| Japan is also often cited, along with Argentina as having a rather odd economomy (1) I personally rather enjoy origami. I've been doing it for around 45 years (on and off) and am a bit crap. It is quite fun throwing a frog or crane at someone to show how exciting a meeting is 8) If you need to be really unsubtle - a "water bomb" (cube) does the job. I love the really complicated stuff but I have to follow instructions - box pleating can get hairy, very quickly. 1-5 - perhaps. Do recall that other exemplars exist. Wherever you are from, your country or culture will almost certainly be expert, the best or whatever at something. The important thing is to notice these things and to embrace them. There used to be a notion, hereabouts, of the "Renaissance Man" - someone erudite in all pursuits of endeavour. Obviously we would like to broaden the scope to "Person" nowadays but the notion still seems a good one to aspire towards. Just looking at your 4 - Art ... you would be unlikely to see something like "Footrot Flats" as a Japanese cartoon. Cards on the table - I'm a Brit and Footrot Flats is a long running series of cartoons by a bloke called Murray Ball from NZ (2) I personally find the shenanigans of Wal, Cooch and co the best cartoons I've ever read and I am a massive fan of Asterix (mostly French) too. Oh and Tintin (Belgium). Look outwards as well as inwards, otherwise you may end up with an economy that is held up as being a counter example to the rest of the world. On the other hand: does it really matter. Economics is barely a science, let alone a craft. Perhaps we need some better measures, when doing crass comparisons. Vive la différance. (1) https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/03/28/h... (2) https://footrotflats.com/ |