Ultimatums don't work on civilizations (1)

When Vladimir Putin stood in Beijing and told the west to stop treating India and China like colonies, he wasn't posturing, he was detonating the last illusions of Western exceptionalism.

Flanked by history at the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, he didn't give so much a speech, but rather a civilizational rebuke. "Events in Ukraine", he said, "are being used merely as a pretext for resolving economic issues with some countries whose economic ties and advantages do not suit someone". That "someone", of course is the collective West, cornered by its own decline and lashing out at nations it can no longer control.

The colonial virus never died. It simply evolved, from gunboats and red coats to sanctions, tariffs and more blackmail. When India buys Russian oil, Washington responds with 50% tariffs. When China refuses to join the West's theatre of sanctions, it is met with semiconductor bans and military encirclement. The West doesn't negotiate; it tries to dictate and engages in gangsterism. But as Putin reminded the world, this isn't 1947. "Countries like India, almost 1.5 billion people and China, 1.3 billion people, boast powerful economies and live by their own domestic political laws". In other words : the days telling ancient civilizations how to behave are over.

The arrogance embedded in Western foreign policy is both tone deaf and suicidal. You cannot browbeat India, a country with the memory of British-engineered famines still smouldering in its bones. You cannot threaten China, which withstood centuries of foreign subjugation and emerged stronger. And you cannot isolate Russia, which has turned every round of sanctions into new layers of domestic resilience and global leverage. 

.....to be contd.

Courtesy. Gerry Nolan

Tailpiece.

Got up at 5, sent out all my morning messages, switched on the morning hymns, lit up the puja room lamp, opened up the house for the day.

Bath was after breakfast. Tried to speak to Indirakkutty through a video call on Resmi's cell phone but to no avail.

Lunch and siesta. saw a combination of Mammootty's films as today's his birthday.

A quiet evening.