http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/photos/apaulogy-where-art-meets-cartoon-slideshow/apaulogy-photo-1334593973.html
Posts Tagged ‘asia’
Apaulogy: Where art meets cartoon
Posted by Admin on June 1, 2012
Posted in Bengaluru, India Forgotten, Picturesque | Tagged: Animation, Art, asia, B.R. Ambedkar, Bangalore, bengalurur, Cartoon, culture, flashbacks, heritage, history, history of bangalore, Illustration, India, Karnataka, Koshy, London, reminiscent memories, tradition | Comments Off on Apaulogy: Where art meets cartoon
How resilient is Indian economy?
Posted by Admin on May 30, 2012

Structure of the organised banking sector in India. Number of banks are in brackets. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/resilient-indian-economy-030000550.html
Equitymaster – 18 hours ago
The growth forecasts for Indian economy have recently been revised downwards. Reeling under gross mismanagement, the Indian economy seems to be in a state of mess. However, the Finance Minister feels otherwise. He believes that India is in a better position than other economies to deal with it on account of high savings rate and domestic demand along with regulatory mechanisms.
Given the current circumstances, the picture portrayed by Finance Minister is too rosy to be real. He draws support from a huge young population and hence a robust domestic demand, a strong Indian banking system and diversified exports base. However, with disturbances in the global economy, it is only logical to expect that demand of exported goods will slow down.
The role of major Asian economies, especially India and China, in running the global growth engine can’t be undermined. These economies have the advantage of a huge chunk of young population that will keep the demand vibrant and add to the productivity. However, while China is making the right moves by shifting focus to tap the domestic demand, India seems to have landed itself in a very precarious situation.
With twin deficits gaping us wide in our face and rupee in a free fall, an optimistic tone for Indian economy looks so out of place. Our regulatory mechanisms might have worked in the past; however, the country seems to be falling too short on action in policy front. This is keeping foreign investors at bay. The absence of domestic funds and lack of foreign investment will lead to infrastructural deficit thus wasting the potential of youngsters. It is said that tough times can teach a lot. Looks like our time to learn has come. Hope the Government stops fiddling while the country is burning and wakes up to the need of reforms before it is too late.
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Posted in Economic Upheavals, India Forgotten | Tagged: asia, Banking in India, china, Economy of India, Finance Minister, government, India, Stock market | Comments Off on How resilient is Indian economy?
The biggest dams in India
Posted by Admin on May 20, 2012
The biggest dams in India
Hailed as the “Temples of Resurgent India” by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s dams help provide water and electricity to millions citizens. We look at some of the biggest ones.
The Tehri Dam is a multi-purpose rock and earth-fill embankment dam on the Bhagirathi River near Tehri in Uttarakhand, India. It is the primary dam of the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Ltd. and the Tehri hydroelectric complex. The dam is a 260 metres (850 ft) high rock and earth-fill embankment dam. Its length is 575 metres (1,886 ft), crest width 20 metres (66 ft), and base width 1,128 metres (3,701 ft). [Photo: By Arvind Iyer from Mumbai [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons}
Kerala Government has long been demanding construction of a new dam in Mullaperiyar on the Kerala–Tamil Nadu border. Many believe that the existing 116-year-old dam could pose safety hazard.
While the matter rests with the apex court, we look at some of India’s biggest and most famous dams, hailed by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as ‘The Temples of a Resurgent India’.
Click on Next to view more breathtaking images
Bhakra Dam is a concrete gravity dam across the Sutlej River, and is near the border between Punjab and Himachal Pradesh in northern India. The dam, located at a gorge near the (now submerged) upstream Bhakra village in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, is Asia’s second highest at 225.55 m (740 ft) high next to the 261m Tehri Dam. The length of the dam (measured from the road above it) is 518.25 m; it is 9.1 m broad. Its reservoir, known as the “Gobind Sagar“, stores up to 9.34 billion cubic meters of water, enough to drain the whole of Chandigarh, parts of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi.The 90 km long reservoir created by the Bhakra Dam is spread over an area of 168.35 km2. In terms of storage of water, it withholds the second largest reservoir in India, the first being Indira Sagar dam in Madhya Pradesh with capacity of 12.22 billion cu m.Nangal dam is another dam downstream of Bhakra dam. [Photo by KawalSingh at en.wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia – Public domain from Wikimedia Commons]
Hirakud Dam is built across the Mahanadi River, about 15 km from Sambalpur in the state of Orissa in India. Built in 1957, the dam is one of the world’s longest earthen dam. Hirakud Dam is the longest man-made dam in the world, about 16 mi (26 km) in length. It is one of the first major multipurpose river valley project started after India’s independence. [Photo by Quarterbacker (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons]
Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is the world’s largest masonry dam built across Krishna River in Nagarjuna Sagar, Nalgonda District of Andhra Pradesh, India, between 1955 and 1967. The dam contains the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir with a capacity of up to 11,472 million cubic metres. The dam is 490 ft (150 m). tall and 1.6 km long with 26 gates which are 42 ft (13 m). wide and 45 ft (14 m). tall. Nagarjuna Sagar was the earliest in the series of large infrastructure projects initiated for the Green Revolution in India; it also is one of the earliest multi-purpose irrigation and hydro-electric projects in India.
