NORTH KOREA: THE SURPRISING CASE OF SOVEREIGNTY GONE SOUR

Hello World,

SOURCE: http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/stanford.ucomm.newsms.media/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/21140014/korea.jpg

North Korea, being a nation equipped with nuclear arsenal, is raising concerns through the missile development program which in essence, is expected to serve as the payload delivery mechanism capable of delivering warheads including the nuclear one. Economic sanctions have been imposed on North Korea multiple times and regional powers in the Asia Pacific region have been warned by the United States regarding the escalating security threat perception in the region, owing to North Korea’s repeated missile testing efforts in spite of warnings and sanctions.

To put things in perspective, any sovereign state is entitled to develop its own defence capabilities to protect its territories and interests, while complying with international law and agreements [varies from country to country]. From this perspective of ‘Rights of a Sovereign State’, North Korea is logically entitled to test and develop any military capability without violating any agreements it had signed in that regard.

However, the state of authoritarian administration in North Korea, driven by policies advocating ideologies what might be classified as ‘secluded nationalism’, presents the country in bad light. News reports alleging the North Korean government’s activities often going against its own citizens can be ignored however the economic situation of the citizens tend to substantiate such allegations presented by news reports. This has, over the long term, presented the North Korean administration as volatile in terms of response to issues, both internally and externally. The long-standing strained relationship with South Korea seems to be focal point of the volatility being attributed to the North Korean administration.

While conclusive evidences for violation of regional and global peace treaties [relevant to North Korea] and that of any alleged human rights violation within its borders is yet to be ascertained, the continued efforts to build warhead delivery mechanisms and test launches directed at and/or over regional neighbours tend to substantiate the allegation on the North Korean government’s intentions of building such military capabilities. The only consolation as of now is the South Korean administration’s declaration that no attack shall be carried out on behalf of South Korea without their prior consent. In essence, the regional peace, in this case, is being largely facilitated by countries that otherwise are facing threats from the military activities of North Korea. This calls for a situation, where regional powers, including North Korea will now have to go further with their efforts to develop suitable military deterrence capabilities, missile defence mechanisms being relevant to this situation. Since the recent missile tests by North Korea indicate its range covering its neighbouring countries, the United States military being present in those regions is facing the same security threats being perceived in the region.

Missile defence is gaining prominence as the post-cold-war era is fading out, evolving new territorial defence requirements. Modern defence requirements, unlike those from the past, do not hold air, land, sea and space as standalone territorial domains. The modern defence mechanisms are expected to be integrated and interoperable both across services and militaries at regional and global level. While building deterrence is primary requirement, it is also equally important for regional powers to negotiate their respective political stances, such that long term diplomatic frictions do not escalate into military conflicts, hurting the citizens and economies of those involved and their neighbours. Given the global circumstances, military conflicts in any regions will have its own repercussions across the globe. 

To put this in perspective, from where I come from, we might use the following adage:

“Sothuke singi, soriyardhuku saxophone kekutha?”

This translates into: When the world is struggling to feed all its citizens asking for a saxophone to scratch [an itch] is beyond stupidity. Meaning, why spend so much on military when there are other essential needs still standing unmet. Accidents and diseases kill more than terrorism and aggressor state activity and still we spend more against terror.

Yes, we have had world wars and we continue to spend more on defense than many other essential needs. Military deterrence is a need but honestly not as much as the growing defense budgets indicate. Besides, defence budgets allow the purchase and upkeep of defence capabilities. War funds are a whole different thing. Given today’s economic circumstances, there is no country in the world that can sustain a war economically. Also, given the same global circumstances, any war between any two entities, irrespective of how far they go to battle with each other, is bound to impact every citizen’s plate and what comes on to it, across the globe. 

From that perspective, given that in today’s time, everyone is aware of where every other one stands, it is in the benefit of all to simply have the military tails coiled up so the focus can be to feed the citizens who are hungry and employ those that are not. Enough of the territorial safety mirage and the associated spending to protect geographies where normal humans can’t survive. When one country builds something to defend itself, naturally others follow suit and it is beyond stupidity to call the followers 'aggressors.' We all have our own ways of interpreting our state’s sovereignty. When some believe in repeated missile tests, there is also a bafoon who believes in retweeting propaganda videos and engaging his own presidential press office to defend such nonsense.

I think I’ve made my point.

Best regards,

STOP THE GENOCIDE AT WANG'S KITCHEN, NOLAMBUR, CHENNAI!!!!!!

