The world we're actually living in; China manufacturing shrinks again; Are men an endangered species?; 24m cardiac deaths by 2030

1 The world we’re actually living in (Thomas L Friedman in The New York Times) The world we’re actually living in is a world that has become much more interdependent so that our friends failing (like Greece) can now harm us as much as our enemies threatening, and our rivals (like China) collapsing can hurt us as much as their rising. It’s a world where a cheap YouTube video made by a super-empowered individual can cause us more trouble than the million-dollar propaganda campaign of a superpower competitor. It is a globalized economy in which the US Chamber of Commerce, America’s largest business lobby, has opposed Romney’s pledge to designate China as a currency manipulator and is pressing Congress to lift cold war trade restrictions on Russia, a country Romney has labeled America’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe.”

It is a world where, at times, pulling back is the most meaningful foreign policy initiative we can undertake because when America is at its best it can inspire emulation, whereas Russia and China still have to rely on transactions or bullying to get others to follow. It is still a world where the use of force, or the threat of force, against implacable foes (Iran) is required, but a world where a nudge at the right time and place can also be effective.

Add it all up and it’s a world in which America will have greater responsibility (because our European and Japanese allies are now economically enfeebled) and fewer resources (because we have to cut the defense budget) to manage a more complex set of actors (because so many of the states we have to deal with now are new democracies with power emanating from their people not just one man — like Egypt — or failing states like Pakistan) where our leverage on other major powers is limited (because Russia’s massive oil and gas income gives it great independence and any war we’d want to fight in Asia we’d have to borrow the money from China). 

2 China manufacturing shrinks again (BBC) Manufacturing in China has contracted for a second month, another sign of economic slowdown in the world's second largest economy. The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 49.8 in September, government data showed. That comes after a reading of 49.2 in August.  A reading below 50 indicates a contraction in activity, while a reading above 50 indicates expansion. Weak external and domestic demand has weighed on Chinese manufacturers. 

3 Are men endangered? (Hanna Rosin in The Guardian) In 2009, for the first time in American history, the balance of the workforce tipped toward women, who continue to occupy around half of the nation's jobs. (The UK and several other countries reached the tipping point a year later.) Women worldwide dominate colleges and professional schools on every continent except Africa. In the US, for every two men who will receive a BA this year, for example, three women will do the same. Of the 15 job categories projected to grow the most in the United States over the next decade, 12 are occupied primarily by women. 

In the past, men derived their advantage largely from size and strength, but the post-industrial economy is indifferent to brawn. A service and information economy rewards precisely the opposite qualities – the ones that can't be easily replaced by a machine. These attributes – social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus – are, at a minimum, not predominantly the province of men. In fact, they seem to come easily to women.

Women in poor parts of India are learning English faster than men, to meet the demands of new global call centres. Women own more than 40% of private businesses in China, where a red Ferrari is the new status symbol for female entrepreneurs. In 2009, Icelanders made Johanna Sigurdardottir prime minister, electing the world's first openly lesbian head of state. Sigurdardottir had campaigned explicitly against the male elite she claimed had destroyed the nation's banking system, vowing to end the "age of testosterone".

Men are now stuck or "fixed in cultural aspic", as critic Jessica Grose puts it. They could move into new roles now open to them – nurse, teacher, full-time father – but for some reason, they hesitate. Personality tests over the decades show men tiptoeing into new territory, while women race into theirs. Men do a tiny bit more housework and childcare than they did 40 years ago, while women do vastly more paid work. The working mother is now the norm. The stay-at-home father is still a front-page anomaly.

4 By 2030, 24m cardiac deaths (Dawn) The World Health Organization (WHO) has alerted that world-wide deaths due to cardiovascular diseases may rise to 23.6 million from 17.3 million by 2030. A WHO representative said people would have to quit tobacco. They should take at least five servings of fruit and vegetables daily and limit salt intake to less than one tea spoon per day and take part in physical exercise for 30 minutes daily to prevent cardiovascular diseases. Unfortunately, he said the 80% burden of the cardiac diseases related deaths occurred in middle and lower income countries.