by the meltingpot: June 2014

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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.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Of 18 and Himalayan scale.

The 'strong' Prime Minister of India has just made a retreat of Himalayan scale.

While everybody is solemnly paying homage to the martyrs of 18th of June in Imphal,they seem to have missed out on 2 extremely significant developments in other parts of the globe.

1) The kidnapping of 40 Indian workers in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

2) Later in the evening the announcement of postponement of Narendra Modi's scheduled visit to Japan.

To be very concise,it's realistic to infer that the Telengana effect would come in force only after Narendra Modi personally confers with the top leaders of USA and Japan.Then,there was this sudden (and extremely surprising) developments in Iraq.(Did those 'developments' start at around 10th of June?Is it any coincidence that on this day there was a memorial lecture in Imphal which was delivered by Prof Kamarulzaman Askandar,who is from a country which has been in the focus of media attention because of the vanishing of a Jumbo jet--Malaysia? And we must not fail to note here that these 'developments' are likely to make the Americans too busy for Narendra Modi,for that matter,any other Asian leaders).Then,the kidnapping of 40 Indian workers in the city of Mosul.Then,the sudden announcement of the postponement of Narendra Modi's scheduled Japan visit.

Seen in the light of the looming Telengana effect,isn't it a retreat of Himalayan scale on Modi's part?

The Indian people has just given a resounding mandate for a strong leader.But this strong leader's first move is actually a retreat!

This is certainly anti-climactic,to say the least.

And,to top it all,the anti-climax does come a little too soon--that is,in matter of weeks!!

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Form and propaganda--RSS and Manipur.

We are facing with the likely scenario of the mainstreaming of the RSS in the Indian society.

In case the still unfolding scenario is proven right,we can expect a direction-shifting change in the Indian
society itself and,as its impact,a groundbreaking perception of what Indian-ness is in all the neighbouring
societies.

So, we need to correctly asses what the RSS is all about.RSS is an idealistic social organisation--
propaganda.RSS is an apolitical organisation--propaganda.RSS works hard quietly on the ground and produces a lot of admirable cadres--good information.One such admirable cadre,named Nathuram Godse,shot Mohandas K.Gandhi to death--good information.Does RSS equal Hindutva?Is RSS fascist?Is RSS really intent on converting India a nation of Hindu supremacist?

These are the forms(and the propaganda) which the RSS itself tries to portray,or,are percolated down to the general populace through the agencies of popular media and institutions.We need to pierce through these forms and propaganda to get in touch with the real contents inside and try to make an assessment out of it.

In my humble opinion,the sine quo non of the RSS is the ongoing and Himalayan(to borrow an expression from Mohandas K,Gandhi)endeavour to divest Eugenics out of the Indian Social Dynamics(my last post).

Graphically speaking,the prime intent of the RSS is to yank Eugenics out of Indian social dynamics and insert the idea of Hindutva in its place.

They know that if Eugenics continue to serve as the main plank of the Indian social dynamics,it would become untenable in this modern age.So, they are toiling hard on the ground to replace Eugenics with Hindutva.In this sense,RSS is becoming the saviour of the evil Indian social dynamics.

Here again,we are coming face to face with an irony.RSS,in trying to replace Eugenics with Hindutva,comes in direct confrontations with the established Indian social system.But they are not fighting to dislodge the established social system and thereby,usher into a brave new world.Insterad,they are fighting to maintain the
status quo of the Indian social dynamics but with a renewed vigour.

In this sense,for nearly a century,there have been a constant but a low-key tussle between the RSS and the
established Indian social system.With the spectacular victory of Narendra Modi,himself a RSS Pracharak,do we see a tipping point in favour of the RSS?

In other words,the tipping point in the nearly century old tussle has seen its manifestations in the spectacular victory of Narendra Modi.In this sense,Narendra Modi is only symbol of the tipping point--another form but not another propaganda.

Nearer home,this tipping point have brought about several outward manifestations,like the installation of a
person as the junior Home Minister,who hails from a place recently administered by the Ministry of External
Affairs,New Delhi,the likely final push for Nagalim and,here comes the heartbreaking one,a bomb blast in Imphal targetting unarmed migrant workers,killliing 2 of them and injuring scores of them.

Well,the bomb blast have already made everybody bewildered--why is this happening at all? But we need to pull ourselves up and try to find answers urgently--not in a whodunit or blamegame paradigm but in a holistic study of our own social dynamics which might be responsible for producing such incidents.

Let's look at the 3 sectors of our society which,at present, are getting maximum investments.

1)Education:

It's one social sector which gets the maximum grassroot investments and attention.Such investments catapults many young men and women to the thriving urban centres like Bangalore.But majority of them can only touch the outward forms associated with such thriving urban centres,like how the young executives of the fast-moving corporations socialize but not with the innner substance,like the life-giving corporate culture.Our society puts in a whole lot of heavy investments but still our young men and women can only connect with the outward forms--not the substance.

2)Police:

Well,in this sector,there is not grassroot-level investments but they are getting massive investments from New Delhi.In the course of their duties,they come in direct contact with the rebels of Manipur.Of course,there is
always high dose of romanticism associated with rebels of any hue.Romanticsm born out of the martyrs who are always intent on swimming against the current,challenging the status quo.But our young police men and women can only connect with only one part of the outward form of such romanticism,like the rebels sustaining themselves with the 'donations'from the general populace.If the rebels can seek donations,why can't we?This is a new phenomenon in our society.

3)Rebels:

Everybody knows that the rebels are working extremely hard to channelize a whole lot of investments on
themselves!Surprisingly,they have already become the masters of big money power games--just like,big money lenders and feudallords.In the context of all such interactions,it is becoming clearer by the day that the majority of the rebels also can connect with the outward form of the legacy of rebellion of Manipur.

It's hearbreaking to note that the social sectors which receive the highest amount of investments actually
churn out young men and women who are content with only celebrating the form.

In this stage of our social development,we have come to face to face with the incidents like the bombing of the unarmed migrant workers.

Are such bombings the extreme cases of the celebrations of the form?

by the meltingpot

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