Is the criticism of Obama's response to the Gulf Oil problem justified?

            Three days after the Horizon platform explosion, the Dutch Government offered expertise and equipment on keeping the oil contained.  The Obama White House rejected the offer.  Now, seven weeks later, Obama has changed his mind.

            After seven weeks, and more than 60 million barrels of oil, Obama is finally going to communicate directly with the Chairman of BP!

Yeah, i kind of think so.  Obama's defense on not talking with BP already, is that he didn't want to call and just "vent on them".  Gosh, maybe he could have called to share ideas on containing the spill. 

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China - In May, I made my second trip to China.  The journey  reinforced the fact that the Chinese, while producing lots of goods for the US market, are also investing tremendous resources in infrastructure.  New Super-highways are being built to speed the transport of goods and people.  20 miles from the city center of Shanghai, I counted seven different cranes, each constructing 30-40 story residential towers.  Think about seeing something like that more than 20 miles from downtown Chicago or LA!

This investment in infrastructure struck me the minute I got off the plane in Shanghai.  Allow me to digress. 

One of my greatest frustrations in travel to NY's Laguardia airport is that there is no convenient public transportation to Manhattan.  Oh sure, you can hop a public bus, but it will take a least an hour to get downtown.  And that is only a distance of 17 miles.  Care to take the subway?  It's not really an option, as NY, in their infinite wisdom, has never connected a subway to the airport.  If you care to take the subway, you need to climb on a bus (with all your luggage) and then get to a subway station.  I tried it once, just as a test.  It took more than 90 minutes to make the 17 mile trip.  Talk about frustrating!

Arriving in the Shanghai airport, I was greeted with a myriad of options (taxis, buses, etc) for getting to central Shanghai.  And the sparkling subway station was right there as well.  I chose the Mag Lev train, instead. 


This "bullet train" travels from the airport to Shanghai, a distance of 18 miles in just 7 minutes.  We topped speeds of more than 250 miles per hour.   (The cost was $8).

The train was designed a built by a German firm.  Ironically, China is the only one that has embraced the technology.  Germany doesn't even have one. But the Chinese are continuing to build them. 

Their investment in infrastructure is comparable, I believe, to the US construction of the Interstate Highway system in the 1960's.  Like the transformative impact of interstates on the US, I believe China's investment in transportation will only propel them forward, faster.