Indians skipped landline phones. They went straight to mobile phones. Now looks like Rwanda is going straight to drones, skipping roads and bridges.
“Countries like Rwanda can make decisions fast and can implement new technologies in concert with new regulations fast, so we’re now in a position where the US is trying to follow Rwanda,” says Keller Rinaudo, CEO and co-founder of Zipline. “They’re not trying to catch up to US infrastructure. They’re just leapfrogging roads and trucks and motorcycles and going to a new type of infrastructure.”
In early 2018, Zipline will officially kick off the world’s largest delivery drone service in Tanzania, Rwanda’s much larger neighbor. The Tanzanian government aims to use Zipline’s delivery drones to make up to 2,000 deliveries of medical supplies per day. Those deliveries of supplies such as blood products, medicines, and snake antivenom will go to more than 1,000 hospitals and clinics serving 10 million people. An operation at this scale will dwarf anything previously attempted in the drone-delivery universe.
Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It can not be only the white nations. It also has to be China, and India, and Africa, Russia of course, Cuba perhaps, Brazil. The coalition has to be the grandest to date in human history. It can not just be about military defeat, it also has to be about a peaceful new awakening. 100% internet access and 100% access to credit, and free and fair elections to a constituent assembly that is authorized to write a constitution where the only rule is it may not clash with the Human Rights Charter, and that rule will have international judicial oversight. One wishes for no war, but there is this one time where war might be the only option. ISIS may not be allowed to become Rwanda. Or this is not a new century, this is not a new millennium. Done right this may hasten the end of the War On Terror to a positive end, for it will rapidly spread the cause of liberty. A Marshall Plan like largess will have to follow to build infrastructure and give the people a new beginning. Barack Obama is as good as Hillary Clinton to give it a start. The war could see a rapid conclusion, done right. It is in essence an invasion. But the aftermath has to be thoroughly thought out and agreed upon first. Yes, this is ground invasion. There are large numbers of troops involved. Assad has to go, and Russia has to agree to it. But Assad may linger while ISIS is defeated. Assad's ouster can be a negotiated deal where he sees a comfortable retirement in Russian territory. He might even have negotiated himself a constitutional monarchy had he been king, but is not king. He is president.
Map of Rwanda from CIA World Factbook, with province boundaries and names added. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the worst case scenario, the ISIS territory, even if it does not expand -- I mean, it is not like anyone seriously thinks they will take over everything they want to take over -- is a Rwanda in the making. It is selfish to think the ISIS is a problem only if it blows up a cafe in some rich country. The killings inside ISIS territory have to be of concern. Once ISIS has reached its territorial limits and it becomes super hard for it to expand, it is going to turn inwards, and it is going to keep looking for enemies within. Already unacceptable levels of killings are going to go up several notches. What will the world do then? Sit and watch? What is the threshold? Is it half a million dead? At what point does the world intervene?
ISIS is not a religion, it is not a state, it is a cult. It is not even a terrorist organization like the Al Qaeda, it is a cult.
The mass murder imminent in Benghazi was prevented. And the UN continues to demand of Gaddafi that he not unleash animal brutality on peacefully protesting Libyans. Armed rebels in Libya have done a swift job of retaking all the territory they had lost.
But now is time for some shift in strategy. Instead of relying solely on military advances, the rebels have to consolidate. They have to organize massive peaceful demonstrations against Gaddafi in all towns and cities they control. The people of Libya have to come out into the streets in large numbers.
The idea is to inspire the people in Tripoli to also come out into the streets. When they first came out, Gaddafi basically declared war on them. And they went into hiding. Now they have to muster the strength all over again. They need to come out all over again. This time if Gaddafi performs a repeat the UN sanctioned powers have to do in Tripoli what they did in Benghazi. Bomb all government installations in Tripoli so as to destroy completely all command and control structures in Gaddafi's army.
The next phase of the drive against dictator Gaddafi has to be nonviolent consolidation of gains made so far.
Image via WikipediaGaddafi might or might not go. Libya might or might not become democracy. But what has already happened is a Rwanda got prevented. If Gaddafi had moved into Benghazi like he threatened, like he was about to, we had a bloodbath on our hands, a massacre. That got prevented. That is a major humanitarian achievement. And the intervening powers have to be proud. The UN has to be proud.
No, America did not declare war on Libya. This was no invasion. This was police action to prevent a major crime: mass murder.
Mission accomplished.
But there is work to do. Gaddafi still has to be ousted. Democracy still has to see the light of day in Libya. That is for the people of Libya to do.
And now might be time to bring about a change in strategy. Now nonviolence has to be emphasized.
In January of 2006 I predicted a "French Revolution" in Nepal with an organization that was the first organization I landed on after moving to the city, having been a Deaniac from 2004. (The French Revolution And DFNYC) These people had been driving me impatient. I was asking them to do small things like maybe raise a thousand dollars - one fucking thousand dollars! - and get some elected officials to write letters of support to the democracy movement in Nepal, and they would not budge! It was a we-simply-don't-care-one-way-or-the-other attitude. "Stuff happened in Rwanda, and I was not bothered" was one comment.
