The declining influence of the Arab world ..

Lack of effective leadership and overzealousness
in religious issues is the bane of the Arab world now.

It gives one great shock, looking at the dismembered picture of countries across the Arab world. And when it is known they are fighting against each other, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups, but essentially fighting with somebody or the other, it is no good news at all ! The result is that the Arab states of Libya, Syria, Iraq, Saudi, Iran, UAE, Lebanon, Qatar and other Arab states from middle east and north Africa are on the verge of a great collapse.

Despots and dictators, not people's representatives..
main cause of Arab unrest at a 2015 Arab League meeting ..

The infighting between the states on the basis of the religious following, (whether they are Sunnis or Shias, worshipping the same god), has let so much blood flow on the streets. The Sykes Picot agreement which cut the states on regional and language basis a hundred years ago, actually did the reverse, making people enemies against their own countrymen.

Refer to the Economist article highlighting these issues.

The high revenues from global oil prices used to be the opium which sapped the common man of  enterprise,  hardwork and sensible thinking over the years and made them useless and non-productive, indulging in unnecessary religious fundamentalism, an example is Osama Bin Laden from Saudi Arabia. Now low oil prices have affected the revenues for these countries and has made existence for thesepeople and the nations difficult. 

A very disturbing thought though all these years is the loss of lives, bloodshed etc that has happened in the Arab world in the name of religion and geographical boundaries. 

Nobody seems to care for the lives lost, the grieving mothers, parents  and children .. Children are made orphans at very early age, they are used in human and sex trafficking, which is beyond any comprehension of a decent way of living. The amount of refugees as a result of this disturbance is causing tensions in other developed western european countries. 

North African Arab countries and Syria continue to be the largest sources of refugees around the world presently. The very volatile political situation there, combined with corrupt rulers and terrorist violence by IS, fuelled by low growth, a bleak future and suppression of individual liberties is a main source of concern there. Though United States tilted the cart initially by interfering in the Arab peninsula, in Iraq and dislodging a legitimate ruler there who ensured harmony in society, even though he had his own shortcomings, it is of no use now blaming US for the worrisome developments happening in these countries. How can we redeem the situation now and right a historical wrong done on them ?

When Indians compare the peace, growth, technological and social development happening in India and China, with what is happening in these countries, it really makes one sad. When one part of the world is progressing by leaps and bounds, another part is grieving at death, violence and poor growth. Tragic !! Neither the leaders, the rulers, the public in these countries seem to be worried at all !

Over the centuries lack of democracy, lack of credible leadership in the Arab world has resulted in incompetent rulers in these countries. Often monarchs and dictators try in this complex web of processes to help prolong their reign. The Saud family's control over the largest of the Arab States, Arabia stands threatened with a more informed population demanding their rights and freedom. Influence of fanatical religious fundamentalism and the rise of the terrorist movements like Islamic State and establishment of its Caliphate have added to the fire.

A deeper study into what can bring lasting peace to the Arab world, where all the stakeholders sit across the table and come up with credible solutions both for long term and short term peace is the need of the hour.

The famed Arab culture, music, food style, contribution to science and technology over the years, (concept of algorithm in the digital world) entertainment etc have had its impact on global civilization. Let not petty unintelligent dictators, despots, murderers and their families, religious groups like IS and religious fundamentalists with narrow concocted minds, let them not spoil this peace and harmony.

Strengthening pan-arabism or the Arab League has great meaning now. 

Advice for our arab brethren, watch out for religious fundamentalism and try not to fall a prey to it. 

ge..

UN Security Council Permanent membership ..

The legacy of  '45 needs to be carried
forward ..

UN HQ buildings, NY

Is it not high time that the United Nations re-considered the status of the 5 permanent members of the Security Council ?

In the changed global economic, social, political, technological environment, do France, UK and Russia play as important a role as India ?

Either include India also as a permanent member and expand the membership to 6 or change the less important member, either UK or Russia from the permanent membership and bring India in.

UN Security Council in session with the 5 permanent members US, China,
Russia, France and United Kingdom. Are some of these nations still relevant
in the new changed global order ?

Economically India is at no. 3 position in the world, with the world's second largest population and a fast growing technologically superior technological base especially in space technology and a very responsible nuclear power.

It is high time the world evaluated permanent members of the UN Security Council on their merit and reconsider it.Else even when India regains peaceful leadership of the world, the world would be sleeping and United Nations would lose its relevance altogether.

The scenario that existed in the fifties is not the situation now and needs serious consideration. Global economic, demographic, political, technological, military profiles have changed whereby some nations have progressed far ahead and some nations have opted to step out.

george..

Dadaab refugee camp ..

Dadaab, the refugee camp in SE Kenya opened in 1992 by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to protect refugees from Somalian civil war and drought, presently houses 2,30,000 refugees. The refugee camp opened in 1994 and has been functioning for the past 24 years, is the largest refugee camp in the world. (in 2011 even housing upto 500,000 refugees)

Aerial view of the Dadaab camp, with its own schools
eateries, mobile phone accessibility etc .. ..

2-3 generations are living here ..

This year end if Kenya calls it off, it is going to be a great tragedy for 2,30,000 Somalians .

This is an excellent writeup ( a blog) by one of the inmates put up at the UNHCR site 

Why is it that Somalians in the camp are unable to return to their country, Somalia. Somalia is a law-less country with no government worth the name, being ruled by notorious gangs prominent among them being religious groups led by Al-Shabaab. 

The links above give first hand information from Somalia and from the Dadaab refugee camp.

