In my country, the Govt was busy patting its own back for having put a lockdown in very early days. Our demagogue of a leader was having a gala time addressing the nation in this momentous time and he used every occasion to "cement" his place in history by giving all sort of advice to people in the name of getting together.
Step 1:He told us to light earthen lamps and bulbs. The govt sympathizers circulated that it is our great man's plan to kill Corona by raising the temperature. Apparently, it did not work.
Step 2: Then he said we all should come out of our balconies and make noises using cymbals and plates and drums. The propaganda machinery said that the corona virus cannot survive the sound of the holy conches used in our temples. So on that fateful morning, a lot of my fellow countrymen blew their conches with the full capacity of their lungs. A lot of fuckers thought that taking processions in the street and dancing would be fine too. I guess y'all know we Indians love a good mixture of sound and dance. So yeah, we celebrated. Later on we found that corona does not die by these holy sounds.
Step 3: We were all told to install an app. This was the grand plan. Apparently, the marker on this Govt app will always show you "safe", no matter where you are. Its a great psychological boost.
Please tell me that this is some sarcastic post and that you're just mocking what the government has taken as measures and they
haven't actually done this!
The moment I read the first part with the heating I didn't know if it's a joke and a pretty good one or I should really start crying about what's happening there.
So again, please tell me it's not real!!!
There is a fair bit of sarcasm in there @stompix. I am talking about India. Our PM comes on television and he is known for making emotive appeals. For a hardcore section of followers, he can do no wrong. Lighting earthen lamps is considered an auspicious thing in our society. So the PM did this "let us all come together" and light lamps thing. So people started forwarding whatsapp messages about metaphysical stuff explaining benefits of earthen lamps or the holy vibrations produced by conch shells. This was of course not an official stance. Just a kind of message from the leadership. The fan club gives it these twists to increase the popularity and demonstrate to people that how our PM is connected to his roots or how brilliant he is. While, we all appreciate the stress on conservative values and cultural revival, a lot of it is demagoguery pandering to the hardcore base.
Sorry, if this post talked little about economy. We have a public pandemic and a potential war at hands. Pakistan is sitting on the western border probably hoping for another of its hyena attacks now that the tiger is distracted by the dragon. Yet, I can say that this is all good news for the economy. We shall overcome.
The enemy of your enemy is your friend. But Pakistan's position in the dispute between India and China will benefit Pakistan by dividing India's concentration and slowing infrastructure development carried out by the Indian government around the conflict area. Why is this road considered a game-changer, because with the road infrastructure India will be increasingly able to mobilize its troops into conflict areas.
The tension between China and India is feared by Pakistan to attract Americans to get involved in it. The closeness between America and India is a loss for Pakistan. America has indeed begun to forge strategic relations with India for a long time to counter the strength of China in the future.
The relation between Pakistan and China is an exploitative an opportunist one. Pakistan ceded them territory in Kashmir (Aksai Chin) and in return China has always helped arm Pakistan. China's main motive is to keep India busy by just nudging Pakistan while keeping their own 3000+ KM of border conflict free. In recent times, India has been making headway with world powers. The G-7 temporary meeting, India extending relationships with ASEAN nations are all irritants to China.
So they have taken these coercive measures. China is a shrewd one. They will say one thing and do something else. All of this is basically being done to take the sail out of India's wind of resurgence amid backlash against China. They don't want it to be an easy decision for corporations. Corporations look for stable countries with a stable governance. To me, this is a major reason that China has been trying hard to put everyone on their toes, including SEA nations and India.
By the way, I wish India and Indonesia had closer interaction like when we had at the time of non-alignment. We do share ancient roots. I have been to Bali once. Its just that the cultural ties get over-colored by the religious differences. Since the coming of the present govt, the Indian RW has been very vocal about the religious issues. Yet, as a majority, India is still a secular country which always deals with other nations on good faith. This is also one of the reasons that the Chinese catch us off-guard time and again.
It is not clear which way the Galwan valley stand-off will go. Its a high-altitude battlefield and the Chinese are planning something big with their constant build-up. It remains to be seen if Indian leadership will take the risk to attack first to free the "no-man's land". Lot of backdoor frantic activity going on. China has been a bully in the region for too long, especially in the South China Sea. It falls on India to stand up to them. Indian armed forces have a history of doing that since Independence.