Jets, twits and ships show where world power lies. The Eastern Seaboard, not the whole USA is one hub. If Europe were united, it'd be number one instead.

These three maps teach  more about the world than a stack of college texts.  We live in a three pole world made of China, Industrial Europe and the East Coast of the USA.  The USA West Coast, the UAR, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, SE Asia and Japan are secondary hubs. The rest of us live in the backwoods.

Global flightpaths from Markieta via the BBC

Traffic is the key. It's trade and communication.  The three maps agree about where it's happening. There are some oddities.  China doesn't shine on Twitter because it has Weibo instead. The Canary Islands and to a lesser extent, the Caribbean beaches have a lot of leisure traffic.   The world news is about nuclear weapons and the Middle East but the daily business of the world is the three hubs and their sidekicks.  Is China rising?  It's already risen.

Twitter traffic (except Weibo).

Europe looks like it could be number one if it were one nation and one language. Canadian cultural affinities with Europe and the UK mislead us into thinking we are on the same team. Don't believe the talk about West vs East or US vs Russia & China.  Russia is just a sidelight in this story.  There are three big teams and they are regions, not legislatures.  We're little and our first order of business is to exploit our relationship with the Eastern Seaboard.  China and Europe are next in line.

Shipping Lanes (The Atlantic)

As Stuart McLean famously wrote:
We may not be big, but we're small!
Canada!!

Update: See link to view from outer space for one day of all the ships on earth in motion.