Step aside from the conundrum posed in the question (What is the most important challenge facing Asia over the next decade?) for a moment. Step aside from macroeconomics, education, healthcare and the like, the traditional parameters defined for measuring regional successes. Step aside from these boundaries for once, and answer the most pertinent idea inherent within the question: has any one of us ever really understood Asia? 

We claim that we understand the problems facing the third-world countries, the now defunct Asian-tigers, and the rising giants of the Asian economy in India and China. We travel to these countries, plan conferences and set policy looking at abject poverty, lack of education, human rights violations and immediately draw conclusions as to the basis for these issues. This traditional analysis takes into account a country’s placement on the development curve, the socio-economic factors affecting its growth and how it all correlates on a regional level in terms of trade and value exchange. This analysis is not only insipid but it is the reason why Asia is generally misunderstood. To understand Asia and its challenges, one must only understand its people and how their social dynamics have evolved over the past few decades. If we fail to recognize this first and foremost, we’re doing the oldest human cultural civilization a great disservice.

Asia’s challenge is unique. It is evident on the faces of the billions of people inhabiting the continent. It’s evident in every palatial house built right next to one of the largest slums in the world in Mumbai[1]. It’s evident on the face of the executives of corporations that will be footnoted in the annals history as slave drivers[2]. It’s evident on the faces of millions of educated people in Singapore who seem to be intertwined in a web of social values that promote the spirit of never losing out: abject risk-aversion[3]. It’s not a problem that can be identified by traditional economics; it’s an intangible problem of attitudes. The greatest challenge facing Asia at the moment (and until it’s overcome) is of disconnected people. It’s a problem with social conditioning gone horribly wrong. 

This simple idea lies at the very root of all problems that manifest in Asia. Defined simply, disconnected people live out a schizophrenic lifestyle devoid of the essential elements of a meaningful existence. They are characterized by the key personality traits of materialism, stubborn individualism (or with ethos that extend to at most their inner circle), and a blind adherence to a day-to-day lifestyle. They are robotic in their being, limited to a struggle of not thinking outside the norm; they are followers rather than leaders and if the latter, they are un-inspirational. Their lack of empathy, inwards-looking attitudes and self-preservationist tendencies limit their contribution to society. And the state they’re in supplants itself with a lack of higher morals to manifest a society where individuals are numbed into consuming, dispassionate and extremely risk-averse people. These people are shadows of their original selves: they are essentially, lemmings[4]. 

How do we know that it is this exact problem in itself that is Asia’s biggest challenge? The answer is surprisingly simple: the basis of all human societies is its people. They form the roots of the nation and every branch that exists to enable or manage this society has its basis in the ethos of the people that support it. Business, education, healthcare, and all other facets of the society don’t in themselves create challenges: it’s the manifestation of the social norms of a people that sully their existence. Consider also, the wide spectrum of issues that relate to Asia. There is a common recurring theme amongst all of them and that theme is the social disconnect of the Asian people. 

The pervasiveness of this phenomenon is directly linked to how it is propagated through the effects of strong social conditioning. Asians are socially conditioned unlike any other region in this world and the ideals that plague the region’s development propagate through the Asian ethos crossing all boundaries and sub-cultures. The only way to experience this human disconnect is to carefully observe the underlying themes of the major and minor problems in the region as reported in the world press. For the first time in your lives, accompany me on this journey through Asia, a region where social conditioning has actually gone haywire. We will start off our proverbial journey in Japan, the land of the rising Sun. 

Japan provides a classic example for what happens when people become desensitized to the real purpose of life. Japan’s meteoric rise from the devastation of World War II to become an economic powerhouse and the third largest world economy[5] came with a heavy price on its populace. It’s the only culture in the world to reserve a specific term for sudden death from overwork: karoshi[6]. In 1990, a liaison council of attorneys estimated that over 10,000 people were dying each year from karoshi[7]. According to the Japanese health ministry, in 2001 the average Japanese worker put in 1,843 hours of work a year, well above the global average[8]. Coupled with increasing levels of stress in the workplace and the rise of alcoholism[9], the Japanese office worker epitomizes the severe problems facing his country. Additionally, a high-stress lifestyle affords little time and money for the adult populace to manage families and it is no wonder then that the population growth rate in Japan is among the lowest in the world[10]. 

