by the meltingpot: The Tatmadaw and the lockdown in the US capitol.

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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.

Saturday, April 03, 2021

The Tatmadaw and the lockdown in the US capitol.

I am losing track of how the 'Heingang personality'(my last post) drags itself into the centrestage of what has been happening during the last few days.This blog has been continuously chronicling all those events in the several last few posts.

Between my last post and the writing of this new post,the 'Heingang personality' has coaxed,through her Instagram stories,her followers to follow one particular account,which has something to do with 'home'.

That propels me to look back to this post of mine.The title of that particular post is "Yet another set,this time,inside their mountain-top 'homes'?".It was dated 28th December 2020.

I am reproducing the relevant part that points to the 'Heingang personality':

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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?

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Then,it happened.

We got the news late last afternoon.

(1) 6 (six? See the coincidence?) Tatmadaw soldiers were killed in an encounter in and around Namphalong.Possibly during the encounter,a mortar shell crossed over to the Indian territory.Amazingly,it landed inside the Indian Army's Assam Rifles compound.injuring one soldiers.

That mortar shell is making history.

An official Tatmadaw mortar shell lands inside inside Indian territory,marking the beginning of a new paradigm.

(2) If we connect this history making mortar shell with the 'Heingang personality',it is beyond doubt now that another set of attacks on the mountain-top 'homes' had happened during the last few days.I have no idea when.

(3) So,the Namphalong attack is in retaliation of those attacks.

Who are the real operatives on the ground physically attacking the Tatmadaw in and around Namphalong?

(4) In trying to answer this question,let us go to the next step.

There is already the hint of the coming of the retaliation to the Namphalong attack.

Right at the moment,US Capitol is on lock down,enforced by the National Guards.

A car rammed a peripheral barricade of the capitol.One police officer was killed and the attacker was also shot death.

I am not saying that the US is behind the Namphalong attack.

Instead,it is being hinted at the ground operatives of the Namphalong attack.It is an ethnic group of Burma.Being Christian,they are, by and large,obsessed with, through their Church leaders,shifting to the US.

The operatives of the Namphalong attack belong to that ethnic groups.The string of the attack was,of course,pulled from Imphal and New Delhi.

Here also,we are facing with yet another tipping point in history--the Government of India is directly intervening in the intra-rebel fights in counter-insurgency journey of the Indian state.

The US capitol lockdown hints at the ethnic group inside Burma.

Another two attacks on Manipur-based rebel groups and actors in New Delhi should be anticipated.

We would certainly be witnessing a lot of blood shed in the coming days.

by the meltingpot

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This is the 3rd