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| December 2005 »
You see some pitiful things in Asia, not least of which is the treatment of animals. Today in Delhi, for example, I saw a cow roaming the streets, its foot crawling with maggots. Cattle may be sacred but it doesn't entitle them to healthcare.
Take note then of the first barrage against China in the run up to the 2008 Olympics. Unfortunately, when celebrities attack (in this case Sir Paul McCartney and consort) they are rarely taken seriously. Nevertheless, when the eyes of the world focus on China in just over two years (yes, it's not that far away) this is what they may see.
In particular, your attention is drawn to the 3rd and 4th paras of the BBC article I take this from:
The film shows animals being thrown from a bus, and into boiling water.
A Chinese official said boycotts were not justified, and blamed US and European consumers for buying the fur.
Ummm - so it's OK to boil animals alive 'cos Europeans buy the fur? So it's nothing to do with the Chinese at all? Whether or not you care for the animals, this is a profound example of the kind of attitude that needs swiftly to be amended.
I for one care about the animals, a lot. This is not to say that I am a great supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) - I think that their methods are at best histrionic and and at worst counterproductive. They are all headlines, extreme language and little substance.
But it's the utter contempt for outsiders that gets me. I found it in China itself, but to hear it from the Chinese ambassador's spokesman is mindblowing. If it's animal rights today, what next?
The full story (click here) is printed below for the benefit of those in China who cannot access it.
Continue reading "Not Our Fault" »
 One to watch for next week, this story in The Economist Global Agenda is proof enought that environmental issues are international issues. One nation's clumsiness and secrecy may well end up affecting its neighbours.
Oh yeah, it's China of course. But I'd also be willing to bet that the citzens of Khabarovsk aren't hearing much from their government about the chemical slick heading their way either.
Full article copied below.
Continue reading "Without a Paddle" »
 My first experience of some of India's 'too manys'. Too many people, too many cars... and not enough roads.
At the India International Trade Fair held in New Delhi this week, the first was much in evidence. Once the doors were flung open to the public, the crowds swamped what was otherwise a vast exhibition centre like an tsunami breaking over a pile of sandcastles.
And this was notwithstanding the traffic outside. The papers were later to report that the traffic today was among Delhi's worst ever. For me this was epitomised by both people I was due to meet at the show telling me "I'll be fifteen minutes" and subsequently taking an hour and a half.
The problem was exacerbated not only by the cows (plus elephants, camels and other slow-moving creatures that use India's highways) but a wedding procession that blocked up a whole district of the city. The police simply could not cope.
In a sense all this is a bit romantic, but really it is not. It has become very clear to me that India's infrastructural improvement is paramount if it is really to enjoy the benefits of the economic boom Otherwise it will remain stuck in the traffic jam of history for eternity.
Even after eleven years, you can still remember the smell. It hit me the moment I stepped off the plane, that pungent yet not unpleasant of aroma of incense, smoke and shit that pervades all corners of the subcontinent. The only thing that clings to you more is the dust, and after three days my lungs are clogged with it.
The last time I was here it was 1994; I was 19 years old. I have lost a decade since then, well, 10 years I filled with other things, and only now can I make reparations to India, my family and myself. But they seemed glad to see me at least.
Am I really Indian? No, of course not. But for my time in Shanghai I lived my whole life in the UK. Yet, strangely it seems that I am more Indian than my father, who was born in Delhi and unlike me speaks Bengali and Hindi. On the other hand he can no longer either haggle nor eat with his hands, two things that I have few problems with. Maybe he has become less Indian, or I less English.
Some things never change and others change forever. Over the next few weeks I'll do what I can to fill this space with my thoughts and impressions - what India has become and where it is going. Namaste for now.
 With George Bush in China on what has to be one of the most crucial diplomatic missions of his presidency, The Economist naturally has a lot to say about it.
Coverage begins in the editorial, which in typical Economist style accentuates the positive in terms of trade and economics.
I have to say that I don't agree with the opening lines:
It is never easy to deal with an emerging superpower. China may not justify that moniker quite yet, and perhaps it never will.
