by the meltingpot: Yet another set,this time, inside their mountain-top "homes"?

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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, December 28, 2020

Yet another set,this time, inside their mountain-top "homes"?

Some of the gems I had found out in the media during the last few days.

1) A well-known person from the Heinganag Assembly constituency came out(on one of the social media accounts of that person,which,by the ways,happens to have a substantial followers) with a curious video clip--curious in the sense the video clip shows that person standing on a mountain top at this time of the season!

I had a chance to feel how the weather is beating down on the residents of the towns of the mountain ranges of Manipur--it was snowing there.The video was by a random youtuber;at first sight,I thought it might be somewhere in Korea.Only when the youtuber started to speak I came to realize the scene belongs to some mountain-top towns of Manipur,In that cell phone video I could easily see the snows coming down relentlessly--I thought how cold it might be there.

In such a weather,that Heingang personality did not stand on just a simple mountain top--that particular mountain top looks down on a several rows of velvety mountain tops.Highest mountain top of that particular geographical area!!

Now,what's makes us asking a lot of questions after seeing this particular video clip?

The video clip comes out just in right time--just two days after I published my last post.

In my last post,we discussed about the keywords-- "Heingang", "masked gunmen" and "an editor".

2) The next morning itself saw another curious development.

On the Imphal station of AIR,in that morning programme, it seemed that they cherry picked a documentary that's a lot to do with Himalaya and its off-shoots--Manipur's mountain ranges.

3) Then came "Mann ki Baat".

At the fag end of the last episode of the year 2020,there was a still another curious end game--Himalaya and pollution. (Did they anticipate some actions along the Ladakh sector?)

Only about 14 hours later,the dogs began barking.

Last night,I was woken up by a bursting desire to pee.I struggled to come out of my bed--it was so cold!

As I was struggling to get off the warmth of my bed,it slowly registered on my senses the feverish barking of dogs.Several dogs barking at the same time-- a sure sign that a particular stirring had drawn the attention of several dogs at the same time.That means the stirring did not come out of someone moving around stealthily.It should mean that several people moving around openly.

That was the stream of thought coming to my mind,the body of which was still snuggled beneath the thick layers of woolen blankets!

Finally,I managed to came off the bed.

As I was coming out of the toilet,the intensity of dogs' barking grew stronger.That made me cursed myself--how I woke up after getting only a few hours of sleep--it must not even be midnight.

I was about to literally jump into my bed.But the ever growing intensity dogs' barking steered me to the next room where I put all my phones(no phones in my bed--I want to minimize the incidence of cell phone radio waves on my body,especially,my head).I picked up one of them-- to my surprise,it was 1.30 am.

1.30 in this freezing winter morning and several people moving around openly?

This thought made me sleepless.

Then,unconsciously,my mind began to connect the dots.

Keishampat area abounds in students hostels.

It is an open secret that some people are building glittering students hostels making sensible onlookers wondering where the money comes from.Simples cases of disproportionate assets.

A sudden thoughts came flooding into my minds.

What if the three actors whom I mentioned in my last post sank in huge money in building some of these student hostels?As these students hostels run kitchens for the students staying in their rooms,there must be a steady coming in and going out of goods vehicles.That can happen even in the odd hours without attracting anybody's attention.

This sounds like a perfect front for a rebel groups's logistic operation.

Now,let's build up a scenario.

Let's assume that another set of rebel leaders,sheltering on mountain top bases,were taken down.As the battle field is on a remote mountain top there is no need to use precision weapons.We can theorize that the particular rebel group,whose leader returned "home" on a particular 28th day,deploy blunt weapons attempting large scale targets.(We should note here the latest retaliatory attack happened on the early hours of the 28th December 2020),

This scenario could only mean that there would be several deaths and many more who are severely injured.

This makes us to connect to the feverish dogs barking at 1.30 am in my neighbourhood.

That could mean that one of the three rebel groups might have activated their secret logistic centres kept hidden inside a students hostel.They might be in an emergency mode.In the chilly mountain tops those hurt in the attack would surely need medicines,woolen blankets.foods etc.At the risk of their cover being blown over,they were trying to rush in emergency medicines,woolen and foods to their mountain top "second homes",that is,their "bases".

If we read this together with my last four posts,it is reasonable to assume that there should be retaliation on the "second homes",that is,their "bases" up on the mountain tops.We all know that it all begins with the targeted covert attack on a leader who returned "home".

A perfectly fitting endgame,a retaliation for a covert attack on a leader peacefully returning and staying as a common folk in his "home"--we should be explicit this time,retaliation on several mountain top "homes" ( that is,the "bases") of the three rebel groups.

Today is the 28th of December.

We must remember (by reading the last four posts) that they are trying to eliminate the leader who is at "home" by the 31st of December 2020.

There are four days left.

But the three rebel groups seem to be on an emergency mode.

That makes us to ask this question--do the three rebel groups still have the resources and will to home into their target by their publicly announced timeline,that is,by the 31st of December 2020?

Judging by their logistic operation at 1.30 am(that too,at the risk of blowing off the cover of their prized logistic operation centre),it is reasonable to assume that the three rebel groups are still stunned by the scale and effectiveness of the retaliatory strikes on the mountaintop "homes".

Stunned means that they are now bewildered,not knowing how to mop up their remaining resources,resulting in ever diminishing will to fight back.

by the meltingpot

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This is the 3rd