I am in Luneburg
Germany, one of the small cities near Hamburg in Germany. Hamburg is the second
biggest port in Europe after Rotterdam. Rotterdam is bigger just because of its
location. Hamburg for years was Germany's port that served its economic juggernaut
from the early times to date. Whenever I have visited Germany, I
have never been worried about the quality of anything possibly
because they now do some imports. You may be worried that their quality may not
be excellent but that's not true. They have control systems that enable them
deliver literally high quality goods and services throughout the country.
Germany is known for everything good and the Germany bashers always
deride them just because they are very good at delivering high
quality goods and services and therefore would out compete them. Germans are
known for their clockwork system of doing things including keeping
the time itself. Reading one of the manuals for international students,
those coming to study in Germany are told about the importance of
time keeping to Germans and its true worldwide their trains, buses leave and
arrive on time. How they do that, that their culture. One of the things that
you find in many of these developed countries is the fact that their
development did not start 100 years ago. Their development is hundreds of years
and it involved taming or nurturing the environment they are
in, exploiting those opportunities all for their benefit. Today in
the West, many people work four days a week, they use machines to clean the
house, to wash dishes, wash cloths and now with the smart phones and advances
in technology, they have all the information they need both held in their hands
and at the touch of the screen. The story of Germany is something to learn
from. Britain conquered the world and went everywhere establishing
colonies everywhere and sold to these markets including huge markets like
India, unrestricted. The late comers to trade namely Germany, Italy and
Japan did not have markets. France of course was an imperial power by
itself. It had its colonies in Africa, North America and Asia. We learn in
history that the World War I & II were about markets. Having been
locked out in the markets, those countries without colonies wanted a share of
these growing global markets. Today, no country will grow without
exports. Of course as we know today, Japan, Germany and Italy
lost the war. As a result both Japan and Germany are very shy countries. They
do not want to raise their voices in international affairs lest they
are misunderstood as wanting to fight again. In fact, the Japanese army
was for defense alone until recently.They hardly participate in peace
keeping around the globe. Both Germany and Japan don't contribute troops in the
hot spots around the world for fear of being accused of militarism. But
what is amazing is that both Japan and Germany have been able to win over the
hearts of consumers without firing a shot. Today the best cars are
either Japanese vehicles or German vehicles. If you are looking for machinery
it should either be German or Japanese.
Visiting Leuphana University in
Luneburg, one German told me in a sarcastic manner that Luneburg University
was preceded by a college established in army camp by the British to
re-educate the Germans. I could feel the heart in the voice that was it
possible that the English could re-educate the Germans when Germany had
superior production systems? Last night watching BBC in Germany, there was a
debate on whether Britain should get out of the European Union (EU). By the time
the debate ended, 80 percent of the people said it should. What were the
reasons? The British could not accommodate German control of their
lives. The proponents of the debate actually thought the EU was
a dictatorship a group of unelected people issuing orders and
controlling numerous countries which were ruled by elected people. When the
European Union was formed, each country had its objectives. For Germany, they
wanted to be able to sell the products without hindrance to the
entire Europe. The French wanted an alliance with Germans in which they were
senior partners to be able to block English designs over Europe. Britain looked
at the formation with suspicion. They saw a group of people who wanted to
reduce British influence The British dropped out of the Common
Currency system and maintained their Pound Sterling. Today, Europe is trying to
take away British financial muscle. All that is in
the politics of control and being able to sell what you produce. That
is the politics of integration. Today, Germany is the fourth largest
economy in the world after the US, China and Japan. Britain is no. 8. France is
no. 7. Britain is the 4th largest manufacturer in the world coming
after China, Japan and Germany. Germany clearly controls Europe and all the
troubles in Europe must be borne by Germany. It has a challenge
of supporting failing states. The European Union created a boom where
countries like Ireland, Spain Portugal, Cyprus, Greece which were
economically weak, rode ob credit to drive growth When the economic
boom stopped, the countries were spending more than what they could
earn. This means the countries were bankrupt. To recover, they had to get out
of the Euro zone and re-introduce their currencies. If this happened, the EU as
an idea would be failing hence the support by Germany who are the
biggest beneficiaries of the EU. They are because they don't have to get
license to export to any of these countries. Since they have good products,
they will always sell. This is global politics, it is about putting bread on
somebody's table. It is about who does it most efficiently or who can
intimidate the other like many African countries are intimidated out of their
right to export. When coupled with their inefficiency the African countries
will for a long time remain poor. What do I pick from Germany, two words, hard
work and discipline. My German friend who was sarcastic about the British
re-educating the Germans concluded by saying the Euro will collapse, it is a
matter of time and what will emerge is a much stronger Mark.