China not a superpower? Come on, who are we kidding here? It is without doubt the only nation that can take on America militarily, politically and economically. And already is. Some might argue that we are already in the midst of a new Cold War, just one that isn't leaving such an obvious frost.
Continue reading "Meeting the Superpower" »
A quick link to another project I'm working on now - my father's scheme for India, Engineering Dynamics. The website needs work but this'll get it on Google's radar at least.
 Not as I do. George Bush on his visit to Asia today urged China to look to Taiwan as a model of, among other things, openness and human rights. Under the current climate, however, this is only likely to send the Chinese sniggering behind their hands.
As George was exhorting, it emerged that there's even more torture and abuse going on than we were aware of. Not to mention a bit of Willie Pete going around.
The problem with this is not just the fact that the US continues to turn a blind eye to rough stuff in the cells and uses munitions that some might describe as 'chemical'. Not that it should be condoned or encouraged but this kind of stuff goes on in war. War is bad and bad things happen.
The problem is that in order for the US to appear in a position of world leadership, as it would claim to be, and make pronouncements on human rights outside its own jurisdiction it needs to be whiter then white. Events in Iraq simply hand carte blanche to those regimes such as China which really do have institutionalised human rights abuses.
 An interesting editorial in The Economist's 'Charlemagne' column which compares the treatment of minorities in the US and Europe.
It's pretty obvious that since WWII the structure of society in Europe has shifted fundamentally. Where once Europeans - French, Dutch, Belgians and most particularly the British - were formerly the colonial 'masters', sending their sons abroad for long periods to manage the unruly populations of empire, now the tables are turned.
Immigration is one of politics' big hot potatoes and the current riots - we could even call it civil unrest - in France are focussing world attention on the problems of immigrant populations. Arguably the problem in France is not ethnicity, nationality or religion but deprivation and unemployment, but the fact that the rioters are mainly second and third generation immigrants is key to the problem.
Continue reading "The Outsiders Inside" »
Upon a tip-off from Nevin, I took a look at this video. (Links at Nevin's site, click the pictures - downloads nicely on broadband.)
While there are a few inaccuracies in the voiceover - I assume it's translated from the Italian - the general message of the video holds true. It's simply incredible how few of the lessons of Vietnam have been learned - from the dangers of alienating the local population to the dangers of alienating your own people. Lessons both military and political.
It also makes some allegations which may go some way to explain the fate of a couple of Italian journalists, though this is of course pretty speculative.
Whether or not it is fair to describe napalm as a 'chemical weapon' or a 'Weapon of Mass Destruction' is debatable, but the point is that as weapons go it's a particularly nasty one. Moreover, when the enemy is an elusive and mobile guerrilla force sheltered by the local population, napalm is hardly going to be effective.
 Due to this week's state visit, The Guardian has been running a short series of articles on China. Shame their website hasn't been working terribly well lately.
Their Beijing correspondent Jonathan Watts is clearly something of a good egg, though how he manages to hop from China to Brazil and write such a well-researched feature article to boot I don't know. Perhaps he had a bit of help.
The articles are here:
A Miracle and a Menace
A Hunger Eating Up the World
A couple of paras are worth noting for some interesting stats:
Once self-sufficient in many primary products, China now gobbles up global resources. Imports rose 40% last year as it surged past the US as the most important player in global commodity markets. According to the Asian Development Bank, China took 40% of the world's steel, 30% of its coal, and 25% of its aluminium and copper. It is now a major importer of grain, soya and even rice because so much farmland is given over to factories, malls and housing.
In the past two years, Chinese demand has been credited with pushing international commodity prices to record levels. China has accounted for 40% of the growth in demand for oil over the past four years, overtaking Japan last year as the second biggest importer. With a trade surplus of $10.4bn, foreign exchange reserves of $745bn and a currency that strengthened this summer for the first time in 10 years, China can afford to spend. Recently, it has bought - or bid for - $24bn of US treasury bills, fleets of jumbo jets and companies such as IBM, Rover and Marconi.
