How did this Forum achieve this positive outcome? By allowing a free and frank airing of views, and by forcing a room full of influential Americans to do nothing else than think about the relationship with New Zealand for two days. These are busy people. And Washington nowadays has the feeling of being the new Rome, the heart of a vast empire. All roads lead to it. Our Forum was competing with the Chinese President, a meeting of the world's Finance Ministers, and an important Indian delegation. Many of the Americans I spoke with commented that something has clearly gone wrong with the manner in which New Zealand has been treated along the way, and that the current relationship with New Zealand just doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense for New Zealand, it doesn't make sense for the United States, and it doesn't make sense for the global political and economic systems.
Scary!!
Revelation 18
1. After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.
2. With a mighty voice he shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.
3. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries."
4. Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
5. for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.
6. Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup.
7. Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, `I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.'
8. Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.
9. "When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her.
10. Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: "`Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!'
11. "The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more--
12. cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble;
13. cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men.
14. "They will say, `The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.'
15. The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn
16. and cry out: "`Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls!
17. In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!' "Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off.
18. When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, `Was there ever a city like this great city?'
19. They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out: "`Woe! Woe, O great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin!
20. Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.'"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1628648/posts
"...If one compares today's hyperpower with its 19th-century predecessor, Britain exported its language, law, and institutions around the world, so that today there are dozens of countries whose political and legal cultures derive principally from London. On islands from the Caribbean to the South Pacific, you can find miniature Westminsters proudly displaying their maces and Hansards.
But if England is the mother of parliaments, America's a wealthy spinster with no urge to start dating. The United States, almost in inverse proportion to its economic and military might, is culturally isolated. I know, I know--you've read a thousand articles about America's "cultural imperialism." And that's fine if you mean you can fly around the world and eat at McDonald's, dress at the Gap, listen to Hilary Duff, and go see Dude, Where's My Car? 3 pretty much anywhere on the planet. But on the things that matter--which, no disrespect, Miss Duff doesn't--the gap between America and the rest of the world is wider than ever. If you define "cultural dominance" as cheeseburgers, America rules. But in the broader cultural sense, it's a taste most of the world declines to pick up. In that respect, the affronted aesthetes of the Canadian press are not as banal in their preoccupations as they might at first seem: Stephen Harper's Americanized belly, sagging ever more pendulously south of the 49th parallel, sums up the limits of the cheeseburger imperium. "