Putin's Romance with Power

Love stories of politicians (of all hues) fascinate us all. Such affairs, most kept under wraps for obvious reasons, help the media make money, lend political rivals ammo, and the general public fun and scandal (depending on your point of view).

Last week, Moskovsky Korrespondent, a racy tabloid, published an editorial stating that Russian President Vladimir Putin had divorced Ludmila (Lyudmila), his wife of 25 years, and is all set to marry Alina Kabayeva, an Olympian gold medalist gymnast and a sitting member of the Parliament (she represents Putin's party). My first reaction? I thought Putin was going the Sarkozy way!!

While Putin reacted angrily to the news report, the gymnast also rubbished the story.

It is a rare first for a Russian publication to carry a story on their President's love life. In a polity whose every nuance is controlled by Putin, the publication of such a story, unsubstantiated at that, was bound to have repercussions. Heads had to roll.

And heads did roll. The editor of the publication resigned. The company that financed the publication backed out. It is now widely believed that the publication is all set to shut shop.

In the current international system, Putin is an exception. Exception because of his I-don't-give-a-damn-attitude towards the U.S. and western Europe. An autocrat, the former KGB spy has only one goal: to turn Russia into a global military powerhouse.

Putin believes that he can achieve this on the back of military technology amid an unprecedented oil boom - the idea being that energy money would help finance the development of highly advanced military technology.

More on Putin's plans for Russia later. But here's a peep (published in 2005 - well, three years in a marriage is an age) into the Russian President's conjugal life, in the words of his wife, Ludmila. And yes, Putin is a typical Oriental husband.

After stepping down from the presidency, Putin is returning as the Prime Minister. Who said that autocracy died with the demise of the Soviet Union?

XP's going out

Almost all posts on this blog feature issues concerning our national security, defence, foreign policy, and international terrorism.

This time around, I am posting a note, albeit a short one, on a tech-related issue that concerns most computer users. Microsoft has announced that Windows XP will be phased out by June 30. So what does it mean for XP users? Check out this article.

Commie Doublespeak

It is an open secret that the Communists in India owe their allegiance to China. That they care more for the progress, welfare, and 'image' of China than for their motherland could be known from their policies on defence and economic issues.

Last week, the ruling Communist party banned protests by Tibetan exiles. For a change, the print media (count out The Hindu) spoke out against commie doublespeak.

Here's an excerpt from an editorial in The Telegraph, published from Kolkata:

“Many years ago, the walls of Calcutta buildings used to declare in ugly graffiti that “China’s chairman is our chairman”. The possessive pronoun in the slogan signified the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). This craven loyalty to China was resurrected by none other than the government of West Bengal, when last week it prohibited a rally to protest against the repression being carried out in Tibet by the Chinese government. That prohibition order is somewhat unique: neither the government of India nor any other state government has instituted such a ban on any show of protest by Tibetans against the Chinese government. To see such an order being passed on a protest rally in a city like Calcutta is enough to take anyone’s breath away. Calcutta is famous (or infamous) as a city of processions and rallies; the party that heads the government of West Bengal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has on innumerable occasions taken out rallies to protest against acts of “imperialist aggression” by the United States of America. But when it comes to China, the CPI(M) and the government it runs quietly and shamelessly retract their radical fangs... The exhibition of this kind of solidarity has only served to reveal the scant respect the CPI(M) and the government of West Bengal have for democracy and its rights. This might win the CPI(M) a few points in China but will fetch it none in India. It has covered the party in shame.”

I could have hardly put my views better than this.

Source:
Doublespeak
Editorial
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080416/jsp/opinion/story_9141947.jsp

China's Cyber War

China has, over the years, been indulging in industrial espionage. It has been trying various means to get its hands on sophisticated western technology.

China has, in fact, penetrated (with alarming success) American and western European companies and research labs to get access to sensitive military and industrial technology, especially related to missile defence and advanced weaponry.

The Communist giant is now waging a cyber war through hacking the networks of the western industrial behemoths. It's only natural that these attacks have left the governments in these countries nervous and shaky.