The Sardar Sarovar Dam is a gravity dam on the Narmada River near Navagam, Gujarat, India. It is the largest dam and part of the Narmada Valley Project, a large hydraulic engineering project involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi-purpose dams on the Narmada River. The project took form in 1979 as part of a development scheme to increase irrigation and produce hydroelectricity. It is the 30th largest dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) is the largest structure to be built. It has a proposed final height of 163 m (535 ft) from foundation. The dam is one of India’s most controversial dam projects and its environmental impact and net costs and benefits are widely debated. The World Bank was initially a funder of the SSD, but withdrew in 1994. The Narmada Dam has been the centre of controversy and protest since the late 1980s. [Photo by AceFighter19 (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]
The Indirasagar Dam is a multipurpose key project of Madhya Pradesh on the Narmada River at Narmadanagar in the Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh in India. The Project envisages construction of a 92 m high and 653 m long concrete gravity dam. It provides Irrigation in 1,230 square kilometres of land with annual production of 2700 million units in the districts of Khandwa and Khargone in Madhya Pradesh and power generation of 1000 MW installed capacity (8×125). The reservoir of 12,200,000,000 m3 (9,890,701 acre•ft) was created.
The Bhavanisagar Dam and Reservoir, also called Lower Bhavani Dam, is located on the Bhavani River between Mettupalayam and Sathyamangalam in Erode District, Tamil Nadu, South India. The dam is situated around 16 km (9.9 mi) west to Satyamangalam and 35 km (22 mi) from Gobichettipalayam, 36 km (22 mi) north-east to Mettuppalayam and 70 km (43 mi) from Erode and 75 km (47 mi) from Coimbatore.
The dam is considered to be among the biggest earthen dams in the country. Bhavani Sagar dam is constructed on Bhavani River, which is merely under the union of Moyar River. The dam is used to divert water to the Lower Bhavani Project Canal.
The Koyna Hydroelectric Project is the largest completed hydroelectric power plant of India It is a complex project consisting of total four dams with the largest Dam built on Koyna River known as Koyna Dam hence the name Koyna Hydroelectric project. The total Installed capacity of the project is 1,920 MW. The project consists of 4 stages of power generation. Due to the project’s electricity generating potential the Koyna River is considered as the life line of Maharashtra.
The Idukki Dam, located in Kerala, India, is a 168.91 m (554 ft) tall arch dam. The dam stands between the two mountains – Kuravanmala (839) m and Kurathimala (925)m. It was constructed and is owned by the Kerala State Electricity Board. It supports a 780 MW hydroelectric power station.
It is built on the Periyar River, in the ravine between the Kuravan and Kurathi Hills in Kerala, India. At 167.68 metres, it is one of the highest arch dams in Asia and third tallest dam in India.
Photo by http://www.kseb.in/ [CC-BY-SA-2.5-in (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/in/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons.
Krishna Raja Sagara, also popularly known as KRS, is the name of both a lake and the dam that causes it.Sir. Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya served as the chief engineer during the construction of this dam. The dam is named for the then ruler of the Mysore Kingdom, Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV [Photo by Amarrg at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons]
The Mettur Dam is a large dam in India built in 1934.[1] It was constructed in a gorge, where the Kaveri River enters the plains. The dam is one of the oldest in India. The total length of the dam is 1,700 m (5,600 ft). [Photo by Praveen Kumar.R (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons]
The Srisailam Dam is a dam constructed across the Krishna River at Srisailam in the Kurnool district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India and is the second largest capacity hydroelectric project in the country. The dam was constructed in a deep gorge in the Nallamala Hills, 300 m (980 ft) above sea level. It is 512 m (1,680 ft) long, 145 m (476 ft) high and has 12 radial crest gates. It has a reservoir of 800 km2 (310 sq mi). [Photo by Chintohere (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]
The Banasura Sagar Dam is located 21 km from Kalpetta, in Wayanad District of Kerala in the Western Ghats. It is the largest earthen dam in India and the second largest in Asia. [Photo by Challiyan (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons]
Posted in India Forgotten, Picturesque | Tagged: asia, Bhagirathi River, Bhakra Dam, CC-BY-SA-2.0, Dam, dams, Embankment dam, Gobind Sagar, Himachal Pradesh, hydro-electricity, India, irrigation, Kerala, Kerala Government, majestic, Mullaperiyar, Mullaperiyar Dam, Tamil Nadu, Tehri, Uttarakhand | Comments Off on The biggest dams in India
India rated world’s most optimistic market
Posted by Admin on February 18, 2012
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/photos/revealed-world-s-10-most-optimistic-markets-1329302582-slideshow/
Consumer confidence in India remains high for the eighth consecutive quarter, latest Nielsen report reveals.
