Even as he declared himself an optimist,author and New York Times columnist Thomas L Friedman expressed concern on Friday over the manner in which the US has lost its way and struggled with misplaced priorities over the last two decades. The three-times Pulitzer Prize winner,one of the worlds most respected journalists and celebrated interpreter of global maladies,was at the third edition of Express Adda,held at Lap Gardens in Delhis Samrat Hotel. Express Adda is a unique series of conversations organised by the Express Group with people at the centre of change in our times. Earlier Addas have hosted global marketing and ad guru Sir Martin Sorrell and superstar Shah Rukh Khan. Right now,America has lost its way. The country is struggling not just because of the subprime crisis. It has been struggling for the last 20 years. I think the United States has made the biggest mistake a country or species can make. We misread our environment. We thought the end of the Cold War was a victory. It was a victory,a triumph of free ideas, Friedman said. He then went on to connect the end of the cold war with the beginning of globalisation unleashed by America,but during which the country let itself be bogged down by misplaced priorities. It was also a dream that blessedly unleashed and helped liberate two billion people: people with their own versions of the Indian Dream and the Brazil Dream. Just when we should have been lacing up to run a more competitive race,we put our feet up. Then we compounded that mistake in the first decade of the 21st century beginning 2001; we compounded that mistake by chasing the losers of globalisation,called the al-Qaeda and the Taliban rather than the winners India,China,Brazil and the like. Earlier,Shekhar Gupta,Editor-in-Chief of the Express Group,introduced the best-selling author as someone who has done a lot for India not primarily because Friedman is pro-India,but also because he believes that the US should have good relations with India as it is good for the former. Since Ive met him,the day he arrives in Delhi which is now once a year-and-a-half is always marked in my diary as a red-letter day. In so many ways,he has done more for India than all the rest of them put together,in spite of the rest of us,that is,the Indian media, Gupta said. Friedman took a series of questions from the distinguished house,comprising ambassadors,policymakers,businesspersons and professionals. He interacted with,among others,former RBI governor Bimal Jalan,former chief of the BBCs New Delhi bureau Sir Mark Tully,former foreign secretary Jagat Mehta,The Indian Express columnist and managing director of Oxus Research Surjit S Bhalla,and founder and managing partner of law firm Luthra & Luthra Rajiv K Luthra. Also present were,among others,interim US Ambassador to India A Peter Burleigh,Ambassador Alon Ushpiz of Israel,Culture Minister Kumari Selja,Shell India chief Vikram Mehta,HSBC India Country Head Naina Lal Kidwai,Conde Nast India MD Alex Kuruvilla,former foreign secretary Shyam Saran,former IB directors PC Halder and Rajiv Mathur,and senior journalists Nalini Singh and Pankaj Pachauri. Friedman,accompanied by his wife Ann,spoke extensively about his new book,That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back,co-authored with Michael Mandelbaum of Johns Hopkins University,and released this September. What I am really worried about as an American is absolute decline. Where we really are not able to provide the kind of middle class lifestyle for the Great Middle Class of America. That would,I think,have enormous implications, he said. His latest book,he said,was written in an attempt to re-focus America. We believe that America had a formula for success, Friedman said. That formula was built on five pillars. The first was education,the second was infrastructure,the third was immigration,the fourth was capital formation,and the fifth government-funded research. The decline of all these five pillars was a source of great concern,he said. I just flew from Hong Kong to Los Angeles Airport,(airport code) LAX. When you fly from Hong Kong to LAX,it is like flying from the Jetsons to the Flintstones, Friedman said of the current state of USs infrastructure. On the direction US immigration policy is taking,Friedman said: If you watch our Republican debates,there is a sort of competition between Republican presidential candidates as to who can fry more Mexicans in an electrified fence. The whole message is,stay away. So,we educate the best minds in the world,and then we say,please get out of here. To a question on his advocacy of capitalism and globalisation by interior designer Sunita Kohli,Friedman conceded that while socialism made everyone equally poor,globalisation and capitalism had made people unequally rich,and that it was likely to only get worse. To a question on the US and Af-Pak,Friedman said,The killing of Osama bin Laden caused deep embarrassment to the Pakistani military. They have retaliated in their own way for the last few months. That is what triggered this trip by (US Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton and the Secretary of Defence. I think this is really going to play out over the next 12 months. Because Obama wants to get out,Pakistan is critical for that. The question is,can we satisfy Pakistans demands and needs without selling out Karzai and our allies there? I think its going to be a very tense period,one that will define Obamas presidency in foreign policy terms.