Japan also boasts one of the highest suicide rates in the world. In 2008, the Times Online reported of a 2.9 percent increase in suicide rates over a year in the country[11]. The same article quotes Professor Kiyohiko Ikeda of Waseda University: 

We live in an uncomfortable and restrictive society where trivial matters are important. 

In the case of Japan then, the guiding theme is the loss of a work-ethic that enables a person to achieve his lifelong purpose rather than race in a competition to keep up with the material peacocking of others. At the other extreme is the inwards-looking and robotic attitude of a populace that causes disastrous consequences for the environment it exists in. Case in point: China. For over the past few decades, the country was almost indifferent towards the environmental impact of its rapid growth. In 2007, China took over the mantle of the country with the highest CO2 emissions from the USA[12]. According to a New York Times report, only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million urban dwellers breathe air that is regarded as safe by the European Union[13]. That is not to say that the country is not doing anything about this. China expends tremendous resources to try and reverse the aftermath of its industrial growth. It is the world’s leading investor in renewable energy technologies[14]. It’s also the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines[15]. However, reversing its fortunes in this area will require a sea-change in the attitude of its people towards the environment. 

The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference (Copenhagen Summit) provides for a classic example of the disconnect the Chinese have with their own impending destruction. At the end of the summit, Mark Lynas wrote in detail describing how the talks between the different nations summarily failed and how China was at the center of wrecking the Copenhagen deal[16]. And since then, the news keep rolling in. A recent report found that the overuse of fertilizer and pesticides by farmers poses a grave environmental challenge to the country[17]. 

It is naive to link the ineffectiveness of the Chinese, to take charge in environmental protection, to ineffective governance. The consumption lifestyle is increasingly prevalent and for the people success and material wealth is the primary goal before they turn to look over their shoulder. This translates directly to government policies that are focused squarely on exponentially growing the economy year-over-year. There is no sustainable component to this development. The people are essentially too busy emulating Western ideals to care about sustainability[18]. 

Let’s consider for now China’s next-door neighbors in India and Pakistan. The reputation of these South Asian countries precedes them. Whatever their major exports, they’re known globally for strife, pollution, illiteracy and corruption. The income divide in these nations is climbing fast[19]. According to a 2005 World Bank estimate, 42% of Indians fall below the international poverty line[20]. As of 2008, 17.2% of the population of Pakistan lives below the poverty line[21]. Yet, travel down to any urban city in either country and flagrant displays of decadence abound, usually in close proximity to the poorest in the society. People have essentially become so desensitized to ground realities that empathy is non-existent. 

In 2004, Lakshmi Mittal, India’s billionaire tycoon, celebrated the wedding of his daughter in a 17^th century French chateau at a reported cost of more than US$ 55 million[22].  Meanwhile, in 2010 Bill Gates and Warren Buffet founded The Giving Pledge[23], a philanthropic campaign supported by American billionaires who have committed to donate at least half of their fortunes to charity. One could argue that this is person-specific though at least Bill Gates does not hail from a country hosting a third of the world’s poor[24].  

The corollary of losing this connection to the rest of the populace is corruption and South Asia is rife with corruption[25]. The situation in Pakistan is so rife that even the national cricket team is not spared. The Pakistani team’s ongoing tour of England is currently under investigation for spot-fixing allegations[26]. 

In another instance, faced with the most challenging humanitarian crisis the country has ever seen, there are already allegations surfacing of well-to-do elites diverting flood water away from their land assets for protection while unconcerned with other villages that may be inundated in the process[27]. Those who display their opportunism during times of extreme adversity are prime examples of the phenomenon of disconnected people. 

