My twitter friend, @pdenlinger / Paul Denlinger, made an interesting comment in his tweet stream reminiscing about the British Rule of Hong Kong. I like following Paul because he's got an interesting, macro economic Asia emphasized but global focus. Asia is one place of the world I have not directly experienced, and I have always dreamed of going to Hong Kong.
I asked him to enlighten me to the British Rule Best Practices, and he responded with these 6 items.
1. Using minorities to rule such Chinese in SE Asia, Indians as police in HK, Shanghai
2. Ruling with very light hand
3. Letting brown people kill yellow people and vice versa so that Brits could avoid blame;
4. Not fighting directly
5. Allying with local businesses, biz community; building local relationships
6. Playing role of bestowing democracy
And, relying on use of force only as a very last resort, and then only reluctantly
These are very strategic (and brilliant) moves.
As we enter another age of expansion (OuterSpace and further development of EarthSpace) it will be interesting to see the attitudes and strategies utilized - and which ones give the most success given our zeitgeist.
Thanks for the Hong Kong/British Rule Perspective, Paul!
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