Category: World Evolution

In the Netherlands it will soon be possible to apply for a (new) passport in any city you want. This is the result of the changing from local travel documents administrations to a national administration, aimed at fighting identity fraud (nu, Dutch). Now on a national scale, later European, and in the end worldwide. Then we are born, get a number assigned to the country of birth and nationality, and which directly includes our DNA material. Related news in 2015: ‘European civilian service numbers will start in 2019’. News in 2040: ‘United Nations aims for introduction of global account numbers in 2050’. If we want to make the world a safer place, we need to be able to make somebody accountable for his behavior, and thus be able to find him or her. And that on a worldwide scale.

India is the country to which most work is outsourced worldwide, but the country is developing rapidly, which makes the wages rise. Therefore, some Indian companies have started to outsource activities too, not only to Eastern Europe and South-America, but also to ‘poorer’ parts of the United States (tc, Dutch). And thus the biggest ‘developing countries’ of the world, China and India, develop to be the biggest economies in the world. They will determine what the world looks like in about twenty years. In their slipstream Asia and Africa will also be able to develop into wealthy powers. So that in the end we will get a much more equal world society. But it will be 2050 by then..

Chinese actress Xu Jinglei nowadays is the most read blogger in the world with more than a hundred million page views per month. Chinese author Han Han takes the second place of world’s most read bloggers. Analysts expect his web log to exceed the hundred million page views very soon (em, Dutch). China and India slowly but surely start dominating the world (without being dominant by the way). Even the greatest celebrities will come from China in the future. This is a small step in that development.

News company Skoeps helps Africans register local news items through their mobile phones, and share them with the world. Through the fast growth of mobile internet, Africans can use Voices of Africa to report local happenings through text, photo and video without a computer with internet connection. This is now possible in four countries, and other countries will follow (an, Dutch). This is an ultimate example of social responsible entrepreneurship: you keep doing the same thing, but now also for the poor, unhealthy, or threatened people in the world. You use your core competences to help people. Normally you will let people pay for this - after all, you need to live off something - but every now and then you do it for free. Skoeps does exactly what it did before, but now also in Africa. Probably without earning much money, but as a long term investment in the people. A beautiful example. And at the same time, more developments become apparent in this action. 

The European Commission has its own channel on video sharing site YouTube: EUTube. This channel provides videos about the most important issues for the residents in the European Union’s 27 member countries, which are being addressed by the European Union. At the moment there are almost 50 video clips, covering various subjects: from historic pictures about the start of the European Union to contemporary concerns about environment, immigration, and the fight against global warming. Most of the content is in English, but there is room for French and German clips. Other languages will be added ‘if possible’ (ab, Dutch). This way European citizens get more involved with the European Union, their emotional barriers very slowly disappear, and Europe will start to feel like one country. A next step will be for Europe to ask its citizens to translate content. Or to provide content. Very, very slowly, in very small steps, everybody will feel like a world citizen in the future. But that will take at least another fifty to one hundred years.

Intel starts a technology blog in Chinese (rb). The globalization continues. In a few hundred years English, Spanish and Chinese will be the most important languages, and again a few hundred years later we end up with a mixture of all of these. Recognizing Chinese as an important world language is a small step in that direction.

For the first time in history, China’s export in the second half of 2006 outnumbered USA’s. Over the whole year the US were still in the lead, according to publications from the World Trade Organization WTO. Chinese export went up 27 percent last year. As a result the Chinese will probably pass the United States this year. Germany will still be the biggest exporter in the world, however China will probably outnumber this country’s export as early as next year (ld, dutch). The world’s relations will slowly re-establish. In the virtual economy which steadily develops it is all about people and less about raw materials or good local geographical circumstances. In the end (around 2050) the top 5 will be China, India, the USA, Indonesia and Brazil. The Netherlands will drop to the 59th position (in contrast to the current very comfortable sixth position). This news clearly points in that direction. Is it a bad prospect, or should the Netherlands fully focus on European collaboration?