Barackface

Saturday, May 23, 2015

World, India, Bihar

India is the most interesting democracy in the world, and Bihar is the most interesting democracy in India. इतना ज्यादा उठापटक! :)

Pappu Yadav pitches for Third Front in Bihar
Is Nitish Kumar working on a new Bihar poll strategy that excludes Laloo and Mulayam?
Lalu Prasad Yadav pushes anti-BJP front in Bihar, Nitish skips meet
ABP News Opinion Poll: The mood in Bihar
Modi warns against caste politics in Bihar

बीजेपी के लिए बिहार और उत्तर प्रदेश बहुत महत्त्व रखता है। दोनों जगह वो लोग संभावना देख रहे हैं। पश्चिम बंगाल, उड़ीसा, तमिलनाडु जैसे जगहों पे तो वहाँ के लोकल पार्टी जम के बैठे हुवे हैं। वहां बीजेपी को कोइ opening नहीं दिखाइ दे रही है। २०१७ में बीजेपी वाले UP तो बिलकुल स्वीप करेंगे। बिहार में 100-100-45 फोर्मुला पर परिवार वाले लड़ते तो 50-50 chance था। लेकिन परिवार में जो soap opera चल रहा है उससे बीजेपी का पलड़ा भारी पड़ गया है। शायद नीतिश ने तीन गलतियां की: (१) बीजेपी से नाता तोडा (२) मुख्य मंत्री पद से इस्तीफा दिया (३) मुलायम को नेता माना, थके हुवे Zero Development Man को।

लालु का strength था पप्पु ----- रोम पोप का मधेपुरा गोप का। मधेपुरा तो पप्पु का है। नीतिश को महादलित वोट चाहिए थी। संख्या काफी है महादलितों की। ये नहीं की वो सबके सब जीतन के साथ हो लिए, लेकिन काफी fracturing तो जरूर हुवा है।

Advantage Sushil Modi.

राज्य सभा के अंक गणित को मैं नहीं समझ पा रहा हुँ। बिहार और उत्तर प्रदेश बीजेपी के झोली में आ भी जाए तो राज्य सभा में उनको बहुमत मिल्ने में काफी समय लगेगी। They have no choice but to try and work with people like Patnaik and Jayalalitha. Even if they form governments in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

पहले पहले जितन और पप्पु निकले, अब नीतिश और लालु की बोलचाल बंद होती जा रही है। ये दोनों २०-३० सीटों पर आ उतरेंगे।

सबसे अच्छा तो ये होता कि नीतिश और सुशील फिर से एक जगह आ जाते। दो तिहाइ का सरकार बनाते। बिहार के विकास के लिए। मुलायम आप को नहीं चाहते हैं, लालु नहीं चाहते हैं, सुशील मोदी तो अभी भी आपको चाहते हैं।

दलितों के पास दो रास्ता
The Next Chief Minister Of Bihar?
Nitish In Election Mode
जितन और पप्पु ने बिहार को पेंचिंदा बनाया
बिहार का मामला

Friday, May 22, 2015

दलितों के पास दो रास्ता

दलितों के पास दो रास्ता है मेरे नजर में।

(१) हिन्दु लोग caste system को बिलकुल ख़तम करने का अभियान चलायें।
(२) अगर हिन्दु लोग उस रास्ते पर नहीं जाते हैं दलितों के पास दुसरा रास्ता वो है तो अकबर वैसी ने दिखाया है: धर्म परिवर्तन करो और मुसलमान बन जाओ।

मुसलमान का मसीहा जो लालु मुलायम जैसे लोग बनते थे वो जमाना गया। अब मुसलामन का मसीहा खुद मुसलमान बनेगा। दलित १६% हैं। १७ करोड़। मुसलमान हैं १८ करोड़। दोनों मिल जाते हैं तो सत्ता हाथ में ले लेंगे। शांतिपूर्वक राजनीति करो। जाओ वोट माँगो। काम करो। विकास करो।

Indians Muslims should use democracy as a tool to empower the Muslim community in India on social, economic indicators across the board, and they should work to spread democracy across the Muslim world. They should take the lead on that. They are in the best position to do that.

अकबर के पार्टी का नाम मेरे मुँह से लेकिन निकलता नहीं है --- कैसा कठिन नाम है। खैर जो है सो है -- उनकी मर्जी।

The Next Chief Minister Of Bihar?

