In 58 posts with close to 100k words, we shared a lot in 2024! Explore 2024’s biggest geopolitical shifts, cultural battles, and bold insights with Drishtikone’s year in review. See you in 2025! Happy New Year! Be safe!
When you see Russia get into existential war over Ukraine, or Israel bomb Syria or India battle with Pakistan or Bangladesh, it is not because of some whim. It has a historical and geographical context. That is critical to understand for analyzing geopolitics.
Dive into the shadowy world of the Deep State—its hidden structures, powerful networks, and the far-reaching impact on global events and control.
Khwaja Sara, an old servant of the royal family took the princess Sultan Bano to her father, who was on the horse ready to leave. His son and Bano’s brother Yawar Shah had been killed by the British. Mirza Kavaish Bahadur then spoke to his daughter for the last time.
He dismounted and pacified naaz Bano and me and said, “Beti, now the goras are looking for me. I don’t know how much longer I can escape them or how much longer I have before my life is snuffed out. You are Masha Allah young and sensible pacify your younger sister and place your trust in God and be patient.
“I don’t know what will happen to either of us. I don’t want to leave you both alone but one day or the other you will be orphaned. Naaz Bano is a child, look after her and live a righteous life.
“Naaz Bano you are no longer a princess don’t throw tantrums or make demands. Just give thanks to Allah and eat whatever you can get. If someone is eating, don’t look at them or people will say Princesses are very greedy.”
As Khwaja Sara took the two sisters – Sultan Bano and younger Naaz Bano through the streets, Naaz threw a fit and wanted to order for a palanquin. A thorn pricked her foot. As she cried and Khwaja was getting impatient and wanted them to move on. Naaz shouted at him. The servant gave her a tight slap. Something that had never happened to any of the princesses. In anger, Khwaja Sara left the two sisters on the street alone… orphaned.. and went away. They somehow made their way to the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, where others from Delhi and their extended family were hiding. Naaz Bano died when a disease swept through the place. The British fixed a pension of Rs 5 per month, which Sultan Bano lived on. This was narrated by her around 1906.
Mirza Nasir-ul-Mulk, another grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar, was found dragging himself around the Chitli Qabr and Kamra Bangash area in Delhi. His legs paralyzed and a bag tied around his neck. Those who had sympathy or knew him would throw a few coins in that bag. (Source for the stories)
Just 200 years before that, Aurangzeb was ruling the country and was able to fight greats the likes of Shivaji and Guru Gobind Singh at the same time.
When power implodes, it happens quickly and noiselessly.
Time is a great leveller.
सत्य को परेशान किया जा सकता है पराजित नहीं।
“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” – Edmund Burke, On Empire, Liberty, and Reform: Speeches and Letters
The South China sea is surrounded by seven main countries – China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Its a major shipping channel and also has rich oil reserves under it. More than 30 percent of global maritime crude oil trade, or about 15 million barrels per day (b/d), passed through the South China Sea in 2016. (Source). The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) concerning the South China Sea gave the right to use the sea to all the neighboring countries.
A judgment by the Permanent Court of Arbitration of the international tribunal in The Hague on July 12, 2016, ruled in favor of the Philippines. (Source). The ruling punctured China’s ambitious “nine-dash” line that stretches deep into the South China Sea.
Now yesterday (July 13), the United States rejected China’s claims to offshore resources in most of the South China Sea.
China has offered no coherent legal basis for its ambitions in the South China Sea and for years has been using intimidation against other Southeast Asian coastal states, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. “We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them,” said Pompeo, a prominent China hawk within the Trump administration. (Source)
Trump administration is the first US government in many decades to call China’s bluff and is working to hold it accountable. The tensions between the two countries have risen, but that is expected.
The coming days will surely see countries like those in the Quad group, stand up against the bullying tactics of China in the region and across the globe.
U.S. Conducting Military Exercises in the South China Sea — www.hudson.org
China.. this is a country which cannot even give proper recognition and even burial to its dead soldiers. Those who gave their lives for their country were just abandoned by the Chinese government. Such an establishment has been trying to throw its weight around the world.
China denies burial to its soldiers killed in Galwan clash to cover up its blunder: Report — timesofindia.indiatimes.com
WASHINGTON: It seems China is not willing to recognise the ultimate sacrifice made by its soldiers for the country as the government is pressuring the families of soldiers who died in Galwan face off to not conduct burials and in-person funeral ceremonies, according to a US intelligence assessment.
The only reason China can get away with its shenanigans is because of how it simply purchases the journalists around the world to toe its line and peddle it’s false narrative. This is an article from 2018, but it has always been true.
China is buying good press across the world, one paid journalist at a time — theprint.in
It coincides with launch of Belt and Road initiative and president Xi Jinping’s call to “tell China’s story better” to the world. Not unusual in China, no doubt, where the state controls the media with a firm hand.
