by the meltingpot: Another set of rebel leaders taken down?

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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.

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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.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Another set of rebel leaders taken down?

The trigger to this question is prompted by the quixotic switching of the president of the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee(MPCC) ordered from New Delhi.(For clarity,this post is best read together with my next to last post).

Another such question was raised(and the hints of the first set of rebel leaders being taken down answered by the said question itself) by the unbelievable political development in Kakching in the first week of November 2020(my next to last post).

The story begins from the most unlikely quarters.

On the 28th day of one of the last few months of the year 2020,a minor league writer was cherry-picked to award the prestigious Manipur State Award for Literature,which also carries a substantial cash component.

On the 28th day of one of the last few months of the year 2019,one of the senior-most leaders of a rebel group returned home and began leading a simple life(like most common folks)in his house.

The two events connect.The connection is being reinforced by the title of the book for which the prize was awarded--the book is a compilation of "My hone and other stories".

The two keywords highlighted by the whole exercise are--"the 28th day" and "home".

(The selection of the said Manipur State Literature Award,2020 can be best understood if we put on the canvass two words,namely,"The Mob" and 'The Literature".The mobbish elements inside the Govt of Manipur was leveraged by the equally mobbish elements inside the ruling class in New Delhi to bypass legions of senior,more creative and more erudite writers to home in to a minor league writer,solely because the unsuspecting writer has a book titled,"My Home").

Right at the moment ,let's add another key word,"the president",as prompted by the just cancelled visit of Mr JP Nadda,the president of the Bharatya Janata Party.

So,the target of the covert operation,led by New Delhi and,of course,collaborated by three rebel groups of Manipur(my next to last post) is the president of a rebel group who is now staying at his home but came back to his home on a 28th day.

Now comes the quixotic switching of the MPCC president,ordered by New Delhi(Delhi's ruling class consist of leaders of several political parties,including,BJP and INC).The outgoing president is from the Heirok Assembly Constituency.Again.we have to add yet another keyword--Heirok.

By adding the fourth keyword,Heirok,to the already established three keywords,any informed newspaper reading common folk can guess who the targets are.It's easy--the present and the past presidents of a particular rebel group.The battle is between this particular rebel versus the combined collaboration of New Delhi and the three rebel groups.The D day for the covert attack is 28th Dec 2020.

But an innocuous brick comes between the planned covert attack on the 28th Dec and its actual execution.

A brick struck the wind shield of the car carrying Mr JP Nadda,who was on his way to Diamond Harbour in West Bengal(that was on the 10th Dec and after this Bengal stint,Mr Nadda was scheduled to land in Imphal on the 13th).

Mr JP Nadda,suddenly and uncharacteristically cancelled his scheduled visit to Manipur on the 13th and 14th Dec.

The president of the Bharatya Janata Party intimidated by a single brick of Bengal?

There is more to the seemingly innocuous story.General Bipin Rawat,Chief of Defence Staff,suddenly materialized in Kolkata on the 14th Dec and told mediaperson that there has been perceptibly stepped-up military activities in Tibet Military Region in China.

Reading between the lines,Gen Rawat effectively revealed that there is a connection between the seemingly innocuous brick of Bengal that hit Mr JP Nadda's car and the stepped-up military activities in Tibet,China.

So,Gen Bipin Rawat told us that New Delhi,by forcing Mr Nadda to cancel his Manipur visit,is retreating from the planned covert attack.

Now,the big news.

As Gen Bipin Rawat was announcing New Delhi's retreat,the particular rebel group which was the target of the planned covert attack,apparently came into attack mode.It seems that the particularly rebel group took down another set of rebel leaders belonging to the three collaborators of New Delhi.(For the information on the first set of rebel leaders who were already taken down,please refer to my next to last post).

To show support to the rebel groups which had just lost several of their leaders,ruling class in New Delhi ordered their quixotic switching of MPCC president.

As the new president of the MPCC is from a Assembly Constituency which lies along the Tiddim Road,it is reasonable to conclude that all the rebel leaders just taken down were also from the places lying along the Tiddim Road.I suspect that another set of leaders of the three rebel groups were taken down.

As things stand now,New Delhi is out of the picture--it has retreated.But if one out of the four collaborators backed off,the majority of the players are still in the field and,naturally,the whole project is not deemed cancelled.

Or,are the remaining three collaborators,the three rebel groups,still in the game?

With New Delhi,the leading figure of the planned covert attack,scheduled for the 28th Dec 2020,already retreated,do the leaders of the three rebel groups have the stomach to lead the field,like true warriors, and wage the already decided covert war on the 28th of December,2020?

I am eagerly waiting for the coming of the 28th day of the month of December of the year 2020 to see how the great fight unfolds itself(or,will it be a stomach-churning experiment?).

by the meltingpot

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