by the meltingpot: Of the 6th day of the month,March.

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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.

This is the 3rd

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, March 16, 2018

Of the 6th day of the month,March.

The 6th of March was the 5th day of Yaoshang.

The usual story of Yaoshang tells us that even on the 5th (and concluding) day the life here should be paralyzed.From the 2nd day onwards the paralysis sets in--the first victim is usually the public transport system.During Yaoshang it's taken as a litle fact of life that the public transport system is completely off the road.With the total shutdown of the public transport system,life in general also comes to a near total paralysis.People are forced to stay at home.

Mercifully,this year sees some changes.Some semblance of a public transport system was in place.

Actually,I went out and met some people.And,I was doing that all the while using the public transport syatem.

Personally,I think that it is a remarkable change.I aslo think that Yaoshang should be shortened to 2 days duration.

At around 3 in the afternoon,I was at my frontyard.There I heard the unmistakable sonic boom.I heard it three times,though each one of them lasted for a few seconds.

I had seen Russian made fighter jets flying in Manipur.With that,I came to know the signature sonic boom.

Of course,I became curious.

But,where can I turn to get some information about the sonic boom? As was the general life,all the media houses was on a gleeful 5 day long holiday of Yaoshang.

Ovecoming the excitement,I let 3 hours to fly by.I thought that if anything had happened in the remote India-Burma border,it would take at least 3/4 hours for the functioning media of outside Manipur to pick it up. And then I hit Google search.But I found nothing.

But I was certain of the sonic boom.So,I kept on searching on the internet.

By the 8th of March,the media of Manipur had woken up from the great slumber.On the morning of the 9th,I foumd the following news item datelined 8th March.

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The Kuki Students' Organisation (KSO) Khengjoi Block has strongly condemned the attack on personnel of 28 Rajput Rifles by suspected valley based militants near Bongjoi Village of Khengjoi Block in Chandel district on March 6 where one security personnel was killed.

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Now,I have already waited for 10 days but all I could muster up is the above news item.It's amazing to find out that there is zero searchable data on a particular topic(in our case,a gun battle along the India-Burma border) in this supposedly information overloaded age.

More than the amazement what is worrisome is the position of India's Defense Ministry in deciding that the above news item does not merit even a mere rejoinder.Are they trying to hide something?The sonic boom?

Rather,more soecifically,are they trying to hide the fact there occured a gunbattle on the 6th of March which merits the calling up of air support,the Russian made fighter jets?If this is the case,any layman can imagine the scale and ferocity of the gun battle of the 6th of March.

As for myself,the sonic boom and the name,Khengjoi,immediately transported me back to a blog post which is roughly three years old.The post is entitled 'Where are our leaders',dated the 6th of August 2015.I'm reproducing a paragraph of the post:

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Suppose New Delhi's military pretend to walk into the quagmire planned by the rebels of Manipur.This might possibly happen in New Lazang sector along Manipur-Burma border.This does not mean that they won't carry out their surgical strike along Moreh-Tamu sector(my next last post).It's reasonale to think that they would first carry out the surgical strike along Moreh-Tamu sector.The nature of the attack dictates that they would quickly wiihtdraw to their base in Moreh.Then,they would continue their regular attacks on rebel positions along New Lazang sector.

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The gist of the post is that the rebels are planning a military quagmire alonng the India-Burma border in New Lazang sector.Khengjoi is certainly within this sector.Seen in this light,it's quite appropriate for the Indian Army to call up air power instead of sending more troopers to the gun battle.That's exactly the way of showing by deeds the strategy of avoiding walking into a military quagmire.

In conclusion,we can safely infer that we see a silhouette of a military quagmire on the 6th day of March,2018.

by the meltingpot

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This is the 3rd