An arrogant culture of insults
The article dated July 5, 2011 started with a contradictory title, casting doubts about the Chinese bridge by questioning if it was the longest worldwide. Then it proceeded to scare the reader of an imminent disaster, quoting the following: ???The computer models and calculations are all very well but you can???t really relax until the two sides are bolted together,??? said one engineer, ???Even a few centimeters out would have been a disaster.??? Then to scare the public by claiming that ???There were also some safety concerns.???
Derogation goes on to this ridiculous allegation of Mr. Dufrechou: However, management representing the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, the previous record holder, isn???t relinquishing its spot in the Guinness Book of World Records that easily. According to Channel 4 News: Causeway General Manager Carlton Dufrechou said his bridge, built in the 1950s and traversing the Lake Pontchartrain in a straight 24-mile line, deserves to hold on to the title. Finally, the article concludes with Mr. Dufrechou???s demeaning, depreciatory refusal to give the Chinese engineering team much credit, going so far as calling them ???a bunch of wannabees.??? Luckily the Chinese team didn???t need his credit or beg for it.
Any child knows the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But it seems the Chinese bridge designers didn???t know this universal fact, so they curved their bridge just for fun, to tease Mr. Dufrechou and force him out of his Guinness spot. To the great disappointment of the ???anonymous engineer???, the Chinese crews working from both ends of the bridge completed the project without disaster. Likewise the safety concerns were addressed.
At the time many Americans are earning their bread in China, others are struggling to get a morsel of the Chinese cake and California is saving $400m by outsourcing a Chinese company for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, an arrogant culture of insults has emerged, deliberately demeaning, degrading and derogating others to the extent of branding them as ???a bunch of wannabees.???
The question is: Will this arrogant culture of insults restore America???s lost leadership in innovation and technology as testified by leading Americans?