India remains the world’s most optimistic market for the eighth consecutive quarter (or for two years in a row) with a one point consumer confidence index increase to 122. “The top spot globally reminds us of the inherent strength of the Indian economy, the savings mindset of the Indian consumer, and the positivity of consumer sentiment which has likely been helped by the recent cooling of inflationary pressure,” said Justin Sargent, Managing Director, Nielsen India. Click on NEXT to view the other 9 most optimistic markets…
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Posted in India Forgotten | Tagged: asia, Chief executive officer, Consumer Confidence Index, Economy of India, India, Justin Sargent, Nielsen, Nielsen India | Comments Off on India rated world’s most optimistic market
Rampant Racism Rolling
Posted by Admin on January 21, 2012
http://socyberty.com/society/rampant-racism-rolling/
by tonysutrisno in Society, January 14, 2012
Rampant Racism Rolling.
A news broke yesteryear,that shook the roots of complacency,that each Indian was so substantially embedded in.It encompassed a fellow Indian,being ruthlessly ravaged,deep down under(Australia).The word was nimble in its course and the whole of India was apprised,in a blink of eye.The country borne witness to boisterous and belligerent protests in the aftermath of the victimized and eventually hospitalized student of Indian origin. For once,we were all united.Before I put forth,the sole intent behind this article,i would like to define ‘Racism’ articulatory.
The lexicon defines ‘Racism’ as-Discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race.As for this article,I will take this very definition to enunciate my hypothesis.Some of the citizenry on hearing sporadic occurrences of racism,get pushed in to delirium,and plunge in to selfish pride about how pious and ‘un’-racist they are.But are they really?Yes, sure we are not racists,we are Indians.We have inherited the regime of ‘All are equal’,which our selfless ancestors so diligently and incessantly worked for.For instance,if we ‘accidentally’ refer an inhabitant of eastern India as ‘Chinky’,it doesn’t make us racists,or ‘hypothetically’ if we advert someone who dwells in southern India as ‘Malli’ or ‘Yangad-Bangad’,it won’t make us racists as we have a constitution that says otherwise.
Even the profane language which we use to cite the scheduled castes nor the address of a ‘Bengali’ as ‘Macchi’,pronounce us as racists,as we are bound to joke,we are not brooding guilty,we are making humour.Our constant utterance to Muslims’ as ‘Katu*s’,is really humourous,isn’t it?I am erupting with laughter,aren’t you?Well I am sure the jokes about those belonging to the ‘Sikh’ community will make you laugh.What a secular country,what an amusing population.We bode our full respect to all religions.We are not racists,we are clowns,we elicit humour.I urge you in strongest words to refute and reprimand anyone and everyone who says we,the Indians are racists,and patronage those who appreciate our humour.
