.. the era in which the economies of Europe and its colonial offshoots, including the US and Australia, dominated the world ended 20 days ago. We can now see it for what it was - a historical aberration that lasted about 1½ centuries.

"The Chinese look at this and they say, 'We just had a couple of bad centuries,'" remarks the international economist and former vice-chair of Goldman Sachs in Asia, Ken Courtis. "In the blink of a generation, global power has shifted. Over time, this will not just be an economic and financial shift but a political, cultural and ideological one."

Hollywood is not the centre of global popular culture because of the quality of its product.