by the meltingpot: 11th Dec 18--the day of the 2nd battle of the 2nd War of Kurukshetra?(updated)

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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.

Thursday, December 13, 2018

11th Dec 18--the day of the 2nd battle of the 2nd War of Kurukshetra?(updated)

Thay arrested Ms Meng Wanzhou,CFO,Huawei on the 1st of Dec 2018.But the news of the arrest started coming out in the press at around 6th of Dec.

Incidentally,my first smartphone was a Huawei.I bought the bundled phone from Aircel(now defunct) which gave me very good 3G signal in my house.Only after buying the bundle did I come to know that it was a Huawei phone.

It was a good piece of hardware.But after about 5 years of usage,the touchscreen failed me.But I still think that I should not have activate wifi hotspot while charging it(which made the phone heated up--repeated heating up of the phone might have led to relatively quick damage to the touchscreen).

I still have a 7 inch android tab which also calls.Actually,I set out to buy a Nexus 7.But all phone sellers in Imphal(at that time)never heard of a Nexus device,let alone having stocks of them.I was a little hasty in my purchase and sure enough,my tab never fails to drive me mad whenever I use it(howsoever sparingly it may be)!

And I do call people by using my 10 years old feature phone.The battery which came with the phone still works marvelously!

Now,enough of phone talk.

Let's come to Huawei's Meng Wanzhou.As soon as I read the news of her arrest,my intuition told me something geo-politically significant was afoot.

Then,Hillary Clinton arrived in Rajasthan.She may be the family friend of India's richest man and so, there is nothing unusual of her attending his daughter's wedding.

But Queen Bey! Should Queen Bey perform in a private party!!

But it actually happened some days ago in,of all the places,Rajasthan! And I still think it was something!!

All of these propelled me to look back to the opening cerenomy of Sangai Festival 2018.Women power at that event also--Najma Heptullah and Nirmala Sitharaman,India's Defence Minister.

All these women power pointed to the commemoration of the ultimate women power--the Nupee Lal of the 12th Dec 2018.

Now comes the crucial recollection of a moment some 50 days ago.I vividly remember the moment.It was the night after the shooting down of the State Secy of BJP in Jammu and Kashmir.The Prime Minister was on All India Radio telling us that his govt is guaranteeing clearance of MSME sector loans in just 59 minutes.Noting the shooting down of the J&K BJP leader the previous day,I immediately suspected that the Prime Minister was speaking on a coded message.I thought for a moment and then came to the conclusion that he was referring to the 6th month,June and the date,10--I simply added 1 to both 5 and 9.I then thought that the Prime Minster was talking of avenging the shooting down of J&K BJP leader on the 10th June 2019.Wow,how he spoke in a code,I thought.

Now,I have to re-work my decoding.

1 minute less an hour is 59.(Note that 59 minutes by the Prime Minister).

1 day less a month is either 29 or 30.

Now,the crucial point--

1 unit less a dozen is 11.

So,the Prime Minister was pointing to the 11 of Dec 2018,the day before the ultimate commemoration of women power to which Meng Wanzhous,Hillary Clintons,Nirmala Sitharamans(and.of course,the Queen Beys!) of the world were trying to point during past several days now.

Sure enough,Gen(rtd) VK Singh,the junior External Affairs Minister,all of a sudden,landed in Imphal on the 10th of Dec and left it on the 11th of Dec.

The President of India then landed in Burma on the 11th Dec 2018 on a five day state visit.

So,did something militarily significant happen along the India Burma border on the 11th of Dec 2018?

This question immediately brings me back to my last post which talked of the first battle of the 2nd war of Kurukshetra.

Did the second battle of the 2nd war of Kurukshetra happen on the 11th Dec 2018?

We can imagine India's special operations soldiers embarking on a second(the first being on the 27th Sept 2018--my last post) surgical strike at the New Lazang sector along India Burma border.That's on the 11th of Dec.Today is 13th.Still I cannot find a bit of news about the surgical strike.

That points to the possibility of everything related to the second surgical strike being immediately classified.This makes us to conclude that Indian military 's elite commandos suffered yet another defeat.