From first hand accounts of a traveller to Kenya (my sister), I was told that the Somalian pirates who used to hijack ships on the Somalian coast proceeding from south of Africa to the Arab world for great ransom, have used part of these ransom money to build their country, but in vain. With no sincere global assistance forthcoming from the global community and serious lack of national political leadership, the future of Somalia is still gloom and offers no hope, at least for the next ten years.

UNHCR camp tents at Dadaab, for 24 years ..

When people in Africa, especially minorities, are being tortured, subjugated and forced to live in poverty, disease and hunger, elsewhere in the developed and developing world, people are feasting and wasting good. What an irony !

Click here to read an excerpt (from a book), published from the Telegraph newspaper to give a glimpse of a boy struggling to survive in the camp with his lone surviving family member, his sister.

These 2,30,000 people are doing no productive work than collecting their weekly food quotas, cook at home, sleep, procreate and again the next day continue the same routine. This is incurring a great cost  burden on UNHCR, it is forced to depend on payments made by UN member countries for the sake of these refugees who are restrained from doing any productive work.

If only they could be given some land on which they could do farming, dairy farming etc, grow vegetables, fruits, horticulture, rearing livestock like cattle, sheep etc which could bring in revenue for the refugees and at the sane time generate output which could be used for consumption by Kenyans in their markets.

When we look at these refugees, and when we read of the atrocities being committed on humanity in the Arab world by fanatic elements in society in the name of religion, we have to hang our heads in shame that we are living in such an uncivilized world, which does not value human life or honour.

George 

Benefits or otherwise of huge internet accessing population.

Internet penetration across the world  '12.. (wikipedia.org)

Indian Internet user base now stands at 560 million by mid June '16 and growing at app 100 million annually till 2020, 75% accessing over smartphones.

Mobile internet access .. '12

Fixed Internet access, '12

China at 721 million Internet users presently will grow at 25 million users annually.

By 2019, both India and China would have 900 million Internet users each.

http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/china/

Another interesting statistic page from wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_access

As part of research, shall be looking at a couple of questions - 

1. What are the positive and negative impacts of huge population accessing the net, almost 75% in the largest two economies.

2. Are we prepared and capable to positively handle such an eventuality ?

3. What are the common fears of people when asked to foresee such a situation

4. How can we be well prepared to manage this development

5. Should we regulate or promote easy and free access to the net and why ?

The solace however is that earth has always self-regulated itself so well that there is no need for panic, but we are unaware what this self-regulation will be like.

An awareness will get us better prepared for the future ..

george..

Pharoah Tutankhamen had a meteoritic dagger ..

Pharoah Tutankhamen of the 18th dynasty in Egypt from 1332-1323 BC was perhaps the first person on planet earth to have such a valuable and unique antique, a dagger .. 

The uniqueness lies in the fact that it is a dagger made of superior iron from a meteoritic rock ..

The casing and handle of this dagger is made of gold. Inset pic is of King Tut's famous golden facemask.

Here is an earlier writing on King Tutankhamen and his burial chamber with his mummified body ..

ge..

Service blueprint ..

Service blueprint - essential elements

A blueprint is something intended as a guide for making something else.Usually it is either  a print of plans or technical drawings on blue paper, hence the name.

"A service blueprint is an operational planning tool that provides guidance on how a service will be provided, specifying the physical evidence, staff actions, and support systems / infrastructure needed to deliver the service across its different channels." (source - wikipedia.org)

Why use a Service blueprint ?

What is service blueprint ?

1. One can do a service blueprint to look objectively at the different partners in service completion 
2. helps to understand the roles of different players / partners objectively.
3. it helps to understand what are the basic processes / physical evidence / infrastructure needed to replicate the process anywhere in the world.
4. every partner knows how his element of the work is contributing to the bigger whole
5. it helps to find missing processes in service
6. it helps to set up necessary physical infrastructure even before the service is in place

A hotel service blueprint ..

7. it helps to find what components need regular attention, like maintenance of physical evidence etc.
8. it helps to find the extent to which Information Technology (IT) can help in speeding up the processes or making it efficient and effective
9. to find processes which need public information dissemination than just customer enlightenment and satisfaction

What can happen if service blueprint does not exist ?
1. chance of missing out on important processes / physical infrastructure
2. confusing between the line of interaction and line of visibility 
3. chance of missing out on learning processes at different locations, needing to do processes afresh.

Examples :The below pic is the service blueprint of a hotel service.

Some activities : 

1. Can you draw a service blueprint for a simple barber shop ?

2. What additional physical evidence / facilities should a hospital provide to make it more effective ?

3. On visiting a bakery, can you lay down and draw the different elements of the service blueprint ?

4. IT / textile processing is a big service sector in Bangalore. Can you draw the service blueprint for these sectors ?

Can China match up to India in space technology ?

Can the world's two greatest economic powers, two great civilizations, two great cultures and two great people be able to match up in space technology ?

A chinese expt to space ..

With India having gone aeons ahead of China in inter-planetary explorations with its Mars mission and launching and landing back on earth, the first miniature winged reusable vehicle using cryogenic technology, we hope China will be able to catch up with India in another twenty years, if not earlier.

Space technology in particular and Science and Technology in general, will be developing around these two great powers from Asia in the coming centuries.

A news-report on what China intends to do in space in the next 20 years .. Will they be able to catch up with India ?

How China develops technology clandestinely .. Click here ..

China must understand one thing, its 'might' may not stand by it when it comes to being smart in science and technology. Intelligence cannot be bought or intimidated with might !

It bodes well for China to get alongside India and walk side-by-side in their joint stride to give peaceful leadership to the world.

ge..