by the meltingpot: The inter-continental missiles and the siege within

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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.

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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.

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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, February 27, 2016

The inter-continental missiles and the siege within

This particular American missile test was codenamed 'Glory Trip 218'.

As was done in my last post,another way of looking at the numbers 2,1 and 8 is yet another 13(21-8).

In my last post,we talked of the French soldiers coming to New Delhi and literaly flashing the number 13 to the land of Paubi Lai.But this time,the inter-continental ballistic missile test had happened in the distant America and so,it would be far-fetched to say that they were also flashing the number,13 to the land of Paubi Lai for the second time.But the series of events in the last 13 days(!) has been forcing us to say that it's not that far-fetched.

1) On the 13th day of this month,I had published my last post which specifically said that the killing of the ten Indian soldiers in the Siachin glacier was an act of war and so,there would be retaliation from India.

2) The very next day,New Delhi summoned the US ambassador to India and officially objected to the sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan.So,it's easy to deduct that the said retaliation would come in the form of airpower.

3) One day later,on the 16th,china installed surface-to-air missiles on one of the disputed islands in the South China Sea.Again,it's easy to see the meaning--if you were to use airpower,we have surface-to-air missiles.

4) Then came the testing of the Minuteman 3 ICBMs on a Monday(22nd) and yet another one two days later.Again,it's easy to see that the testing of two already operational ICBMs within the space of a week is absolutely abnormal..Somthing fishy was going on there in the US.

5) On the same Monday,Chinese foreign minster's official visit to the US was cancelled.

6) Both the ICBM test were preceded by two mass shootings--one in Michigan and other,in Texas.It makes me squirmed talking about those mass shooting in the US--they have more casualties from mass shootings than those out of real combat actions by their military during the last three decades.Personally,I can understand the position of a very powerful constituent within the US society which say that owning a gun is within the domain of personal right and the government should never try to infringe on that sacrosanct right.But,if there are so many guns available,mass shootings are also inevitable.This is obviously a dilemma ,which even brought tears to President Obama,live on TV.

It would be heartless to talk so non-challantly about these mass shootings but we have been forced to study them dispaasionately because they are being used by one mysteriously constituent withn the US Society to reveal itself to the world.I have a post entitled 'Two constituents--discovered at the same time,in two different continents.'Besides giving the link to that post,the explosive situation of today(as hinted by the ICBMs) demands a lengthy quote from that post:

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"My mind was stunned by this dramatic quetion--

Does the USA have a constituent within its society which is willing to fight for a system more akin to the Chinese form of governance?

Immediately,the imageries of the 'occupy Wall Street' agitations flashed back in my mind.Those agitations might have been the first manisfestation of this

constituent within the US society.

But,now,why should it smeared itself with the taints ofchurch mayhems,which are clearly related with White Supremism?

The answer lies in the rise of the Hindu Spuremism in our part of the world.The constituent within the US wants to highligh to the world ever-louder war drums of the Hindu Supremism and Nazism.Why?It should be easy to note that it would face hard times to make itself grown up into something capable of tilting the scale in its favor,given that it has to work under constant surveilance of super-efficient agencies,like the FBI and NSA.So,it would need all the help from outside.

Would that help be forthcoming depends upon the outcome of the fight against Hindu Supremism and Nazism here in our part of the world."

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7) On the weekend preceding 'missile Monday',the Lt Gen,commanding the Eastern Command of India's military,was in Imphal.Doing what? Watching polo! I have a post entitled 'The coming of the Americans' which talked of how Americans have diplomatically used the very visible game of Polo.This time also another quote from the post is needed.

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"That the agitators in Churachandpur had chosen 1st to 5th Feb as the first leg of their ptogramme of agitation should act as an eye-opener for everybody.

It even prods us to ask this question--

'What will happen on the 21st of January 2016?'.

Of course,the missing link between the above statement and the question is the Americans.We have to remember that there is a pattern breaking event in Imphal on the 21st of January,mainly inspired by the Americans.

In my humble opinion,what we are seeing is the starting point heralding the call of the West to its supporters in Manipur to come out openly and challenge the constituent within the Manipuri society espousing the formation of an anti-West coalition".

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If we carefully read (6) and (7) together,it's inescapable to deduct that they are jointly targetting one or more constituents within the majority valley society.To what end? To execute a siege within the valley society,just like the siege executed by those mass shootings in the US society.

Now,we have four tangible:

a) The killing of ten Indian soldiers in Siachin.

b) American air power and missiles.

c) Chinese air defense system.

d) One or more constituents within the valley society colluding with the West.

The co-relations amongst the four tangible would shape the nature of the coming retaliation from India.It's still a big jigsaw puzzle.I,for one,would be keeping my eyes wide open!

by the meltingpot

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