Shaken by these attacks, the western intelligence agencies, backed by their political masters, all pulling all stops to stop the Chinese hackers. Will they succeed?

Just last week, the Government of India vehemently denied that Chinese hackers have crashed the computer networks belonging to the Ministry of External Affairs.

We in India always live in denial.

A cup of tea for $204 million!!

Would you buy a cup of tea for Z$204 million? Yes? No? Or are you simply confounded? I guess you would not be if you were in Mugabeland. Check it out here.

In this article Chris McGreal of The Observer traces the history of the current crisis in Mugabeland. In this superb article, the author talks of how a seemingly innocuous letter sent a decade earlier could have ignited the flames which have engulfed today's Zimbabwe.

And yes, do not forget to read why Mugabe has called Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, a tiny dot.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Mugabeland

I became interested in countries like Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa when I was around 13. A land's physical geography, history, people, culture, and polity have always fascinated me.

I remember the names of three leaders from Africa: Robert Mugabe, Sam Nujoma, and Nelson Mandela. Let me ramble about Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is one of Africa's most 'in-the-news' countries. The history of Zimbabwe since its independence from Great Britain in 1980 runs parallel to the history of the presidency of Robert Mugabe, one of the world's longest serving head of state.

Under Mugabe, Zimbabwe has turned into an international basket case. Polity-wise, Mugabe has, with an iron fist, turned the country's sham democratic system into a one-man rule. There is press censorship, political repression, and arbitrary detention of political rivals. In fact, last year Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s biggest rival and head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was tortured after being arrested on a trumped charge of treason.

Also, Mugabe has systematically, and, to the dismay of ordinary Zimbabweans, 'successfully', destroyed the country's economy. He pursued radical and arbitrary land reforms, which saw the transfer of land from white farmers to blacks. Like his other corrupt policies, the end beneficiaries here were not the poor Zimbabweans but Mugabe’s political supporters. (Come to think of it, politicians everywhere are the same.)

Foreign investment has dried up. Unemployment is peaking. Power supply is almost non-existent. Infrastructure is crumbling.

Today, Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation rate – 26,000 per cent, though unofficial figures put it at a staggering 8,00,000 per cent!! The purchasing value of the currency has plunged so much so that it is now being issued with expiry date!!!

In a recent article, Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe's biggest challenger, has voiced fear that Mugabe might use force to 'steal' the presidential election. Mugabe's ZANU-PF has already lost the recent parliamentary election to the MDC.

Will there will be change in Harare? The events in the next few days will give us the answer.

9/11 hatched by the CIA?

How often have you heard that the 9/11 attacks were a conspiracy hatched by the CIA, hand in glove with the Bush Administration? Another famous conspiracy theory is that these spectacular attacks were the end result of a plot hatched by The Mossad.

Were these attacks really conspired by the CIA / Bush Administration / The Mossad? How about a rebuttal from Al-Qaeda itself?

Check this Video.

When all else fails, cry conspiracy.

Lies, Distortions, & The Hindu

An independent press is one of the four pillars of democracy, a genuine one at that. The press in India is free, well largely, of government control. But is it free from prejudice?

The Indian Express is largely anti-establishment while The Times of India is pro-whatever increases its bottom-line.

Even regional newspapers have their own axe to grind. Take for example, the Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle which is pro-Congress while the vernacular daily, Eenadu, is pro-TDP and vehemently anti-Congress.

Not that I care about these newspapers. Newspapers tell us what they want to tell us.

When it comes to reflecting bias and a deep prejudice, one newspaper, which calls itself India’s only national newspaper, takes the cake. No marks for guessing the name of the newspaper. Yes, I am referring to The Hindu.

The Hindu is owned, managed, and edited by hardcore communists. Run like a family enterprise, The Hindu is unabashedly pro-Communism, pro-China, anti-Hinduism, anti-BJP, anti-America, and anti-Capitalism.

Never mind, the “liberal and secular” intellectuals would have us believe otherwise.

Let me cite a couple of examples. The Hindu advocates a tough line against the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal. The daily says that the government should not go ahead with the deal as it is loaded in favour of the U.S., the epitome of imperialism. It also says that the deal impinges on our national sovereignty.

