Showing posts with label middle east. Show all posts
Showing posts with label middle east. Show all posts

Monday, October 21, 2019

Quick notes: Digital colony | Arms race...

Monday, March 25, 2019

Quick notes: Caliphate shutdown | Ericsson victory...

  • Caliphate gone but ISIS is alive: About 14,000 ISIS fighters are still in Syria and Iraq and are believed to have blended in with the local population.


  • Syrian Kurds under threat after IS 'caliphate' falls: The presence of American troops had acted as a shield against any Turkish offensive. But Trump in December shocked Washington's allies by announcing a full withdrawal of all 2,000 US troops from Syria."The Kurds are facing an uncertain future. The most urgent threat appears to be from Turkey".


  • Ericsson Teaches Anil Ambani, and India, a Lesson: When a history of the early years of India’s 2016 bankruptcy code is written, Ericsson’s lawyers will deserve a glowing mention.


  • Chinese support for JeM chief: Indian traders call for boycott of Chinese products. . . . Indians are trending #BoycottChineseProducts using Chinese smartphones .


  • Indian naiveté: At a time when most Western countries have virtually banned the Chinese telecom giant Huawei from entering the 5G space, what prevents India from keeping the Chinese company out of the 5G trials on security grounds?


  • First Victim of “Anger”:



  • Italy signs Silk Road deal defying allies: “Beijing took advantage of EU divisions.” . . . China adds another vassal state.


  • Standing upto the US: China refuses to concede on U.S. demands to ease curbs on tech firms. Rejects requests to reduce limits on overseas data transfers and to relax a requirement for companies to store data locally.


  • China’s Hydrogen Economy Is Coming: The world’s EV king is seeking leadership in fuel cells, too.


  • Storing excess renewable energy: German pilot project involves ripping out the boiler from an old coal plant and replacing it with a molten salt thermal storage tank that will be heated using excess renewable energy. . . . . India’s Energy Storage Market is finally starting to grow.


  • Fraud: IIT alumni cheat hundreds of techies in Bengaluru.



Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Quick notes: Kurds abandoned, Colonial loot...

  • Trump throws Kurds under the bus: Almost immediately after the decision to pullout American troops from Syria, Turkey masses troops near Kurdish-held town in northern Syria. Without U.S. soldiers as a buffer, the Kurds are now stuck between Turkey, Assad and ISIS


  • Staggering loot: Britain drained a total of nearly $45 trillion from India during the period 1765 to 1938. For perspective, $45 trillion is 17 times the total annual GDP of the UK today.


  • EV rentals in Pune: Zoomcar will offer 500 Tata Tigor EV for rent.


  • Shiva Tandava Stotram – Chong Chiu Sen aka Sai Madana Mohana Kumar:


  • जटाटवीगलज्जलप्रवाहपावितस्थले
    गलेवलम्ब्य लम्बितां भुजङ्गतुङ्गमालिकाम् ।
    डमड्डमड्डमड्डमन्निनादवड्डमर्वयं
    चकार चण्डताण्डवं तनोतु नः शिवः शिवम् ॥ 1 ॥

    जटाकटाहसम्भ्रमभ्रमन्निलिम्पनिर्झरी-
    -विलोलवीचिवल्लरीविराजमानमूर्धनि ।
    धगद्धगद्धगज्ज्वलल्ललाटपट्टपावके
    किशोरचन्द्रशेखरे रतिः प्रतिक्षणं मम ॥ 2 ॥


  • On A2 milk: Indian native breeds of cows and buffaloes are of A2 milk type and hence are a source for safe milk. The frequency of A2 allele was 100% in the five high-yielding milk breeds — Red Sindhi, Gir, Rathi, Shahiwal and Tharparkar, meaning that these breeds do not have A1 allele or A1A1/A1A2 genotype. In the remaining breeds, the availability of A2 allele was 94 per cent.


  • Christians Groups oppose Meditation, Yoga In Schools: The groups claim children in public schools across the U.S. are being “indoctrinated” by “Buddhist-based mindfulness methods in an “outright unconstitutional” practice.. Missouri megachurch pastor John Lindell similarly blasted yoga for its “demonic” Hindu roots in November. He added the “spiritually dangerous” practice was “ “diametrically opposed to Christianity.”


  • Draft EV Policy: Delhi "would like to" achieve 25% Electric Car penetration by 2023


  • Chinese colony: Uganda is adding compulsory Chinese lessons to its high school curriculum


Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Quick notes: Siachen survivor, Best-paid CEO...

  • Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad: Survives after being buried under 25 feet of snow for six days.


  • Best-paid CEO: Sundar Pichai is getting a record-setting $199 million in stock.


  • Vitara Brezza: Maruti's first vehicle to be conceptualised, designed, developed and validated in India. 


  • Net bad assets of govt banks a third of their net worth: 29 public sector banks wrote off a combined Rs 1.14 lakh crore of bad debt between 2013 and 2015. 


  • How far can you incentivize investment? In the US, in the 1990s, many states were attracting foreign companies by exempting companies from paying education tax. In the southern states, which had given the most such incentives, the companies said that we don’t find skilled people anymore. Mind you, they weren’t looking for high skill necessarily, but even good high school-level people were hard to find because the school system had collapsed and the community colleges were out of business.

