Their Own Bilateral Relationships

New opportunity consummated this evening.  It would appear I’ll be heading to Brazil.  That’s a big one.  Friends of mine from Brazil have mentioned, in passing that it was the world’s fifth largest economy.  Sounded good to me.  I think I’ve repeated the statistic blithely, in my water-cooler conversations: “Well, of course there’s a rich dialogue between the world’s second largest economy and the world’s fifth.” 

Contemporary minds needn't wonder about visiting a library for research, to verify such things.  Five or six clicks suggest that while China is indeed the world’s second largest national economy Brazil, at least for now, after a poor year’s worth of performance, is the eighth largest national economy.  This consulting the unimpeachable “world economy” tab on Wiki.  England, France, India as well as Japan and Germany which I knew, are each listed as larger economies.  The other telling data point is that unlike The United States or China whose economies are “peaking” at present in 2018, the Brazilian economy was at its largest for GDP in 2011.   Perhaps it was the fifth largest in 2012. 

Doesn’t matter.  Two giants are learning about one another.  And even though U.S. China relations are in the doldrums, the rest of world have their own bilateral relationships to manage.  And it is through my work in China that I am now led back to the Americas.  Three decades or more of appreciation for the country’s music, a fleeting understanding of its literature and political progression, a somewhat richer understanding of its business climate but ultimately an entire continental if not civilizational challenge to consider. 

This year I had been preparing for a visit to Israel and to Egypt with the family.  I have focused a year’s worth of personal reading towards this geography.  I’ve read Jordanian literature and Palestinian literature in addition to Israeli and Egyptian.  And now, suddenly in three weeks I may be over, once again, in a completely different context for which I haven’t been able to prepare at all.  Dive in.   Dive in when you can, and consider yourself lucky to be alive and fluid.

Thursday 02/14/19