Shanthi by Ashanthi?

The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives

Zbigniew Brzezinski (1997)

Everybody wants peace on Earth. The political leaders wish for peace in their land. Believers of all faiths, without fail, include in their daily prayers call for eternal peace on Earth. We all know this type of bliss, smiling from ear to ear without an iota of worry in their minds, stays only as a figment of our imaginations.

Like in the narration of Kali and the state of the world, life is a constant battle without the weak and the mighty. It is a continual flux of turn of tides of the interplay between the powerful crumbling down to become weak and the downtrodden rising from the ashes. Empires may crumble, and slaves may turn emperors.

This book is the perspective of President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor. Written in 1997, when the USA was the lone superpower, Russia and China were weak, and Islamic Jihadism was unheard of, some of the strategies that made a lot of sense then seem inappropriate now. Even Brzezinski seem to change his viewpoint.

From time immemorial, big kingdoms underwent the same fait accomplis. The Persians, Romans, Chinese, Russian all grew too big, immersed in imperial power and subsequently break apart due to internal fatigue, decay, hedonism, loss of central control and military creativity.

After the WW2, it was basically a power play between the Communist and the Capitalists. The Soviet Union was on one side, together with the Eastern Block of Europe and China, who had issues with Big Brother Russia, versus America as the leader of the free world. Strategic partnerships were built by America with countries in the so-called 'buffer zones' to curtail each others' advancement and their spread of influence. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, China, which all the while been the underdeveloped poor communist cousin of the Soviet Union had awoken from its slumber. There was a need to monitor their prowess and keep them under the US radar. Germany and France help to maintain equilibrium in Europe. The Japanese, whose wings were clipped after their WW2 fiasco, is now at the mercy of the US and the world at large. The newly liberated East European countries ranging from Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and the Baltic nations make another wall of defence just in case the mighty Russians, under the leadership of Putin, who yearn for the glory days of Soviet Union decide to dominate the world. At the back of these, the main agenda is the control of oil lines across the middle of Eurasia.

Eurasia which makes up more than two-thirds of the land mass of Earth draws the attention of all world power as most of the world population, economic and natural resources are found. In the author's opinion, for the USA to stay as the lone super-power of the world, it is crucial no other challenger dominates Eurasia.

Like a Chess Master, American places all the pieces in essential places, all with vital reasons with the ultimate goal of winning the board game. In that process, necessary sacrifices had to be made.

/http://www.hangthebankers.com/zbigniew-brzezinskis-grand-chessboard-plan-failing/

Is it that easy?

Billions in Change (Documentary 2015)

My brother from another womb sent me a teaser that introduced me to this Indian American millionaire, Manoj Bhargava. He moved to the USA as a teenager with his family. He dropped out of Princeton University after freshman year to live amongst monks in India for twelve years. He made his money through his caffeine-plus-vitamin elixir, a '5-hour Energy' drink. His nett wealth worth is said to be USD 1.5 billion and was Forbes' listed. In 2015, he pledged 99% of his wealth to the half of the world population who are immersed in poverty.

Billionaire Philanthropist Manoj Bhargava

He recruited a group of same-minded scientists to invent simple, cheap and long-lasting simple devices to pay to society. The primary target of his selfless endeavour is the rural poor of India. Through his company, Billions in Change, he and his team have come up with simple devices which could potentially be the game changer in their lives. It is intriguing and may be sceptical how something so simple was not thought of by others before. It makes one question whether his endeavour will eventually be fruitful in ending rural poverty.

His primary areas of concern are generating electricity and providing usable water to the poorest segment of the world, which in his projection, comprise half of the world's population. His team has also introduced a cheap, clean form of fertiliser and a medical device named 'External Counter Pulsation' to clear impurities from the body to ensure wellness.

His power-generating bikes can generate electricity for an average rural household for 24 hours by merely pedalling for 2 hours. He hopes that this device will provide half of the world population with no electricity, clean energy, and no CO2 emissions.

Another one of his novel inventions is the suggestion of using graphene wires drilled to the centre of the tap the massive heat under the Earth surface to transmit heat. To solve the safe drinking water of the world, his team has proposed a very affordable way of desalination of seawater.

Another pet project of his company is the production of environmentally safe fertilisers which do not upset the nitrogen cycle of the soil. They claim that their ideas help farmers get higher yields and healthier plants.

If a single man with a small team of a handful of men can come out with so many new innovations, imagine what would happen if we all put their thinking caps towards this end? A positive outlook towards the future.

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/billions-change/#comments

Exclusive documentary: Operation Lalang & After

A new colonialism tactic?

Clinton Cash (2016)


Another Hilary Clinton bashing documentary made just before the last US elections, written and produced by Trump's former White House chief strategist. It is based on Peter Schweizer's New York Times best-selling book by the same name. The contents of the film are so highly damaging that, if real, Hilary and the Clinton Foundation can be charged with high treason.

When Bill Clinton left the White House after his second term, the Clintons were broke with legal bills involving Monica Lewinsky. Through the Clinton Foundation, also known as Clinton Group Initiative (CGI), Bill started a fund to finance charity works.  Bill gave lectures and was paid through CGI.

Pretty soon CGI was embroiled in brokering deals. They were intermediaries to mediate international oil drilling and mining contracts deals involving dictators in places like Rwanda and Nigeria. The tyrants are feted in the international arena and in return they offer deals to businessmen who in return pay the Clintons handsomely. The arrangement was made easier when Hillary became the State Secretary.