All the while the newspaper maintains an eerie silence on China’s nuclear deal with the U.S. To get the deal, China agreed to all terms dictated by the U.S. To propel its fast-growing economy, China needs energy. So it got the deal, whatever be the conditions.

So what about India? Well, the daily says that India should rely on indigenous technology to get energy and also import such resources from untrustworthy nations like Iran (I will reserve this for some other day). China should progress, India should not. Why? Because China is communist!!

Just look at what’s happening in Tibet. While the unrest, riots, and consequent repressive measures unleashed by the Chinese authorities made headlines across the world, The Hindu didn’t carry any major news story on the explosive situation. The commie mouthpiece simply toed the Chinese government’s line, copied reports from the Chinese official media agency and published them in its pages.

Like the Chinese government, The Hindu has called the Dalai Lama a liar and a subversive element. In fact, in an op-ed in the edition dated April 3, 2008, The Hindu had this to say about the Dalai Lama:

"What those urging China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama fail to recognise is the fact that Beijing’s main constituency is not the international community but its own domestic public. For Beijing to appear ‘soft’ on the Dalai Lama would be as politically unpalatable domestically asit would be in the United States were Washington to decide to engage in dialogue with Osama bin Laden."

To read the article, click here.

Just look at the comparison: the Dalai Lama is like Osama bin Laden!! One of the greatest pacifists of our time is being equated with the most dangerous terrorist the world has ever seen. A bankrupt ideology (read Communism) has coloured the way The Hindu reports the truth.

Think. Think hard.

India's Tibet Travails

A short backgrounder on Tibet:
Tibet, before its occupation by China in 1959, was a theocracy. The occupation saw the killing of thousands of Buddhist monks by communist China’s military. In the years after the escape of the Dalai Lama, the besieged nation’s top spiritual leader, on horseback to India, almost all symbols of the ancient heritage of Tibet have been systematically erased. Jawaharlal Nehru had, even before the ’62 war, recognized Tibet as part of China.

Today there is a Tibetan government-in-exile with its headquarters in McLeodganj in Himachal Pradesh. Thousands of Tibetans—both first generation refugees and their descendants—have made India their home. Over the years, India extended moral and diplomatic support to the Tibetans.

All that is changing and how.

Last year the U.S. Congress conferred the 'Congressional Gold Medal' on the Dalai Lama. China was quick to denounce the U.S. move to honour its bête noire.

For fear of antagonising China and its stooges in India – the Indian commies (like Prakash Karat & A. B. Bardhan), the UPA government asked its ministers (& top bureaucrats) to avoid meeting the Dalai Lama upon his return from the U.S. (In more normal times, such meetings would not even classify as news. But then we live in not-so normal times.)

In March this year, India’s External Affairs Minister (EAM), Pranab Mukherjee, ‘advised’ the Dalai Lama not to conduct any political activities from India. The EAM said that “[We] will continue to extend the Dalai Lama all hospitality, but during his stay in India, he should not do any political activity that could adversely affect relations between India and China”.

I believe that this policy of publicly distancing herself from the Tibetans is a deliberate move by the Government of India. The reasons for this significant shift are not far to seek:

(a) Nuclear Deal. India needs China’s approval in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to get a waiver;
(b) Trade. Burgeoning trade between the two nations – as of now, China is India’s second biggest trade partner;
(c) Reciprocity. Kashmir is India’s bugbear just as Tibet is China’s.
(d) 1962 defeat. Rarely acknowledged but nevertheless our humiliating defeat continues to shape our almost condescending attitude towards China.

However, what worries me more is that if this could happen when the Dalai Lama is around, imagine what would happen after his death. As of now, the Tibetan community (outside Tibet) does not boast of even a single individual with the charisma, and more importantly, spiritual hold, to replace the Dalai Lama. So is the Tibetan movement doomed? Let me not sit in judgement here.

I hate to sound pessimistic, but maybe the Indian government is simply waiting for the Dalai Lama to pass away. At least then, we would not have to put up the charade of standing up for the freedom-loving, oppressed, and repressed.