Is the West Doomed? (or only Vienna?)

It had been a fascinating lecture (at the Gesellschaft für Außenpolitik und die Vereinten Nationen (ÖGAVN)) in the Hofburg/Stallburg (yes, up a small stone staircase right beside the Lippizaners’ stables.)

And as we got up to leave, the young Chinese woman beside me noticed the book on my lap (Wien:Top-spot für Business).  Where could she get a copy?  As I had just collected it from a café in the Schottengasse, I suggested we take the short walk together.  The crowd was dense along the narrow sidewalk, some loitering to talk, some peering in the shop windows, and I laughed about the slow pace of Viennese pedestrians.

"Right," she shot back. "Here people walk too slowly and talk too long. We don’t have time for that in Shanghai."