by the meltingpot: Artificial land demands:30 for IS and 13 for Yogi Adityanath

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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, March 20, 2017

Artificial land demands:30 for IS and 13 for Yogi Adityanath

We can roughly say that today marks the 30th day of Mr Rajnath Singh's last visit to Imphal.It was on the 19th of February 2017.I have also a post dealing with it.(my next to last post).

We have to remind ourselves that it took more than 90 days to retake Eastern Mosul from IS hands.Going by that estimate we have another 60 days to retake the Western part of Mosul.IS fighters inside Western Mosul are all completely surrounded and they will fight to death--each of one them.

Counting 60 days from today,we can visualize the decisive moment coming at around 19th May.

1)Last afternoon,Yogi Adityanath's elevation as the UP CM made headlines.Some commentators stated that with Yogi Adityanath,the fringe elements within BJP has come to occupy the centrestage.Yogi Adityanath is the face of BJP's communal and fundamentalist inner self--the concept of Hindutva.

I was also thinking of the longterm impact of Yogi Adityanath's elevation to the CM's post.It's a well-known fac that anyone who has occupied the chair of UP chief ministership is always considered to be a legitimate candidate for the for the prime ministership of India.So,has the RSS already started grooming Yogi Adityanath as the future successor of Prime Minister.Mr Narendra Modi?

On a more benign note,I also thought that selecting a member of parliament might mean to scuttle any incipient factionalism withn the ranks of the newly elected BJP members of the UP assembly.With all his faults,the yogi seems to be a quite a popular leader.He was first elected as the member of parliament at a young age of 26 and since then,has been elected for five consecutive terms.He has the exact resume for selecting to lead the newly elected MLAs of the UP Assembly and to scuttle any incipient factionalism within their ranks.

2)But at around last midnight,my views on the political developments in UP underwent a drastic change.At that time,I came to know that the 139 days old economic blockade along the highways of Manipur had been lifted.(Here,we must not fail to note that the Prime Minister,Mr Narendra Modi,in person,publicly announced in Imphal that the economic blockade would be lifted if his party was voted to power.Now,all of a sudden,the economic blockade was lifted.This was executed while his party have been murdering democracy in Manipur.This shows,without any shred of doubt,that he can always persuade the blockaders to end their adventure but he did not do so for for the last 139 days.Why? This is the question every Manipuri is asking to themselves.)

Anybody who has some interest in numerology(and a good sense of a conspiracy theorist!) would not fail to note that the blockade was lifted on 139(1+3+9=13) days.

The number 13 directly points to Yogi Adityanath,the new UP CM.The Yogi is the exact symbol of the celebration of India's khilafat moment(my next to last post).I'm quoting from the post:

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In trying to probe the question,we need to remind ourselves that IS is the present day embodiment of age old Khilafat movements of the Islamic world.I still remember the days in my high school life when I tried to memorize the stories of Khilafat movements.Seen in this context,there is no surprise in the emergence of IS.The only surprising aspect is the spectacular brutality of the present incarnation of the age old Khilafat spirit.

The second point is that the Khilafat spirit have no direct impact in a non-Islamic world,like,ours.We can only watch the unfolding of the Khilafat spirit in the context of its impact in the geo-political permutations and combinations affecting the relationship amongst nations in a global scale.

Despite the above facts,Mr Rajanth Singh has just dragged in the Khilafat spirit into combat area of artificial demands for land.He did so beautifully by putting the innocence of Mr Pema Khandu in sharp conrtast to his dangerous and unexplored enterprise.Can we term it as Rajnath's 'Khilfat moment'?

Just like Mr Pema Khandu symbolizing Arunacha Pradesh,Mr Rajanth Singh is a also an appropriate symbol for the Indian State.So,can we term it as India's 'Khilafat moment'?

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In selecting Yogi Adityanath as the CM of UP,the ruling class of India is emphasizing 'India's Khilafat moment'(by putting the focus on Jihad by brandishing their own version,Hindutva,of which,the Yogi is the posterboy).Another way looking at the issue is that the ruling class of India is trying to spin a web of lies or pretense around the staright forward existense of artificial land demands in Manipur,which,for the Manipuris,is the question of life and death.

So,come some weeks into the 19th May(as the decisive moment in Western Mosul can be expected 90 days plus some weeks) we might come face to face with the battle royale between the pretense of India's ruling and hard realities of Manipur.

by the meltingpot

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