A Philosophy of Life

The Credit Suisse Magazine Since 1895 Issue 2 International Edition/English June/July 2 011 West a philosophy of life Financing Crisis Looms Unfunded value of public liabilities is huge / Asian Investment Conference Prestigious meeting of experts in Hong Kong / Singapore Biennale An inspiring selection of works on show / Jimmy Wales The founder of Wikipedia on his great dream Bangkok | Beijing | Delhi | h ong kong | n agoya | o saka | s eoul | s hanghai | s ingapore | Tokyo Announcing the new, dAily Shortcut to SINGAPORE Fly the shorter, faster route via Helsinki to all major destinations in Asia. See our opening offers at finnair.com/ch Flights start 30.5. Flying often to Asia? Contact our sales team for Corporate Agreements at [email protected] and start saving money on your next flight. Editorial 1 “OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet …” Rudyard Kipling Where is West? What is West? For one person, West may describe a position; for another, West may refer to direction. Paradoxically, whether you head west or east, you will eventually arrive at the same point if you just keep going long enough. For my part, if I suggest heading to the West Side, I’m referring to all neighbor- hoods west of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. This could mean the West Village, with its tree-lined, cobblestone streets and charming brownstones, so prominently displayed in the TV series “Sex and the City”; or the neighborhood known as Hell’s Kitchen, the backdrop of the musical and film “West Side Story.” Readers living in Beverly Hills, California, on the other hand, say West when referring to Santa Monica – and to Japan and China, which I think of as East, if not Far East. The point I’m making is that the term West is quite relative! Image Recognition The kooaba app – description and West and East were for many people defined during the Cold War, when West and instructions page 32 East battled for global power and influence. As a boy growing up in Europe, West to me meant the United States, and my image of the US came from American movies that ended with a cowboy riding alone into the sunset. I doubt that Euro- pean 10 -year-old boys today spend their Saturdays watching American Westerns. So, West probably means something quite different to them than it used to mean QR Code QR Code for the mobile bulletin’s to me. Indeed, it is impossible to come up with a definition of West that will be the Internet link page 32 same for all people or that will never change. (After all, when the Cold War ended and Germany was reunified, part of the East suddenly became the West, which would have upended Rudyard Kipling’s worldview.) The dominant economic power of the West perhaps has reached its tipping point, as it did for Rome and as it did for so many other (former) superpowers. Obviously, no one knows how this “tipping” will play out – if indeed the West is eclipsed – or who will be the next dominant player, although China is an obvious candidate. What is certain, though, is that a new definition of the West is slowly but surely taking shape. Let’s watch these developments together to see which cowboy will end up riding alone into the sunset at the end of the movie. Philipp Lisibach, Senior Portfolio Strategist at Credit Suisse Private Banking Americas Gold Winner Gold Winner Award Recipient Photo: Credit Suisse Credit Photo: Contents 3 Economy 33 _ Global Accounting Rules Differ Widely How 12 a Credit Suisse tool corrects these distortions 34_ What to Expect When Expecting a Recovery The different shapes of economic upturns 38_ Public Finance Crisis Looms The present value of unfunded public liabilities is huge Credit Suisse 42 _ Funky Business Economist inspires at Forum Photo: Dennis Sterne Dennis Photo: for Swiss Foreign Trade and Investment | 44_ Japanese Recovery Dialogue with experts at the Asian Investment Conference 47 _ Europe, Middle East and Africa Fawzi Kyriakos- Saad introduces the region in an interview Cover photo: Dennis Sterne Cover photo: 49 _ Latin American Wealth Conference West is a state of mind, a feeling of being alive that New realities and responses emerge on all fronts is palpable on the streets of London’s West End. 50 _ Entrepreneurs Summit Entrepreneurs explain A feature about the most famous among London’s why their firms opted to be socially responsible districts and the c haracters who inhabit it. 52 _ Global Citizens Program A new initiative promotes corporate volunteering worldwide 4_ Heinrich August Winkler The German historian on 54 _ Singapore Biennale An exhibit featuring an the enduring strength of Western freedoms. inspiring selection of new projects 56 _ Bolshoi Theatre The fully renovated Moscow 9 _ West Under Pressure Professor Simon Evenett theater is set to reopen its doors in November considers the new balance of power in the 21st century. 