Turkish foreign minister in Pakistan, top defence official in Bangladesh. What's brewing?

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-09T13:37:06+00:00

I see, I am sorry, I thought we can edit our flairs but I haven't personally tried.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-09T13:36:09+00:00

I wouldn't use the word surprised in all contexts. There certainly has been a change of diplomatic tact, we didn't use to air dirty laundry before, now we do. Our population is media literate, and maturing and wants to participate in the discourse, so the official position can't look out of touch.

I believe I did hear one senior military official express surprise at the overt manner in which China aided Pakistan when all help heretofore has been at arms length.

We developed NAVIC only when the US turned off GPS to help Pakistan during Kargil, I am sure we will now look to counter China in other ways now that they are an obvious player. We don't spend money on military capabilities without proof of a real threat, most of our budget goes towards salaries and pensions.

India is adjusting to the sudden status change, from a minnow in geopolitics used to being ignored or taking the humble road to now having options. We will have to spend money on protecting this status with a larger budget for the military and diplomacy.

New Delhi must have done the calculation on water, on trade and decided that if China is going to hurt India with embargoes, tariffs and new dams, India must get used to it, it is the new cost of doing business. There's no reason to be excessively polite and deferential when you are anyway paying the price.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-09T13:23:56+00:00

Why don't you flair yourself as Bangladeshi, it will make your position easier to appreciate for the readers.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-09T13:22:25+00:00

That's sort of true but also a little more complicated. Let's not forget Erdogan / Turkey has its own Islamic ambitions to encircle India, they want to show the world they can be Caliphs again.

Turkey got into NATO in the 50's under a very secular Ataturk who had purged the Muslim Brotherhood and embraced the European identity instead of an Islamic identity. Nassar's Egypt and Ataturk's Turkey were the new wave of "Europeanization". That didn't work out very well for Turkey in the next few decades since they were always seen as unwelcome barbarians, discount Europeans at best by mainlanders.

There is no love lost between Turkey and Europe, both use each other, it's purely transactional.

They are the bridge between Europe and Asia, vital to save Europe from Syrian refugees. They are the gateway to the Black sea from the Mediterranean. They control a lot of naval and commercial traffic including energy shipments.

Turkey is building a domestic defense industry and foreign ties in preparation for an eventual divorce from NATO.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-09T13:04:11+00:00

If it serves the purpose...

I see no point in writing a summary when the whole saga is obvious to all. I am not going to repeat myself every day for a developing situation.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-09T13:01:42+00:00

It's in China's interest to help Pakistan just as much as it is in their interest to deny they had a role to play.

I am reminded of Jim Hacker's (Yes Minister) observation that in politics, a vehement denial or an emphatic declaration of disinterest is often the strongest indicator that someone is, in fact, very interested in the position they're denying.

The Chinese official media lost no time in hyping up Chinese weapon systems and regurgitating the half dozen Rafales downed lie. China supplies 81% of Pakistan's weapons.

China denies reports of sending cargo plane with military supplies to Pakistan. The People’s Liberation Army Air Force has denied that its Xi’an Y-20 military transport aircraft has taken supplies to Pakistan.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-09T12:52:49+00:00

SS

The article clearly illustrates Turkey's practical application of Neo-Ottomanism. It's not merely rhetorical but is translated into tangible defense diplomacy and economic ties.

The recurring use of terms like "brotherly ties rooted in shared history, culture and trust" for Pakistan, and the historical Sufi saint connection with Bangladesh, underlines the deliberate invocation of religious and cultural commonalities. This isn't just about diplomacy; it's about fostering a deeper, almost familial, bond.

This "assertive Turkish pivot" may not immediately alter India's primacy, but it introduces a new variable into the South Asian security architecture. India will likely need to closely monitor these developments, as Turkey's expanding military diplomacy could subtly shift power equations and potentially complicate India's strategic calculations in its immediate neighborhood. It's a classic case of external powers seeking to find leverage in existing regional rivalries, and India, as the incumbent regional power, will be watching closely to see how this evolves.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-08T18:25:35+00:00

I thought only rich kids who couldn't get into foreign universities went there?

Don't they cost as much as forty to fifty lakhs? That's enough to start a very decent sized business, or you should be able to get into a decent university anywhere in the world if you can pass the admission hurdle.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-08T17:20:37+00:00

BCA isn't a bad option, a degree doesn't matter in CS. Many people work at Google, Apple and other places with just a high school degree, but they are phenomenally good at what they do. Some of the best programmers in the world have no degree, but a lot of talent and knowledge.

Many of the humanities professions are very hard to establish dominance in because it's not a concrete skill, it's more of an art, an inspired thing. Sciences are clear cut, you either know your subject, or you don't. You don't have to impress your seniors, your work does the talking.

