by the meltingpot: From OFC to the Puya!

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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.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

From OFC to the Puya!

As we were talking (as you know, rather enthusiastically) about the OFC network of PowerGrid across Imphal, at least some portion along Kangla Park(along T G higher Secondary School) had already been uprooted! Uprooted by the pipe laying works undertaken by the Water Supply Deptt, Govt of Manipur. They had dug up, laid down the pipes and already started covering them up for some days now. Today, I saw portion of the OFC actually cut off and thrown aside the street while they were covering up the pipes. I swear it is the OFC of the PwerGrid network.

It has been for some weeks now that they are digging up and laying pipes with such urgency and efficiency that is most unlike the normal working of a Manipur Govt Deptt. They started from around Imphal Talkies, cut through the one of the busiest streets, came along the walls of the Johnstone Hr Sec School, again cut through a busy street and the entrance of the tactical headquarter of the 57th Mountain Division and came along the walls of the Governor’s compound, again cutting through the entrance and exit points of the Governor’s Residence. Again it cut through the two of the busiest streets in Nityapat chuthek and came along the North side of T G higher Sec School towards the Post Office and again cut through the busy street just in front of the Chief Minister’s residence.

So they are undertaking a major and a rather complicated developments work upsetting traffic and movement of people at some of the busiest streets. They are most probable trying to connect two newly constructed water reservoirs, one at just behind the Assembly Secretariat and the other, at Yaiskul.

Now, it is getting interesting—I mean, at the mention of Yaiskul. People at Yaiskul have been coping without tap water since 4 or 5 years. Can you believe it? It is the one most urbanized localities of Imphal. They have been buying water for toilets, washing, cooking—I mean, for everything—for such a long years! They have been doing this silently, without any protest whatsoever. I have friends in Yaiskul and they don’t want to talk about it—as if dry taps for so many years is a fault of their own making!

Why should I talk about this thing? Consider the scenario—in the next few months they will have their taps with actual running water—people say the election for the assembly will around November—Chief Minister coming to Yaiskul and saying to the people it is his government giving water to them after so many years. In that scenario all the Yaiskulites will silently cast their votes to the Chief Minister’s party—I mean, they won’t be swayed by anybody from casting their votes that way.

I mean, anybody, including R K Dorendra. If the Chief Minister can carry majority of the voters in Yaiskul, he is within the striking distance of unseating R K Dorendra. And that will be history.

I must also mention here that Imphal is agog with stories of how L Chandramani, Radahbinod Koijam and Thounaojam chaoba wanting to return to Congress Party fold. But the Chief Minister has put his foot down and can carry ‘the high command’ of the party in not letting the chief Minister aspirants. It seems the race for the Chief Minister’s post has already started in earnest.

Tomorrow is 18th of June. I can distinctly remember those days in 2001. Some weeks before the day, I can remember one fine morning reading Poknapham. Poknapham is a very conservative paper but that day it was headlined with a quotation from a Puya. We were all amused and read the quotation—when the two representatives of Thangmeiband and Wangkhei(Yaiskul is in Wangkhei assembly constituency)contest for the top post, there will a great tumult in the land and ‘kokkan pambis’ will be planted in Kekru Pat. That was how it exactly happened.

I mentioned all these because people say the quotation does not end at the ‘kokkan pambis’ line and there are at least two sentences in the couplet. These remaining two sentences are said to mention the same Wangkheis’s representative.

Does it mean that R K Drorendra will return? Despite the ‘water politics’ of the Chief Minister??

It will be a very interesting contest in the coming Wangkhei assembly constituency seat election.

by the meltingpot

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Now at 2nd place

This is the 3rd