I was reminded today how old I am getting by a friend whose son is now in his thirties and is expecting his first child.

I don't feel old, despite of the grey hair, the protruding waistline and of course the grumpy nature of the commentary that I produce from time to time.

I feel enervated however as I contemplate the challenge that is ahead for the next generation.

Their tasks I suspect will include cleaning up the mess that we have left them and an even bigger chore which is to make this world a better place for their children.

What will they do this with? Democracy?

Who knows. As we speak there is a changing of the guard taking place under our very noses and we can't see it.

The recent discussions between China and India were perhaps the most monumental sign of portents for the future. Containing well over two fifths of the world's population China and India vie with each other for the position of the world's most populous nation. In China in one city alone, Shanghai, the same number of people reside as exist in Australia as a whole. In combination the productive power of the Chinese and Indian economies can only be guessed at as they head further and further into developed nation status.

If you add to this mix the peoples who live in the territories of the former Soviet Union then you have a production work force and market the size of which dwarfs what exists now in all of the other countries combined.

Then of course there are the Asean nations which also present a formidable work force and potential cheap market place.

The "Pax Americana" which the right wing, (and in some instances religiously motivated) zealots in America are trying to impose on the world, before the power they have acquired through their propaganda and undoubted temporary military superiority is eroded, may work or may be sounding the death knell of the American dominance in our lives.

I suspect that the world will indeed form into several trading and military blocks once again and the resources of the world will once again be pillaged with more rapacious fervour than ever before, to satisfy the needs of all of those people who are currently the "have nots" in the world.

It is interesting to see how the Australian government is nudging its way forward - almost like a person addicted to gambling who is making some each way bets on the future.

On the one hand in case the Americans do not lose their power we have signed up with them in a free trade deal that is likely to keep us economically viable. If on the other hand they do lose their financial and other influence we are making up for lost time by engaging with China and no doubt soon with India to try and ensure that we do not lose out if they get the power and the influence. At the same time as this is going on we look to our immediate north where there are potential customers and a work force numbering in the hundreds of millions and make some investments now in future relations through our support for the victims of the recent Tsunami, truly a 'godsend' in more ways than one.

Add in our interest in oil and gas in the Timor sea, the fact that we own over one third of the world's supply of uranium as well as humongous deposits of minerals that are needed by these newly booming economies and all of a sudden you may get a different picture of why it is that Australia is trying to strut the world stage with our involvement on so many fronts.

Is this what the next generation will be facing? I suspect that it is.