जनता परिवार के भितर इतना ज्यादा कुश्ताकुश्ती चल रहा है कि नितीश की नैया डुबती नजर आ रही है। जनता परिवार वाले तो soap opera पर उतर आए हैं। जनता परिवार वाले १००-१००-४५ के फोर्मुला पर आ जाते हैं तो अभी भी थोड़ा वक्त बचा है। दुसरे कैंप में भी थोड़ा बहुत खिंचा तानी तो है। बीजेपी २००, राम विलास ६५, कुशवाहा ४० पर दावा कर रहे हैं। ३०५ नहीं २४५ सीट उपलब्ध हैं।

What I am noticing in his profile:

His science background: botany student, and a topper. अधिकांश लोग को यूनिवर्सिटी में फेल होने के बाद राजनीति में जाते हैं।
Early love for computers and programming languages, precisely what Bihar needs. Turn the state into the Silicon Plains. नालंदा को फिर से दुनिया का top यूनिवर्सिटी बना दो। बिलकुल संभव है।
He got on Atal Bihari Vajpayee's personal radar before holding any elected office. That is mesmerizing. Atal is also the one who sent the other Modi to Gujrat as Chief Minister. Impressive man.
So the BJP has had the road department in the Nitish government? I did not know. Good roads have been the most visible aspect of the Nitish-BJP government in Bihar. I guess SuMo can take some credit. Fair enough.

BJP's Vote Winner

Reaching out to people through Facebook on his iPhone ...... In his second term as Bihar Deputy Chief Minister, the 59-year-old has started holding janata darbars where he meets a stream of visitors. He has egged on bjp cadres into contesting the Panchayat polls in Bihar and supported Anna Hazare on the Lokpal bill. Sushil Modi also hit the campaign trail in Assam......... the eternal quest to break new ground-editing his Wikipedia profile being his latest labour. He has a mountain of information: 19 months in jail during the Emergency; 3,113 votes his first victory margin .......

the man who discovered Bihar for the BJP
...... writing crisp replies to e-mails on his BlackBerry or editing the 524-page Economic Survey of Bihar on his Apple iPad, he is constantly dusting off everything that represents him in the outside world....... A Google search yields 3.45 lakh results on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in response to "politician Modi" as against 1.42 lakh for Sushil Modi. The two Modis share the same rss ideology and practice. ...... Sushil Modi-the unremitting leader of the Opposition for eight years in Bihar during the Lalu-Rabri regime-was just an able second-in-command, a facilitator but never a face...... Sushil Modi, the permanent "second fiddle", finally produced music in the November 2010 Bihar Assembly elections-BJP won 91 of the 102 seats it contested with an unprecedented strike rate of 90 per cent...... With Muslims voting for the party in almost all constituencies, the BJP seems to have regained the secular trust that it had lost post-2002. The nda that lost a government in Delhi after Gujarat is now harbouring hopes of stitching a new one after the Bihar verdict...... Having won three consecutive Assembly polls from the Patna Central seat-each time his victory margin increased by over 20,000 votes-where the majority of 70,000 Muslim voters always stood by him ...... In the beginning of NDA-1 in November 2005, Sushil Modi and other BJP leaders successfully bargained for some of the most visible ministries like road, urban development and health. With Sushil Modi manning the finances, these departments did very well and bolstered the saffron prospects........ State BJP chief C.P. Thakur had threatened to pull out in the middle of the poll campaign over ticket distribution. Leading the party then was fraught with difficulties-the closer to the finishing line he got, the harder, more nerve-racking it became......... In 1973, prior to the crucial graduation examination in Patna University, he quit all socio-political activities despite being the general secretary of the student's union.

Many expected him to fail because Botany was difficult and he had hardly attended classes. He came second in the entire university
....... In 1977, when 55 young JP activists were elected as MLAs in Bihar, Sushil Modi preferred self-abnegation and stayed with the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, away from a political career.......
Life changed with his marriage to Jessie George-a Roman Catholic he met during a train journey to Mumbai-on April 13, 1986. bjp patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to whom he had just sent a formal invitation letter, travelled on his own to Patna for the wedding where he urged Sushil Modi to join active politics.
........ In 1988, Sushil Modi borrowed Rs.56,000 from a bank to start a computer training institute where he and his wife taught students basic and cobol languages. "Business was never my cup of tea. I was restless because I was away from my social life," he says. In 1990 when the bjp fielded him from Patna Central seat, a Congress bastion, he defeated sitting Congress legislator Akil Haider. He never looked back....... the June 2008 secret ballot after a group of BJP leaders challenged his leadership. He won with a convincing majority to continue as the deputy chief minister. Earlier in November 2005, a group of party leaders had resisted his becoming the deputy chief minister. He was a Lok Sabha member and his opponents wanted him to be just that. A majority of party legislators supported him and he was back in Patna. In the wake of the November 2010 election results, nobody asked Sushil Modi to take a test. He is now the new textbook.

