by the meltingpot: That first Sunday

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Indeed, what is at work in the recent return of realism is the revenge of geography in the most old-fashioned sense. In the 18th and 19th centuries, before the arrival of political science as an academic specialty, geography was an honored, if not always formalized, discipline in which politics, culture, and economics were often conceived of in reference to the relief map. Thus, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, mountains and the men who grow out of them were the first order of reality; ideas, however uplifting, were only the second.
And yet, to embrace geography is not to accept it as an implacable force against which humankind is powerless. Rather, it serves to qualify human freedom and choice with a modest acceptance of fate. This is all the more important today, because rather than eliminating the relevance of geography, globalization is reinforcing it. Mass communications and economic integration are weakening many states, exposing a Hobbesian world of small, fractious regions. Within them, local, ethnic, and religious sources of identity are reasserting themselves, and because they are anchored to specific terrains, they are best explained by reference to geography. Like the faults that determine earthquakes, the political future will be defined by conflict and instability with a similar geographic logic. The upheaval spawned by the ongoing economic crisis is increasing the relevance of geography even further, by weakening social orders and other creations of humankind, leaving the natural frontiers of the globe as the only restraint.
So we, too, need to return to the map, and particularly to what I call the “shatter zones” of Eurasia. We need to reclaim those thinkers who knew the landscape best. And we need to update their theories for the revenge of geography in our time.
Here is the link for the whole write up.

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My view is that relations between countries in the coming decades are most likely to reflect their cultural commitments, their cultural ties and antagonism with other countries rather than other factors. Quite obviously, power will continue to play a central role in global politics, as it always does. But usually there is something else behind conflicts. In the 18th century in Europe, the issues to a large extent involved questions of monarchy versus the emerging republican movements, first in America and then in France. In the 19th century, it involved states identifying themselves through nationalism. In the 20th century, ideology came to the fore, largely, but not exclusively, as a result of the Russian Revolution. We had fascism, communism and liberal democracy competing with each other. Well, that’s pretty much over. Liberal democracy has come to be accepted, in theory at least, around the world, if not always in practice. So the question really is what will be the central focus of global politics in the coming decades? My argument remains that cultural identities, antagonisms and affiliations will not only play a role, but play a major role in relations between states. The full interview is here.

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Every citizen in the City of Richardson will be able to access 756 Kbps of internet connectivity for free, from anywhere in the city. They will be able to access the internet from their homes, schools, restaurants and parks using standard wi-fi connections which are now installed on almost every notebook computer. That is almost as fast as many so-called high speed broadband connections that one pays dearly for today, and several times faster than the various hotspots at your local coffee shops. And I should note that the tax-payers of the City of Richardson are not paying one penny for this, and in fact are going to see additional revenues as a benefit. ... At the beginning of this letter, I suggested that this would be one of the fastest worldwide rollouts of a technology ever seen. It was just 20 years ago that the first cellular systems were being built. The rollout for mesh wireless systems is going to make that look slow. There are several reasons I make this assertion. But they all center on the facts that installing mesh systems will be cheaper and easier than any previous system and the economics in both the developed and especially the developing world will be so radically compelling. Throw in the fact the any astute politician will want to be at the front of this parade (They will all want to say, "I was the man who helped bring free internet to everyone!") and the groundwork is laid for rapid deployment. In Richardson and elsewhere, MeshLinx is offering the basic infrastructure for free. This avoids all the time consuming, political budget battles in the cities. When a service is offered for free, much of the mandated competitive process is eliminated. Next is the low cost of installation of the system. As noted above, Richardson is a city of roughly 100,000 people living in 27.4 square miles. It will "only" cost about $2,000,000 today to lay the wireless blanket I mentioned above. It will cost a great deal less in the future, as MeshLinx is building the pods at a pace of 100 a month today. The maximum output of the US pilot assembly line is 500 a month. When the demand exceeds this (and it will in a very short time) discussions have been held to move volume production to China. Of course, the world will need tens of millions of pods. The cost for a pod will be a fraction of today's cost, with that installation number for a city like Richardson soon being half (or less) the cost of today. What does that $1 or 2 million get you? The infrastructure to be an internet connection, telephone, security, entertainment provider and a whole lot more company. As noted, it will get cheaper as the number of pods being made each month rises, thus lowering their costs dramatically. This technology does have scale. The cost of physically putting up a pod is not a large part of the equation, as you simply need to run a power line, attach a few bolts to a mount on the side of a building or light pole and then off to the next point. Think about the 40,000 homes and businesses in Richardson. If and (hopefully) over time when 10% decide to pay $50 a month for 10-20 Mbps high speed internet access you could see a revenue of $2.5 million a year just from internet access. Now add in all the other income possibilities (phone, entertainment, security and don't forget advertising revenue on the free service!). Think about your town or country. What would service like this be worth? If you are a small city that does not have high speed connections available, how many businesses that could bring jobs do not come your way because they need reliable communications for their work and their employees? If you are in a developing country, where internet access is difficult and expensive, it will open whole new vistas. Couple that with the various programs which want to give cheap laptops to kids in poor countries, and you could see significant social progress in a generation. Here is the link.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