Posted in India Forgotten | Tagged: Alenia Aermacchi, asia, Australia, Chinky, Discrimination, India, Malhi, Mascots and Racist Portrayals, Muslim, Racism, Sikh | Comments Off on Rampant Racism Rolling
Obama Raises the Military Stakes: Confrontation on the Borders with China and Russia
Posted by Admin on December 20, 2011
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28144
by Prof. James Petras
Global Research, December 10, 2011
Introduction After suffering major military and political defeats in bloody ground wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, failing to buttress long-standing clients in Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia and witnessing the disintegration of puppet regimes in Somalia and South Sudan, the Obama regime has learned nothing: Instead he has turned toward greater military confrontation with global powers, namely Russia and China. Obama has adopted a provocative offensive military strategy right on the frontiers of both China and Russia . After going from defeat to defeat on the periphery of world power and not satisfied with running treasury-busting deficits in pursuit of empire building against economically weak countries, Obama has embraced a policy of encirclement and provocations against China, the world’s second largest economy and the US’s most important creditor, and Russia, the European Union’s principle oil and gas provider and the world’s second most powerful nuclear weapons power. This paper addresses the Obama regime’s highly irrational and world-threatening escalation of imperial militarism. We examine the global military, economic and domestic political context that gives rise to these policies. We then examine the multiple points of conflict and intervention in which Washington is engaged, from Pakistan , Iran , Libya , Venezuela , Cuba and beyond. We will then analyze the rationale for military escalation against Russia and China as part of a new offensive moving beyond the Arab world ( Syria , Libya ) and in the face of the declining economic position of the EU and the US in the global economy. We will then outline the strategies of a declining empire, nurtured on perpetual wars, facing global economic decline, domestic discredit and a working population reeling from the long-term, large-scale dismantling of its basic social programs. The Turn from Militarism in the Periphery to Global Military Confrontation November 2011 is a moment of great historical import: Obama declared two major policy positions, both having tremendous strategic consequences affecting competing world powers. Obama pronounced a policy of military encirclement of China based on stationing a maritime and aerial armada facing the Chinese coast – an overt policy designed to weaken and disrupt China ’s access to raw materials and commercial and financial ties in Asia . Obama’s declaration that Asia is the priority region for US military expansion, base-building and economic alliances was directed against China , challenging Beijing in its own backyard. Obama’s iron fist policy statement, addressed to the Australian Parliament, was crystal clear in defining US imperial goals. “Our enduring interests in the region [Asia Pacific] demands our enduring presence in this region … The United States is a Pacific power and we are here to stay … As we end today’s wars [i.e. the defeats and retreats from Iraq and Afghanistan]… I have directed my national security team to make our presence and missions in the Asia Pacific a top priority … As a result, reduction in US defense spending will not … come at the expense of the Asia Pacific” (CNN.com, Nov. 16, 2011). The precise nature of what Obama called our “presence and mission” was underlined by the new military agreement with Australia to dispatch warships, warplanes and 2500 marines to the northern most city of Australia ( Darwin ) directed at China . Secretary of State Clinton has spent the better part of 2011 making highly provocative overtures to Asian countries that have maritime border conflicts with China . Clinton has forcibly injected the US into these disputes, encouraging and exacerbating the demands of Vietnam , Philippines , and Brunei in the South China Sea . Even more seriously, Washington is bolstering its military ties and sales with Japan , Taiwan , Singapore and South Korea , as well as increasing the presence of battleships, nuclear submarines and over flights of war planes along China ’s coastal waters. In line with the policy of military encirclement and provocation, the Obama-Clinton regime is promoting Asian multi-lateral trade agreements that exclude China and privilege US multi-national corporations, bankers and exporters, dubbed the “Trans-Pacific Partnership”. It currently includes mostly smaller countries, but Obama has hopes of enticing Japan and Canada to join … Obama’s presence at the APEC meeting of East Asian leader and his visit to Indonesia in November 2011 all revolve around efforts to secure US hegemony. Obama-Clinton hope to counter the relative decline of US economic links in the face of the geometrical growth of trade and investment ties between East Asia and China . A most recent example of Obama-Clinton’s delusional, but destructive, efforts to deliberately disrupt China ’s economic ties in Asia, is taking place in Myanmar ( Burma ). Clinton ’s December 2011 visit to Myanmar was preceded by a decision by the Thein Sein regime to suspend a China Power Investment-funded dam project in the north of the country. According to official confidential documents released by WilkiLeaks the “Burmese NGO’s, which organized and led the campaign against the dam, were heavily funded by the US government”(Financial Times, Dec. 2, 2011, p. 2). This and other provocative activity and Clinton ’s speeches condemning Chinese “tied aid” pale in comparison with the long-term, large-scale interests which link Myanmar with China . China is Myanmar ’s biggest trading partner and investor, including six other dam projects. Chinese companies are building new highways and rail lines across the country, opening southwestern China up for Burmese products and China is constructing oil pipelines and ports. There is a powerful dynamic of mutual economic interests that will not be disturbed by one dispute (FT, December 2, 2011, p.2). Clinton’s critique of