by the meltingpot: Yeah! The Conclusion

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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.

Now at 2nd place

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.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Yeah! The Conclusion

Does the state of the economy have a functional relationship with the availability of nutrients to its people? Definitely, it does. Everybody reads about it day in day out—the malnourished children of the poor societies of the world and, on the other hand, the epidemic of obesity in their richer counterparts. It is almost a black and white situation.

Our society is also poor—with a lot of problems in its body. It’s not a wealth-creating society. So, we have unemployment, insurgency etc as symptoms.

But I’m in a twilight zone. My friends and my relatives and my immediate acquaintances are not poor. Most of them have reasonably good house, cars and all those household appliances of a modern home. They are also earning well and are not skimpy, either.

Like my friend whom I was having dinner with. He has several sisters—married and still unmarried. Though they may not be the hippest, they are among the most beautiful faces in the whole of Manipur. They are also very popular faces but I won’t name them. Because I don’t know if they would it or not. My point is when they were growing up, their parents simply stick to our good old tradition—I mean, unthinkingly—and there they are—fair, beautiful and very fashionable.

They are parents now but they are holding on the same tradition minus several of its best features chipped away by the forces of relentless societal changes. They are not in position to just stick to our tradition—unthinking.

They have to make some hard-nosed choices. But they are doing that. On the macro level, our society is not doing it either.

Why? In trying to answer this, I’ve to first remind you this disclaimer—this is not a research paper—I may also be wrong in my conclusion.

Rather this is simply a result of personal interaction with his immediate acquaintances and friends. More like a personal anecdote of a private citizen.

So, I’ll give you a personal anecdote. All of my four sisters have masters degree, one even having a Ph D degree. But when they enter the kitchen, they usually leave behind all their educations at the doorstep. Whenever they boiled something they never lowered the heat when they reached the boiling point. I had occasions I still remember when I said that they would save a lot of cooking gas by lowering the heat once it reached the boiling.

They all said they wanted to ‘boil it hard’. To me, ‘boiling it hard’ is very much symbolic of womenfolk of this society leaving their education at the doorstep of their kitchens.

This is not meant to be a snide remark against the womenfolk of this society. They have much more better track record than their male counterpart—even in sports. And personally also, I grew up firmly believing that man should take up 50% of the burden of the kitchen. As an activist, I even believe in the emancipations of women from the four walls of kitchens!

But approach at random any woman who is nearing 40 years of age. Most probably, she would have problems in raising her arms in full. She would say it aches when trying to raise her arms in full and this is because of age—but she is not even 40!

There is widespread vitamin b-complex deficiency in the womenfolk of this society. That’s why they have such widespread problem in their limb joints. All they are eating is fish—those eating chicken is still small in number and red meats are still a strict no no.But menfolks eat more than enough red meats in picnics, parties etc. Red meat in moderation is very good source of Vitamin b-comlex.

To conclude, I’ll give another personal anecdote. My only aunty, who has crossed 55 year s of her age, belong a rich and very respected family.One fine morning, she simply could not get off her bed—because she could feel her legs. They were paralyzed.

When I reached her bedside she was better—she could move her legs. Looking at the empty vials at the side table revealed that she was given emergency concentrated shots of Vitamin B-complex. Further fiddling inside the boxes containing the vialsbrought out a short printed prescription. It clearly said that the shot must be only on emergency situation. If that emergency situation sets in, there is much likelihood of some mutations having already occurred in the cells because of the prolonged and chronic Vitamin B-complex deficiency. Which may even result in the cells becoming carcinogenic.

When I reached home, I went straight to my sister’s to convey my bewilderment at the gravity of the situation. My idea was that my sister thus informed would in her turn would contact her cousin—my auntie’s daughter—who would try to prepare the groundwork for drastic changes in her diets. That would be gentlest way of implying the c-word, mentioning it being considered a heartless act!

But my sister simply eyed me as if I was a devil and said—‘There you are! Sinking yourself in the cesspool of bullshits! Don’t!!(Tamosima! Adugumba wathi waremdu touranuba!!).

It was one of those rare moments in your life when you feel your steps being frozen in time—you are totally incapable of taking a step forward.

by the meltingpot

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Now at 2nd place

This is the 3rd