Some of this is perhaps to be expected, since the Chinese comprise 20% of the world's population - but if China is using 40% of world resources than to me the maths doesn't work long term. Even after decades of underdevelopment due to Maoism etc. I make that twice as much as they are entitled to. Also:
Continue reading "Who's Hu and When's Wen Coming?" »
 Details on the bombings in Amman, Jordan, are as yet still sketchy, but they seem to be on the scale of 7/7, for example, or any number of daily occurrences in Iraq.
The war on terror does have another dimension, however, as illustrated by the opening paragraphs of this BBC report:
Chinese police have warned that Islamic militants could be planning an attack on luxury hotels in Beijing in the coming week, the US embassy has said.
The authorities pledged to investigate the threat and take appropriate action, the embassy said in a statement.
The warning comes 10 days before US President George Bush visits Beijing.
China is often accused of exaggerating the threat of Islamic militancy to justify its crackdown on groups such as its Uighur minority.
It would appear that the 'War on Terror' can be manipulated in a number of ways, depending on one's point of view. Terrorism is certainly unpredictable, as tonight's attacks demonstrate, and the targets as often as not are Westerners.
But the other side of the story takes us to that old cliché: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". It's the same situation in Russia, with Putin's crackdown on Chechen activities (these, it must be acknowledged, are far more visible and brutal than those of the Uyghurs). At the end of the day, however, the very people the West encourages to seek 'freedom' are often the very same as those it condemns.
 An official visit by the president of China today brings out all the usual mutual diplomatic wining, dining and back-slapping. But here in the UK, with its tradition of active outspokenness, it also brings out the protestors.
BBC News online covers this in depth, with quite a few news and analysis articles (links and excerpts below). The Guardian's newsblog is also on the ball. Most notably, another major UK 'broadsheet', The Independent, dedicates its whole front page to the agendas that will almost certainly not be dealt with during the visit.
It's a testament to the British media at its best today. It is not shying from the unsavoury aspects of China, far from it. But it is most interesting to note the reactions of two Chinese lads interviewed by the BBC:
Imperial College students Tony Wei and Guanhua Liu said they were all for greater ties between China and the UK, particularly because of China's growing economic power.
"Human rights in China are not that bad, these people [the Tibet campaigners] are out of order," said Tony. "I'm proud of my country and what it has achieved."
How did he feel that he was free to say this in Britain - but those across the way were not free to say what they wanted in China?
"Whether that is good or bad is difficult to say," he said after some thought.
This is in my view the most salient point. Students, activists and bearded lefties in Britain can chant and wave the Tibetan flag until they are blue in the face, as they probably did. But their actions are futile and irrelevant in the face of overwhelming indifference in China itself.
Continue reading "Hu in the UK" »
 The Boxing Day tsunami, which killed about 250,000 people pretty much outright, hit four or five countries. Some of the victims, especially in Thailand, were foreign tourists. And that, said President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan today in an interview with the BBC, is why the West was so swift to help then yet is so slow to make an impact now.
It may be unpalatable, but there may well be some truth in what he says. If the 'international community' is a force for good, then it at times like these that it should galvanize itself. But the relief effort - which is admittedly hampered by terrain, weather and political problems between India and Pakistan over Kashmir - has so far been slow.
Musharraf's other move today could well be interpreted as in indirect snub to the US. He's postponed the purchase of 16 F-16 fighter planes (worth around $400 million for the lot) so as to save money for reconstruction. It's a clever way of making his point, because the realpolitik of East-West relations often comes down to a couple of factors: aid, oil and defence.
So this is an astute way of reminding the US at least of Pakistan's dire position. Excerpt from the interview follows:
Continue reading "Why the West Abandoned Pakistan" »
 Blood on the streets of Paris again tonight, as rioting spirals out of control and protestors open fire on police.
What's going on in the French capital, paralleled by events in Britain a few days ago, is a result of alienation between people of different races, religions and cultures forced into conflict.
Something that's particularly telling is the title of a French government minister asked to comment on the violence.
The minister of social cohesion, Jean-Louis Borloo, said the government had to react "firmly" but added that France must also acknowledge its failure to deal with anger simmering in poor suburbs for decades.