Blaming Hillary For Benghazi = Blaming W For 9/11

Obama's Peace With Iran = Less Threat For Israel

It was George W's responsibility to protect the World Trade Center and he failed. It was Hillary's job to protect the ambassador in Libya, and she failed. Blaming Hilary for Benghazi: all is fair in love, war and a sexist country. If you ask me, W's failure was much greater. One life lost versus 3,000 lives lost. Not to say the damage to property, the economy and prestige. I don't see anyone, Republican or Democrat, blaming W for 9/11. How come? Blaming Hillary for Benghazi does not make you patriotic (I could argue the opposite might be true, you are sending a message to ISIS: kill someone and they will just blame it on Hillary! How convenient! .... okay, okay, I got confused between ISIS and the Al Qaeda there, but I don't expect the Republicans to figure that out), it makes you a facts-free sexist. Facts-free, as in someone completely unhinged from facts and logic. While you are at it, let's also blame Hillary for the 2008 recession. She was in the Senate at the time, was she not? What did she do to prevent the Great Recession? Why hurt the feelings of the white guys on Wall Street? Or the white guys in the White House, for that matter. I would not be surprised if Dick Cheney comes out to blame Hillary for the recession. Where is Dick when you need him?

Wait, maybe it was not her job to protect the ambassador. Maybe it was the job of the Department of Defense. Sorry for being a facts-free sexist in the paragraph above. My bad.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Nitish In Election Mode

Modi's key campaign team member Prashant Kishor likely to join Nitish Kumar

A public health expert, Kishor had left his job with the United Nations in 2011 and joined a team of young professionals who worked on the Modi campaign for nearly three years. Many have credited him with being the architect of 'chai per charcha' and 3D hologram campaign which contributed significantly to Modi's election victory..... 37-year-old Kishor along with some 60 other professionals had set up Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), initially to galvanise votes for Modi and later to address social issues. ....... he brings certain expertise in the area of communication and social media .... Kishor also made it clear that he was working for Modi and not BJP .... he had fallen out with the BJP leadership and party president Amit Shah.

Key member of Modi’s poll campaign team likely to work for Nitish Kumar
Man Behind PM Narendra Modi's 'Chai Pe Charcha' in Talks to Join Team Nitish Kumar

Prashant Kishor - a 37-year-old who flew in a few years ago from Africa to become a key member of the Narendra Modi campaign strategy team ....... Mr Kishor, who belongs to Buxar in Bihar, believes Nitish Kumar's prospects are better than the BJP's in the state ... He is so well versed in social media that he is an asset for whoever he works with. .... Mr Kishor put together a team of professionals, mostly MBAs and Ivy League and IIT graduates.

Prashant Kishor: Man pivot of PM Narendra Modi campaign in talks to help steer JD(U) in Bihar election

Kishor, 37, one of the prime movers of Citizens for Accountable Governance, an outfit modelled on the US-style political action committees that act as force multipliers to political campaigns in that country, is all set to project and define Kumar as an antithesis of Modi in the upcoming Bihar elections, possibly using the very tools used to build up the former Gujarat chief minister to try and knock him down. His entry into the Bihar political arena could also herald a new form of campaigning replete with its strong reliance on data analytics, branding and communication strategies hitherto unseen in a state known more for complicated caste arithmetic and use of muscle to win elections. ...... Kishor, a former public health specialist with the UN who left his job to work pro bono for Modi in 2011 ...... "The work that he would be doing...would be something to make the election strategy data-driven, a professional campaign that Bihar has never seen till now," said Tyagi, adding that Kumar's soon-to-be-underway campaign would involve public meetings in all districts "wherein we are showing video clips of Modi making promises and Nitishji will then make (people) understand how the promises were fake as the Centre is not doing anything for the state". ........... Kishor, who is a native of Balia, a district in Uttar Pradesh that borders his new expected theatre of operations. But it could also pit him head-to-head against Modi's more formidable electoral strategist and Lok Sabha elections victory lynchpin, BJP President Amit Shah ....... Kishor, seen as the key architect of the 'Chai Pe Charcha' and 3D hologram campaigns, earned the ire of many senior BJP figures and is said to be particularly disliked by Shah. Sources close to Shah believe Kishor exaggerated his importance in the Modi campaign. After the Lok Sabha elections were over, Kishor was all but cut loose and had no role in the string of state elections that followed. ....... For Kumar, who broke off his party's long-term alliance with BJP in 2013 after the saffron party moved to project Modi as its PM candidate, a victory in the Bihar elections is essential for political survival.