China’s billion-dollar investments in Myanmar’s infrastructure is one of the most bizarre in world history, coming in the aftermath of Washington’s brutal eight-year military presence in Iraq which destroyed $500 billion dollars of Iraqi infrastructure, according to Baghdad official estimates. Only a delusional administration could imagine that rhetorical flourishes, a three day visit and the bankrolling of an NGO is an adequate counter-weight to deep economic ties linking Myanmar to China . The same delusional posture underlies the entire repertoire of policies informing the Obama regime’s efforts to displace China ’s predominant role in Asia . While any one policy adopted by the Obama regime does not, in itself, present an immediate threat to peace, the cumulative impact of all these policy pronouncements and the projections of military power add up to an all out comprehensive effort to isolate, intimidate and degrade China’s rise as a regional and global power. Military encirclement and alliances, exclusion of China in proposed regional economic associations, partisan intervention in regional maritime disputes and positioning technologically advanced warplanes, are all aimed to undermine China ’s competitiveness and to compensate for US economic inferiority via closed political and economic networks. Clearly White House military and economic moves and US Congressional anti-China demagogy are aimed at weakening China ’s trading position and forcing its business-minded leaders into privileging US banking and business interests over and above their own enterprises. Pushed to its limits, Obama’s prioritizing a big military push could lead to a catastrophic rupture in US-Chinese economic relations. This would result in dire consequences, especially but not exclusively, on the US economy and particularly its financial system. China holds over $1.5 trillion dollars in US debt, mainly Treasury Notes, and each year purchases from $200 to $300 billion in new issues, a vital source in financing the US deficit. If Obama provokes a serious threat to China ’s security interests and Beijing is forced to respond, it will not be military but economic retaliation: the sell-off of a few hundred billion dollars in T-notes and the curtailment of new purchases of US debt. The US deficit will skyrocket, its credit ratings will descend to ‘junk’, and the financial system will ‘tremble onto collapse’. Interest rates to attract new buyers of US debt will approach double digits. Chinese exports to the US will suffer and losses will incur due to the devaluation of the T-notes in Chinese hands. China has been diversifying its markets around the world and its huge domestic market could probably absorb most of what China loses abroad in the course of a pull-back from the US market. While Obama strays across the Pacific to announce his military threats to China and strives to economically isolate China from the rest of Asia, the US economic presence is fast fading in what used to be its “backyard”: Quoting one Financial Times journalist, “China is the only show [in town] for Latin America” (Financial Times, Nov. 23, 2011, p.6). China has displaced the US and the EU as Latin America’s principle trading partner; Beijing has poured billions in new investments and provides low interest loans. China’s trade with India , Indonesia , Japan , Pakistan and Vietnam is increasing at a far faster rate than that of the US . The US effort to build an imperial-centered security alliance in Asia is based on fragile economic foundations. Even Australia , the anchor and linchpin of the US military thrust in Asia, is heavily dependent on mineral exports to China . Any military interruption would send the Australian economy into a tailspin. The US economy is in no condition to replace China as a market for Asian or Australian commodity and manufacturing exports. The Asian countries must be acutely aware that there is no future advantage in tying themselves to a declining, highly militarized, empire. Obama and Clinton deceive themselves if they think they can entice Asia into a long-term alliance. The Asian’s are simply using the Obama regime’s friendly overtures as a ‘tactical device’, a negotiating ploy, to leverage better terms in securing maritime and territorial boundaries with China . Washington is delusional if it believes that it can convince Asia to break long-term large-scale lucrative economic ties to China in order to join an exclusive economic association with such dubious prospects. Any ‘reorientation’ of Asia, from China to the US , would require more than the presence of an American naval and airborne armada pointed at China . It would require the total restructuring of the Asian countries’ economies, class structure and political and military elite. The most powerful economic entrepreneurial groups in Asia have deep and growing ties with China/Hong Kong, especially among the dynamic transnational Chinese business elites in the region. A turn toward Washington entails a massive counter-revolution, which substitutes colonial ‘traders’ (compradors) for established entrepreneurs. A turn to the US would require a dictatorial elite willing to cut strategic trading and investment linkages, displacing millions of workers and professionals. As much as some US-trained Asian military officers , economists and former Wall Street financiers and billionaires might seek to ‘balance’ a US military presence with Chinese economic power, they must realize that ultimately advantage resides in working out an Asian solution. The age of Asian “comprador capitalists”, willing to sell out national industry and sovereignty in exchange for privileged access to US markets, is ancient history. Whatever the boundless enthusiasm for conspicuous consumerism and Western lifestyles, which Asia and China’s new rich mindlessly celebrate, whatever the embrace of inequalities and savage capitalist exploitation of labor, there is recognition that the past history of US and European dominance precluded the growth and enrichment of an indigenous bourgeoisie and middle class. The speeches and pronouncements of Obama and Clinton reek of nostalgia for a past of neo-colonial overseers and comprador collaborators – a mindless delusion. Their attempts at political realism, in finally recognizing Asia as the economic pivot