by the meltingpot: June 2011

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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, June 13, 2011

The 10th of June and China

The Poknapham daily of Imphal, quoting PTI,ran an innocuos looking two-lines news on its 11th June 2011 issue.The news,on its page no 2,headlines as 'China does not support India's Maoist'.My translation for the 2 lines--

"Expressing its disapproval of the Left Wing Extremist,who are trying to overthrow the (Indian) State,Communist Party of China today stated that China has no lines of communications with the Maoists.

In one of the rare press briefings for the foreign media in Beijing,Vice Minsiter,Ai Ping,who is also a top official of CPC,said- 'CPC does not communicate with unlawful and violent Extremists'."

As they are 2 lines only,I would quote verbatim the Poknapham's story in Manipuri as well--

" Sarkar uthainaba haiduna Left Wing Extremists groupssingna khutlai paiduna ihou houba amadi hingsa touba asi yaningde,Indiada khutlai paiduna lan houriba Maoistsingga Chinaga e-pao phaonaba leite haina ngasi sarkar pairiba Communist Party of China(CPC)na phondok-khre/

Beijingda foreign mediagidamak sinkhiba yamna tangna thokpa briefing amada CPCgi top officialsu oiriba Chinagi Vice Minister,Ai Pingna 'CPCdi ainna yadaba,hingsagi thabak touba Extremistsingga pao phaonade' haina phongdok-khre/"

As we have to read Poknapham's stories as PDF files I don't like going there and hence,no links here.But they have their site at www.poknapham.in.The particular story was on the issue dated 11th June 2011 and it was on page no 2.

The sine quo non of this post is the 10th of June. In my mind,the Commumist Party of China is trying to send profound messages when they held 'one of the rare press briefings for foreign media' on the 10th of June to talk specifically about the Maoists of India.There is need for figuring out what the 10th of June is.

Meanwhile,I'll proceed further.

Any discerning reader of Imphal dailies can vouchsafe for this--all the actors in Manipur's social and political space agree that there is no other practical steps as the response to the impending blockades of Imphal Valley(my last post) except for taking steps to make the international community to speak out,and if possible,to take actions,against it.

Yes,as my last post have dealt with in depth,the Chinese soldiers in Gilgit Batistan is one of the actions taken by international community,may be,by a part of the International community.As I said in that post,it's the early days for the competing interest groups comprising the Meetei society to have,or,in many cases,trying to have,any 'communications'with the international community.Yes,Gilgit Batistan bears testinomy to the fact that one, or the formations, of the interst groups,have succeeded in establishing that 'communications'with the international community.Now,its natural that other competing interest groups should scramble to have such 'comunications'with the international community.

Again,any discerning reader of Imphal dailies can vouchsafe for this--many inetrest groups are trying to establish the 'communications'with the international community by lobbying the Maoists who are labelled as Left Wing Extremists by the Indian State.

As in all other societies,the Meetei society is not homogenous--it's the equilibrium of the networks of competing interest groups.Mainly because of the political journey of the last 50-60 years,some of the interest groups are more comfortable with things,norms and ideas of our immediate Western neighbourhood.That's why they are lobbying the Maoists for that crucial 'communications'with the international community.

These interest groups are travelling in direct opposite to the way propounded by the Puyas since several centuries--'The Eastern Gate should be opened',in other words,all the roads(including the steps to establish 'communications'with the international community) should lead towards the East.

Now, the rebuff for those interest groups comes directly from Beijing.Beijing now categorically states that they have no 'communications'with the Maoist of India.

Ah!the Puyas!!

I stand amazed at the farsighted musings of the Puyas.

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Now,it's out in the open:the Prime Minister is the prime mover in plans to blockade Imphal valley

It has taken the whole weight of the high prestige of the office of the prime Ministership itself and the high-voltage charade of review of the 'incomplete projects of Manipur'to push down the yet another deadline of repairing the the National Highway 53 or Jiri Lambi to 2013.

With the personal supervision of its own Prime Minsiter,the Indian State,on the sly,awarded itself with another two and half years to engineer a ethnic war between the Meeteis and the Nagas(my last post).

The Prime Minster of the largest democracy of the world has just stooped so low to personally supervise the clubbing of the repairing the Jiri Lambi with the larger 'projects' of Manipur so that they can NOW say that some components of the 'projects',by dints of their size(total budget,Rs3500 crores),like the building of State Assembly,make headways while some others,like the repairing of the Jiri Lambi,lag behind.

If we re-read the following old posts of this blog,it would be quite cleat that the Meetei society has just started reasserting its rightful geo-political role,however niche it might be,in the context of the whole Asian scene.Their first few steps brought thousands of Chinese soldiers very near to the borders of the Indian State in the Gilgit Batistan region of Kashmir.This presents us the prognosis:the re-assertion the rightful geo-political role by the Meetei society is likely to bring forward,as Mao Ze Dong was wont to say,"world -shaking events".

Now, the Indian State is putting its all out efforts to nip this re-assertion of the Meetei society in the bud. The surest(and the most cost effective) way to achieve this is to force the Meetei society to get bogged down in a debilitating ethnic war with the Nagas,courtesy of the personal agenda of the Naga leader called Mr Thuingalen Muivah.The key components of this evil plan lies in the health of the two National Highways--NH 39 And NH 53.The Nagas have the complete control over NH 39 and the Indian State is going to complete the circle by not making the other Highway,NH 53,motorable.

The degree of nervousness of the Indian state can be gauged by the presence of so many senior cabinet ministers in the high-voltage charade termed the 'review meeting' chaired by the Prime Minsiter himself at his Race Course Road official residence.

But for the poor common people of this tiny valley,it does not matter much how and why the highest political officer of the Indian state was stagemanaging a charade or by the numbers of the grey heads of the cabinet ministers in the charade or by the meaningless number like 2013.All the same, they would be held prisoners in their households by the ever-tightening blockades in the two highways by the Nagas,with the constant blessings from the Indian state.

When that crunch come,the common people of the tiny valley might start making the first step in re-looking the ever-present entity called the Indian State.

Is it the largest democracy in the world espousing the ideals of unversal franchise and federalism?

Is it the inheritor of a civilization which constantly reminds us with its dispassionate search of the atman?

Is it the inheritor of the evil itself which condon the scheming to blocade a tiny valley by its highest political executive in,as Tehelka would have put it,in plain sight?!

If they come this far,they might even deign to remember their long forgotten but rightful geo-political role in Asia, giving a new life to this question--

Is it the right time to use this rightful geo-political tool to exorcise the evil called the Indian state,which at the moment is scheming to blockade a tiny valley called Imphal in ..er..well..well..let's say it,PLAIN SIGHT?!!

It was in New Delhi(somewhere in Race Course Road!) and it was in PLAIN SIGHT!!

by the meltingpot

Now Reading!

Now at 2nd place

This is the 3rd