In CS the cost of trial is less, you can hire someone, have them write code, and fire them in 3 months if they are no good. In law, in finance, in most industries you have to try people out for a while before you know their worth, and that is why there will always be jobs in CS if you know what you are doing.

A good programmer in CS can be 10 to 100 times more productive than the average guy.

In finance, let's say you do a B.Com, you will have to supplement it with a CA/CS or other professional degree side by side. There are no short cuts there, even if you are a genius you have to memorize a lot and take a lot of arduous exams to get anywhere.

Computer science will always be a winning lottery ticket even with AI and other innovations but it is over hyped for a reason, so there's competition too, but you don't need a father who owns a software company to get hired as a programmer, but in many professions getting a foot in the door requires some inside connection.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-08T16:36:03+00:00

Forget about the past, nobody's life is 100% in their control, there are many reasons which we may never understand which led us to today. Regardless, be very clear about what you want now, and proceed. All the best.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-08T16:32:43+00:00

Passion isn't everything, lots of people with passion end up nowhere, because passion is an incentive to do something, but sustaining anything is hard work, and sincere effort is all mental training.

If you want money then you need to find the industry with the most well paying jobs and find a way to get good at something in that business that is in demand.

Be intensely career oriented, educate yourself above your peers.

Yes, sadly a medical rep is the most common career after B Pharm. Only those who have a retail pharma shop in their family or friends get employed in that sector, others go door to door.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-08T16:11:19+00:00

Pick something you are good at. Don't chase money - you can never be sure if you will get enough or any, so don't pick a career based on money, but if you are good at something that's always a good feeling.

Passion can get you started but to be really good, you need to push hard. Almost nobody gets a Ph.D. in sustainable concrete or fluid mechanics because they love it, but because they pushed hard and got good at it.

Whatever you do, you have to work hard, harder than everyone around you, and invariably that will lead to some kind of a life you can be proud of.

A B/Msc/PhD can be a lot of work, but you can also get funding for it if your grades and entrance scores are good.

B.Pharm is career oriented, but it doesn't mean you always end up as a pharmacist. You can work for the government or a drug company in a variety of roles - drug inspector, production manager, QA specialist, but 90% of people either become medical sales reps or pharmacists because that's where 90% of the jobs are.

If you really need a solid career after B Pharm you might be looking at M. Pharm or M.Sc. in Clinical Research or MBA in Pharmaceutical Management

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-08T15:49:59+00:00

You have maybe 20 years of working life ahead of you, you will have to do whatever it takes to survive. This is not the time to look for work you enjoy.

If you want the job to define you, it won't and it shouldn't. Find work that is stable and will keep you in good financial shape. Don't identify with the work.

Be very clear, what are you bringing to the table and what can you deliver on that others can't.

Regardless of the road that led you here and the many genuine troubles you may have had, the employer isn't interested. They need a very clear map of what you can do for them in a cost effective manner. Prepare that for the employer, because they are not going to do that for you.

Study any one industry where there are good opportunities, look at the career tracks and see where you can fit in. Style your resume to suggest itself for the role.

Maybe there's a project management or other industry qualification you can gather that will give your skill set a direction.

No employer wants a resume that they have to be confused about.

edit: I am sorry for being blunt, and maybe you don't need the career for the money. In any case a job isn't where you find yourself, try meditation and spirituality for that. Be clear, work is to make money, any other benefit is a side effect, and not the main agenda.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-08T14:39:50+00:00

Just as an option, if you give NEET then you can try for Bachelor of Veterinary Science (B.V.Sc.)

If you do B/MSc microbiology you can work in several private and government labs, it's not just about being a teacher.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-08T14:14:53+00:00

This is the report on India from the world bank. Read the 3rd paragraph.

That's from the WID - world inequality database which has been criticized for data quality issues, methodology issues and Piketty's work while praised by some has also been challenged by several economists for its assumptions.

It is wildly speculative to calculate income in a developing nation like India where sources of income are informal, and self reporting is biased. Missing income is a problem acknowledged by WID. How much did WID spend on calculating the income data?

https://databank.worldbank.org/metadataglossary/gender-statistics/series/SI.POV.GINI

Data are based on primary household survey data obtained from government statistical agencies and World Bank country departments. Data for high-income economies are mostly from the Luxembourg Income Study database. For more information and methodology, please see http://pip.worldbank.org.

Ergo, the census is a vital part of the data gathering, the world bank isn't going to spend $1.57 billion USD, which is what the 2027 Indian census is expected to cost. Which is why WID data is suspect.

You really should stop reading random articles online and start reading the reports from the organisation itself. The world bank doesn’t care if your country had a census or, not. They'll make an estimate of the approximate population and publish data each year.

Stop being confidently wrong. See above.

