Earlier this year, I went to India, leading a business delegation on a trade mission. As I visited that country - which is undergoing explosive change - I saw a number of things that speak to where we are as a state... as opposed to where we need to be.
A dozen examples jump to mind. But the one that really stands out -- more than the Taj Mahal or the high tech industry that is being spawned almost overnight -- is a visit we made to one of the worst slums in Delhi.
Dirt floors . . . no running water . . . kids being sent out to beg to feed their families instead of going to school.
I was of course struck by the crushing poverty. But I also saw something the locals call the "hole in the wall."
It is a cinder block building covered by a corrugated tin roof, where computers have been placed into a hole in a concrete wall. No teachers. No instruction. Just put there. The computers were turned on in the morning and turned off at night. And, every day the kids wrestled over who would use the computers first.
You wouldn't have believed it. I met a kid named Sameer who asked me how to spell my name so he could "Google" me, so he could see whether I was somebody important.
He, and all the others, knew how to e-mail and IM. They were doing basically the same things on the computer that my girls do at home.
A lot of these kids are truly remarkable and I pray they do well.
This experience said a lot to me about what is going on in India -- a country poised between two worlds, between past and future -- between dire poverty and cutting-edge technology.
But where it really resonated is this.
It told me in a very real, very personal way that the race is on for the future. The central question is -- Who's going to own it? ... and who's going to get there first?
Ladies and gentlemen, we have to position ourselves to win the race to the future. At a minimum, that means that we need to place more emphasis on math, science, and engineering, and more emphasis on research and development. I'll have more to say on that a little later.
The point in all these areas is clear. As bright as our prospects are, Virginia faces continuing challenges in many areas. How we deal with these challenges -- when our economy is strong and our people are confident -- will determine in large measure just how prosperous Virginia's future will be.
