by the meltingpot: August 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.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Pro Israel and pro West--the true face of the RSS and,of course,its disciplined soldier,Narendra Modi.

The just concluded session of the Indian parliament marks a watershed in its history of electoral politics.

It vehemently tried to dodge completely off discussing the then ongoing fight between the Israelis and the Palestinians.It took more than 7 days in deciding even to discuss the massacre of the Palestinians(mostly wmoen and children) by the state of the art war machines of the Israelis!

After the discussion,it comes to light that the 16th edition of the Indian parliament made a clean break from the tradition(its main architech being the first prime minsiter of India,JL Nehru) of consistently and officially supporting the Palestinians.Even in the queer paradigm of talk the talk diplomacy of India,that tradition had been a very conspicuos one.Now that tradition was decisively demolished.

The thickest of the 'bindis'(which screams--"I'm a Hindu") marks Ms Sushma Swaraj,the Indian foreign minister.And she also loves a dead language.She was very 'bold' standing there in the front of the media in proclaiming that India would not condemned either the Israelis or the Palestinians!We know 'boldness' is the trademark of Narendra Modi government(also see the 'boldness' of yet another lady minister,Ms Sitaraman in WTO)!!

So,in the end,the thickly-bindied Indian foreign minsiter makes the lesser mortals,like us,wiser more than 10x(guys in Google call it a moonshot!).Come,all the citizenry of the Globe--we should not condemn either the Israelis or the Palestinians.See also the flipside of the story--we should not support either the Israelis or the Palestinians!Great(or,is it moonshot?)lessons from a 'bold' Hindu!Who is a Hindu without being being philosophical with one leg firmly placed in the metaphysical world?

Apparently,Ms Swaraj is doing her bits to further the RSS vision of the Hindu domination of the Globe by first influencing the minds of the pundits and poets.Some pundits might even start writing an enlightening dissertation entitled 'Metaphysics in diplomacy--lessons from a thickly-bindied lady'!What about the poets? Well,well,let's think for a second.Eureka! Here it is--'Of Bindis and Moonshots'!!

But the hard reality always hit us hard.The just concluded session of the Indian parliament showed without any shred of doubt that India is fast becoming a beachhead of the West in this Asian part of the Globe.See how the US airforce started the first airstrike against the Islamic State militants in Iraq on the eve of the Quit India movement anniversary,that too,while Mr Chuck Hagel,the US foreign secretary was in New Delhi on an official visit.What did it try to convey?It,of course,showed by action that India is the newly-secured beachhead of the West in Asia.

And we all know that the West is the custodian of the reigning world order of the day.What is this world order?A world order when confronted with some people deploying state of the art war machines in the thickly populated urban area,have the morality of supporting the horrific assault with a weak rider that they should do it 'with precision'!Revolting morality,indeed.Mr John Kerry,like Ms Swaraj,was very 'bold' in publicly supporting the Israelis massacring 2000 people,mostly women and children,by saying--'Do it with precision'.2000 collateral deaths for trying to be 'in precision' in deploying state of the art war machines in a crowded urban area?It's the worldorder of the monsters.

But the Indian people,led by the RSS,has chosen to be not only part of that inhuman world order but also to serve as its beachhead in Asia to further strengthen it in this part of the Globe.This blogger totally hates this reigning worldorder.

This may be a quaint and lonely voice but this blogger strongly feels that the emerging and humane worldorder is laying its groundworks for a good fight.See how the Palestinians,completely trapped inside a small strip of land,called Gaza,had been trying to dictate the pace and terms of the ceasefire with the Israelis.They are trying to attain that all too important psychological edge in the fight.

This poor blogger welcomes it.

by the meltingpot

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