of the present world order, takes a bizarre turn in imagining that military posturing and projections of armed force will reduce China to a marginal player in the region. Obama’s Escalation of Confrontation with Russia The Obama regime has launched a major frontal military thrust on Russia ’s borders. The US has moved forward missile sites and Air Force bases in Poland, Rumania, Turkey, Spain, Czech Republic and Bulgaria: Patriot PAC-3 anti-aircraft missile complexes in Poland; advanced radar AN/TPY-2 in Turkey; and several missile (SM-3 IA) loaded warships in Spain are among the prominent weapons encircling Russia, most only minutes away from it strategic heartland. Secondly, the Obama regime has mounted an all-out effort to secure and expand US military bases in Central Asia among former Soviet republics. Thirdly, Washington , via NATO, has launched major economic and military operations against Russia ’s major trading partners in North Africa and the Middle East . The NATO war against Libya , which ousted the Gadhafi regime, has paralyzed or nullified multi-billion dollar Russian oil and gas investments, arms sales and substituted a NATO puppet for the former Russia-friendly regime. The UN-NATO economic sanctions and US-Israeli clandestine terrorist activity aimed at Iran has undermined Russia ’s lucrative billion-dollar nuclear trade and joint oil ventures. NATO, including Turkey , backed by the Gulf monarchical dictatorships, has implemented harsh sanctions and funded terrorist assaults on Syria , Russia ’s last remaining ally in the region and where it has a sole naval facility (Tartus) on the Mediterranean Sea . Russia ’s previous collaboration with NATO in weakening its own economic and security position is a product of the monumental misreading of NATO and especially Obama’s imperial policies. Russian President Medvedev and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov mistakenly assumed (like Gorbachev and Yeltsin before them) that backing US-NATO policies against Russia ’s trading partners would result in some sort of “reciprocity”: US dismantling its offensive “missile shield” on its frontiers and support for Russia ’s admission into the World Trade Organization. Medvedev, following his liberal pro-western illusions, fell into line and backed US-Israeli sanctions against Iran , believing the tales of a “nuclear weapons programs”. Then Lavrov fell for the NATO line of “no fly zones to protect Libyan civilian lives” and voted in favor, only to feebly “protest”, much too late, that NATO was “exceeding its mandate” by bombing Libya into the Middle Ages and installing a pro-NATO puppet regime of rogues and fundamentalists. Finally when the US aimed a cleaver at Russia’s heartland by pushing ahead with an all-out effort to install missile launch sites 5 minutes by air from Moscow while organizing mass and armed assaults on Syria, did the Medvedev-Lavrov duet awake from its stupor and oppose UN sanctions. Medvedev threatened to abandon the nuclear missile reduction treaty (START) and to place medium-range missiles with 5 minute launch-time from Berlin , Paris and London . Medvedev-Lavrov’s policy of consolidation and co-operation based on Obama’s rhetoric of “resetting relations” invited aggressive empire building: Each capitulation led to a further aggression. As a result, Russia is surrounded by missiles on its western frontier; it has suffered losses among its major trading partners in the Middle East and faces US bases in southwest and Central Asia . Belatedly Russian officials have moved to replace the delusional Medvedev for the realist Putin, as next President. This shift to a political realist has predictably evoked a wave of hostility toward Putin in all the Western media. Obama’s aggressive policy to isolate Russia by undermining independent regimes has, however, not affected Russia ’s status as a nuclear weapons power. It has only heightened tensions in Europe and perhaps ended any future chance of peaceful nuclear weapons reduction or efforts to secure a UN Security Council consensus on issues of peaceful conflict resolution. Washington , under Obama-Clinton, has turned Russia from a pliant client to a major adversary. Putin looks to deepening and expanding ties with the East, namely China , in the face of threats from the West. The combination of Russian advanced weapons technology and energy resources and Chinese dynamic manufacturing and industrial growth are more than a match for crisis-ridden EU-USA economies wallowing in stagnation. Obama’s military confrontation toward Russia will greatly prejudice access to Russian raw materials and definitively foreclose any long-term strategic security agreement, which would be useful in lowering the deficit and reviving the US economy. Between Realism and Delusion: Obama’s Strategic Realignment Obama’s recognition that the present and future center of political and economic power is moving inexorably to Asia , was a flash of political realism. After a lost decade of pouring hundreds of billions of dollars in military adventures on the margins and periphery of world politics, Washington has finally discovered that is not where the fate of nations, especially Great Powers, will be decided, except in a negative sense – of bleeding resources over lost causes. Obama’s new realism and priorities apparently are now focused on Southeast and Northeast Asia, where dynamic economies flourish, markets are growing at a double digit rate, investors are ploughing tens of billions in productive activity and trade is expanding at three times the rate of the US and the EU. But Obama’s ‘New Realism’ is blighted by entirely delusional assumptions, which undermine any serious effort to realign US policy. In the first place Obama’s effort to ‘enter’ into Asia is via a military build-up and not through a sharpening and upgrading of US economic competitiveness. What does the US produce for the Asian countries that will enhance its market share? Apart from arms, airplanes and agriculture, the US has few competitive industries. The US would have to comprehensively re-orient its economy, upgrade skilled labor, and transfer billions from “security” and militarism to applied innovations. But Obama works within the current military-Zionist-financial complex: He knows no other and is incapable of breaking