Modi declares war on Muslims in India

 Modi's re-election is India's biggest problem going forward. The biggest issue he has to tackle is job creation, which is not going to happen just with slogan chanting and hate speeches igniting further racial polarisation. Already we have seen the issues regarding the treatment of Muslims in India. India has lots of problems with racial and religious matters, with Manipur and Punjab particularly evident. Modi is not solving them but is keeping and using such issues to divide and rule.

Modi's popularity rests on his pro-Hindu religious stand, which is the religion of the majority Indians in India, and they are eating out of his hand. However, that is not going to solve the unemployment problem facing younger Indians entering the workforce. The same way that Muslims in Malaysia have eaten out of the hands of Mahathir for decades, using racial politics to divide the country. That has stagnated progress in Malaysia for decades. Anyway, let us not talk too much about Malaysian politics as Muslims in Malaysia may not like it.

With India's anti-foreign business mindset under Modi, where foreign investments in India are sidelined in favour of domestic manufacturers that contributed huge sums of money in political support for him and his party, trying to lure foreign investors to set up shop in India is difficult. Chinese investors are avoiding India for example. That is not good for job creation. It is cutting the nose to spite the face, nothing more nothing less.

Anonymous

Biden and his 'ingenius' plan cooked up by the clowns in Washington

 Joe Biden plans to make the USA independent from China with decoupling high on his agenda. This is a wet dream in his dementia tainted mind.

According to Kevin Walmsley, on the site 'Inside China Business', he laid out the reality of the USA trying to set up industries to compete with China in the clean energy sector. That means making EVs, solar panels and wind turbines among others to compete with China. This is easier said than done, with empty slogans alone not worrying China. All the sanctions, hurdles and fake accusations against China today are meant to delay China's going further ahead and buy time for the USA industries to be set up and rise. Fanciful thoughts, I would say.

China controls all the supply chains that are needed to set up such a manufacturing Utopia. The USA is planning to set up such an Utopia to rival the Chinese. However, looking at the charts provided by various analyst, the answer is simply impossible. So much is dependent on China's processing domination that setting up the supply chains is beyond the ability of even the USA, the richest country in the world. The USA is simply promoting the 'feel good' feeling for themselves and their allies talking about such a venture. Can the USA really compete even if it succeeds? Warning China not to increase industrial overcapacity is an exercise in futility.

As in the case of India, critical iPhone components have still to be sourced from China for iPhone assembly in India. India does not have the total supply chain to cater to the needs of entities making such phones in India despite all the slogan chanting. The USA will also fall into the same predicament, having still to rely on China for all the basic components and raw materials to make those clean energy equipment.

Biden is of course not concern about those problems, as he is more concern about having his second term. He has to get Trump off his back for November, and that is why the Democrats are inventing all the hubris to make Trump less visible and more culpable. The lies and fake evidence generated to invade Iraq is being used in the same manner against Trump. The voters in the USA do not remember that of course. 

Anonymous

Israel will be completely wipe out if Iran unload all it got into Israel

 The strike in retaliation by Iran against the Israeli attack on its embassy in Damascus was a warning that Iran can take down the 'Iron Dome' defense system. The Israelis have considered that scenario in its retaliation, after that Iranian strike, not to cross the line.

The Israeli retaliation also had the same motive - to test the Iranian defense capabilities and Israeli drones were successfully shot down, with little damage being reported. From another angle it was a token move by Israel to regain some of its lost prestige over the Iranian strike, where its airfields were successfully targeted by Iran. Netanyahu had to put on a show to satisfy critics that were pushing him to retaliate.

I think Israel has lost its bearings, is condemned and more isolated, even by countries that were previously sympathetic to its cause. According to Chas Freeman, the former US defense department diplomat in an interview with Nima R. Alkhorshid on the site 'Dialogue Works', Freeman holds the view that Iran's attack on Israel has destroyed all of Israel's calculations.

Elsewhere in interviews, he was also of the view that the USA also lost the last of its influence in the Middle East, after some Muslim allies categorically refused to allow the USA to attempt to use facilities in their territories to station logistics to counter any Iranian counterstrike should Israel cross the Iranian 'Red Line. This was possibly the reason why Israel and the USA did not go on to escalate the conflict with Iran. They knew that their planes need tankers for refueling flying all the way to Iran and back.

Now Israel is back to commit its genocides in Gaza. Even if Israel could take over the Gaza strip and build Israeli settlements there, will it enjoy any peace going forward, with Hezbollah at its doorstep and the remnants of Hamas advocating revenge?

Geopolitics in the Middle East is changing and changing drastically with more violence on the cards.

Anonymous

Reckless behaviour of American terrorists

 When they start to believe in their own propaganda, that is an indication that their thinking is gone bonkers. Their behavior becomes irrational and desperate.

Blinken is going to Beijing for what? This is at the same time that the USA is trying to ban TikTok, BYD, imposing further sanctions on China on chips, after Huawei came out with a new phone, conducting military drills every day with Japan and Philippines and provoking China and North Korea.

The USA is using the same tactic taken from their dusty playbook and trying to show the Anglo-Saxon doggies that it is still in a position of strength before any meeting with China. Blinken has not learnt his lesson in Anchorage, Alaska. The message by Yang Jiechi then was clear and unambiguous regarding China's stand on issues.

Blinken is going to talk to China about helping Russia. Any reason China should not help Russia, while the whole Anglo-Saxon Imperialist clique is pouring resources and military equipment into Ukraine? The USA can forget about trying to split the Russia/China alliance. Borth are the backbone and the foundation of BRICS undertaking the de-dollarization move that they are aiming for decades.

For Russia, there is no turning back. The US$300 billion asset in the West is the last link that Russia will have anything to do with the US$. China is making the Yuan more visible in global trade. Those Yuan swaps with countries in the Middle East and South America are strategic moves. So is the BRI and the AIIB.

As decoupling gets more intense, China will be just like Russia, and has to move in a different direction away from the USA and the West, especially the EU. CEOs of European countries are seeing the whole picture and are expanding their footprints in China to move away while they can.

This is an even worst time to talk about wanting to keep the peace when the USA is going all out to provoke China in every dimension. Why should China believe in what he is going to say, or even follow what he has to say? When your neighbor keeps making trouble for you, would you want to talk to him to make peace when you know it is all hypocrisy? Ridiculous!.

Anonymous

Xunpu traditional dresses on the streets of Quanzhou, China

Many of the ladies visiting Quanzhou would venture to don on the colourful dresses and flower head gears you are seeing below. This traditional dressing style actually came from a fishing village, Xunpu, about 3 or 4 kilometers away from West Street. In the village, even grannies put on the head gear, though of a smaller scale. 

In West Street, Quanzhou, many shops have set up to provide this service, renting out head gears, dresses and makeup services to transform he visitors into a fantasy like existence, like living in another world and time. The whole package could include a photographer accompanied. The beautiful ladies were mostly from other parts of China.

All the pics were taken in the compound of Kai Yuan Temple, West Street and lanes nearby.