Kimchi and dim sums

In the new global world order, it’s hard not to deny that USA is the only superpower. Blame it on financial crisis or manufacturing and services reforms, China has given US a run for its money. With stockpiles of forex to invest, China is being wooed by old and new countries and powers. Though there are signs that costs in China are rising which might lead others to be similarly competitive but no one agrees that the supply chains created are very hard to bypass China. China is ofcourse on a global buying spree as well. It has even started to throw its weight around and it has not got unnoticed world over. China’s neighbours, who didn’t mind using China’s cash have started to be very cautious of the strings attached to them. This has led to new alliances in Indian Ocean and South China Sea. Suddenly US has become a very welcome guest with permissions to even conduct naval exercises. It certainly has caused exchange of words between China and US and some of China’s neighbours. America has stuck to its old rhetoric of freedom and respect to woo these nations. In the wake of this, I believe the issue of North Korea becomes very interesting. North Korea has always troubled US since the days of Korean War, when UN forces led by US failed to unify Korea under capitalist government (similarly China & Soviets failed to win South Korea and bring it communist fold). The biggest reason that China got involved in the war was the risk of having capitalists at its own border separated by Yalu river. China still holds that chip. It supports North Korea and can’t allow it to be a new bastion of US. If it falls in line with US, there is a great risk of having Americans sitting at their door. To not allow this, China has being very close and has controlled the policies of North Korea. It might continue to do so, especially with US becoming more active than ever before in Indian Ocean. The N. Korea issue perhaps needs to be resolved through China’s angle. There might be some assurances that need to be made. Perhaps, never station any American or South Korean troops on their soil. Also no military or naval exercises in that region might be helpful. Lets see how it pans out in the future.

Etching new lines

People expected with globalisation and integration of economies, the regional and religious difference would dissolve forever. Little they knew, it would make the clashes more prominent. It has started to come out in the open, as part of elections and vilification campaigns across the world. The latest example being US elections. The oldest and most mature democracy has seen strong exceptions taken by republican candidates to Obama's apologies for Quran burning. Their argument- they killed or people in response. Last year there was a rally in UK, covered by major British news channels as well, where the masked men declared they waned to establish Sharia in UK an make it a Sharia based society with women behind the veils. The excursions of Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician, around Europe are all too famous of the views in Europe. A bastionof tolerance and religious freedom since WW2, it is waking up to the dangers of overaccommodation and probably of colonial guilt ridden actions. I have ha a chance to talk to a lot of people from different countries of Europe on this topic and though they cherish ideals of freedom, they are generally concerned about these values being destroyed and infiltrate by the people whom they have given the opportunities in their countries. In some of the regions in these countries, they have become such a sizeable population that the local politicians have to bend to them to win elections. Coming from some of the leaders and liberal thought leaders, it seems these concerns are from the fringes but as you travel and talk, theses are pretty popular notions. Certainly the younger generation is not as tolerant as the earlier ones. The prosecution of Breivik, the Norwegian mass-shooter was very interesting. He said that his actions were necessary to wake the governments and esp of his country to rein in other religion. Of course his methods are unjustified and he is a part of insanely right-wing mindset. But its yet another proofof the lines getting drawn. This wave seems to be getting stronger all over the world and iscertainly one of the trends to watch out for. The strong opinion has started to shape policies like ban of hijab in France and will continue to do so In my opinion, these are very interesting times to see how the leaders around the world react to this. The opinions of different sides are increasingly becoming very strong. The communities nee to talk to each other. Maybe they need to look into uniform civil codes in their countries and see whether it has not changed with globalisation. Maybe the Arabic countries also need to shed their traditional views and allow other religions to be practices freely (this certainly looks very improbable). All in all, very interesting, keep a close watch