cross-pollinating

There's a great post on India here. Most of what is said there applies to Iraq as well.

As I commented on that site:

"This rings very true for Iraq as well. It’s a fundamental truth about the way the world works. We’ve lost sight of what it took for humanty to pull itself up from the dirt, because we’ve acheived so much that a vast distance seems to lie behind us. However, that vast distance is more like a vast height- a laborious climb can easily turn into a quick fall."