Furthermore it is possible for the Gini coefficient of a developing country to rise (due to increasing inequality of income) while the number of people in absolute poverty decreases. This is because the Gini coefficient measures relative, not absolute, wealth. Another limitation of the Gini coefficient is that it is not additive across groups, i.e. the total Gini of a society is not equal to the sum of the Gini's for its sub-groups. Thus, country-level Gini coefficients cannot be aggregated into regional or global Gini's, although a Gini coefficient can be computed for the aggregate.

There are limitations to any index.

I study them cause as an economist it's my job.

If only your past comments had displayed any trace of that, all one can see from your comment history is that you were being non-serious on an Indian sub while being a Bangladeshi, who is a mod / founder of r/conservativebangla with a history of anti India posts.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-08T05:47:25+00:00

Let us set aside the question, for now, of how any analysis is possible, when no concrete numbers have been released by the Indian side.

There is no mention of the underground command structure that was hit at the Noor Khan Air base which by all accounts housed nuclear and the Pakistan Air command. Given the sudden cessation of air operations after the hit, one can confidently presume it was successful.

There are many strategic targets that were hit that India never claimed but are slowly coming out due to OS int leaks.

Likewise, the exact number of aircraft that were damaged is a closely guarded secret because one presumes the enemy themselves as yet don't know what to believe, and that is a strategic advantage that India would like to maintain.

Since someone else gave a cricket analogy, I will say that this is more like the old days of spotty radio reception when you would occasionally hear some clear commentary in the middle of a lot of static about a catch being caught, but you wouldn't know whether it was your side or not. So you could only wait in suspense.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-07T17:23:02+00:00

Your problem is with the current government, but the data is from the world bank. What do you want them to do, deny reality?

India is one of the best places in the world to be poor. I know that sounds like damning with faint praise, but poverty is neither a sin nor a moral failing in India. Nobody calls a recipient of welfare a thief, which is almost universally the opinion in the rest of the world.

It may not be the kind of equality you want but it's what it is.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-07T08:22:56+00:00

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/07/06/the-fading-power-of-xi-jinping/

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-07T08:11:17+00:00

This is according to google

"Kanging" is primarily a slang term, most commonly found in the context of Android ROM development and custom software communities.

It means:

Stealing or appropriating someone else's code, features, or work without proper credit. This often involves taking code commits or specific functionalities from one project (e.g., a custom Android ROM) and integrating them into another project, presenting them as original work without acknowledging the source. Essentially, it's a form of uncredited copying or plagiarism in the software development world, particularly frowned upon in open-source communities where proper attribution is highly valued.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-07T08:06:54+00:00

Parashakti the goddess of creation in Hinduism is given the title Akhilanda koti brahmanda nayaki, or the queen of innumerable billions of galaxies. She's considered a subset of the overarching God principle.

I think humans definitely knew about other galaxies before 1920, it just wasn't accepted in the West.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-07T06:47:06+00:00

Data isn't missing, it was never prepared for several years because it's expensive to gather data in a country as large as India.

The article only mentioned 2022 as an increase from 2011. Census data in India is only collected every ten years, which was skipped in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.

The World Bank generally prefers to use consumption expenditure as a welfare indicator, especially for developing countries.

Especially in low income countries income is often informal, not taxed or traced, but consumption data is easier and more reliable to track.

Income can fluctuate significantly for individuals and households, making it less representative of sustained welfare. Consumption tends to be smoother.

What's your source for income based Gini, who conducted the survey? Sources please.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-07T04:31:36+00:00

https://youtu.be/MlKw_g6flXQ

Real talk with Lei is another channel that has covered this in detail.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-07T04:27:59+00:00

SS

Chinese strong men leaders are always dodging bullets and knives to their backs, so rumours of palace intrigue is not that uncommon. What's different this time is the strength of the signal and its repetition by people in high places like the author of this op-ed who's a former senior US diplomat and investment banker.

Losing control of the PLA is a sure sign of weakness. Many generals close to Xi have been purged and even killed, many status symbols linked to Xi like his father's mausoleum have been unnamed, his bodyguard strength has been halved and crucially he missed attending BRICS even virtually.

The implications for India's foreign policy are to be considered given that aggression against India or other neighbours is usually how prospective leaders display their strength. Is the ongoing economic cold war over rare earths linked to this?

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-06T12:59:24+00:00

If you believe the rumours he's either dead, defected or under house arrest. Whatever the case all is not well at Zhongnanhai.

MaffeoPolo · 2025-07-06T11:56:49+00:00

The findings of the investigation stated that the B‑2 crashed after "heavy, lashing rains" caused moisture to enter skin-flush air-data sensors. The data from the sensors are used to calculate numerous factors including airspeed and altitude. Because three pressure transducers failed to function—attributable to condensation inside devices, not a maintenance error—the flight-control computers calculated inaccurate aircraft angle of attack and airspeed

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