As usual, I had found myself incredibly lost in China.  It’s quite easy to do so, something I proved to myself on numerous occasions.

Of the nearly 100 countries I have visited in my travels, the top three most difficult countries to get around as an English speaking foreigner were China, Russia and, this one may surprise you, Mexico.

Considering its proximity to the US I was quite surprised to find how many people in Mexico don’t so much as speak a word of English.

But, at least the alphabet is basically the same and, in fact, most of the words can be figured out pretty easily as they come from the same origins.  I didn’t tend to get too lost in Mexico when I could read signs like, “Farmacia”, “Restaurante” and “Policia”.

Asia are now the producers of the world.  The West, largely, are the consumers.  The proof is in the numbers.

Consuming more than you produce is bad, by the way, despite what American politicians say.  If you plan to improve your life in the future it is always better to produce more and consume less.  That’s about as basic as it gets.  But with leaders like George W. Bush intoning Americans to “Get out there and shop!” after the 9/11 attacks this logic obviously goes over his head!

Take a look at the current account balance (effectively exports minus imports of goods & services) leaders taken from the 2008 World Economic Outlook database.  Here are the top 25 producing nation states:

I had just returned from a lovely stroll on the beach in drug-war-torn Acapulco and was pleased by, yet again, returning un-beheaded – despite the warnings from the western mass media.  I entered into my 29th floor beachfront condo with a full view of Acapulco Bay – a place, by the way, that cost me less than $100,000 and has annual property taxes of $300 (shameless plug: you can own one too: Acacondos.com).  (Perhaps that is why the American media is trying to portray Mexico as being hell on earth – if American’s knew how beautiful, free and cheap it was here they’d be climbing that wall to get into Mexico!)