3 talks were really intresting and the style, different in their own sense:

1. Suryanarayan (On Srilanka)
2. Tenzin Lhadon ( A Tibetan experience)
3. V Keshav (On Cartooning in Politics)

Tenzin Lhadon at Takshashila

Tenzin Lhadon a Tibetan student, left the most profound impact on me and also the rest of the audience. She started of by thanking and appreciating and also expressing her indebtedness to India for supporting their movement. Her talk was interrupted by moist eyes and choking throats whenever she talked of what China tells about his Holiness Dalai Lama and all the tribulations that the Tibetan people go through fighting against the mighty Chinese.

This was followed by  talk on ‘Autorickshaw Economics’ by Karthik Shashidhar. He had good views about the Auto Rickshaw industry in Chennai, not sure if everybody agreed though! as he advocated more usage

A chart, to give you a perspective:

Country Population vs Area

Both visited China but not India. And we say the Tiger will beat the Dragon in a Dollar world!

As though the Indian domestic situation was not good enough, we have a war south of us in Srilanka. A possible mutiny or coup in our Western neighbour Pakistan. Instability in our eastern neighbou Bangladesh and God alone knows a plethora of issue with our Northern neighbour China.

India’s foreign policy has always been rooted in the Indo – China Panchsheel signed in 1954. Though the policy ideates non-aggression and even lists that as a point, there have been instances where political will has gone overboard and has had the better of our policy guidelines.

History is evidence about the long-term domestic failure that is caused by an inconsistant foreign policy. There would always be a gamut of analysis and debate on the need to have a flexible vis-a-vis standard foreign policy.

But India sadly does not have the luxury of an Atlantic Ocean around it. Most of neighbours are just a fence away or maybe even without them in between. So the engaging policy that needs to govern our bilateral discussion need to be more encompassive of the spill-over threat.

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Working on this

Sometimes we just read too much between the lines but considering all that the media says about Hillary Clinton being close to the Indian NRI’s and all that !!! It was a letdown.

But should this also be looked from the point of view that probably India is not as strong we actually think we are??? Intrestingly Hillary’s visit to China was to make the country keep buying american debt in way to pull it out of the mess that US is into, but another perspective would be the actual difference between India and China in terms of military might!

Ind0 – China (The Tigers of Asia) is it then a over valued catch phrase? India is a safe & stable democracy at best for the western world! But china takes the thought to a whole new dimension.

American trade policies and the high moral grounds that they have claimed and stood for years are beginning to sound very Ostentatious! you may interpret it that way! but on the other hand, it may also be the state of affairs in the World’s largest economy. And considering the vested interest that most countries like India and China have (because of foreign deposits) it may be in our good that their economy recovers fast and fast enough!

America sometimes today reminds me of the biblical figure Samson who as history has it, took more people down with him than he destroyed during his lifetime!

The state that is meant to uphold the values of the people is the same that destroys it!

I am not sure if any of you would have noticed this in the recent Beijing Olympics, the gradiouse opening ceremony saw mass events performed with laser precision and coordination! But somehow it fails to impress at a personal level considering the fact you can notice that the people are forced to put on an artificial smile on their faces! Something that would associate to an opressive regime. I am noone to suggest or comment on a country. Its not my business!

But look here my country! That gives us the freedom to speak our mind! A democracy in the trust sense and the embodiment of unity in diversity!

Any statistic would tell you that more than 90% of cluster bombs available and used globally have the US as its origin and what has this treaty ended up doing? Made a couple of countries claim moral grounds when they had the muscle in the first place!

But what does treaty itself say?

The treaty, agreed in Dublin in May, will not ban cluster weapons outright, reports BBC defence and security correspondent Rob Watson.

It allows for the development of cluster bombs with greater precision and lower failure rates – an approach the US in particular says it is already pursuing.

As well as banning the current design of cluster bombs, the treaty also provides for clearance in those countries littered with unexploded bomblets.

Some Nytimes.com is calling this treaty a landmark treaty! Why or how? in the remotest worl is this a landmark? Its like saying let ban knives and use only guns! As ironic and absurn as that, if you read the fineprints of the treaty.

Dekh tere sansar ki halat kya ho gayi bhagwan! Itna badal gaya insan!

Chinese premier Hu Jintao has made more than 62 overseas visits in the last quarter. The visits range from pro-democracy ruled regimes to communist regimes on the alert list of the US state department.

Cube , Venezuela they are all doing exclusive business deals with this superpower. Whole of africa seems to under the radar coverage of China. Angola, Zambia have gone to extent to committing their oil production to China over a extended period of time.  Last month they bought a stake into the Interamerican development bank with an investment of $350 million, small but reflects their aspirations. I am also writing this post under the backdrop of the phrase which read ‘Whats’s left is being divided between the US and China’

A country with great aspirations and capability needs a great leadership to create a convergence and focal point of realization and China has all of it in the happening.

Article in the writing

Why all of a sudden america is concerned about China / Burma / Tibet / Srilanka / Afganisthan / Pakistan all in one go? Why is this not sending our External security affairs team into a war footing effort? Russia which has by far the most sophisticated defence mechanism itself has been skeptic of the missile shield that America is talkign about in Europe! Is not something similar happening now in the Asian sub continent, and nothing is being done to counter this iminent threat that we have from America!