Hello World,

IMAGE SOURCE: http://www.burrp.com/chennai/wangs-kitchen-mogappair-listing/416547 

Yes, Long time, No see and I do have a lot to share. However, the circumstances are such that there is a genocide about to happen and I need to stop it.

This is a scream after a visit to The Wang’s Kitchen in Nolambur, Mogappair. 

Set up in the first floor, outdoor stairs leading to the reception, dim yellow lighting enhancing the all familiar Wang’s branding themed in red, the restaurant has a curiously entertaining interiors with downward flight of stairs leading to the dining area where the tables are arranged.

That’s the end of anything and everything positive about this shithouse that might have poisoned me and other guests with possibly the worst zombie-dying microbes ever to have originated in Mars. The problem is, the restaurant is still in operation which means a section of this generation has already been zombie-fied!

Me and my brother-in-law ordered 1 chicken momo, 1 Tshing Hai chicken fried rice [It had a chilli next to it], 2 Egg Fuyong, 1 chicken spring roll and 2 Lemon Mint Coolers.

Chicken Momo:

6 pieces of twisted flour-shit filled with meat paste lay on our plate, frozen and still thawing, drops of dew on it, while some grated cabbage scraped of the kitchen floor lay accidentally on the plate, not knowing if they were part of this evil scheme that aims at eradicating mankind off this section of the multiverse. 

I have a certain amount of tolerance for odd tasting food and still I could not tolerate this seemingly quarter boiled tumour from a dying cat’s gut. My brother-in-law quit after the 2nd piece and it was just me and the momos staring each other for the final showdown. Trying to avoid food wastage I went through the regurgitating experience, hoping, the rest of the meal will serve as the antidote for this slow poison. I was wrong by a million light years in every wrong direction possible.

Tshing Hai Chicken Rice:

The bowl had a mix of rice and vermicelli, which were straight from the dumpster, along with orange coloured pieces of what I am calling chicken and my brother-in-law refusing to believe my guess. The rice had a few shreds of green beans and carrots, again, possibly from unwashed bowl. The moment the bowl landed on our table, we understood the technology, importance and significance of gas masks. We sincerely wished we were better off in a world war, on the ground, during an air raid involving nerve gas. We are absolutely sure, we would have enjoyed sweet death  more comfortably that the smell from the fried rice bowl that deactivated our olfactory capabilities for ever. It doesn’t make sense to live without a sense, especially when the causation smell came from nonsense called Tshing Hai chicken fried rice. I am sure the food tastes awesome but what Wang’s at Nolambur served was worthy of 35 counts of genocide under the influence of Mutating Momos.

The thing had rice and vermicilli or rice noodles in it and so we figured, we can cover up the death-smell and coma-inducing flavour with ketchup. We just did not foresee the operational challenge that was waiting to crash and burn on us. The waiter took a millennium to deliver the ketchup, by which time, we had committed our version of culinary Harakiri. We were already half dead from the Momos. We were just trying to get done with it as soon as possible.

Egg Fuyong:

The fluffy fried egg dish which I used to remember from the other Chinese restaurants is forever gone from my mind. I am merely holding on the index of events like a post-dead vista operating system. What we got was freakin plain omelette with a few shreds of carrots and green beans and few litres of what we would like to assume as oil from the kitchen mist. The horror struck twice when the waiter stepped up to serve it making the egg-splash-vomit into pieces, essentially increasing the frequency of capital punishment for our taste buds. They were already corpses on our tongues. We just did not know why this chaos was manifesting such a design on our lives coming to a close.

Chicken Spring Roll:

The rolls looked just fine externally and the insides were also familiar. We were confused as to why the revival mechanism would enter the game with rules which was anyways more than half done. We got into a mindset that, we still had a chance to recover from whatever was happening to us and this time we were more wrong than Trump in most of his administrative decisions. Even when imminent death was staring at us, we had to compare our thoughts with those of Trump’s. What is the point of demoralisingly degrading our thought process when it was almost confirmed we needed to die? Why was not part of our agenda but we just had to include it. No reason identified yet.

The insides of the chicken rolls, as it turned out, are left-over chicken from earlier manchurian and kung bao massacres that might have inadvertently occurred in the Kitchen of Nolambur’s Wang’s Kitchen. We puked about 17.5 times inside our own mouths and our dying taste buds had to drown in it. Saw, Hostel and the remainder of gore fests seemed like emmy-winning sitcoms. The stench from the almost rotten chicken that was recapitalised to make our chicken rolls, felt like nothing. The reason it felt like nothing was, we were half dead and we were losing our senses one by one, we now were not caring if we could receive and process anything greater than 17% of environmental stimuli we were receiving. We just kept eating hoping it will be done soon.

