Front Page  news  metro

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Olympics From A Local Perspective

By Rick Nathanson
Journal Staff Writer
       More than 6,600 miles separate Albuquerque from Beijing, but Albuquerque's Joshua Cooper Ramo seemed to bridge that gap easily while speaking with "Today Show" host Matt Lauer this week in China.

[+] Click for video MSNBC video

    Ramo, 39, was hired by NBC News as a network analyst on China relations. He will join Lauer and sports announcer Bob Costas in providing color commentary during Friday's opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics and will offer perspective on Chinese culture and history for the duration of the games.
    Ramo is the son of Dr. Barry Ramo, an Albuquerque cardiologist, and Roberta Cooper Ramo, a lawyer and president of the American Law Institute.
    Speaking by telephone from his home in Beijing, where he has lived for five years, Joshua Cooper Ramo said Wednesday that Americans have an "unprecedented amount of interest and unique curiosity" about China. But because the culture is "so incredibly different," NBC wanted someone who understands both cultures and could provide insight and explanation.
    Ramo is certainly the right guy.
    The World Economic Forum in 2005 called him "one of China's leading foreign-born scholars." Ramo speaks Mandarin Chinese and works as a managing director and partner at the Beijing office of Kissinger Associates.
    "Think of us as a boutique investment bank that advises large corporations and investors," he said.
    He also wrote two widely circulated scholarly papers, "The Beijing Consensus" and "Brand China," and has written a book on international affairs that will be released next year by Little, Brown and Co.
    Less political in nature is his 2004 book "No Visible Horizon," in which Ramo, an aerobatic pilot with two national airspeed records, chronicled his experiences as well as the accomplishments of other aerobatic pilots.
    The biggest challenges China faces in hosting the Olympics, Ramo said, are the logistical ones of "building the stadiums and facilities and transportation infrastructure." Other challenges are more psychological.
    "There's not a lot of familiarity dealing with foreigners or the foreign press," he said. "China is taking a big step forward in opening itself to the rest of the world. Thirty years ago, this was essentially a closed society."
    Ramo said he is looking forward to "an amazing Olympics." He has seen rehearsals for the $300 million opening ceremony:
    "It's a truly spectacular thing — a Neil Armstrong walking-on-the-moon kind of moment produced by the most famous director in China."
    American visitors attending the Olympics and those following the televised broadcasts should be left with "an appreciation for the incredible newness of China," he said.
    "A lot of the old ideas people have about China are not accurate anymore.
    "The country has had economic growth in excess of 10 percent a year for 30 years. China has lifted 400 million people out of poverty, but that still leaves about 400 million living on less than $2 a day. So the challenges ahead are much more difficult: Keep development going and keep the country stable."
    Although many Chinese are "nervous" about the kind of relationship our two governments will have into the future, the Chinese people generally "like and admire American people and American values of individuality and liberty," Ramo said. "They have a tremendous affinity for American culture."
    Ramo graduated from Albuquerque Academy and briefly attended Brandeis University before leaving for Pakistan and Afghanistan to file stories for Scripps Howard about the Soviet Union's abandonment of its war in Afghanistan.
    He later finished his undergraduate degree in Latin American economics at the University of Chicago and worked summer jobs as a newspaper reporter.
    After graduating with a master's degree in economics from New York University in 1993, Ramo became a fact checker at Newsweek and later helped launch the magazine's online version. He subsequently worked at Time magazine and became the youngest ever senior editor, foreign editor and assistant managing editor there.
    His interest in China was honed while working as Time's foreign editor.
    "Every interesting problem in the world today has some relationship to China, whether it's environmental issues, global financial markets or nuclear proliferation," Ramo said.
    His decision to live there was influenced by the rare chance "to be present at the creation of a superpower."