A victory could catapult Kumar as a possible national figure around whom all non-BJP, non-Congress parties could coalesce.
...... For Kishor, an impressive showing by Kumar could mark sweet revenge for being unceremoniously dumped by Modi and BJP, and possibly help build a reputation of a political consultant, a tribe that is non-existent in India. ...... Kishor was one of the most important people in Modi's team driving strategies for months before 2014 elections. "The strategies by him and his group galvanised the middle class and upper middle class to vote for BJP. It was their efforts that sold Modi as a moderate leader focussed on development, a 'Vikas Purush', thereby shedding his image of an aggressive Hindu right wing leader." .... "But there was hardly any acknowledgement of those services. Modi took the assistance of many such people who had no ideological moorings. Kishor and CAG were not an ideological extension of Modi or BJP but professionals that Modi engaged for a service they were good at providing" ....... Kishor at one point was so close to Modi that he could surpass most bureaucrats to get his work done. "Modi was struck by the way he presented the hologram technique to him. Kishor was a man of technology and strategy, something Modi needed the most at the time. At one point, Kishor had his ears, but he also made enemies among other trusted aides of Modi. ........ Several other entities with names such as Centre for Foundation for a Better India, Citizens for Programme Delivery Transformation and IPAC have come up, most of which claim to bring together young professionals for sustainable change. These have all come up under a Citizens' Alliance umbrella that Kishor is said to mentor and monitor. Many of those associated with projects anchored by Kishor say in the months after the elections, there was not much acknowledgement of their contribution by BJP or the PM ....... "We had left high-paying jobs to be associated with Modi, but after elections, there was not much challenge for many of us. Modi's win was due to a good mix of modern and traditional methods to reach out to voters. That magic started shrinking with state elections, and especially when BJP failed in Delhi, it proved that political parties need a professional push and that traditional door-to-door campaigns alone can't work anymore" ...... many in BJP and RSS, especially those close to Shah, claim the work done by Kishor was often exaggerated. "The party managed victories in Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra without the support of professionals. The groundwork by party workers is often ignored when they say 2014 was entirely driven by them (Kishor and team). Even the data and inputs they needed were provided by party and Sangh cadre"

Modi's key campaign team member likely to join Nitish Nitish keen to hire man behind 'chai pe charcha'

A reticent person, Kishor joined Team Modi in early 2012 - almost a year before the assembly elections in Gujarat. One of his first assignments was to hire a taxi and move around Gujarat - something Kishor did diligently - to smell the ground. ..... For a good six months after he silently started operating from Modi's official CM bungalow in Gandhinagar, even senior party leaders had little idea of who this bespectacled young man was. It was only by mid-2012 that BJP officials and bureaucrats started taking Kishor seriously. He became a part of almost every poll-related meeting. ...... Game-changing initiatives like Modi's 3-D hologram, chai pe charcha and the build-up to the Statue of Unity were all Kishor's brainchild. But what helped Modi and BJP the most was the parallel mechanism which Kishor set up - an NGO by the name of Citizen .... Most people around Modi believed Kishor would get a good role once Modi became PM. However, amid the victory celebration, Kishor quietly faded away. Insiders say Modi's decision to push Kishor aside was largely influenced by party chief Amit Shah, who, sources said, not very fond of the young man. ..... "Modi had started assigning jobs to Kishor which normally Shah would execute. Many bureaucrats and senior party men too did not appreciate that he had become Modi's bridge to the world," says a Gujarat BJP official. ...... Bihar BJP chief Mangal Pandey said Kishor might be in touch with Nitish. "They are professionals and work for money. Kishor had a team. We've not contacted him. Even we are roping in professionals who worked for other parties in Jharkhand elections," Pandey said.

JD(U) to rope in man behind 'chai pe charcha'

Nitish Kumar, who is leaving no stone unturned to stall the BJP in Bihar assembly election due in September-October this year. ....... However, Bihar water resources and IPRD minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary did not give much weight to any such individual. "In Bihar, those who voted for Narendra Modi have already decided to vote for Nitishji in assembly election. I don't know this gentleman, so I cannot say anything about him," Choudhary, a close confidant of Nitish, told TOI.

