I’ve always had a soft spot for HSBC’s advertising campaigns ever sine they called themselves “The World’s Local Bank.” It was as if someone in the marketing department had enough human empathy to understand that globalising was probably the world’s greatest single business opportunity but at the same time, people would become more attached to their local economies.
Well, I’m glad
to say that someone in HSBC has done it again. This time it was from a poster
that I saw in Dubai International Airport on my way to London, which talked
about raising a champion of “open borders.”
How did Dubai
do it? Well, the answer is simple. They’ve been open for business from day one
and they’ve welcomed entrepreneurs from all over the world to set up shop. Dubai
has taken advantage of its geographical location and branded itself as the “hub”
between Europe, Africa and Asia (so much so that the girl checking me in at
Changi Airport explained “Dubai is like us – they’re a hub – flights there are always
going to be full”). Dubai is by no means the main market in the region (Saudi Arabia
has 40 odd million and the UAE has 10 million and Dubai is only the second most
prominent part of the UAE) but like Singapore in its region, Dubai is the
gateway. International businesses set up their regional headquarters in Dubai just
as they do in Singapore.
Dubai and Singapore
have prospered for the simple reason that they’ve been open. The governments of
both would argue that they don’t really have choice. The domestic market is almost
negligible and both don’t have much by way of resources (though admittedly,
this claim is often exaggerated – Both have natural ports and Dubai has the
added advantage of being in a Federation with Abu Dhabi, which has a lot of
oil) and so they have no choice but to be open to the world. If you look at
both places, you’ll notice that they’ve pioneered their national airlines to be
world beaters they want international traffic to come in.
Being open and
stable have been key to the survival of small states with not that much except
their geography. Singapore has pushed it to the extent that its passport is
considered one of the most powerful in the world. This was very clear when I
entered the UK and found that the Singapore passport was in the same “special” category
as the larger US, Japan and European Union passports. In short, getting into a
Western country with a Singapore passport is relatively easy. Nobody worries we’re
going to disappear and work on the black market.
Let’s look at
the United Kingdom (UK), where I am now sitting. The UK has notoriously committed
one of the greatest acts of nationalistic stupidity and as I write, is going
through one of its hardest periods economically. As often mentioned, I grew up
in the UK in the recession of the 1990s and nobody talked about the choice of
starving or freezing the way they do now. Somehow, everyone was conned into the
idea that Britain’s position in the world would be enhanced through Brexit. It’s
taken a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Spokesperson to dispel that myth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jZ0KTRUgpU
The British
were the first “small” nation to prove that being open was essential to
prosperity. Britain is a small island tucked away in a corner of Europe that
ruled the quarter of the world. It humbled larger nations like China and
conquered India (as said in the movie Gandhi – it was about 100,000 Englishmen
ruling 300 million Indians). China was and is many times larger than Britain
but closed off to everything because they really thought they were the centre
of the world and refused to have open borders. Britain, by contrast, pioneered
freedom of trade and movement of goods – hence had resources and ideas than its
smaller geographical location would suggests.
If you look at
the parts of Britain that work, noticeably the better parts of London, you’ll
notice that these are not where the Brexiteers hang out. It’s the parts that
are open to the world I couldn’t help but notice that the London Marathon is sponsored
by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), that most classic of Indian brands.
Chauvinist of
all sorts need to remember one thing. Nationalism is like masturbation. It may feel
good when you’re indulging in it but the reality is that you actually spend
energy to produce nothing at all.
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