Who is the leader/leading-nation/guider ?

With all things happening around us, at the end of the day or the year or perceptionally we would like to know who is the leader.

A leader walks the path and shows the path so that others could follow. This path leads toward the general well being of the society and the world. A same person or country cannot be a leader in all domains and walks of life, but those who generally lead us in most but not all domains are considered as leader or world-leader.

So now let us analyze who is the leader; I will consider only a few domains.

Wealth-creator: Certainly USA has the most wealthiest people - however the number of people becoming rich in the US does not seem to be more. This is primarily based on the assumption that the country's rate of growth reflects onto the growth of a resident. Since the US economy is generally growing at a slower rate it would seem that the wealth creation is a little slow as well. Ofcourse the amount of money can be more but in a general normalization we will ignore the amount of money but go about by the fair rule of percentages - the GDP. China would be the leader in this domain. India would follow in close heels.

Trade and related domains: Again China would be leader here. Buy anything of a lower cost in the US, it is made in China. The exports of the Chinese have reached far flung areas of the earth - and a hiccup in their production process will certainly cause others to sneeze. The workflow that they have in place has seeped into every country's system. So the Chinese have a firm grip on the business domain - in a broad sense.

Oil and petroleum products: No doubt OPEC is the one-all and end-all. If they twitch thier fingers all the stock markets react. A very powerful group they are for sure. I read that after Saudi Arabia and Iran, the third largest oil reserves are in Iraq. Sound familiar? Yes this is the country US has hopelessly invaded and grotesquely mismanaged. With OPEC having the power to armtwist others, US thought we should free ourselves and hence the invasion. (All the reasons about Saddam, Iraqi people suffering, Democracy etc are a pot of crocamania bull crap).

Religion and religious fervor: Christians had the upper hand till some time ago. Now they are on the back foot. Islam is taking over in many ways - if not by gracious acceptance by the people but more by force and violence. Well recently the Pope added to Christianity's decline. Out of the blue he quoted some Medival text and lo he was in trouble. Worse still he has endagered all those lives of Christian Missionaries (or should I say opportunistic proselytizers) around the world. These people use tooth and nail to preach and convert and increase their count. Another example would be in Assam, preachers/recruiters promise 1 years ration to the poor on conversion! Now the poor are surely tempted. Stomach rules the mind! Now with the Pope's statement, the Islamists (both 'radical' and non-radical) are up in arms and demonstrations. Even after the Pope 'apologized', how sincere he was God only knows, the Islamists say it is not enough. Now I don't know what more the Pope can do to appease them. Hmmm ... how about he convert himself to a Muslim! You see if the followers of Islam, go about violent demonstration the whole world retraces their steps. That is power. Though Islam might not be a leader through peace it is has become a leader through stern action - some violence, some terrorism, some by lambasting. Another example is, Hizb-ul Mujahideen says it will offer conditional truce in Kashmir because Ramzan is near. Now our meek Indian government led by the hapless-gutless Wo-Man Mohan Singh (as well as all our previous governments) will accept this truce - and inturn white washing the eyes of the nation by quoting this as progress. Now what I want to know is when there is Ganesh Chaturti or Diwali or Durga Puja, can the Indian forces announce a truce and the Hizb would accept it?!! Certainly we shouldn't kid ourselves with this idea should we? So when the Islam following and propagating terrorist group ask for truce we should accept but not the other way around. Another example of coercive leading.


Diplomacy - Political domain: One thing is for SURE, US is *not* the leader. GWB has blown the chance and misled the nation based on his own agenda and based on the statement 'after all he (Saddam) tried to kill my father'. He is no leader. Some how I think he is a representation of the movie 'Manchurian Candidate'. In so many ways he seems to be the puppet. One of the simplest demonstration was when he was informed that a plane had struck one of the WTC towers, he continued to read the story book for the children. HE HAD NO CLUE WHAT TO DO. Probably he was waiting for his COMPANY to transmit the message to him! Next let me see if India is a leader. Please forgive me for thinking so, how could I consider India and leading in the same breath. India is being 'led' by a puppet; what will it lead the world in? We are infact governed by the terrorists! Whenever there is an attack in the country all our Poltical leaders increase the security. Security of whom - themselves! Their security level is raised from Z+ to Z+ to the power of infinity. They want to be safe. They are least bothered about the security of the countrymen. At this writing they have already forgotten about the recent 7/11 train attacks. They are now worried about how to make more money - how to appease their Grand Alliance party chiefs. On the anniversary of the attack all we will do is run a news paper column praising the resilience of the people and the headline will read 'One year since 7/11'. One year after the attacks the common man is no safer and the politicians would have made no effort to make the country safer as well. What can you expect from a government, which says we have got the best assurance we could, from our terror sponsoring state that they will cooperate. Our foolish leaders believe in a fox! Then moving on to other countries, not many lead perhaps with the exception of Israel. Yes my friends that is the country leading in terms of politics in my book. The recent rapid raucous response they gave to Hezbollah was note worthy. Even the leaders of Hezbollah came out towards the end saying they did not expect such a massive response! That is the quality of a leader. If you harm us for no reason we are going to make your life a misery. Our Indian bigots should learn from the Israel for sure.

So in general most of the leaders seem to be non-US. I think this is a sad state - being the world leader in the mid to late 19th Century, US had crest fallen. Hopefully there is a turn around in the attitude of the people and administration to regain the past glory - otherwise it will be like a struggling Anna Kournikova trying to win a tournament.

Currently the US is the leader in space exploration but Russia and ESA are catching up. Let us see how long this lasts.