PM Modi's key campaign team member likely to join Nitish

"The kind of work I do it is natural for people to approach," he added when asked if he would join Kumar's campaign team ahead of Bihar polls.

Nitish Kumar doles out projects thick and fast

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has gone on an inauguration and foundation laying spree with the state staring at Assembly polls. ...... the inauguration of 49 police stations across the state..... After assuming office for the second time in 2010, Nitish had launched scores of projects, majority of which are nearing completion. The chief minister wants to assure the projects' completion before the model code of conduct is enforced...... Nitish also claimed to have whetted the hunger for development in Bihar by completing the projects on time. "Nobody can befool the people with empty promises now," he said while inaugurating a bridge recently.

He wasted the entire year: Nitish Kumar on Narendra Modi

Appreciating a child who said at the programme of Chaurasia (betel trading caste) that he wished to become the prime minister of the country, Nitish commented, "When a chaiwala can become prime minister why not a paanwala (betel seller)?" ....... In an apparent dig at PM's frequent foreign tours, he said in a lighter vein, "It's good that he gets some time to be in the country."

JD(U), RJD tussle over seat-sharing; Lalu demands 145, Nitish taunts saying all 243 available

RJD has already dismissed any chances of Janata Parivar merger ahead of Bihar polls, with Lalu saying forming an alliance would be the best option. ...... A senior JD (U) leader said RJD has been trying to play “big brother” in the alliance. “Such posturings would continue from either side, but is frought with danger of impression of fissures in Janata Parivar,” said the leader.

Seat-sharing row could make Bihar polls a crowded contest

the ‘secular’ parties, opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party, appear to be in total disarray in the state. ...... With the differences between CM Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad coming to the fore over the seat-sharing formula after their failure to unite the Janata Parivar parties, the Bihar polls are likely to be a multi-cornered contest. ........ The RJD leaders have already indicated that they would not like to override the sentiments of their party cadres. .... Lalu and Nitish had earlier hoped for a grand alliance of all secular-minded parties on one platform, but their hopes have already been dashed. .... The Left front consisting of the CPI, CPM and the CPI (ML) has already resolved to fight the polls on their own. ......The Congress is yet to make up its mind whether it will go it alone in the polls or join forces with Lalu or Nitish if their unity bid comes a cropper. ....... But several party leaders have already apprised the high command that it should contest the polls independently instead of compromising its ‘national identity’ by accepting a negligible role with an alliance with Lalu-Nitish or either of them.

Abraham Lincoln?

Yesterday at the 3D Photo Booth at the NYU ITP Spring Show, for the first time I thought I had a slight resemblance to Abrahan Lincoln.

Monday, May 18, 2015

World Government And Federal States

Does The World Government Have To Await A Total Spread Of Democracy?

The concept of federalism is inseparable from the concept of democracy. And democracy is where sovereignty rests with the people. National borders have changed throughout history. The borders of today are not sacrosanct. We have 200 countries today. We might end up with 500. What the heck!

Federalism means each member state in a country has a right to self determination. The state assembly, through majority vote, could decide to go for a referendum. And through a majority vote in that referendum, that state could then become a separate country, a new member of the world government.

This mechanism will keep pressure on countries to create inclusive state apparatuses.

There are advantages to political and economic unions. Independent countries might similarly opt to join another country as a new state. Why not? If the sovereignty rests with the people.

As long as the processes are democratic and nonviolent, the right to self determination is a fundamental human right. It is like free speech.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Future War

Does The World Government Have To Await A Total Spread Of Democracy?

English: Emblem of the United Nations. Color is #d69d36 from the image at http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/maplib/flag.htm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Global Poverty, World Government, Soft Racism

A representative for every country on the planet so as to cover all of the land surface on the planet, voting in New York City, hosting regular parliamentary debates, voting for leadership --- what are the problems?

Will it be one country one vote? That might not be democratic. Voting has to reflect the populations in those countries.

Bill Gates is right. The only way to truly tackle global disease is by creating a world government, and no, the UN in its current form is not it. Somebody tell the powers that be, World War II has long been over. Need to reset the pieces on the board.

You could create two chambers. The lower chamber would have one country, one representative, with each representative getting a vote that is in direct proportion to that country's population.

There would be an upper chamber. There it is one country, one vote, regardless of population. But this would be a much weaker chamber, mostly casting symbolic votes.