More recently, Pakistan provided the prime example of how people can become disconnected with reality. Two teenage brothers were beaten to death and hung from a pole (a case of mistaken identity) while a crowd of onlookers recorded the entire horrifying episode on mobile phone cameras[28]. There certainly is no end to this, no law that can curtail this behavior because this is a result of attitudes that are internal to people. 

One may think that the developed nations in Asia fare better. This is not the case: the only difference in their situation being that these societies place higher in the development curve and the cultural manifestation of social disconnection is subtly different. Singapore is a prime example in this case. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranks Singapore as having the best quality of life in Asia and eleventh in the world[29]. It also boasts the fourth largest foreign reserves in the world[30]. Yet, not everything is fine in this utopian paradise. Singapore bases its growth purely on productivity but the country will never reach its full potential unless it breaks away from the shackles of risk-aversion and hollow consumerism. The social conditioning starts at an early age. According to a 2000 survey by Singapore Press Holdings, a greater proportion of children here reported that they feared failing tests and examinations more than their parents or guardians dying[31]! This is how disconnected the people in Singapore are. 

Of note is the effect of this risk-aversion on the government’s push to create a more entrepreneurial society. The city-state has been consistently ranked as one of the best places to start a business in[32]. The Singapore government has invested heavily in providing early stage funding to start-ups as well as access to facilities and resources. However, the local populace does not bite. Even Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew addressed this notion by elaborating[33]: 

"We have to start experimenting," Lee insists. "The easy things - just getting a blank mind to take in knowledge and become trainable - we have done. Now comes the difficult part. To get literate and numerate minds to be more innovative, to be more productive, that's not easy. 

"It requires a mind-set change, a different set of values." 

In 2001, a study of entrepreneurial activity in the world’s top 29 economies concluded that Singapore remained one of the least entrepreneurial societies in the developed world[34]. The factoid is not surprising though the reasoning behind the lack of entrepreneurship is telling[35]: 

The study concluded that, in Singapore's case, the biggest barrier to entrepreneurship was not antipathetic laws or lack of capital but an unsupportive culture. 

The researchers found that Singaporeans have a preference for working with large, established organisations, along with a fear of failure and not enough familiarity with or respect for the entrepreneurial community. 

So we see that the most developed of the Asian countries are also not spared the wrath of social conditioning. Disconnected people exist in one form or the other through the region and unless we understand this fact as the one and only challenge facing Asia, we’re forever doomed to play a game of whack-the-mole with the problems that will keep germinating in the individual countries. This marks the end of our journey through Asia with a sullen realization that there’s a systemic issue at play in this region. 

Before we delve into possible solutions to this enigma, it would be interesting to consider why the overall problem is unique to this region, after all a lot of the themes presented here apply to Western societies as well. The most pertinent explanation for this disconnect with the rest of the world is in how the Asian civilization modernized. Whereas the Western world went through the process of globalization over a significant period of time, constantly adjusting the course in a trial-and-error fashion, Asia developed into an economic powerhouse by mimicking, to a large extent, the success of the Western world. The region essentially “jumped” on the globalization bandwagon. 

Consider the modern day achievements in Asia for a moment for a glimpse of where the society is headed. The region now boasts some of the tallest buildings in the world (57 of the world’s tallest buildings are in Asia)[36], the tallest Ferris wheel[37], the biggest casinos[38], and a developing culture in consumerism that is rivaling the Western nations. This is probably the extent of the competition the individual Asian countries are involved in. Out of all these, the rising consumerism epidemic is a direct result of social disconnect and poses the gravest danger to Asian societies (as well as the Western civilization). In his book The Sane Society, Erich Fromm explains how excessive consumerism directly affects the work ethics of people and enables them to forget the needs of the people and the society at large. 

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix to bring disconnected people back to life. It is tempting to attempt social engineering to weed out this problem from our societies, however, as has been evident in the past, manipulating the mindset of the general populace never works and ends up exacerbating problems. The solution to this problem will require a change of attitudes and strong leadership from the select conscionable minority in the region to set public policy and enable individuals to essentially reach their potential. This process will take decades to unfold and the assistance and understanding of the Western nations is critical to this. The core tenets of a workable solution need to be based on the following: 

1.      Broad and widespread recognition of the challenge in academia, policy circles, businesses, and government institutions. 

