by the meltingpot: The colluders of the Pongs--What to make out of them?

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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.

Friday, September 25, 2015

The colluders of the Pongs--What to make out of them?

Today's newspapers reported hot developments in Churachandpur.

Some groups from Mizoram,coming there to consolidate their movement,even claimed that they had had the 'backing' of the UN.

Reading those developments suddenly transported me to the time of the 2nd World War.Fighting the tide of ruthless Japanese onslaught,the Britishers mustered all their resources.That included the forming of alliances with small ethnic minorities of Burma.What interests us is the case of the Kachins.

The British military officers made a deal with the Kachins.If the Kachins help the British in fighting the Japanese,they would be given an independent country during the coming realignment after the war.

A christian country,serving as buffer with between India and Burma is certainly an alluring strategic target.

The British military officers kept their words.After the war,they put maximum pressures on the political class in London for the Christian buffer country.But the political class in London decisively shot down the proposal.

Why?

I think those spearheading the present agitations in the hills of Manipur should try to learn from history.It is imperative for them to try to answer the above question.

Speaking of history reminds me of the Pongs.

Whenever we think of the Pongs,we should not also fail to remember that there were groups of people within Manipuri society with whom they colluded(My next to last post).It needs two to twang.If we don't touch upon this point,we would be guilty of reading a bias view of history.

History tells us that the collusion happened.Let's try to understand why the collusion happened--from the perspectives of the two colluders.

1)The Pongs can be taken be the least assimilated group of people coming to the cauldron called Manipur in the sense they never fully reconciled to the already present ruling class.Their fight with the ruling class even continues to this days.In a sense,they want to dislodge already established ruling class and then want to become the ruling class themselves.

In other words,the Pongs are the competitors to the already established ruling class.To my mind,competition is always good.That would make the ruling class ever better,efficient and world class.But the competition should within a well-defined playing field and rules.The Pongs err in deviating from this basic principle.

Over and above this,whatever the tenuous relations they might have established with their fellow kinsmen in other South East Asian societies have been decisively broken.There might have been developments in their history resulting in the decisive severance of this relationship but they are not important for our purpose here.This means that whatever we are doing with the Pongs becomes the pure internal affairs of Manipuri society.

2)Now comes the Western immigrants with whom the Pongs colluded.One thing is certain.They are not openly competing with the ruling class of Manipur.

They were a patient lot.Painstakingly waiting for a such a long time,they wanted to worm themselves into the ruling class itself.

What was the response of Manipuri ruling class?

In trying to answer this question,lets move back to the first question we have asked.Why did the ruling class in London shoot down the propsoal by the senior British military officers?

My opinion is that the ruling class in London could not find a credible ruling class within the Kachin society.It needs a excruciating interaction between history and geography to bring forth any credible ruling class for any society.Without a credible ruling class,it would be disaster of historic import to
give the reins of managing a country to the Kachins.In that sense,the decision of the ruling class in London was a wise one.

This transport us to an intersting perspective in the present agitations in the hills of Manipur,particularly in Churachandpur.Besides the close ethnic affinity with the Kachins,the Kuki-Mizo-Chin also dream about such a Christian country serving as a buffer between India and Burma.History shows us that the Kachins failed because of a lack of credible ruling class within itself.Do the Kuki-Mizo-Chin learn any lesson from the Kachins?Now,at the present time,if the Kuki-Mizo-Chin are blessed with a credible ruling class,would it permit its people to be drowned in the torrents of machinations flowed down from New Delhi?

Is the present agitation in the hills of Manipur a graphic sign that the hill peoples are still devoid of credible ruling classes?

Here,it's our time to return to our second question.Some immigrants from the West tried to worm their way into the structures of the ruling class itself.If the ruling class of Manipur is anything credible there should be appropriate response.

From history we learn that the ruling class itself was splintered in trying to respond to the threat.One faction led by the mythical 'Maichou Taret',in a masterstroke of a tactical retreat,ventured into the gigantic task to re-grow the structure of the ruling class ground up from within the 'khuls' and 'leikais' of the Manipuri society.In initiating the venture,they spelt out that within the timeframe of three generations they would complete the task and only then,they would be ready for the final battle.I would like to emphasize my opinion that the 'Maichou Tarets',only a part religious leaders,were an integral part of the then ruling class.

So,this answers our second question.The world will witness the response of the Manipuri ruling class in real time as the series of battles unfold in the days to come.

by the meltingpot

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