Lemon Mint Cooler:

This, was the final dose of uplifting enlightenment coloured green and topped with ice and plastic mint leaves. The taste felt like pepsodent toothpaste squeezed into our nostrils while 80% methanol was pumped into our throats  using a firehose. We now realised we were on our way to the section of multiverse, hoping a horned gatekeeper might be there, asking for aadhaar cards and patanjali coupons for herbal painless redemption in the new world. We sincerely hoped that life did not include any food from Wang’s Kitchen.

SOS Call:

Please do not go this place and stop every human from getting caught into the institutionalised genocide, degrading everything that chinese culture stands for and the very concept of hospitality. Wang’s Kitchen Nolambur, please stop killing humans. Shut down this branch and beter, shut down the entire chain, if you think your chain serves standardised flavours across the network. No amount of yoga and herbal crap can prevent the slow death of those who walk by your establishment at Nolambur. If we call yours a restaurant, we will be insulting the entire hospitality/restaurant industry. 

Best regards,

NEET PROTESTS: BLIND GOATS WATCHING 3D FILM DURING POWER CUT

Hello World,

Image Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/rf/image_size_960x540/HT/p2/2017/02/06/Pictures/parents-protests-against-neet-examination_ff51c318-ec94-11e6-90af-e8d3e91f500c.JPG

With NEET protests gaining attention from the media and the public, I think, it is about time we discussed this issue in a relatively fair perspective than the ones being vomited into the public mind.

The administration at the centre has revised the entrance mechanism for medical courses and this has brought a new entrance exam based on a syllabus only a section of TN students study. Unfortunately, most of those who would otherwise qualify for a medical seat now stand disqualified because they failed the NEET exam. Clearly, what they studied for a year did not match what they were tested on the NEET exam.

The issue took a sharp left turn when Anitha, a 17 year old student from Ariyalur district here committed suicide. She had a good chance of securing a medical seat through the older system but with NEET in place, her scores were far too low and so went her chances of getting a medical seat.

As usual, the dumb ducks of this region started screaming and some have managed to coerce people into taking it to the streets in the name of protests. 

Some are screaming NEET should go. Some are screaming the administration at the state and centre must change.

What is appalling is the state of ignorance this community has been forced into, be it any social issue for that matter.

Here are the key questions that need to be answered before any solution for the NEET issue be designed:

1. When was the first NEET circular sent to the state administration from the centre?
2. Who received it [in the secretariat]?
3. Who was the NEET circular circulated/notified about [those who received a copy of it from the secretariat]?
4. Who gave the order to ignore the NEET circular based on which no action was taken until when the NEET protests started?

The central government is not the problem. The state government is also not the problem. However, the officers who received the NEET circular and the elected officials [ministers] who authorised the ignorance of the NEET circular are responsible for all the issues related to NEET.

As for the death of Anitha, the responsibility has to be shared by all of us in Tamilnadu as we had created a fake-protest atmosphere where not-protesting is seen as a shameful act and those who choose not to participate in protests are ridiculed for their disregard for social justice and democracy. She was a regular 17 year old girl. She was portrayed in front of the media and courts as ‘The Poor Dalit Girl from Ariyalur’. She was not part of a protesting group but she was made to be the front face of multiple protesting groups. The consciousness of being in the public eye and subsequent failure in the NEET exam [she scored around 76 out of 700, if I am not wrong] made her embarrassment many folds bigger than what it should ideally be. This is what pushed her to the unfortunate decision to end her life, not the central government or state government.

Dalits/Scheduled caste candidates have always been perceived and portrayed as freeloaders who gain out of reservations alone but when it came to NEET, where everyone gains, the ‘Poor Dalit Girl from Ariyalur’ became the symbol of fight against oppression. Out of the blue, all castes and communities went out the window and in came the fake #Tamilanda propaganda. 

The avenues under the state's control still face caste based discrimination and the NEET Protests are claiming medical admissions to be given to the same administrative set-up that has institutionalised corruption and caste based discrimination. The horrifying fact is that a dalit girl from Ariyalur was used as the protest mascot, the consequences of which forced her to end her own life. 

What frustrates me more is the idea that opposition and new/other political parties can deliver justice which is being vomited into the public’s mind via carefully designed paid news propaganda. All of a sudden, the anger over the ruling political party is turning into the fondness for the opposition or new political parties. 

People start political parties so they can sell their signatures on a ‘pay-per-contract-%’ business model. Be it one seat or the entire 234, each elected member get’s to sign many approvals ranging from contracts, to appointments to transfers and so on. Each signature is used to extort money from the public. This is the only reason they contest in elections, irrespective of their size or political heritage.