2.      Open and thorough discussion of the issue not only on official platforms but also amongst the common populace. It is the responsibility of the governing bodies to enable free and open debates on this topic. The media plays a central and critical role in this, not simply regurgitating the consequences of the actions of disconnected people but also informing and educating the public as to the underlying issues. 

3.      Proactive involvement of the Western civilization to educate Asians on sustainable development and growth which can only be achieved by a change in attitudes towards pulling the weight of the society along with one’s own ambitions. 

4.      Strong leadership at all levels to see through change in policy and public reform. 

5.      Cross cultural and national collaboration to strengthen ties in the Asian region. It is my view that Asians extricated from their birth environment perform much better in foreign cultures as a result of the weakening of the shackles of social conditioning. 

6.      The eventual establishment of an Asian Union drawing parallels from the experiences of the European Union. 

I deeply value an anonymous quote that compares conscience to a triangle in our heart that rotates and smoothes out with every mistake we make until it ceases to exist. I believe that human attitudes work the same way. Strangely, life in Asia continues to go on in magnanimous proportions, considering the amount of death and destruction the region has witnessed as well as the challenges facing us. The fault has to lie within the attitudes of its own, the solution, simply a matter of recognizing this.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharavi
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Foxconn_suicides
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiasu
[4] Lemmings is a frequently used metaphor to describe people who go along unquestioningly with popular opinion, with potentially dangerous or fatal consequences: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemming
[5] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100816/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_economy
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kar%C5%8Dshi
[7] http://www.apmforum.com/columns/boye51.htm
[8] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2006132.stm
[9] http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/38/23/12.1.full
[10] http://www.marketwatch.com/story/japans-low-birth-rate-poses-demographic-dilemma-2010-03-18
[11] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4170649.ece
[12] http://www.pbl.nl/en/news/pressreleases/2007/20070619Chinanowno1inCO2emissionsUSAinsecondposition.html
[13] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html?pagewanted=print
[14] http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/03/25/25climatewire-china-leads-major-countries-with-346-billion-15729.html?pagewanted=1
[15] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/business/energy-environment/31renew.html?_r=1
[16] http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/22/copenhagen-climate-change-mark-lynas
[17] http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/09/china-farms-pollution
[18] http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/none/why-do-shanghainese-people-not-care-about-environment-516007
[19] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gini_since_WWII.gif
[20] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India
[21] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_Pakistan#cite_note-OWSA1-1
[22] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3830009.stm
[23] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge
[24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India
[25] Transparency International – Corruption in South Asia, December 2002
[26] http://www.cricinfo.com/england-v-pakistan-2010/content/story/474890.html
[27] http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/08/pakistani-officials-accused-of-destroying-dikes-for-personal-gain/62218/
[28] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1305213/Lynch-mob-killing-Sialkot-video-sparks-mass-demonstrations-Pakistan.html
[29] The Economist Intelligence Unit's quality-of-life index, 2005
[30] http://www.mas.gov.sg/data_room/reserves_statistics/Official_Foreign_Reserves.html
[31] Survey on Attitudes & Lifestyle among Primary 4 – 6 Pupils, Singapore Press Holdings, November 2000
[32] http://www.spring.gov.sg/NewsEvents/ITN/Pages/Singapore-a-great-place-to-start-and-grow-a-business-20100202.aspx
[33] Institutional Investor – Kevin Hamlin, May 2002
[34] Singapore placed 27^th in this study – Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2001
[35] http://www.littlespeck.com/informed/2002/CInformed-020607remake.htm
[36] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Asia-has-57-of-worlds-100-tallest-buildings/articleshow/5408311.cms
[37] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Flyer
[38] http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/08/0825_worlds_largest_casinos/1.htm