12 _ London’s West End The world-famous district is fight- Leader ing for its reputation as the city’s top address. 57 _ Roger Federer On his foundation as well as the chronology of the new Malawi project 22 _ Laws of Nature The Western search for an ultimate 60_ Jimmy Wales The Wikipedia founder on his world formula has failed according to Robert Laughlin. vision of freely accessible world knowledge 26 _ Twelve -Tone Technique Why atonal music Service never really gained a foothold in Eastern cultures. 56 _ Masthead All the focus articles are linked with kooaba paperboy image recognition Your link to our know-how: www.credit-suisse.com/bulletin 4 West History THE APPEAL OF WESTERN FREEDOMS IS UN- DIMIN- ISHED Muster Mustermann | Fotos: Muster MustermannFotos: bulletin 2/11 Credit Suisse History West 5 Text: Ingo Petz History of the West: These are the four words written on the door of room 221. The door opens. A small man with white hair and alert eyes appears. Heinrich August Winkler’s tenure at the department of history at Berlin’s Humboldt University officially ended back in 2007. But the concept of retirement is alien to this 72-year-old, one of Germany’s most famous historians. The first volume of Winkler’s seminal “History of the West” appeared in 2009. The second volume is due to be unveiled this year at the Frankfurt Book Fair, while the third remains a work in progress. And this is why we are here. The issue is the West or, more precisely, the “community of Western values.” What precisely are these? How did they evolve? What kind of shape is the West in today? On television, the German defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, is pictured at a special sitting of the Bundestag, the lower house of the German federal parlia- ment, trying to refute charges that he plagiarized his doctoral thesis. Zu Guttenberg has since resigned. Winkler shakes his head and turns the TV off. The interview can begin. bulletin: For how long has it been possible to speak of the West as a “ community of values” as we know it today? Heinrich August Winkler: The American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789 are interconnected to the extent that makes it possible to refer to a transatlantic or Western “project.” The Virginia Declaration of Rights of June 12, 1776, had a major impact on the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which was adopted on August 26, 1789. That said, the term “the West” only really entered the political vernacular as the 19th century drew to a close. It was then that Europeans came to appreciate that the US was a pioneering force of modernity, and could no longer be viewed merely as an offshoot of Europe. But the concept of “the West” only really became widespread when the United States and the Soviet Union confronted each other in the Cold War after 1945. That’s right. Though it shouldn’t be forgotten that it wasn’t until 19 8 9 that East and Central Europe – historically a part of the Occident – was finally able to return to the West. Willy Brandt’s famous words of November 10, 19 8 9 – “That which belongs together now grows together” – referred not just to Germany, but to Europe as a whole. The reunification of the old Occident was then reinforced with the EU accession of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Baltic states in 2004. Your book “History of the West” begins with the sentence “At the beginning there was belief: belief in one deity.” Why should belief in a single deity mark the beginning of Western history – rather than Athenian democracy, for example? However great an impact Greco-Roman antiquity came to have on Christianity and on European intellectual history in the common era, a much stronger continuity arises when we ask ourselves what the consequences were of people starting to believe in a single God. Because that’s how the separate realms of deity and ruler evolved. So even at the dawn of modern history we begin to discern the “nor- mative” or standard-setting project of the West. The saying that all Photos: Christian Schnur Christian Photos: people are equal before the law has a theological predecessor, > Credit Suisse bulletin 2/11 DIVISION OF POWERS CAPACITY FOR SELF-CRITICISM History West 7 namely that all people are equal before God. The very words of J esus – “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and unto God that which belongs to God” – already hint at the possibility of the emancipation of mankind and the secularization of the world.

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