Musical Chairs and Turned Tables

How times have changed. Nothing is forever. Not within nature itself in its immense, powerful reach, always in flux, ever altering its constituents to become other than they are, but yet what they are. We are all motes of dust, star-dust, minuscule parts of the ineffable universe. This is what is called the macro level, whose proportions, dimensions, purpose and being the most academically-schooled scientific minds can only hazard through the genius of their especial intellectual prowess.

On a completely other scale, is the actions of creatures that live upon the only planet that human beings know relatively well, although not completely. Explorations continue within the planet, deep in the bowels of the earth, within the vast oceans, and in the upper atmosphere. We are even now - which is to say, the scientists with which humankind is blessed - discovering new species of plant, insect and animal life never before seen, as the interiors of continents continue to be explored.

And then there's the inner space of the minds of human beings. As complex and determined, as wired and unexpectedly surprising - on the one hand predictable, on the other hand certainly not - as any miracle of life that nature has designed. As complex, in its infinitesimally small way as the vastness of the universe is complex beyond our understanding. Does the topic at hand deserve the foregoing? Likely not, but on the other hand, why-ever not?

The manner in which a collective people behave in ongoing efforts to benefit themselves is intriguing, and as adaptively-alternating as the cycles of the Earth itself, responding to the effects of the moon on the tides of this planet, to the sunspots shooting out from their giant host to interrupt the electrical signals sent out by Earthlings, to the temperature gradients that elicit responses from winds that ravage our horizon, and cloudbursts that recycle our oceans.

The peoples of the Far East have conventionally, historically, been closed to incursions by those of the West. The continents' human expression of exclusivity and ingrained xenophobia related to nature's imperative to survival has far outlasted its primeval beginnings. But this is another era, another day. Japan and China, so resistant in the past to the curiosity of invading armies, and accustomed themselves to preying on each other have only relatively recently been part of the international community by reluctant choice.

China's ancient heritage gifted east and central Asia with parts of their culture. Japan's culture was enriched by Chinese culture via the Korean peninsula. Buddhism came to China, then Japan, via India. As proud of all the disparate nations are of their uniqueness, all share the common heritage of humankind and the artifices and concepts, the social, religious constructs that originate somewhere, and then gradually spread in influence.

Japan has never liked to acknowledge its obligation to China or to Korea or to India for its written language, its religious devotion, its social infrastructures, altered over the millennia, and made uniquely its own. In the last century, Japan militarily occupied and ravaged Korea and China, and fences are still being mended, hurt feelings assuaged. Here is proud Japan now - once the envy of the world for its booming economy post-WWII (U.S. generosity) - two decades into desperate economic downturn.

Striving to make itself attractive as a consumer paradise to the newly-hatched wealthy of China. That same China whose immense and diverse population, mostly rural and desperately poor, was a militant and social basket case under pure Communism. The country's adaptation to the new capitalist-communism has made China wealthy, aspiring to more wealth as rural dwellers flock to urban centres and huge factories to supply the world with inexpensive baubles.

Japan's population growth has stalled, and where once whatever it produced could be consumed internally, profitably - with its quality-built products in high demand internationally, increasing its wealth and prestige - it now seeks other avenues of national wealth-building to build upon. The Chinese, once so despised and seen as beneath notice, have suddenly become extremely attractive as potential tourists and purchasers of Japanese-produced, quality consumer items.

Where once the East was beneath the notice of the West, other than for its exploitative potential, suddenly the European Union sees the growing financial clout of China as a possible solution to the dire straits of so many European countries. Influencing Chinese tourists to visit Portugal, Italy, Grace, Spain, changing their yuan for euros. The European commissioner responsible for tourism is anxious to use any means at their disposal to attract greater numbers of free-spending tourists from China.

The global financial crisis that decimated the fortunes of much of the world, and left nations reeling in debt, forcing them to face the reality of past over-spending, now dramatically cutting national social spending has them facing the wrath of their voters. But the crisis did not impact China in any significant way. And China holds in its treasuries I.O.U.s from the wealthiest country in the world, that country that led all others in the international financial market into a scorching economic meltdown.

And so the world turns.