From the time of heavy code to “low code” environments, the world of software is moving to “no code” frameworks.
Similar to cloud, no code is not a category itself, but rather a shift in how users interface with software tools. In the same way that PCs democratized software usage, APIs democratized software connectivity and the cloud democratized the purchase and deployment of software, no code will usher in the next wave of enterprise innovation by democratizing technical skill sets. No code is empowering business users to take over functionality previously owned by technical users by abstracting complexity and centering around a visual workflow. This profound generational shift has the power to touch every software market and every user across the enterprise.
The article says that an average enterprise is supporting 1,200 cloud-based applications at any given time. Lacking internal support, business users bring in external IT consultants. Cloud promised easy as-needed software adoption with seamless integration, but the realities of quickly changing business needs have led to a roaring comeback of expensive custom software.
‘No code’ will define the next generation of software – TechCrunch — techcrunch.com
This fundamental shift provides an opening for a new cohort of no code companies to grow into the next generation of software powerhouses.
Stand-ups who do anything but comedy have been peddling anti-Hindu bigotry to get the sponsorship of the powers-that-be. There is an industry that promotes this ideological crap and it has financing. Now, the public sentiment is waking up to the mischief and these so-called “stand-ups” – bigoted hit-men and women really, are trying to hide their vile utterances.
At least 7 stand-up comedians deactivate or protect their Twitter accounts after netizens dredge up deplorable old tweets and videos — www.opindia.com
Unnerved by the possibility that they might be entrapped in a legal dispute, comedians deactivate/protect their Twitter account after users highlighted their reprehensible old tweets insulting Hindu Gods and Goddesses
At this time, it will be interesting to read the words of one of the greatest minds of modern India – Dr. BR Ambedkar.
How Ambedkar busted the myth of ‘Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb’ through his speeches and book ‘Pakistan or Partition of India’ — www.opindia.com
Ambedkar was, in reality, always wary of the Communists and their propensity of creating chaos and anarchy.
Bigotry of the Sunni fanatics knows no bounds. A 3 year old girl’s body was dug up from the cemetery and thrown on the side of the road, because she was born to Ahmadi parents. Just let that sink in. She was just three year old. At that age, kids cannot even speak clearly. Leave alone have a religion.
Muslim fanatics ‘dig up three-day-old girl’s body from cemetery — www.dailymail.co.uk
Local Ahmadi leader, S.M. Selim, said fanatical mainstream Muslims had dug her up Police in the district said no complaint had been made however and one officer said the incident had been resolved ‘peacefully’.
At some point, humanity of some people will start to question the unbridled hate that such bigotry can unleash.
Great News – COVID vaccines: Two indigenous Indian candidate vaccines have got clearance to start early phase human trials this month with both having approximately 1,000 human volunteers each, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Tuesday. (Source)
Chinese withdrawal: The latest satellite photos, accessed by Zee Media, have shown Chinese troops withdrawing partially from the heavily contested Finger 4 area along the Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh. The photos show that Chinese structures, tents, and sheds have reduced from what was present earlier, shedding light on the disengagement process along the border. (Source)
1st Arab Space mission, borrowed albeit: The first of three international missions to Mars gets underway Tuesday when a Japanese H-2A rocket boosts a United Arab Emirates spacecraft known as “Hope” into space for a seven-month voyage to the red planet. It will be the first interplanetary mission ever attempted by an Arab nation. (Source)
Stone tools from 850,000 years ago: Archaeologists have uncovered ancient tools in Gabon that may rewrite our understanding of Humankind’s history in Central Africa. The discovery marks the earliest known evidence of human activity in the Congo Basin. These have been dated to 620,000 to 850,000 years ago, making them the earliest known evidence of a human presence in that area. (Source)
China destroys Tibet Buddhist sites: London-based NGO Free Tibet reported that a densely populated area on the west bank of the river running through Yarchen Gar in Palyual County, Eastern Tibet, has been reduced to bare ground. Chinese authorities levelled almost half of Yarchen Gar – one of the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist sites, according to recently published satellite images. Monks and nuns have also been forced out of their homes and places of worship in the area, with research group Tibet Watch confirming the removal of at least 70 nuns in July. Established in 1985, Yarchen Gar is a Buddhist monastery complex that previously had a population of around 10,000 people. (Source)
Sometimes it is critical to see evil right up. No need to ignore or push it aside. But face it. What happened in Delhi earlier this year in the name of anti-CAA riots was actually an anti-Hindu pogrom by a Muslim politician from Aam Aadmi Party funded by terrorists like Zakir Naik and other forces in UAE, Singapore etc. The crime branch of Delhi Police has a detailed investigation and collected forensic and technical evidence of how the pogrom against the Hindus was planned and executed. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, hardly any media group is even running with the news of what the chargesheets actually say. Even when they are in the words of the criminal himself. That should show the critical necessity of people like Ajeet Bharati, who despite threats to their lives and work, carry on to do their duty.
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