with it. Secondly, Obama-Clinton operate under the delusion that the US can exclude China or minimize its role in Asia, a policy that is undercut by the huge and growing investment and presence of all the major US multi-national corporations in China , who use it as an export platform to Asia and the rest of the world. The US military build-up and policy of intimidation will only force China to downgrade its role as creditor financing the US debt, a policy China can pursue because the US market, while still important, is declining, as China expands its presence in its domestic, Asian, Latin American and European markets. What once appeared to be New Realism is now revealed to be the recycling of Old Delusions: The notion that the US can return to being the supreme Pacific Power it was after World War Two. The US attempts to return to Pacific dominance under Obama-Clinton with a crippled economy, with the overhang of an over-militarized economy, and with major strategic handicaps: Over the past decade the United States foreign policy has been at the beck and call of Israel ’s fifth column (the Israel “lobby”). The entire US political class is devoid of common, practical sense and national purpose. They are immersed in troglodyte debates over “indefinite detentions” and “mass immigrant expulsions”. Worse, all are on the payrolls of private corporations who sell in the US and invest in China . Why would Obama abjure costly wars in the unprofitable periphery and then promote the same military metaphysics at the dynamic center of the world economic universe? Does Barack Obama and his advisers believe he is the Second Coming of Admiral Commodore Perry, whose 19th century warships and blockades forced Asia open to Western trade? Does he believe that military alliances will be the first stage to a subsequent period of privileged economic entry? Does Obama believe that his regime can blockade China , as Washington did to Japan in the lead up to World War Two? It’s too late. China is much more central to the world economy, too vital even to the financing of the US debt, too bonded up with the Forbes Five Hundred multi-national corporations. To provoke China , to even fantasize about economic “exclusion” to bring down China , is to pursue policies that will totally disrupt the world economy, first and foremost the US economy! Conclusion Obama’s ‘crackpot realism’, his shift from wars in the Muslim world to military confrontation in Asia , has no intrinsic worth and poses extraordinary extrinsic costs. The military methods and economic goals are totally incompatible and beyond the capacity of the US , as it is currently constituted. Washington ’s policies will not ‘weaken’ Russia or China , even less intimidate them. Instead it will encourage both to adopt more adversarial positions, making it less likely that they lend a hand to Obama’s sequential wars on behalf of Israel . Already Russia has sent warships to its Syrian port, refused to support an arms embargo against Syria and Iran and (in retrospect) criticized the NATO war against Libya . China and Russia have far too many strategic ties with the world economy to suffer any great losses from a series of US military outposts and “exclusive” alliances. Russia can aim just as many deadly nuclear missiles at the West as the US can mount from its bases in Eastern Europe . In other words, Obama’s military escalation will not change the nuclear balance of power, but will bring Russia and China into a closer and deeper alliance. Gone are the days of Kissinger-Nixon’s “divide and conquer” strategy pitting US-Chinese trade agreements against Russian arms. Washington has a totally exaggerated significance of the current maritime spats between China and its neighbors. What unites them in economic terms is far more important in the medium and long-run. China ’s Asian economic ties will erode any tenuous military links to the US . Obama’s “crackpot realism”, views the world market through military lenses. Military arrogance toward Asia has led to a rupture with Pakistan , its most compliant client regime in South Asia . NATO deliberately slaughtered 24 Pakistani soldiers and thumbed their nose at the Pakistani generals, while China and Russia condemned the attack and gained influence. In the end, the military and exclusionary posture to China will fail. Washington will overplay its hand and frighten its business-oriented erstwhile Asian partners, who only want to play-off a US military presence to gain tactical economic advantage. They certainly do not want a new US instigated ‘Cold War’ dividing and weakening the dynamic intra-Asian trade and investment. Obama and his minions will quickly learn that Asia ’s current leaders do not have permanent allies – only permanent interests. In the final analysis, China figures prominently in configuring a new Asia-centric world economy. Washington may claim to have a ‘permanent Pacific presence’ but until it demonstrates it can take care of its “basic business at home”, like arranging its own finances and balancing its current account deficits, the US Naval command may end up renting its naval facilities to Asian exporters and shippers, transporting goods for them, and protecting them by pursuing pirates, contrabandists and narco-traffickers. Come to think about it, Obama might reduce the US trade deficit with Asia by renting out the Seventh Fleet to patrol the Straits, instead of wasting US taxpayer money bullying successful Asian economic powers. |
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James Petras is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by James Petras |
Posted in Geo-Politics, Global Research | Tagged: asia, Beijing, Burma, china, European Union, Myanmar, obama, russia, United States | Comments Off on Obama Raises the Military Stakes: Confrontation on the Borders with China and Russia
This is India – by Niyati Upadhya
Posted by Admin on November 9, 2011
http://in.news.yahoo.com/comics/this-is-india-by-niyati-upadhya-1319188441-slideshow/
From her travels around India, sculptor and aspiring photographer Niyati Upadhya shares her favourite images of Mumbai gleaming through the monsoons – the faces and occupations of India’s oldest port city, of Goa‘s winding roads and dreamy train-scapes, and the many scenes that keep India close to our hearts.