    So, government investment in social and physical infrastructure is good for industry in the longer run, not just in immediate demand creation.


  • Shift in momentum: Russian firepower helps Syrian forces edge toward Turkey border 


  • Pollution map of India:

Monday, July 14, 2014

Kurdish women warriors

Unlike the Arabs, the Kurds seem to treat their women well. The PKK, which has been fighting for liberation of Kurdish territories in Turkey, is a pro-women's rights Communist group. The Kurdish fighters in Syria are all trained by PKK. One hopes their Mullahs don't take over anytime in the future.

Peshmergas, Kurdish freedom fighters in Northern Kurdistan.

Syria Kurd women set up battalion


http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/03/03/18733059.php
(PKK), a pro-woman’s rights Communist group has been battling for the liberation of Kurdish territory controlled by Turkey for many years

http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/4/syriakurd780.htm

Unveiled and barking orders at fierce-looking Kurdish men nearly twice her size, commander Engizek is a shocking sight within Syria's male-dominated rebel ranks. A short, diminutive woman flanked by gun-toting loyalists, Engizek leads dozens of Kurdish combatants in Aleppo.

Syria’s liberated Kurdistan is controlled by the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG). The YPG were trained by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a pro-woman’s rights Communist group which has been heroically battling for the liberation of Kurdish territory controlled by Turkey for many years. Read more here

Perhaps this un-Islamic trait has to do with the fact that Yezidi Kurds are linked to Zoroastrianism.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Saudia Barbaria

Here's yet another reason, if any were needed - to arrest "Love Jihad" in it's tracks in India.

This will become the order of things in Bharat if the "secular progressive" Taliban have their way.

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/21/250913.html

By AL ARABIYA

Imagine a schoolgirl attending class, knowing that both her teacher and principal share the same husband. Awkward much?

Well, for a Saudi man who married the three women, it may just be an example of love conquering all...


Friday, November 23, 2012

Terrible tragedy

http://m.timesofindia.com/india/7-year-old-loses-genitals-after-circumcision-fighting-for-life/articleshow/17330245.cms

Extremely unfortunate accident for a 7 year old. (It would not have been half as unfortunate if
the recipient had been a Jihadi terrorist like, say Mohd. Afzal Guru)

What is the relevance of this barbaric ritual in this day and age? The savagery has origins in the harsh Arab desert. How is it applicable to India?
There should be an open debate by people of rational outlook with a goal of outlawing such barbaric practices from India.

Monday, April 04, 2011

War on Libya More in Europe's Interest than USA's

Obama's former national security advisor General Jim Jones says that the current war on Libya is really more in Europe's interest than in America's interest. Heh, deja vu - anyone remember Kosovo? Again, the Atlanticist lobby have managed to quickly pull off a war when they found it to be in their own interest, but meanwhile they have been shrieking against the war on Taliban and AlQaeda. Where are left-wing mobs to protest for peace over war, when it comes to Atlanticist war-mongering? They are nowhere to be found. The Left are triumphant at the ouster of the 'war-monger' Bush, but when the Euro-centrists want war, then suddenly the Left-wing anti-war movement evaporates. Qaddafi may not be a nice guy, but neither was Saddam, and yet the Leftists screamed their heads off when Bush declared war against him.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Pak Mercs Reap Backlash in Bahrain

Pakistanis who join Bahrain's security forces to protect its minority Sunni rulers from the wrath of an oppressed Shia majority are increasingly the targets of that wrath.

Let's note the whole sectarian character of this situation. The rulers are a Sunni minority lording it over a Shia majority. The Sunni minority are then recruiting fellow Sunnis from Pakistan to keep the majority under their heel.

Pakistanis don't like it when Raymond Davis shows up in their country, but they have no hesitation at all to show up in another country to beat and shoot people who have never picked a fight with Pakistanis in the first place. Furthermore, Pakistan's own military is involved in sending these mercenary recruits to serve in Bahrain - their own lucrative version of Blackwater.

Are Pakistanis hypocrites? Of course they are.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Saudis Fearful of Shia Encirclement

The wave of pro-democracy protests in the Middle East, spilling beyond Tunisia and Egypt over into Sheikhdoms like Sunni minority-ruled Bahrain are making the Saudi govt nervous. Restlessness by Bahrain's Shia majority could well become the tipping point for a change in the balance of power between Shias and Sunnis in the Gulf.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Consequences of Egypt's Revolution

One of the positive consequences of Egypt's democratic revolution is that Pak's rear-guard support will now be put under threat. Undemocratic Arab regimes like Saudi and Jordan - the same police states which have given Pak vital financial and logistical support in the past - will now be tottering and forced to focus on domestic policies to shore up popular support, rather than lounging around and playing geopolitical chess games abroad. If these regimes topple, then Pak would literally be left with only China to count upon.

