by the meltingpot: First Pitch in the news

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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, July 17, 2006

First Pitch in the news

L.Somi Roy’s First Pitch is making news. Some days ago, I read a story about First Pitch which was datelined Chandigarh. Today I read another one datelined Kolkatta.

Some days back, there was a press conference in Imphal which was addressed by Somi Roy. All the papers carried the news of the conference in details. But none of them carried a photograph of the press conference. I also checked all the papers of the following day also but still none carried a photo.

Imagine all the newspapermen covering a press conference and writing detailed report about that—but without an accompanying photo of the event.

Another of my grouse is that all the papers carried the story on their sports pages which are invariably on the last pages. I think First Pitch story should at least get the front page space, if not the headline. Because First Pitch is the story of an initiative of a private citizen. Story of an initiative from below. Such story should get front page treatment.

First Pitch is bringing in 2 Major League baseball coaches for a coaching camp here in Imphal from 4th to 14th November this year. There would also be preliminary coaching camps in 4 or 5 other cities of India. The whole project would be in collaboration with the US Embassy in New Delhi.

In preparation of this main coaching camp there would be another preliminary camp in Imphal from 17th to 26th September this year. And the co-coordinator of this preliminary camp is one Geet. I think the press in Manipur should not shirk its responsibility in presenting this Geet to the public of this State, even if they think that Somi Roy is a well known figure to need an introduction in their papers. I think we should demand a photograph of this coordinator, may be, in a baseball cap!

What’s interesting for me in the press conference is that Somi Roy happened to show some video clips to his friends in the US. Those clips are, of course, of baseball games in Manipur played without the mandatory protective gears. He said all his friends were properly wowed by the dexterity of the players without the protective gears. And those video clips played a significant role in forming First Pitch in later years.

But, to my mind, all of Somi Roy’s friends would surely have flinched every time they saw a player threw a ball to the batsman in the video clip. Because that’s how I exactly felt when I saw some players practice their baseball without all those protective gears. At least at their practices ( I’ve never seen a full baseball game here) the distance between the one throwing the ball and other who is to hit the ball with the bat is surprising so short. And the ball is thrown with such a force that the player has to exert all his strength on the throw itself.

And I found myself flinched every time a player throws the ball to the batsman!

1 comment:

hitchhiker said...: One can't help asking some simple questions. Is it worth it? Is it a lucrative enough game in India that players from Manipur can derive benefit from it? With players being unable to obtain protective gears (as u admitted), what are the chances that players from the state will reach a professional level in the game?
As for First Pitch not receiving the a sentational coverage in Manipuri media, it ought to be remembered that they have to keep tab on the locals' pulse. Though E-pao may flash the news for days on end, as if it was the best thing to happen to Manipur. Not so surprising when extravagant events like half-a-dozen people having a chak-chanaba carry such importance in e-pao, mainly because of the expatriates who form a considerable chunk of the site's visitors. Such events have no place in a local layman's interests.; July 26, 2006 2:49 PM

by the meltingpot

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