第八章,說的是美國無遠弗屆的超級強國的力量。當今天下,根本沒人能及。
‘In 2004, America attracted 80 per cent of global savings. In this mad world, the savings of poor Chinese peasants purchase American Treasury securities to help keep interest rates in the US lower and the financing of the deficit more secure. The trade-off for the Chinese and other Asians for investing in this mountain of paper is that it eases the pressures on them over the exchange rate of their own currencies and over the size of their surplues with America. They fund US debt so that Americans will continue to buy their products.’ p.219
經濟上,我們全都要看美國的臉色,無論是多麼不會理,多麼委曲。
‘America spends on defence more than Europe, Russia and China combined – indeed, probably as much as the rest of the world put together. Through the last decade defence spending has amounted to about 4 per cent of America’s GDP. America could knock over any government in the world if it wanted to do so. It has the technollogy to destroy with greater precision than a military machine has ever had before, though as many Iraqi and Afghan causualties testify the precision is far from perfect. It can spy on us all, friend or foe, its satellites reporting back what we say and photographing everything we do, though there is here a second caveat.’ p.225
軍事上,更不消說。只要美國願意,以其軍事實力,根本是無堅不催。我突然感到很慶幸,一個擁有這麼強大力量的國家,是一個崇尚民主自由的國度,他們的國民超碼對政府還有一定程度的制約,要是換上一個極權國家坐擁如斯實力,後果恐怕不感想像了。
‘American investments in the Netherlands in that year were almost as great as in the whole of Asia. Over the past decade US firms have put ten times as much capital into the Netherlands as into China, and twice as much as into Mexico.’ p.224
彭定康作為歐洲人,卻再次為自己的同胞打打氣,說山姆大叔最大的投資始終是在文化上同源的歐洲。
‘How on earth can America regain that global image? How can it rebuild international order based on agreement, and how can Europe help?’ p.233
不過,自上世紀九十年代以來,美國就成了唯一的超級強國。其實這是極危險的情況,因為權力一旦不受制衡,就容易出軌,演生各種問題。九十年代,民主黨的克林頓在位,在很多方面自我約制,當時令不少人以為歷史將終結在美式自由民主的潮流中,而現實世界亦出現了烏托邦。可惜,新保守主義的回朝,令美國再次成為問題。
作為山姆大叔在經濟上、軍事上和文化上最親密的盟友,如何像日月忠貞的賢相那樣,助美帝重踏賢明之路?
黃霑的豪情 林夕的感覺
粵語流行曲可以說是繼粵劇之後,粵語文化最重要的文化產品。這可得力於香港於上世紀七十年代至九十年代期間,因為殖民地的身份,與中原文化相對隔絕,而土生一代又成長起來,為粵語流行曲提供了重要的生存土壤。
黃霑在七八十年代雄霸詞壇,而林夕則在八十年代後藉《吸煙的女人》和樂隊風潮平步青雲,而兩人亦象徵兩代詞人的風格轉變。黃霑、鄭國江,甚至林振強的一代,以湖江山色入詞的特別多,給與人氣吞山河之勢,其中以黃霑最豪放,「情如天萬里廣闊,仇如海無盡根深」(倚天屠龍記主題曲)、「無限美無愛在我心」(星夜星塵),都是最佳的例證。
至於林夕,除了正如黃霑所說的,雙聲疊韻做得好,最優秀的,莫過於他能捕捉得到城市人在夜爛人靜時柔軟而容易受傷的那種感覺,就像一個人瑟縮在暗角中低泣一樣。樓下的《身外情》就是經典,即使他的作品,故事性不及同樣在九十年代各領風騷的黃偉文般強,但仍然稍勝一疇。
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