Oil Tanks India

Blending history and travelogue with personal reminiscences, author Thant Myint-U, grandson of former UN Secretary-General U Thant, recounts the strategic location of Burma, linking the most far-flung regions of China and India. In the 16th century, the two countries together formed half the worlds economy. Within a generation this could be the case again, the author says. No wonder, the land where the two countries meet  Burma  gains a pre-eminent position in todays world.

Currently, Chinas presence in Burma is all-pervasive. There was, however, a time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when, with Burma being firmly part of the Indian empire, India was expanding towards China, not the other way around. Burma guarded Indias eastern flank as a buffer against China as well as against the French, who were then moving up the Mekong river from Saigon. British India saw Tibet as part of its sphere of influence and western Yunnan as part of its expanding backyard, which is now an integral part of China.

In the early 20th century, as the author says, Burma enjoyed a higher standard of living than India. As its economy grew, there was a need for labour as well as entrepreneurial and professional skills  all of which came from India. By the 1920s, the influx from India turned Rangoon (now Yangoon) into an Indian city, with the Burmese reduced to a minority. But this world came crashing down; the aerial bombing of Rangoon had hundreds of thousands of Indians flee. The Indian population is now only a fraction of what it once was.

Today, the Chinese model is in the ascendancy in South-East Asia. Burma, too, is being drawn into the Chinese economic orbit. Over the past 20 years, China has emerged as the Burmese Governments most reliable supporter. Beijing has provided hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military hardware, including planes and tanks, as well as crucial diplomatic protection at the United Nations and elsewhere. The Burmese economy is today tied more closely to Chinas than at any other time in modern history.

The Great Game in Burma - Daily Pioneer

Though three recent developments in the region including piracy and terrorism are major challenges, New Delhi's conception of a suitable politico-strategic environment is fairly clear.

Recent developments in the Indian Ocean region demand attention. Look at a sample collection: Somali pirates , operating in waters off the Horn of Africa with impunity, are now coming closer to our coast; China has commissioned its first aircraft carrier ; an Indian company's hydrocarbon exploration activity in Vietnam's waters is being contested by China ; a former Japanese Prime Minister visiting Delhi calls for closer cooperation among “maritime democracies,” and every move by Beijing to cement its ties with our immediate neighbours is seen as vindication of the “string of pearls” theory.

These developments may seem baffling to northern India's land-centric view. Here, the combined legacy of Alexander and subsequent invaders who crossed the Himalayas is far more important than the rich history of the subcontinent's interaction, through the ocean route, with a vast region stretching from Aden to Bali. While a majority of people in the north have never seen a beach, people living south of the Vindhyas, especially in the southern States and on the east and west coasts, regard the Indian Ocean as a defining element of their destiny.

Having experienced India's centrality in the Indian Ocean region through visits to the Cape of Good Hope, Durban and Mombasa; Port Louis, Colombo and Gan — the southernmost island of Maldives; cities on Myanmar's southwestern flank and the coasts of Java and Bali, I am convinced that there can be no place for “sea-blindness” in our policymaking. Considerable scope, however, exists for developing a holistic approach if India wishes to cope with the challenges of the 21st century.

A vision for the Indian Ocean - The Hindu

Brotherhood is a moveable feast. The Abrahamic faiths have always been cynical about its virtues. Cain, first child of the first family, dispatched Abel and then artfully asked the Almighty, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' Cain was never a likely candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, but he could have become, in a contemporary incarnation, a cold strategic warrior, much sought after by think-tanks. Abel the Good Boy merely confirmed that decency is an invitation to murder.

On October 4 Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai described Pakistan as a "twin brother" just hours after he signed up on a strategic relationship with India. Was Karzai encouraged by the fact that Afghanistan and Pakistan are locked in a property dispute across the Durand Line? Friends do not have ownership claims; brothers do.

Brotherhood was also on the mind of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmedinejad when, within the same week, he telephoned Karzai to say that "enemies never want to see friendship and brotherhood in the region and we should do our best to bring hearts and thoughts closer to each other." Ahmedinejad tends to talk like a Persian poet of the inferior sort; his point was not very subtle. He wants the three Islamic "brothers" Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan to make common cause against "enemy" America. I am not totally sure that Karzai, who has just lost his real younger brother Ahmed Wali to a Taliban bomb in Kandahar, believes he has the same enemies as Ahmedinejad or Asif Zardari.

On October 12, India signed agreements with "maritime neighbour" Vietnam to deepen strategic ties, and, in a rebuff to China, continue oil exploration in the South China Sea. Vietnam is the only country in four decades to have silenced China on the battlefield, forcing Beijing to withdraw from its territory after a 17-day war in 1979. Vietnam did not defeat France and America in order to succumb to China.

Brothers In Arms - India Today

Former restaurant-industry executive Herman Cain has catapulted to the lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, as GOP voters grow disenchanted with Texas Gov.

U.S. stocks rose, briefly erasing the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 2011 loss, as European leaders provided a road map to tame the debt crisis and the Federal Reserve said it discussed further asset purchases. Financial and industrial shares rose the most among 10 groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) jumped at least 2.7 percent, following a rally in European lenders. General Electric Co. (GE) and 3M Co. (MMM) added more than 1.6 percent to pace gains among companies most- reliant on economic growth.

PlayStation Network and other online services after detecting a spike in unauthorized log-in attempts. It was the latest in a series of online attacks on the company that have threatened to undermine user confidence in its Web-based offerings.

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October 13, 2011: Some News That Matters - Business Insider

A steep rise in biofuel production and a highly concentrated export market coupled with export restrictions have contributed to the rising food prices across the world.

The index is an annual hunger rating publication of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a Washington-based food policy think-tank.

IFPRI along with two other NGOs-Welthungerhilfe of Germany and Concern Worldwide of Ireland-prepared the GHI for the sixth time this year with special focus on the issue of food price hike and volatility that played a big role in the global food crises of 2007-08 and 2010-11.

IFPRI along with two other NGOs-Welthungerhilfe of Germany and Concern Worldwide of Ireland-prepared the GHI for the sixth time this year with special focus on the issue of food price hike and volatility that played a big role in the global food crises of 2007-08 and 2010-11. "Many poor people already spend large shares of their incomes on food, and surges in food prices leave them unable to pay for the food, health care, housing, education , and other goods and services they need," the report said.

Biofuel Fuels Food Price - HispanicBusiness.com (press release)