In Haiti, CGI collected funds after the devastating 2010 earthquake. The victims were not helped, but instead, a textile mill deal went through. The Clintons also have the feet immersed in a cesspool of corruption in the Keystone XL Pipeline, an ambitious project to build an oil line from Canada to Louisiana and Texas despite the environmental damages. They helped in securing mining and timber deals in Columbia, oil contracts to the then enemy of the State, Iran. Then there is the Indo-US nuclear deal. Their biggest treason must be brokering uranium deal in Kazakhstan. Because of their wrangling,  through a company set up through this exercise, Russia has come to own 20% of the uranium mines in the USA. That is deemed as a threat to national security. Uranium may go to the hands of rogue nations or individuals who may go on to develop nuclear menace around the world or worse still, on their soil.

A future that glorifies trivialities?

Black Mirror (Season 3; 2017)


Nietzsche foresaw a future for mankind so bleak that we would immerse in joy in mediocrity rather than attempting feats that are of substance. We would spend time in trivialities and would neglect endeavours that would the human race to scale greater heights. This, he predicted would happen by the end of the 20th century. We have, however, persevered but we can still see indulgences in meaningless activities like chasing 'Pokemon Go' and 'Keeping up with the Kardashians'.

Generally, the future shrieks of dystopia. Human behaviours, fellow interaction and perception of what is considered is the cause of this fall from grace. In the future, human interaction is kept to a minimum. Communication is via cyber connectivity. Walking means moving forward with the neck flexed gazing at a smartphone screening and grinning to the activity therein.

In one episode, life revolves around getting good rating online. Everybody is rated instantaneously from facial recognition by the general public on their behaviours in shared space. Any politically incorrect gestures, like cursing, profanity or even not holding a door would lead one to get demerit points. Kind gesticulations award points. Social standings and eligibility to enjoy high-end public amenities, as well as services, would be determined by these points. Citizens with higher ratings even enjoy more significant discounts on loans.

People get so involved in cyber games that they fail to differentiate reality from virtual reality in another episode. Computer malware can easily be implanted in the cyber world that we are tuned continuously to and through it ill-intending parties can manipulate us to commit crimes. Sometimes a troll just does it as a sick April Fool's joke or only for the heck of it.

As we research more into the intricacies of our mind and the deep secrets hidden beneath the sulci and gyri of our 3 lbs. brain, we may indeed discover the concept of death. Perhaps we can immortalise our pleasant experiences in our mind to suspend our soul in eternal bliss when it leaves our mortal bodies.

Denigrating, dehumanising and vilifying fellow human beings seem norm these days. In time to come, mercenaries may be trained as mechanical killing machines using brainwashing techniques and creating illusions in our minds to spew hate towards the state enemy.

All human endeavours which started out noble somehow have unseen adverse effects. In the last episode of this season, drone insects were used as autonomous agents to help in pollination of flowers. Unfortunately, disgruntled scientists started using these artificial drone insect to kill people perceived as the public enemy. It is so easy to gauge people's sentiments through the public polls, and the intended target can be identified via facial recognition and global positioning systems.

The whole season indeed paints a very depressing picture of lays ahead of us. 

You decide as you go on...

Waiting (Hinglish, 2016)


We all think we know what is right for us, for our better halves. We think we know what the other would prefer if they are not in a position to choose and we have it to pick for them. This is especially so when it comes to matters of life and death. As if we talk about the types of morbid subjects, e.g. "Would you want we pull the plug if you were a vegetable?"

Do we have all the answers for situations in our lives? Is there an algorithm or a flow-chart for all eventualities that are spewed upon us? Do you know that the decision we are making is indeed the right one?

That is the premise of this story. A newly married metropolitan lady receives news that her husband was involved in a serious road traffic accident in another town. Rushing there, she finds him to be comatose with severe head injury. Whilst immersed in grief, the denial, accusation and all, she bumps into a retired Professor who has been coping with the unsettling condition of his wife who had been in a coma for eight months. It tells how the younger learns to deal with the crisis. The film explores the inter-generational gap, their social interaction and how the people around them and easy availability of information make decision-making so tricky. Anecdotal findings in the medical journal only confuse the issues further. There is also displacement of anger by bashing the medical fraternity and globalisation, vilification of corporations and insurance companies as well as social media and human behaviour. It is not, however, just a catarrh of nihilism.

Life is a journey. We sail through, sometimes punctuated by unplanned setbacks. We wait and ruminate for every situation is unique. Perhaps, life would be less stressful if we let others decide for us. The pressure of burden would be less on us. Or let God's will follow its intended course and just procrastinate?

The sun did set!

Dunkirk (2017)
Written and Directed: Christopher Nolan

Credit: Cinemusefilms

It is a grim reminder that not everything done by the great War Prime Minister and the British Empire's leaders was right. History has shown many of Churchill's faux pas. Besides Gallipoli Campaign where only 10% percent of soldiers of the four corners of the British Empire managed to go back home, the events at Dunkirk must also be one page in his annals of annus horribilis. The thought of 300, 000 soldiers of the Allied Forces trapped in the Dunkirk by the advancing German forces and non-arrival of evacuation naval ships due to low tides must not have been a pretty sight.

Hollywood and the silver screen, being the maker of dreams, managed to change the whole situation into an event of hope conveyed in the 'We shall fight on the beaches' speech that Churchill read.

The story of 'Dunkirk' is told from the respective of at least three people. It comes from the narration of a foot soldier seeking solace from the tyranny of war; a yacht owner, his teenage son and his 17-year old friend who tread the seas to do their national service by salvaging as many struggling souls as possible, continuing the work of his other son who perished in the war; and the view of a British fighter pilot who fight not only against a competent German Force but failing engines.

The offering must surely be a mood-lifting attempt to lift the spirits of the British who clamour looking at the turn of events in their own backyard. With the possible gloom and doom of Brexit and loss of British supremacy, they surely must look at the glorious nostalgic days of the Empire when the sun never set.