One of my more memorable experiences was a trip to South Korea where I was introduced to video calls from cell phones while on a high-speed train across the country. That was the same visit where I was fortunate enough to visit the De-Militarized Zone border with North Korea and see how the South had created a profitable tourism industry from the North's many failed attempts to tunnel into the South under the border.
I am often in awe of the way western-style democracy and capitalist markets have flourished in other parts of the world and even made me marvel in new technologies and inventions.
Well, in the past few months I have visited Japan and Korea, home to some of the most prominent names in modern electronics. Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, (all Japanese) LG, Samsung, (both Korean) are names that are in almost every home around the world. However, I was traveling with a few tricks of my own.
My lovely wife was gracious enough to surprise me with an iPad within a few months of its release, and since then I have probably filled it with almost every time-saving, cool news-reading, language translating, book-buying, music reading (tabs for playing songs on guitar) and just plain cool app I could find that either helps me make the most of my time (reading news articles in a cab) or waste it when I just need a break (playing Jenga or Scrabble). And let me tell you, I was the envy of all these guys with fast and slick video cell phones. I had senior executives scrambling to have a turn at searching Google on my little tablet.
Also, a lot of my business associates are smokers. While I don't smoke, it always leaves you with a strange social situation when everyone leaves a room to go have a puff and you are left sitting alone. So, again, I came equipped with another new little American invention: the smokeless cigar. This is a little device that contains water and vaporizes it when you inhale and even makes a little green LED light up at the end so people know it isn't a real tobacco stick when steam comes puffing out of your mouth like smoke. It may not be the healthiest little gadget, but it sure raises a lot of eyebrows and again leaves everyone in wonder.
Finally, my business travels left me longing for a creative outlet, so my in laws gave me a tiny travel guitar for Christmas. the finger board is full size, but the strings wrap under the body so the tuning head adds nothing to the length. The whole thing is smaller than a small violin, so it is easily airplane portable. I was able to write a new song while having a free conference call between Tokyo, Singapore, and Philadelphia on Skype (another innovative American invention).
The point here is that even though the world is still coming to grips with globalization, outsourcing, free trade, low-wage labor, and imported electronics, (which I argue are ALL positive forces making the world a better and more level place) the things that really make our lives better, more productive, and more enjoyable are generally imagined, designed, and marketed in the USA.
The Tiger Moms of Asia may have some credible points in pushing the importance of math and science, but the ingenuity, creativity, and plain cajones it takes to take an idea from dream to reality is still fostered no where better than in America. Our rule of law, our rights and freedoms, and our cultural enterprising spirit is truly something unique in the world. While I am eternally grateful for my opportunities to see the world, I am just as thankful for some simple reminders of why I am proud to be an American.
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