by the meltingpot: September 2013

Now Reading!

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.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Ed Snowden and a 'Haiku' of a new world order

I like the Snowden principle:

--I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945: “Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.”
Accordingly, I did what I believed right and began a campaign to correct this wrongdoing. I did not seek to enrich myself. I did not seek to sell US secrets. I did not partner with any foreign government to guarantee my safety. Instead, I took what I knew to the public, so what affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I asked the world for justice--

Just as Xi Jinping and Barack Obama began their summit meeting in California,Ed Snowden went public with his startling revealation of the scale of the NSA snooping on American citizen.We found him holed up in a Hong Kong hotel.These make people to speculate that Ed is a Chinese spy.Just when US pressure on HK to extradite him reached its crescendo,he quitely slipped away aboard the official plane of the Venezuelan President.This again threw up a fresh spade of speculation that he might seek asylum in Venezuela,just like Wikileaks,Julian Assange.Then,he dramatically resurfaced at Moscow International Airport,where he spent for several weeks,as they did in a Hollywood movie!From there he shot off request for asylum to more than 20 countries,including India.In India's case,its official spokseman of the External Affairs Ministry made it a point to publicly turn down the request.

All these read like the drama in a John le Carre novel and it's always prudent not to venture out to comment on anything remotely related with John le Carre!

But the chemical weapons controversy in Syria presents us with a pattern.This episode witnessed the initiative wrestled out of US in the high stake international arena like the Middle East.Wrestled out by whom?Outwardly visible imageries prompt us us to name 'Russia'.But it's a common knowledge that Russia has neither the will nor the resources to stand up to the West,especially the USA.Then?

Trying to answer this,we do come face to face with an Oriental sublimity!In the Snowden saga it begins with a country in focus,then drags in several countries and finally,folds up with Russia.This time it actually begins with Russia,which,when read together with the Snowden saga,certainly points to that particular country.Let's not name any name and leave it as it is--an Oriental riddle!!

Riddle it is,softly caressing at the dawning of a fresh meaning,just like a delicate poem,nay,a haiku! Here it is-- the 'haiku'of a new world order!!

Postscript:

In the sub-continental context,didn't Godhra mark the beginning of a 'new world order'in Indian polity?To my mind,it's the starting point of the manifestation of the true will of the Indian people,which is inherently seeped in Nazi worldview.It turned out that this true will of the Indian people had been temporarily been glossed over by a generation led by JL Nehru,riding on the wave of euphoria released by 2nd World War,De-colonization and Karl Marx.

The correct reading of the present situation in India is that the vast majority of the Indian mainstream society accepts Godhra as a necessary evil to make the minorities to fall in line(in RSS-speak,to force all the minorities to accept themselves as being 'culturally Hindu).Thus,it's legitimate for all the minorities to think that 'Godhra' is actually a work-in-progress component of a larger game.There is room for the minorities to think otherwise if the just concluded National Integration Council had taken up the following burning agenda:

1)To find ways and means to put Narendra Modi on trial on charges of genocide and crime against humanity before International Court of Justice or a specially constituted international jury.

2)To discuss and accept that the 'Homecoming' event in Imphal(September 9) is a sinister attempt to split the Manipuri society and consequently,to engineer a fatricidal war,just like that happened in Muzaffarnager(September 7).

To my mind,the Indian state has been properly warned by the co-ordinated Wahhabi attacks in Kenya,Pakistan and Kashmir itself in the run up to the just concluded National Integration council.The scale of the co-ordination of the attacks clearly leads us to the possibility of constituents being already crystallized within the mainstream Indian society which are struggling to break out of the world order(defined by Godhra),doing a 'Bangladesh' to the Indian state in the process.

by the meltingpot

Now Reading!

Now at 2nd place

This is the 3rd