From ''Backlight'' VPRO, The Netherlands
Very interesting edition of ''Backlight'' on Dutch television tonight.
Investor Jim Rogers spoke about commodities and the future of the East (China). He is moving or has moved to China and wants his kids to grow up in the continent of the future: Asia. He sees the 19th century as the century of the UK, the 20th century as that of the USA and the 21st century as the century of China. He has sold his US dollars, predicts the fall of a once great nation and tells us to learn Chinese ASAP! I personally don't think this will happen as quickly and dramatically as he claims considering the size and still growing American economy and its growing population, though he did predict the housing bubble in 2002 and also wrote a ''visionary'' book on rising influence and cost of commodities. Most importantly, he has made a fortune by these predictions. His advice for 2008: puts on anything related to Wallstreet and studying a profession like farming or chemistry rather than an MBA.
Futurologist and business strategist Peter Schwartz spoke about several major topics such as global warming, religion, demographics and more. It was interesting to hear his analysis on how global warming does indeed affect global peace (so perhaps Al Gore's Nobel Prize is justified after all). Also, he predicts Europe to face major tensions as religion will become increasingly relevant with the influx of immigrants from Asia and Africa. Living in Holland with 1 dead politician and 1 dead filmmaker and French riots in the sub-urbs not too far away this prediction is already a reality today. When I heard Peter Schwartz speak in front of a group of marketers in Gent Belgium, I thought it would be quite interesting to do this kind of work. Trendwatching normally focuses on the short-term as is often not very well argumented. His work puts things in a much larger perspective.
The video only shows a small part of both interviews. More info on Backlight's website.
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