ARINDAM MUKHERJEE

Hi guys. Been some time. Was busy pushing two close buddies to start with their writing programs. And now that that has started showing good results (check the last two articles on Heartland), here I am, back with my updates.

Venezuela. Though Maduro and his likes have been quite disappointing leaders that have jacked this resource-rich country to a level that the Venezuela state-run oil company – despite sitting on hydrocarbon reserves beyond your wildest dreams – needs reinvestment (reminds me of the last period of Soviet Union), and this here is a serious temptation to get into a capitalism-socialism debate; large portions of the cyber-world are at it already, having divided themselves in two camps and fistfighting on how to run a nation exactly – experienced that they are in running nations – with select few ‘centrists’ trying to act as referees: “Oh but you see, Hillary is my Mother Mary… SHUT THE FUCK UP TRUMPIMP” and so on... But we are not going to do any of that crap. We would just read up on gossips and stuff.

And the gossip is that China would probably be putting in money in Venezuela to help revive their oil economy. Club that with those Russian Tupolevs, and you get the picture of a nation that has proven reserves of mind-boggling quantities of oil, so close to Uncleland, and being supported by those that he considers his mortal enemies. Every reason to hashtag-bring-democracy-now. Hence the sanctions crash land and out from that crash comes a thin guy who keeps telling anyone willing to hear him that he is the El Presidente.

But here is the thing; Uncle is going slow. Maybe Uncle wants to plan this one better. Maybe Uncle doesn’t have much choice so far. The V-Army is solid behind the fat man with the moustache. Uncle-spies, for some reasons, haven’t yet managed to recruit that critical mass – a la Libya/Syria – that’s required to cascade something half as interesting as Al Kabab, or ummm… Chapatista (this is South America after all) or close. And Russia and China putting on an impressive amount of frequent flyer miles behind some last century stuff called ‘diplomacy’ – stuff that doesn’t interest Uncle – haven’t left much manoeuvring space so far for Uncle-planners.

I don’t know if this is of interest to any of you, but the number of times Uncle getting side-lined from being The Decision Maker to One of The Stakeholders in a span of a few years is increasing. Damn intriguing, if you asked me. So, these days you have him clamouring for toppling a fat man in South America in exchange for a thin man of his choice, while you have China and Russia asking everyone to take it easy, calling all the parties – internal and external – to the table to negotiate. And getting favourable responses too. Then hundreds of miles east, in the land that made its bones sodomizing young boys and beheading foreign occupiers – uncle suddenly finds himself in an unexpected good spot when the Taliban makes some scouts’ honour promise or something, messaging Uncle saying that they pledge to ‘behave’. That makes Uncle very happy. EXTERNAL VARIABLES, drawing reactions from Uncle. When do you think that last happened? Uncle sitting-in-wait for lady luck to smile…?

Anyway, talking about Afghanistan – there are some confounding fringes that have come to play. Taliban is promising to behave properly should uncle leave and everyone knows that they can’t be trusted… Ashraf Ghani worried if Uncle leaves it will be a civil war and he will have it tough… Russia and China hell-bent on getting the Taliban to be a stakeholder – but I don’t know if they are adequately prepared for the baggage that accompanies these AK47-thugs… Pakistan unleashing a new leader of Taliban that they had kept in jail (read ‘kept safe’ from US Drones)… then, USA suddenly saying we are not leaving Afghanistan, in a latest flip-flop…

It is currently running a little complex there, and unfortunately, I don’t have the kind of time required for a continuous commentary, so, I would rather wait out and post a ‘what happened thus far’ piece sometimes later. Yea, Zalmay Khaleelzad – the negotiator from White House – is still alive and doing swell, unlike that idiot Jamal Khashoggi who couldn’t even differentiate a ‘khhabri’ from a girlfriend. And UK – being reduced to thievery since the past 60 or so odd years – amidst this chaos in South America, has whacked 14 tonnes of Venezuelan gold reserves. Those lizards that you see pasted helplessly on your house-wall and feeding on small flies, they used to be dinosaurs or equally scary shit some years ago. These days you gotta be careful to not hurt them while closing doors and windows. UK’s had a similar devolution; only difference is that the average lizard eminently likeable.  

Among other things, I find myself wondering about the Left these days; need your help here. When I was young and all, the left used to represent workers, farmers, wage earners and such likes. They would be bothered about this and that security and safety, and for genuine reasons. Durgapur Steel Plant had open steel melting shops and blast furnaces those days. People used to die in accidents sometimes. Most of the huge plant wasn’t safety proof. We were a poor country – because the dinosaur-turned-lizard had been devouring us following a parasite-diet – and it would take some time to ensure safety of reasonable standards. You could see them commies – most of them remained very angry – in dirty white half sleeved shirts and worn out trousers. They wore thick glasses, were well-read, and most of them were very serious people with a lot of sociopolitical understanding and shit. Today, the Left is a bunch of NGO-sponsored, billionaire backed, celebrity edorsed, champagne sipping class, that has as much connection with the grassroot as the Queen of England has with the average taxi driver of London. The dirty shirt’s gone; so are those glasses. Going by their articles and posts, one reckons they have stopped reading those fat books a long time ago. Thing is… I would be damn happy if I had made that kind of a journey; no books, no struggle, no worries… just a lot of unearned money to do whatever the hell I wanted. Yet these guys continue to be angry.

Any idea why?

Anyway; happy weekend folks!

Images courtesy - fool.com and thetrumpet.com