I AND MY WORDS

Xi Jinping Addressing the Army (Courtesy CNN) While the world watches with baited breath what goes on in Ukraine, from the corner of the eye many would be watching the moves of China. There are several reasons to worry about a similar action being carried out by China on Taiwan. While there is some time for it to happen, judging by the pace at which Project 2049 is being pursued, one can be assured that the time is not right for the Taiwan invasion. However, the activities going on inside China are certainly worth noting as to why China, even though it is not collapsing like the Soviet Union, stands at a precipice of its own making. The inherent structural weaknesses created by decades of bad policy making behind the facade of economic progress are deep rooted today. This implies that China is not necessarily in the best of positions to carry out its plans militarily in particular.  The problem of Little Emperors is well known. Thanks to the one child policy spanning decades, there...

Poster hailing the friendship of the Soviet and Chinese People Two items in the past twenty four hours cycle featured on the Global Times present an interesting picture, in parts and in whole.  The first item that Global Times put out is the news story, Russia 'ready to talk' after militarily paralyzing Ukraine within hours. On reading through the article, one notices a typical pattern to the reporting line pursued. While the story tends to put the Chinese people at the centre of the story in multiple ways, the interpretation of the 'demilitarization' that was called upon by Russia's Vladimir Putin speaks for itself: "Demilitarize" could be understood to be putting down arms and surrendering, which can also be understood as incapacitating the opponent and rendering them unable to form a threat in a broader sense, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Thursday. Moreover, they carried the Russian version of th...

With the recent invasion of Ukraine undertaken by Russia, one spot of foreign policy challenges that the world needs to still wake up to is China. There are a large number of reasons why Russia has significance for China, and it is not merely about economy or increasing global isolation. Soviet Union, modern Russia's precursor, was an ideological inspiration and mentor of the Chinese Communist Party till the death of Joseph Stalin, following which they parted ways. Of course, even after the Soviet collapse, there continues to be interest in Russian affairs in a variety of ways. A 1949 Poster Hailing the Sino-Soviet Peace and Friendship Treaty. The Putonghua reads as follows: "The Sino-Soviet Alliance for Friendship and Mutual Assistance promotes enduring world peace" This is the first part of a multi-part series as to why the latest Russian - Ukrainian challenge carries multiple implications for China. PART I -   SOVIET ON THE OUTSIDE, QING ON THE INSIDE – MAKING SENSE O...

Often times, we have publication houses, journalists and supposed investigators who are so off the mark that they refuse to recognize the truth. Post-truth, pre-truth, anything but the truth – this facile attitude adopted by a handful few is not damaging the ones it is supposed to target. Rather, it is eroding the confidence and trust that people would pose in them, and their abilities. L’affaire Pegasus is turning out to be much of the same. Every few months, some ‘sensational’ discovery turns up that reveal ‘a grave threat’ to the ‘foundations of democracy’, of ‘free speech’ and ‘treasonous behaviour’ that damages reputation of a government. The latest is this interview done by The Wire that seeks to raise eyebrows. Yet, the mountain made out of a non-existent molehill continues to remain invisible to most people, perplexed by the brouhaha created for no reason. The liberal Bible also known as New York Times, whose pulpit worthy gospels posing as news deserve praise for hollow...

This technobahn is a failure (picture credit: Indian Express) What is technobahn? Bahn essentially refers to a physical track or a train in German and its sister languages. Technobahn would in literal sense mean a techno track. It is important to define this phrase because it is perhaps the best way to describe the haphazard manner in which air pollution is tackled in India at all levels.  Now, it would be easy for any reader to see this introduction and dismiss the rest of the piece, calling it a kind of hit job on those who want to solve the issue. At the outset, let me clarify that this is not about science and technology per se; rather, this is about a mindset that has come to dominate the way we deal with air pollution on a daily basis. Technobahn is a concept that I have come across in recent times, and essentially refers to the single track approach of thinking that technology can solve every problem that plagues mankind today. While technology does offer us great solutions,...

Pollution Happens Everywhere, Not Just Delhi (credit: Wikimedia commons) For the last five days, the National Capital Region (NCR) consisting of Delhi and cities in its neighboring states has dominated media space. Deliberation on pollution is a necessary and welcome change in the media, for issues like these need their magnifying glares for action. However, there has a problem created by this Delhi-obsessed discussion over air pollution. The brouhaha on Delhi’s pollution seems to create the perception that pollution is yet another problem being highlighted by Delhi centric media. This has led to the belief for many ordinary people that air pollution is a problem only in the big, rich cities but does not bother them. Nothing could be further from the truth though. We Are Getting Serious About Pollution Measurement Only Now Ours is a country that is drowning in waste and swimming in air pollution; however, this does not necessarily reflect correctly in data. Delhi is certainly well high...

An old Mexican painting about 16 castas (Wikipedia) Recently, I came across perhaps the nth thread on the issue of caste and its European origins. While I cannot disregard the seriousness and merit of the arguments often put forth, it's something that I feel rather jaded about. Allow me to elaborate on some points that would perhaps clarify my position on the same. First of all, this is a rather complicated issue because in all honesty the jati ossification can be traced back genetically. A lot of genetic studies have been done that came to this conclusion, dating it to 2,000 - 2,500 years ago. While it has its fair share of criticism DNA results can't be just wished away. Therefore to ignore this would be naiive at best. European caste system certainly is a reality, and that same understanding was perpetuated to understand India. It was not an Iberian peninsula phenomenon; rather, it was widespread across Europe. A good indicator of the same would be the long standing presence...