From the night of 11th Dec I have been searching and looking around for a tiny bit of a lead that may point towards the second surgical strike.I cannot find anything.So,I admit that this post is mainly based on my imagination.

But I'm still asking--

Did something militarily significant happen along the India Burma border on the 11th Dec 2018?

If so,why this total embargo on news about it?

UPDATE
18-12-18
2.12 pm

For the ordinary people,most of the bandhs are not the days of protest but some form of rest days.For the 17th Dec 18 bandh, the weather helped it to become a perfect day of staying indoors and reading.

One of the prominent feature pieces of that day in Poknapham daily was the one discussiing the spectre of 'predators' in Manipur.The writer is an assistant prof of Zoology in Manipur University.

First thought on seeing the feature piece was why so late.Most of the people are starting to forget this 'predator' stuff.

After going through the piece,another question also arises.If the writer thought it fit to write the piece this late,it should only be justified if he brings in some some new additional(and not previously found) clues about the 'predators'.But not a single new clue was brought forward in the piece.

All these serve as a trigger for me to look back at the dramatic turn of events in the last few weeks in the Imphal valley.Then,we were in a surreal world trying to pump ourselves up to face the mysterious 'predators' attacking our livestocks.The unspoken thoughts at the back of everybody's mind was--should the 'predators' also start attacking people itself?Measured in that metrics,whole Imphal valley was at a heightened state of emergency.

I researched back at the events of the last few weeks.The most prominent,even identifying,feature is the existence of groups within the Manipuri society which have the pre-mediated agenda to propagate that there was no ground for fear and the predators must be some wild beasts coming down to the valley from the surrounding hills, mainly due to de-forestation.As the weeks rolled by,the narrative slowly came to the predators as the wild beasts from the hills to the predators as the stray dogs,which was duly assisted by the experts from Dehradun.Nonetheless,they have this urgent agenda to deny the existence of the predators.The 17th Dec piece on Poknapham was also a visible symptom of this urgent agenda.

WHY?

In trying to answer this question,we may start by laying down the following statements:

1) There are groups within the Manipuri society which are denying the existence of the predators.

2) There are another set of groups which directly compete with the 1st groups.

3) The 1st group seems to sense that the predators + their competing groups would decisively tilt the intense competition against them.

Here we come the shocking,even surreal,stage of our research.Somehow,the mysterious predators managed to come into the sharp focus as the decisive factor in swaying the competition among the groups within Manipuri society.

This made us to look back yet again at the dramatic events of the last few weeks.This time I tried to read the finer details of the events.

The most significant thing happened in the evening of the 1st Dec 2018.The place was Khurai Heigrumakhong.There, a young Muslim lady was 'scratched' by the predator.

This was the first and the last instance where the predators actually attacked a human being.The lady fainted and was hospitalized.

Here,we again come to another important conclusion--the predators were capable of attacking human beings.

But the decisive conclusion for this post is the date itself--the 1st Dec 2018.

These are what had happened on the 1st Dec 2018.

1) A young Muslim lady was 'scratched'by the predators.

2) There was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Alaska,US.

3) Meng Wanzhou,CFO,Huawei,was arrested in Canada on a request from US.

Are these three events co-related?

Leaving aside the earthquake in Alaska,we have the predators and the arrest of Meng Wanzhou made related by the date--1st Dec 2018.

In the main body of this post,it is made clear that Meng Wanzhoou's arrest was a forewarning for a significant event on the 11th Dec 2018.

Now,the decisive question--

Does the date 11th Dec 2018 bring the narrative of the predators towards the New Lazang sector along the India Burma border?

Now,the surreal question--

Did the predators attack the elite commandos of the India's military in the battle of 11th Dec 2018?

This question makes me all shaken up to the core of my being.So far,I have been simply coming to a point where my objective deductions make me travel to.But this particular deduction makes me stunned.

Is this scenario of predators as the tools of war possible?

Is it biological warfare?

This is terrifyingly disorienting for me.

But I should not end abruptly.I should return to the mundane affairs of this update.We have the last question--

Does this possibility of the predators as the tools of war make our first groups within the Manipuri society sense that the existence of the predators would tilt the competition decisively against them?

by the meltingpot

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Now at 2nd place

This is the 3rd