As Egypt transitions to full democracy, Israel will similarly feel isolated and vulnerable, given that a post-Mubarak govt will most likely be less friendly/reliable as an ally. As it is, there's already a problem of smuggling and illegal cross-border transit from Egypt to the Gaza Strip. With a less cooperative Egyptian govt in power, then the Gaza situation could go from bad to worse, keeping heightened tensions between the two countries even if not provoking outright war, with Israel relying on its nukes as its ultimate guarantor.

One negative possibility is that an increasingly desperate Pak would seek opportunities in any renewed Middle East conflicts by exporting its nukes for badly-needed cash and support. This would then cause more problems for the US/West rather than just India only. The US/West should redouble their efforts to get Pak to sign FMCT, before suffering a rude shock. What if Egypt bought Pak's nukes, or even Saudis nervous about their increasingly vulnerable state? Certainly arch-enemy Iran is looking to seek advantage from the fall of their hated American lackey Mubarak.

Now that the Middle East is entering into increasing flux once again, India should keep vigilant and not be caught off-guard by new developments that would work for or against it.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Egyptians Protest Against Mubarak Govt

Massive protests are occurring in Egypt, with large numbers of people taking to streets to call for the ouster of the ruling Mubarak regime:



The US is curiously taking a slightly different line this time as compared to the past, calling for more political reform in Egypt.

It's clearly in the best interests of the Egyptian people and the region that the Mubarak govt go. Sure, the Israelis might be nervous about it, but in the long run they would benefit from the removal of a dictatorship which only motivates local fundamentalist groups to form against it.

Given recent sightings of Rahul-baba in the company of fellow crown prince Gamal Mubarak, I think the fewer despots that remain for Rahul to draw inspiration from the better.

Pak too gains a lot of mileage from the Arab dictatorships located in the Gulf and elsewhere. As we can see, it's not just been Egypt suffering protests in the aftermath of the collapse of Tunisia's strongman, but various other Gulf states including Jordan and others. Without Egypt nearby to support it, the handwriting would be on the wall for the Saudis. If the Middle Eastern dictatorships disappear, then Pakistan would have almost nobody left to lean on, apart from China. They would effectively be isolated.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Angry Birds Skit Parodies Peace Process

Has anybody played the iPhone game 'Angry Birds'? Here is a skit that parodies the Middle East piss process:

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

"Secular" Indian caravan to Gaza

Psecs & Jihadis from India intending to travel to the Gaza strip in a caravan to "promote peace". What, haven't you folks done enough of that within India
itself?

I do wish these enablers and apologists for Jihad get blasted to smithereens by the Israeli Defense Forces. That would be a huge favour by Israel to the Indian people in time for the festive season.

Read the list of associated individuals and organizations.
A veritable who's who of Jihadi fifth columnists in India, including the bearded scumbag -
Sandeep Pandey, of ASHA.

Yet another reason to think a million times before donating a single penny to shady organizations like ASHA. You never know where that money will end up getting used!

http://www.milligazette.com/news/112-in-solidarity-for-palestine-asian-activists-announce-caravan-to-gaza




Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Islamic nations snub UN plea to help Pak flood victims

While the Ummah loves to rally for a jihad opportunity, apparently mere natural disasters don't rouse their interest much. The Muslim world isn't eager to fork over money to bail their purer Pak brothers.

Friday, June 04, 2010

Turkey Adopts Pak Strategy on Relations with US

Turkey is the latest Muslim "friend" of the United States to demonstrate the Islamic brand of "friendship"

In yet another sign of waning US international influence, Turkey is participating in the shifting sands of the Middle East.

I'd say it's better for Israel and the US to wind down their relationship with Turkey, which is destined to return to the Caliphate. This in turn will allow European-Islamic relations to move back towards their natural rivalry. Islamists like to portray their religion as central to the world - but unfortunately it's only central in respect to being at loggerheads with just about everyone.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Hamas Leader Assassinated

A leader of the military wing of Hamas has been assassinated. I notice that the Israelis don't spare the rod when hitting at their enemies. I guess they have a survival instinct, unlike us.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Dubai Down the Drain

Dubai is now having to renegotiate its debt scheduling, because it can't meet its debt obligations. Everyone has been bailing out of that country, causing its economy to plunge even further. This is what happens when you don't invest in newcomers to give them a reason to stay. None of the skilled workers was really able to settle there, and thus with no ties or roots sunk down, departure was always only a plane ticket away.

While they were building their tower of babel, the ground was being eroded from underneath their feet.

Monday, January 26, 2009

BBC Does an Al-Jazeera

Does anybody remember those telethons by Al-Jazeera? Now BBC's going the same route.

So now BBC will be openly partisan, instead of outwardly denying its biases, because it will be launching so-called humanitarian appeals for the Palestinian side in the Gaza conflict.

Well, at least now they can throw away all pretenses of being "impartial" - as if they ever were.
How long before they start doing this crap on Kashmir?

Friday, January 23, 2009

Italian Leaders Respond to Muslim Prayer Protests

Italian political leaders are responding angrily to prayer protests by Muslim activists marching over the Israel-Gaza military clashes. Can you imagine any Italian politician in India stopping similar prayer protests there? That would mean riots for sure.