Still peasant societies...

Click here: In Teeming India, Water Crisis Means Dry Pipes and Foul Sludge - New York Times

It is quite peculiar.

Financial savants regard three peasant societies as our greatest competitors: Russia, China, India.

Russia and China are always said to be on the verge of greatness.

I gather China was indeed a great, if cruel, empire (Genghis Kahn etc.) So what?

The Russians, I don't think ever made it to the big leagues, although have a great cultural heritage. They are better off now than they were. But emigration, plunging prices for fossil fuels, rampant alcoholism, suicide and plunging birth --- do not augur well.

India may make it to center-stage in the world arena. It is democratic, but riven by internal conflict.

Still, it is an innovative, proud and aspiring place.

But it has a long way to go.

Ben