That first Sunday

I’ll start with this disclaimer. I’m not a supporter of Manipur People’s Party. But it is altogether another matter if I should decide to vote for it in this election. If I decide so, I guess it is demanded by the present situation of my society, not the least conditioned by my support of the party.

I think it was on the first Sunday of this month when the flag hoisting ceremony of Mr Laishom Ibomcha, candidate of the MPP for our constituency, was held. I’m not particularly impressed by the ceremony of this MPP candidate. It is only that I could not attend any of those of flag hoisting ceremonies and this MPP candidate’s place is only 4 or 5 house from mine and so, the proceedings of his ceremony could be clearly listened to, and appreciated, from my house. I was preparing my lunch that Sunday when those proceedings started.

The first major speaker was Mr Paonam Achou. He is the working president of MPP and himself a candidate from Uripok Assembly constituency. I must add here that he is being perceived as a sure shot winner in his constituency. His first sentence was to the effect that he was being overwhelmed by the sense of history of that meeting. I thought that he was into the election gimmickry. But his next sentence caught me unaware. He told the crowd that it was in 1968 (he gave the exact date and month—I can’t remember them) that the MPP was founded right there at the ‘mamang shang-goi’ of Laishom Ibomcha. This is the first time I heard about the matter and it occurred to me as a lesson in history. Then he coolly came to the portion of his speech which lucidly proved him what he is –an old warhorse! He told the crowd that Congress Party is very strong in the hills. To prove his point, he foisted last election results before the crowd mentioning that the Congress did actually capture 10 seats out of the 20 seats earmarked for the hills. But he hastened to add his knocked out punch line—he told the crowd that the Congress would returned with a nil seat in this election! He told them that it was because of the Naga and Kuki rebels’ resolve to send their own people to the next Assembly. Then, he again came to the last election’s result mentioning that the congress managed to get only 10 seats in the valley constituencies. So, he reasoned with the crowd that even if the Congress could manage (which he, of course, doubted!) to repeat last election’s performance, they would have with them 10 seats only. Then, he emphasized that with 10 seats only in their kitty it would be impossible for the Congress Party to form the next government. His manner of putting across the statistics before the crowd was really folksy and on that Sunday afternoon, I felt that the crowd readily accepted his reasonings.

The next major speaker was Mr R.K. Dorendra, who occupied the seat of Chief Minister Ship twice (I think it is twice—but I’m not sure). His was a very short speech. He told the crowd that Mr Mani Charanamei, the sitting Member of Parliament from the outer (that is, hill’s) constituency was never in politics. He emphasized that he was a minor employee in one of the departments of Government of Manipur. The NSCN (IM) talked him out to take voluntary retirement from his job and to contest the elections. He told the crowd that the rebel outfit, by using some magic wands, managed to get him elected, in the process, beating several veterans in the field. With such kind of track record, he told the crowd, that all 10 NSCN(IM) sponsored candidates in the Naga majority hills areas would be sure to get elected. In such a scenario, giving emphasis to the word, he told the crowd that it was very CRUCIAL elections in the political history of Manipur. He left the podium, deliberately letting the word, CRUCIAL, hanged there in the air, amongst the crowd. It was an impressive speech.

The last major speaker was Dr L. Chandramani. Well, he was speaking as though he was already occupying the Chief Minister’s chair! He told the crowd to get Mr Laisom Ibomcha elected so that he would be managing a major portfolio in the government! Besides all the blusters, there were those moments of poignancies in his speech. He clearly told the crowd he was readying for retirement from active politics. He used the word ‘we’ to include RK Dorendra and Thounaojam Chaoba by name to say that they were getting old and they were in the lookout for the second line of leadership. Again, he hinted at the emergence of Laisom Ibomcha as one of those new leaderships to strongly plead the crowd to elect him this time as well so that his emerging status was not jeopardized.

What he left unsaid was that it might be his last chance to become the Chief Minister. The crowd should understand that, isn’t it?!

On the lighter note, amongst the nearly 10 speakers, RK Dorendra has that indefinable touch of what one tends to call ‘class’. What is that? Is it that particular way he spewed out his words? Or, is it the intonations? I’m not sure but he sure have that—‘class’.

by the meltingpot

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