My objective with this blog post is more towards helping establish a sense of awareness that is desperately needed for those who are considering to or already acting/thinking upon the NEET issue. The real solution has to address the real problem. Parties and governments are not the problem. Their decision to ignore the NEET circular when it first came is the root cause of this NEET issue. New exams and syllabus changes are very time consuming processes and so they are planned ahead and such programs need collaborative effort both from the state and central administrative bodies.

How to prevent such deliberate ignorance of such circulars and what will enable such a preventive measure? The answer to this twin-pronged question will contain the real solution to the NEET issue.  Transparency in governance is the first step, in my view. 

As for the ongoing protests, well, if students do it, they get smacked and thrown into buses and taken away. However, if it is a ‘All-Party-Gathering’ the entire administration will stand and watch while providing security and free electricity for their bulbs and mikes. This the proof that all ruling and opposition and coalition nonsense, basically are the same nonsense deserving no more attention that that of a rotting rat in a sewer [unless, clogging is an issue of concern].

Feels a lot lighter now. 

What do you think?

Regards,

HPSON: ACRONYM EXEMPLIFYING THE GREATNESS OF CHENNAI

Hello World,

This is not Chennai. This image is here because it helps drive the big-city idea in this post.

HPSON’s are rocking out Chennai as we speak! A new demographic covering broader age groups is fast growing in this southern metro!

Chennai, if often classified as a metro where nothing is happening and is considered dull by some who in my view do not understand what Chennai really is. HPSON’s are the new-age Chennaiites who are proving such assumptions wrong, left, right and center. 

You can find a HPSON pretty much every where in Chennai at any given time, day and night doesn’t really matter. Chennai is slowly evolving its own night-life and HPSON’s are adding the real flavour to it. HPSON’s are not only present everywhere, they make their presence felt in astounding ways. 

Their moves, their looks, their confidence! Boy are they an epitome of Chennai’s newfound greatness!

Chennai has long had and is continuing to have a rather conservative culture where we choose not to be loud. But times are changing and so is our great city’s vibe. Now the city is only as cool as its residents and not all of us are ‘In the Trend’ yet. However, just like how every century begins with a single digit score, Chennai’s new identity needs the early adopters to ‘Set the Trend’ and motivate change among the other Chennaiites. Guess who is Chennai’s new trend-setting early adopter group? HPSON’s!!!!! Hands down!!!

The flare of not caring to bother about tricky circumstances, the swiftness in moves, the confident approaches and the charisma they leave behind….HPSON’s have no match and I don’t think they will ever. They can only get new members which they are and HPSON’s are not going to be ignored anymore. In fact, they are becoming famous. People of all ages now want be a HPSON and are trying their best to do so everyday. Eventually, the way I see it, Chennaiites are going to crave to display their HPSON attitude!

So much happening in Chennai right now that a new demographic is demanding the acronym HPSON to be its primary identity.

HPSON stands for nothing but……

HELMET PODAMA SCOOTER OTRA NAAI!!!!!

In other words,….

THE DOG THAT DRIVES A SCOOTER WITHOUT WEARING A HELMET!!!!!

These nasty empty-headed nonsensical dinglebangs just hop on the scooter and assume the roads have no other user. They have so much confidence that they don’t realize they are alive because so many fellow road users hit their brakes on time!!!

Idiots of all age groups deliberately avoiding the helmet and riding a scooter are endangering the remainder of the Chennai traffic every second of their near-fatal mad-ride meltdowns they display on Chennai roads. You should look at the way they split lanes, the cuts they make and the turns they do. A blind monkey on PS4 for the first time will display better dexterity, composure and compliance.

Just because they think they can get through the traffic with confidence, HPSON’s put their lives in the best place possible, their earth-shattering fit-for-shit confidence! Not one HPSON realises how far the foot-pedal reaches to their side beyond the handlebar. Never did a HPSON care about their knees popping outside their vehicle dimensions. It’s almost as if they are mutating, and their conversion to X-MEN has begun with the deactivation and eventual evaporation of their brain and nerve cells. 

With such valuable intellectual prowess that dictates neglecting the helmet and intergalactic confidence that demands avoiding the use of indicators and hand signals, this HPSON demographic is fast growing in Chennai, and their mad riding of scooters without wearing a helmet is just around the corner to becoming Chennai’s culture, exemplifying the city’s greatness in directions never imagined by people with live brain cells.

On a different note, if you care for some intellectually challenging entertainment, checkout www.summamovies.com. 

Best regards,