The Current Discussion: Australia is suffering from a drought of men - about 100,000 of them, most of whom have gone overseas to travel and work. China has the opposite problem - a shortage of women. Which is the more worrisome problem? Should we be worrying about a "de-population bomb?"

This is not a world issue, but a question for many countries in their national, tribal-minded assessment of immigration policies. Australia is a young nation and a land of immigrants. But it has recently changed course to experiment with membership in the Xenophobes Club and closed its doors to immigration. In turn, the relatively small population of about 21 million people (about half the population of Spain) has reached an economic saturation point. Now, Australians search for jobs and opportunities elsewhere by taking advantage of the new global economy. This is merely the age old story of migration and the search for economic and natural resources that historically led to the Silk Road, Columbus and his maritime adventures and colonial wars over spices, gold and minerals.

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The Current Discussion: Does it worry you that Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee talks about issues like gun rights and abortion and teaching "creationism" in school, but has no experience in foreign policy? What does her selection say to people in other countries about how U.S. politics works?

The showy American election process is an illuminating revelation, especially when observed from a distance. Frankly, the pomp and circumstance and devoid of true substance is simply shallow entertainment that is forcefully advertised as a political process.

The slogan of “Country First” in a constitutional republic, where the founding document starts in the name of people, reminds me of the faux and confused politics of the Kemalist Turkey, or Pinochet’s Chile laced with a stealth desire to replicate the militarist mantra of the Generalisimo Franco of Spain. The Republican Party is trying to fuse two relatively incompatible factions of the hard right and traditional conservatives into a single party of ultranationalist enforcers of skewed religious beliefs and bouncing standards that trashed a Vietnam veteran four years ago. Serving in that lost war is now cast as the definition of patriotism. This kind of narrow and skewed hardball conflicting policy could push America to the brink of a modern, but unmistakable cold civil war.

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The Current Discussion: Does the crisis on Wall Street mean that the American style of capitalism is no longer the model for the world?

The American money machine became lost in the woods after the Cold War. It embarked on a new path as a rogue and insubordinate creature, ignoring the need to prepare for a rainy day and the potential for a downturn. It was a rogue missile out of control; a pyramid scheme of debt, with financial institutions charging fees for every misguided layer they added until they lost sight of what was happening at the foundation: bad loans being issued to people who could not afford them.

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The Current Discussion: Will the current financial crisis discredit free-market policies in your country? Is socialism an echo of the past or a preview of the future?

I write from what may be the country least affected by this crisis, where the impact of the latest post-hurricane storms in Anglo-American financial markets is virtually nil. Iran has no exposure to the problems and mortgage-related transactions that, over the last 12 months and according to the Financial Times, have nominally summed up to twice the total of all other credit transactions in the world.

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