by the meltingpot: Bitterness as defined by Sunni-Shia and Chinese-Vietnamese rifts.

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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.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Bitterness as defined by Sunni-Shia and Chinese-Vietnamese rifts.

Indian Prime Minster,Mr Narendra Modi's ongoing Iran visit forces us to have a re-look at the battleline.

The battleline will witness more than expected subtler engagements.

Let's go straight to Mr Narendra Modi's Iran visit.The focus of the visit is the signing of the Chabahar port agreement.Chabahar is barely 100 kms away from the Gwadar port in Pakistan,which is being developed and operated by China.It's easy to see that Chabahar is a direct response to Gwadar.

Indian officials say that the distance between Kandla and Chabahar is shorter than that of New Delhi and Mumbai.Besides,Iran will supply really cheap natural gas to the Indian facilities there,with the particular emphasis on the production of urea on the cheap.If executed as planned,India would reap huge benefit,especially in the cheap production of urea.

But I think the economic benefit is secondary to India's quest.The primary aim is empowering the Shia world(Iran being the Shia capital of the Islamic world)as India's strategic and geo-political goal.

In short,as is usual in Indian mindset,they want to outsource the fight with Sunni extremists(the best example being the Islamic State) to the Shia Muslims.

While Modi was witnessing the signing of the Iranian agreement in Tehran,Mr Barack Obama,the US President,announced the lifting of the 5-decades old embargo on arms sales to Vietnam during his ongoing state visit to that country.

During Yahoo Messenger days,we used to chat up with a lot beautiful Vietnamese girls.Even after a brief acquintances,we most of the time came to know that many of the girls were fleeing from Chinese men.Apparently,they had no ill feelings towards the Chinese men and the Chinese men also did not do any bad things to them.But,still,they were fleeing.

Later on,I learn that Chinese-Vietnamese relationship is quite complicated.Early in history,Chinese and Vietnamese started out as a single people,probably on the lines of Tangkhul-Meetei story.Later on,there cropped up an inexplicable bitterness between them,just like the hill-valley bitterness in Manipur.

As we have seen here in Manipur,there has been no outright hostility between hill and valley but some kind of a smoldering bitterness.As we cannot put a finger on the genesis of the bitterness,the rift between hill and valley always look insurmountable.I think the same dilemma applies to the Chinese-Vietnamese relationship.

As Prime Minister Modi has dragged the battleline into the surreal world of Sunni-Shia rift,President Obama was doing the same thing to the Chinese-Vietnamese rift.

In a dramatic coincidence,Imphal valley,right at the moment,is witnessing a chaotic situation,just like a shut down,on account of an outwardly Muslim-related issue.

It's Muslim-related only in appearance.Beneath the surface,it's everything to do with rivalries amongst the rebel groups of Manipur.Just like the Vietnamese girls,most of the rebel groups are fleeing the competition.Instead of bringing creative ideas and geo-political insight into their jobs,they are willingly letting themselves drowned in the powerful torrents of meaningless and endless chatters enabled by Indian Constitution--some of them, in the powerful torrents of Western propaganda on Caliphate movement(my next to last post),which,incidentally,has a long history behind it.The immediate scene in Manipur,coming as it is in the backdrop of Sunni-Shia rift-focussed Modi's Iran visit and that of Obama's Vietnam visit in the same vein,propels us to deduct that the rivalries amongst the rebel groups have entered the same surreal world of bitterness as defined by the Sunni-Shia and Chinese-Vietnamese rifts.That said,it's only logical to again deduct that the cronies of Modi and Obama would start to drag the battleline inside the surreal world of rifts amongst the rebel groups of Manipur,just like they are doing to Sunni-shia and Chinese-Vietnamese rifts right at the moment.

by the meltingpot

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