"We cannot hide the truth: that for 30 years we have not done enough," he told France-2 television.
Countries in a harmonious state of existence don't need 'ministers of social cohesion'. They have social cohesion.
Continue reading "Paris Match" »
...to save the planet. Bob Hope and no hope. All resting on the man on the left.
 You've got to feel a little sorry for Prince Charles. Vilified in the media, stripped of all political power, stuck with the legacy of Princess Di and married to an absolute tugboat. But Charles does have an intelligent sensitivity about him, and the courage of his convictions. These, unfortunately, are not going to be enough.
Today the Prince, accompanied by Camilla on her first diplomatic level engagement, met with George and Laura at the White House for lunch and dinner too. The Guardian could do little more than send this up, while from BBC Online we learn the names of some of the other guests:
They were joined by the president's mother Barbara Bush, his brother Marvin P Bush and wife Margaret, the presidents' sister Doro Cock and her husband Robert P Cock.
I always did have the feeling there would be some Cocks among the Bushes.
Continue reading "Two Hopes..." »
 In the Christian calendar, yesterday was Hallow'een, the night the spirits of the dead cross the border between the afterlife and this world. Today was Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. But people in Delhi were subdued, says BBC News. No wonder - on Saturday bombers killed 62 people.
Not yet proven, but pretty likely, is that the culprits were Kashmiri separatists, trying to scupper the brokerage of a temporary peace deal between India and Pakistan. The Kashmir dispute is about the border between the area controlled by Pakistan and the area controlled by India. Simple enough stuff, but what actually is a border?
Continue reading "Borders, Borders, Everywhere" »
Switch on the TV or open a newspaper or magazine and what you see or read are events and themes in isolation. Each exists by itself: you watch a programme or read an article and that's it. Nothing more. Over.
 Surf the Internet, on the other hand, and everything is interconnected, part of the overarching phenomenon known as the World Wide Web. And that is a lot more like real life. Things don't happen on their own. They happen for a reason, often a multitude of reasons and they are driven by a host of differing influences.
War, the nineteenth century strategist Karl von Clausewitz once wrote, is a continuation of politics by other means. It is a bold statement of the most simple but the most profound and important of connections. This blog is about war and politics, but more specifically about the inextricable links and parallels between the events we see unfold every day. The things that the papers don't always pick up on, or that the networks don't have time to run.
So, in the true pre-commercial spirit of the Internet, what I aim to write here is not conventional journalism: but maybe journalism by other means.
You can read more about the idea behind this blog on the about page. In summary, my interests are in the global politics that lead to the breakdown of diplomacy and the advent of war, plus the technology and operations of war itself.
And since the events that we know of occur only on this one planet, I also aim to examine the broader contexts of environmental issues - since the depletion of our natural resources and environment are perhaps the biggest single threat that 'the international community' - if such a thing exists - will have to face. If only they would see it.
My personal background is in defence and technology journalism, but in a larger sense I consider myself not a subject of the country I live in but a citizen of the world. In many ways, I am a product of globalisation - born to an Asian father in North America, yet raised in Britain as a European.
I have two passports, Canadian and British, I am entitled to a special 'Person of Indian Origin' permit and for the last couple of years I lived in a country and among a culture quite alien to my own, China. Other than my interests and my general journalistic skills, these are my only qualifications - but that's the beauty of blogging. You don't need to be an expert, just an observer.
My areas of interest are thus these three continents - North America, Europe and Asia - and the relations between them. South America and Africa are not specifically covered (other than under the 'Unrepresented' and perhaps the 'Travel and Miscellany' categories), not because they are unimportant, but in order to keep some kind of focus.
In brief then, I aim to examine the news and events of the day in context, viewing them not in isolation but paying attention to the wheels within wheels that turn to drive the world we live in. As the motto reads, I study war and peace that my sons may study mathematics and philosophy. As a private individual I acknowledge that I don't stand a chance of changing the world, but it's my generation that's got to at least start.
Many thanks for reading, and welcome again to the weblog.
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