range in transportation ranging from little more than a bicycle transformed into an efficient delivery tool for high-tech tools to the high-speed trains reflects the peoples positive attitude (note the smile on the face of the driver in the upper picture) of participation, which is likely to make this leap a great success, much unlike the result of the 1958-1961 Great Leap Forward. Similar wide ranges can be seem in many other aspects of the society, but this time, it looks like the stronger parts of society are able to stimulate the weaker ones, particularly by making the right connections between them (like the high-speed train connecting Shanghai and Hangzhou, as discussed in the October 28, 2010 issue of the english version of the "Shanghai Daily"). How much could other parts of the world, including the U.S., learn from this transformative approach? Particularly the U.S., where the weeker individuals condensate from society into the basement (see the e.g. November 2008 Story of the Month) and cities, instead of investing in transformative measures, switch off the light or degrade infrastructure to handle the economic crisis (see the August 2010 Thought of the Month).


Photos by Hans-Peter Plag, October 28, 2010, Shanghai, China.

If you have a story, thought, or picture worth to be considered as story, thought or picture of the month, please feel free to inform me about it by sending an e-mail to hpplag@unr.edu.