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A man gets his ears cleaned in Mumbai.
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Colourful umbrellas brighten up an otherwise grey monsoon.
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Fishing villages along the coast of Goa.
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An elderly man braves the gloom, barefoot.
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A schoolboy shares an umbrella with his mother.
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Green fields by a park bench, and a single umbrella to cosy under.
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View from a train, Mumbai to Goa.
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A vendor balances his fruit on a wheelbarrow.
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Getting the job done – a man cycles along a wet road to deliver LPG cylinders..
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History’s relics.
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Women on the ferry.
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The long road ahead, Mumbai and Goa.
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Blue.
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More from Niyati Upadhya – http://niyatiupadhya.wordpress.com/
Posted in India Forgotten | Tagged: asia, Cotton swab, Goa, government, India, Liquefied petroleum gas, Maharashtra, Monsoon, Mumbai, Umbrella | Comments Off on This is India – by Niyati Upadhya
612 million Indians ‘multi-dimentionally poor’
Posted by Admin on November 7, 2011
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/612-million-Indians-multi-ians-1713365579.html
New Delhi, Nov 2 (IANS) At 612 million, or more than half its population, India has the world’s largest number of ‘multi-dimentionally poor’, the UN Global Human Development report released Wednesday said.
To assess acute poverty levels, the index examined factors such as health services, access to clean water and cooking fuels, basic household goods and home construction standards, which together offer a fuller portrait of poverty than income measurements alone.
Posted in India Forgotten | Tagged: asia, government, Human Development Report, IANS, India, Indo Asian News Service, New Delhi, United Nations | Comments Off on 612 million Indians ‘multi-dimentionally poor’
Kashmir problem is Nehru’s special gift to India: Advani
Posted by Admin on July 2, 2011
http://in.news.yahoo.com/kashmir-problem-nehrus-special-gift-india-advani-124157511.html
By Indo Asian News Service | IANS – Sun, Jun 26, 2011
New Delhi, June 26 (IANS) As India and Pakistan restored peace talks over pending issues including Kashmir, veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Sunday slammed the country’s first political family of late prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru whose ‘lack of courage’ led to the Kashmir issue remaining unresolved.
In the latest entry on his blog, http://blog.lkadvani.in, the BJP leader also slammed late chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah whose ambition to be the leader of independent Kashmir also contributed to the issue.
Advani said neither the government of Nehru in New Delhi nor the government of Abdullah in Srinagar believed that Jammu and Kashmir needed to be fully integrated into the Indian union.
‘In the case of Abdullah, the problem was his ambition to become the unquestioned leader of a virtually independent Kashmir. In the case of Nehruji, it was a matter of lack of courage, firmness and foresight,’ Advani said.
He said that Article 370, which gives a special status to Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian constitution, had ’emboldened’ secessionist forces in the state to carry out their ‘poisonous propaganda that (Kashmir’s) accession to India is not final and that Kashmir, in particular, is not a part of India.’
Advani wrote that India had lost two opportunities to settle the issue once and for all with Pakistan — one in the 1947 war when Nehru ruled the country and the other in the 1971 Bangladesh war when Nerhu’s daughter Indira Gandhi was at the helm.
‘Our countrymen should know that the Kashmir problem is Nehru family’s special ‘gift’ to the nation,’ he wrote in a sarcastic vein.
‘Nehruji’s blunder was totally avoidable. The consequences of this ‘gift’ are Pakistan’s export of cross-border terrorism and religious extremism, thousands of lives of our security personnel and civilians and tens of thousands of crores of rupees spent on military and paramilitary defence.’
The BJP leader’s comments come days after India and Pakistani in foreign secretary level talks in Islamabad discussed a range of issues relating to peace and security, Jammu and Kashmir and the promotion of trade.
Advani also warned against giving any autonomy to the state because ‘the implications must be understood’.
Posted in Conspiracy Archives, Geo-Politics, India Forgotten | Tagged: asia, India, Indira Gandhi, Indo Asian News Service, Jammu and Kashmir, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kashmir, Pakistan | Comments Off on Kashmir problem is Nehru’s special gift to India: Advani