There would be a Security Council, one representative for each continent: Asia, Africa, North America, South and Central America, Europe, represented by the most populous country on each continent. Another five seats would be reserved for the most populous countries not thus covered.

There would be an Economic Council, representing the 10 largest economies on the planet. The World Bank and the IMF would be under this Council. The Council would report to the General Assembly.

What seems to be the problem? That many participating countries are not even democracies? Bob Dole once laughed out loud that Gaddafi's Libya seemed to be chairing the Human Rights Council. "You hear many jokes about the UN, but nothing beats the real thing!"

This is a tricky one. Does the world need to wait for a total spread of democracy to have a genuine world government? Or can it go for it now?

I'd argue the world does not need to wait for that moment, instead it can hasten that moment by creating a genuine world government, that works in total transparency, and through regular democratic voting.

How will this world government fund itself? Each member country would be required to give 1% of its GDP to this world government. That is the tax you pay to be a member.

The International Court in Hague would become the judiciary limb.

The Secretary General would be elected by the two chambers through majority vote. One country nominating a person, another seconding her/him makes you a candidate. If no candidate gets a majority in the first round, the top two vie again. Once elected, the Secretary General forms a cabinet. Each continent must be represented. One would think a 10 member cabinet would suffice.

Creating this world government would be the fastest way to create a world where there is a rules based order. Right now we have an order based on armies. Very expensive armies.

This world government would have an army, and a police. Done right countries like America suddenly will need a much smaller defense budget. It will see a huge peace dividend with which to build infrastructure. It has ageing roads and bridges. It could start paying down on its huge debt. I am sure China would appreciate.

This is not a loss of power for America. The false power of white supremacy that bemoans 3,000 dead at the World Trade Center and goes ahead and kills a million people in Iraq!

This world government through its heartthrob of democracy and transparency would be the fastest way to wipe out global poverty and disease, and that is before it even spends any of its money.

Note that in this model you are not creating constituencies and holding elections to a world parliament. Each sovereign country participates. And the UN bureaucracy is rebuilt along meritocratic lines. The quota system that allows member countries to populate the ranks has led to a bloat. No wonder Bob Dole cracked jokes.

The UN bureaucracy has to be rebuilt along meritocratic lines.

Done right, this world government takes the sting out of regional trade deals. The WTO should be a wing of this world government. This world government would be the best way to deal with climate change. With terrorism. Terrorists thrive in the huge blind spots that exist between sovereign countries. You need not dilute that sovereignty. But you do need to get rid of the blind spots. A world government does that.

What would it take? Who will tie the bell round the cat's neck?

This will also create space for a new global reserve currency. China came up with a pretty good idea early in 2009. The US shot it down. And so now the Chinese currency competes with the dollar in places like Africa.

A world government taken to its logical conclusion will create a world by as early as 2030 where people move around from country to country, like goods do today, and that does not seem to create problems. Immigration is like terrorism, it exists in the blind spots between sovereign nations. In a global world, there should only be travel, no immigration.

A world government is long overdue. There is no need to wait for a total spread of democracy before we can make it happen. Like Amartya Sen said, "A country does not become fit for democracy, a country becomes fit through democracy."

The world government idea will not become possible because there has been a total spread of democracy, but creating a world government will hasten that total spread of democracy on the planet.

Why does the world need to wait for a major Climate Change related disaster before it can whip up a world government? Why can't it be done by world leaders who will see the light? It will save America hundreds of billions of dollars. Every year. We will conquer poverty and disease.

The world government's Health Department will do work that the Gates Foundation can only dream of. Rich white guys have their limitations.

Imagine that world government putting money into R&D on Energy. We will see nuclear fusion happen. The world government's space agency will take humans beyond the solar system. Scoot over, Elon Musk.

How about having two chambers? In the lower chamber, each country's vote is according to its population. In the upper chamber, each country's vote is proportional to its GDP, the GDP calculated for PPP (purchasing power parity). Will that make America feel better? Both chambers would have equal power. I am sorry if it sounds like campaign finance gone horribly wrong. I am just trying to get America to come on board.

I think there is a way to blow up China's internet firewall. You do that (use Musk's internet satellites) and there is no way China can stay away from fundamental political reform. Free speech is the most important of all human rights. You put that into play, and all other parts of democracy follow very quickly. That and that leaves only Africa as a big chunk without democracy. Arabs will also come along. With fracking and green energy, the House of Saud does not have that kind of muscle any more. It will fall and make way for democracy. Why can't they take about 10 billion for themselves and let the country be?