The world has changed in the past 2 weeks

"Are you watching closely?"

That unforgettable quote from The Prestige says it all. The world has turned on its head in the past 2 weeks and many of us have been caught off-guard.

But while 2008 has been a a year of triumphs and failures, it has also been a year of opportunities for the world. History is, and will continue to be rewritten. Let's take a look at 3 major trends for the world:

(1) We are officially in a recession
Yes, we have the subprime crisis, bailouts of mega-huge banks and insurance companies, and IMF aid to some countries begging at its door, including many rich Western countries. But the statistics prove it. The US, the bulk of the European Union, and many countries including Singapore, have now registered a technical recession.

But what makes this recession so different from the others it that it occurred despite countries having strong economic fundamentals. The US, even with its high BOT and fiscal deficit, culture of over-consuming, and Wall Street's oversight, has one of the soundest and most resilient economies in the world.

What made this recession all the more possible was the extent of the spread of toxic investments around the world, the increased interconnectivity of capital markets, and the lack of regulation in response to these 2 factors. As the world globalised, we were caught off-guard by these crises, and governments acted too late and too hesitantly to have much of an effect.

But with a recession comes new opportunities: banking systems will be strengthened (with more regulation, I hope), social responsibility will replace self-obssessive greed, global cooperation will intensify, and there will be a period of postive self-reflection for all.

(2) Black is the new cool
And just about any other colour that characterises minority groups. The election of Barack Obama as the 44th US President, and Lewis Hamilton's epic win, has led many to believe that the the world can become colour-blind if it really wants to.

In Singapore, one of our raging debates is whether we are ready to accept a non-Chinese Prime Minister. Similarly debates are raging in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, France, the UK and many countries with huge minority groups.

What this also means is that minority groups are psychologically empowered, even in countries where they are less vocal and even oppressed by their rulers. Traditional power structures will have to accomodate the less empowered as rulers become more sensitive to what minority groups say and do.

A little more political accountability for many parts of the world wouldn't hurt at all.

(3) East will be the new West
We are already observing a seismic shift in economic and geopolitical power from the West to the East. Just check out the just-concluded G20 economic forum: the West is now looking to Asian countries like China and Japan for assistance to revive the global economy. They are now being given front-row VIP seats to watch the concert. No longer will Asian countries continue to play a "supporting" role in influential organisations like the IMF, World Bank, and perhaps the UN.

In today's world with an economic recession, money talks. Japan and China have indicated their readiness to contribute over US$100 billion and US$550 billion respectively to combat the world recession, either in the form for capital injection into the IMF (by Japan) or more direct spending to boost the world economy (by China). In fact, developing countries are slated to drive world economic growth for 2009 and even 2010.

Many great thinkers, including our own Kishore Mahbubhani, have predicted this shift as the East (especially the economically vibrant Northeast Asian region) catches up economically with the West, and outperform them in many cases.

What this recently-concluded forum shows is that the West can no longer deny, nor delay, the inevitable influence and power of East Asia. Rather than wait for another 50 years for Asia to rise up, we are perhaps seeing the beginnings of an Asia-centric world order. Hopefully, it will be an era which will be better than the Western-centric world order that the world has witnessed for over 2 hundred years.

I feel proud to be an Asian. I'm sure many hundreds of millions of people out there too feel the same way.