Cooperation cuts both ways

My brain feels like those blobs of mercury that slithered all over the floor when you clumsily dropped a thermometer in the good old days.

Today, of course, mercury is regarded as toxic and is handled with care. But as children, we were fascinated by its silvery, slippery appearance and would spend hours trying to combine the constantly shifting droplets.

Thankfully, my exposure to the substance has left me with no lasting medical disorders, though I do sometimes light up like a fluorescent bulb at night.

Last week was packed with interesting news and developments which, in isolation, were easy to grasp. But, like those slinky little beads of mercury, I battled to craft the events into a coherent blueprint of where they will lead.

By far the most encouraging sign has been an assured and cogent President Barack Obama, who has acknowledged that almost half the US population did not support him at the ballot box. Also, understanding the need to compromise on his campaign invective, he has taken an early initiative to tackle crucial budget and tax concerns, which can seriously harm the country's fragile economic recovery.

I must admit that I have warmed to his more modest and collaborative approach to those sensitive issues and, judging from the outcome of preliminary talks, so has his opposition.

A tribute, too, to the Republican Party, which has come to realise that attracting the backing of women, minorities and other marginalised groups will entail ditching its Tea Party leanings.

I hope that points to a return of confidence to a nation that has been dragged down by years of brinkmanship, poor financial governance and costly wars. Also, the exploitation of an abundance of unconventional fuel deposits could improve its prospects of competing in the manufacture of aluminium, steel, glass and chemical products.

Less comprehensible, however, is China's recent change in leadership - Xi Jinping has been elected general secretary of the Communist Party, replacing Hu Jintao. Hu's parting shot was a challenge to the new leadership to double both the size of the economy and individual wealth during the next decade.

The outside world's wish is that the new administration continues with the reforms that have underpinned the nation's emergence as an economic powerhouse. Add to that social welfare policies that will encourage householders to hoard less for retirement and spend more.

In a country that has such exciting growth prospects, foreigners are hoping for a lessening of the power of state-owned enterprises, opening the way for greater participation by the private sector, particularly in finance.

But the downside of the changeover remains the politburo's lack of transparency and the improbability of moves towards China's democratisation.

Though the reform-minded US, and China, are positioned to revive their stalling economies, Europe remains a dead weight encumbering their progress.

The eurozone still contributes 25% to global GDP. But, apart from Germany, the region is losing its global competitiveness, which has been crushed by inflexible labour policies, stiff regulations, high taxes and destructive entitlement programmes. The region has little appetite for change and brutal austerity timetables in Greece and Spain, which are designed to transform past imbalances, have sparked widespread riots and civil protests.

Instead of heading off for their customary three-hour lunchtime siestas, European workers should take a page out of the book of the busloads of hardworking Asian tourists who plunder their exotic sports car, luxury watches and vintage champagne markets with their vast new-found wealth.

Finally, what can we say about South Africa? Government ministers, appreciating the country's mountain of social and economic turmoil, plead for cooperation and unity of effort while refusing to open a debate in parliament about the nation's ineffectual leadership and vociferously coming to the defence of farmworkers who are protesting against a minimum wage that is permitted by law.

When the people who are in the seats of power come to understand the anger mounting against the intolerable level of corruption in the country's highest office, the deplorable quality of services in state-run hospitals, schools and courts, and show their resolve to deliver change - taking account of the aspirations of all communities - will South Africans be prepared to galvanise their resources in an effort to help rebuild our crumbling national image?