I was trying to argue that this was not just about Nepal. This was about the War On Terror. The only way the War On Terror is going to end is when all Arab countries have been turned into democracies. And we can get there the Bush way, a trillion dollars per country, or we can do it my way like in Nepal. This Nepal work boosts the progressive cause in America. All that logic fell on deaf ears. So I bootstrapped. I did what I could. Fundraising never having been one of my core strengths, I struggled.
The French Revolution did happen. In April 2006 over a course of 19 days one third of the country's 27 million people poured into the streets to completely shut the country down until the dictator bowed out. Every single village, town and city poured out.
I was of course holed up that entire time. I lost weight, I did not need to. I had to get glasses in the aftermath. I was too busy monitoring the situation. It was an intense experience. When it was over, I emerged. I showed up for a DFNYC event in Brooklyn. I was living in Brooklyn at the time. This was my first DFNYC event in Brooklyn. At the time I still had my car that I moved into the city with. I drove over. I had no idea what had happened in Nepal had also taken over the news spectrum in NYC. I had been trained by DFNYC to think people in NYC just did not care about Nepal. Nepal was too far away.
I saw Leila Noor at the event. I said, hey, thanks for that article on Nepal you forwarded to me over email. That was much appreciated. Told me you knew.
What are you talking about, she said. Everyone knew. It was a hit me moment. I then realized Nepal had been on TV, Nepal had been in the New York Times, Nepal had been everywhere.
Subsequently Howard Dean showed up at a DFNYC Mixer and this guy Josh was doing crowd control on me. I was the reason Howard Dean showed up in the first place and this mofo was doing crowd control on me! Mandela calls it "a thousand little indignities" in his book.
Barack
This was a much easier prediction to make. I predicted at the beginning of 2007 that he was going to be president. (Jupiter And Obama) Barack has this messiah quality to him. He even looked like one to me at the Washington Square Park rally with the bright lights in the background. (The Largest Rally In US Presidential Campaign History) When I watch a speech from him, it feels like a cool breeze is brushing against my face. It is a spiritual experience to watch him in action. He is Gandhiesque.
John
I was at John's victory party last year, and the thought first occurred to me. I remember thinking, this guy could be Mayor in four years. I blogged about it. At his inauguration he was still unsure because the smell of Thompson was still in the air, but no more. For now John gets to deliver the labor bosses to me, if possible.
Reshma 2010's victory on September 14 is going to be the biggest political event in New York City since Barack almost won Brooklyn in February of 2008. In many ways bigger because I don't hold that against him but Barack is a Chicago guy. September 14 is the day this country gives birth to The New Woman. The New Woman wants to, is able to, and takes equality for granted. The New Woman does not rest until that same has been achieved for women across the world.
Reshma was a White House intern as a college student at the Harvard of the Midwest, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I have walked around that campus, by the way. The Quad is so beautiful. Larry Ellison dropped out of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign like Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard. (Larry Ellison, Larry Ellison's Personal Life, Larry Ellison's 1995 Network Computer Vision, Rich People's Kids) It bothers me when people only talk about Harvard and Yale when talking about Reshma. That East Coast bias has to go. She organized for Clinton Gore 96. She organized for Gore 2000. She was one of John Kerry's top 10 fundraisers in the country. She was a big shot with Hillary 08. This woman is not made for the legislative branch. This woman is custom made for the White House. But a run for the White House can not be your first run, and hence Congress. She is going to do the FDR thing of putting a New Yorker in the White House. She is going to do the Lincoln thing of going from the House to the White House. She is going to end the global trafficking of women like Lincoln ended slavery.
But I would like to mess up with her House to White House trajectory. I am going to make a case with Barack.
"Look, I suffered for you, I went on the cross for you. (The First Time I Heard The Obama Name, Obama, Reshma, Charlie Rangel: Motherfucker, Rangel Has Gone Radioactive) I want my woman on the ticket in 2012. Trust me, Joe will understand. He no longer has the foreign policy advantage that he once had if he ever did. You are a seasoned world stage player in your own right. By the way, can I take a look at your Nobel medal? Because I would like one for myself. You did construction work as a student in New York City and you have goat herder heritage. That is as working class as it gets for me. Barack the glass ceiling, I mean break the glass ceiling, put a woman on the ticket. (Barack The Glass Walls, Ceilings, Smash 'Em) It is about time. Putting Malia and Sasha into the White House has not just been about the self esteem of black children, it has also been about the self esteem of young girls across the world."
Reshma 2016 is the biggest rationale for Reshma 2010. If it is about Reshma, she could run in 2016, 2020, 2024 all the way to 2040. But it is not about Reshma. It is about the country and the world. And that makes 2016 her year. 2016 will be time for the first woman President Of The United States, and the top woman to watch in New York City is that woman. (Reshma Saujani: Top 10 Women To Watch In America)
I read the Ted Sorensen book Kennedy when I was in middle school. It is a thick book. I read it cover to cover.
