by the meltingpot: The new Front.

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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.

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

The new Front.

On the 14th March,I read about the arrest of Mr Sachin Vaze,the Mumbai police officer,by the NIA.He reportedly confessed that he was not alone in the game.The players include senior Shiv Sena leaders and his many counterparts in the Maharastra police establishment.

Most revealingly,Mr Sanjay Raut,the pointsman of Shiv Sena,reated to the arrest like this--'The NIA is not needed to investigate the Mukesh Ambani bomb scare case and,by imposing the NIA,the power centre in New Delhi is infringing upon the legitimate rights of the provincial government'.

Now,the looming and crisis-ridden question--where do we locate the NIA? In the Concurrent List? State List? Central List? Or,in a twilight zone?

Immediately,I sensed that Maratha power,in the guise of Shiv Sena and the Maharastra police,has finally decided to challenge the power centre in New Delhi.

My deduction was encouraged by the fact that the NIA had remanded him in their custody till the 25th March 2021.

What is so significant about this date?

It is just one day later than the anniversary of the national lock down announced by the Prime Minister himself. The lockdown commenced from the 24th March,2020.

New Delhi is trying to link Mr Sachin Vaze with China(through,of course,COVID 19,which they claimed,has spread across the globe because of China's negligence.

Mr Vaze was arrested for the case of bomb scare to Mr Mukesh Ambani.

So,where does Mr Ambani stand amidst all these maze?

Reading my past post,entitled,'11th Dec 18--the day of the 2nd battle of the 2nd War of Kurukshetra',dated 13th Dec 2018 would help in answering the above question.I am reproducing the relevant portion below.But it is important that we should re-read this post immediately.

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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.

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This emerging new front is,more or less,confirmed by the suddenly-announced visits of both the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense of the US to Asia,including India.

This is still a developing story.I am posting about this because it will be extremely illuminating for us if we follow it from its very start.The purpose of this post is to give the brief introduction to the likely actors.

The discussion about the interaction amongst these actors should come in later posts.

But,if I do not comment on one thing at this early stage,I should be committing an act of omission.

It is the alacrity of the American polity in responding to events which they think relate to their national interest.Mr

Sachin Vaze was arrested on the 14th of March and the Americans responded with major announcement on the 15th of March itself.

This is impressive.

Most importantly,late afternoon on the 15th March saw the widespread circulation of what is purported to be the facsimile image of the preamble of the supposedly super-secretive Framework Agreement between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM).What interests us is not the veracity of the document(it contain two typos and one important subject overwritten by a pen).It is the timing.

The message is very clear--'If they open a new front in the Maratha land,we would give fresh life to the front of artificial land demand of the NSCN(OM).'

The last and eight point in the leaked document runs like this:

--(8)Pan Naga Government to cover all Naga-inhibited areas.--

POSTCRIPT

9 a.m.

The US Senate has just voted to confirm Ms Deb Haaland as the new Interior Secretary.Now,she has just become the first native American to hold a Cabinet post.

As was fully discussed in my post entitled,'Phase 3--The full picture',dated 2nd March 2021,Ms Haaland has been handpicked to send messages to our 'unseen actors'.

As I was writing the above post on the 2nd March,it was in everybody reckoning that Ms Haaland would be confirmed within few following hours.

But they have just did it after a complete 14 days later!

They are timing Ms Haaland confirmation to send yet another message to our 'unseen actor'--'Do not play with fire trying to open up a new front in the South-West India'.

For the complete discussion on 'unseen actor' please refer to my posts,entitled, 'Phase 3',dated 1st March 2021 and 'Phase 3--The complete picture',dated 2nd March 2021.

by the meltingpot

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Now at 2nd place

This is the 3rd