World War III – Potential Flash Points Monday, Jul 23 2007

One of my favorite quotes about wars is

“A war does not decide who is right, it only decides who is left”

No sane person wants to see another world war, but at the same time it is ludicrous to say that there won’t be any wars in the future, unless and until the whole world starts following Buddhism!

The Scenario

The news we see everyday, the news we read everyday, the news we hear everyday is filled with how one country is pitted against the other, how one group wants to finish the other, ethnic violence, religious violence, racism, ideological violence, political violence and what not…

And enter Al Qaeda and Pakistan’s home grown breed of terrorists, kahani mein twist, a twist in the story…. Now its not just the political leadership of countries that can start a war, even terrorist groups can initiate one! The threat is not about sophisticated nuclear arsenals and delivery systems of US or Russia, but its more about dirty nukes in the hands of terrorists!

US and allies have waged a war on terror, Pakistan’s Musharraff is playing the game of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, China is uneasy over Taiwan, Israel is watching Iran, Russia is irritated over UK, AlQaeda wants to wipe out the civilized world..

What are the possible flashpoints to trigger a third world war? Well, I am not a pessimist, but the triggers do very much exist in the world today. So as a member of a responsible(?) species with a duty towards its own species and more towards the planet, we have to identify all these triggers and not just TRY to put them off, but have to LITERALLY PUT THEM OFF..

The List

So here is the list, in the reverse order from the lowest to the highest probability of occurrence..

5. Musharraff overthrown by fundamental elements in Pakistan, a preemptive strike on Pakistani military facilities by India, An entry by China to assist Pakistan, US enters to support India, North Korea enters to support China, Japan enters to support India…..

4. US missile defense installations in Czech and Poland cause Russia to deploy ICBM missiles in its European borders, a misunderstood testing by the US systems in Poland or Czech is all that it takes to trigger a global escalation..

3. Taiwan declares Independence, China forcefully tries to annexe Taiwan, US strikes China, Russia enters the war, Japan enters the war, North Korea, South Korea….

2. Realizing the fear of acquisition of a nuclear weapon by Iran, Israel strikes Iranian nuclear facilities, Iran retaliates and the US enters into the equation…

1. A dirty nuke exploded by a terrorist group in any of the major western cities! Say US, and US reacts, and reacts strongly, on the root, the root as usual leads to Pakistan, enter China, India forced into the war, and then Russia, parallel ignition by Iran on the Israel….

The Solution

First of all, for heavens sake all countries should get rid of all their nuclear weapons. If not humans, at least other species should be allowed to survive on this planet after a world war.. All nuclear weapons should be disposed immediately and the process should be started in the order mentioned – USA, Russia, France, China, UK, India, Pakistan, Israel..

This ensures that even if there is a war, innocent people wont die, at least not in the number of millions. Let the wars not target any civilian locations. Nuclear fuel is meant to generate electrical power inside the nuclear reactors and let us stick to that use…

Fundamentalism should be wiped out of this planet, rather than trying to wipe out the terrorists.. All young kids all over the planet should be given proper civilized education and should be protected from being brainwashed by the fundamentalists..

It is a known fact that USA used fundamentalist terrorist elements against USSR during the cold war.. Pakistan is using them against India… This should not be allowed to continue any more…

Any regime supporting terrorist or fundamentalist elements should be thrown out and democratic institutions should be installed all over the globe. Every country’s fate should be decided by its own people and not by dictatorial regimes..

Having said all this, does it sound practical enough? Will US and other countries give up their nuclear arsenal? Can we prevent terrorist organizations from misguiding and recruiting youth?

Hope is a very beautiful and promising word, isn’t it?

Let us hope that the hope for a better future ultimately prevails..

Let us hope that the future generations on this planet will refer to the above mentioned list of flash points as, possible world war or nuclear flash points that once existed in this world, like the way how we today refer to the Cuban missile crisis as a possible nuclear flash point that once existed during the days of the cold war…

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Mother of all Martial Arts – Kalarippayattu Saturday, Jun 23 2007

Kalari or Kalaripayattu of ancient India is the world’s oldest martial arts. Infact, it is the mother of all martial arts in the world. Ancient buddhist monks who travelled from India to China to spread buddhism are said to have taught these martial arts to the Chinese.

For instance, one of the buddhist monks Bodhi Dharma who founded the Zen buddhism and is called C’han in China was a Kalarippayattu master himself! From his native Kancheepuram in South Indian state of Tamilnadu, he went to China in 522 AD to the court of Chinese emperor Liang Nuti. He taught Kalarippayattu at the Shaolin monastery to the buddhist monks to defend themselves from the frequent attacks by local bandits and dacoits. It has to be noted that all far eastern martial arts are taught by Buddhist monks. In China it is Kung Fu, Karate. In Japan the Samurai warriors are Zen Buddhists.

The Shaolin temple itself was founded by an Indian Dhyana master Buddhabhadra. On one of the walls of the Shaolin temple a fresco can be seen, showing south Indian dark-skinned monks, teaching the light-skinned Chinese the art of bare-handed fighting. On this painting (see image below) are inscribed: “Tenjiku Naranokaku” which means: “the fighting techniques to train the body (which come) from India…”

Please note that Buddhism was born in India and then spread to rest of the world including China, Japan, Thailand, Srilanka, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia etc.

As a Chinese Ambassador to USA, Hu Shih once said “India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”. He was referring to the spread of Buddhism into China.

Kalaripayattu means “Practicing the arts of the battlefield”. Kalari means battlefield. Kalaripayattu is sometimes in short called as Kalari . It is today more prevalent in the south Indian state of Kerala. This art is said to have had its origin in the Rishi Agastya and in Parashurama. Agastya is a great name in Ayurveda – the main Indian medical system. Parashurama is also said to have reclaimed the submerged Kerala from the Arabian Sea (Will write on this aspect of Kerala someday)

The oldest reference to this martial art is found in the Rigveda and Atharvaveda. In Rigveda it is mentioned that lord Indra defeated the daemon Vritasura using one of the marmam techniques of Kalari. Marmam are pressure points in the human body and experienced practitioners can disable or kill their opponents by a mere touch of the opponent’s Marmam. This technique is taught only to the promising and level headed persons, to prevent its misuse. For Indian movie fans, this technique is used in the famous Indian movie ‘Indian‘ of Kamal Hassan by the aged but still energetic hero who fights against corruption.

Sushruta, one of the famous Indian ayurvedic medical practitioner and researcher who lived in 6th century BC identified and defined 107 vital points of the human body in his book Sushruta Samhita. Of these 107 points, 64 were classified as being lethal if properly struck with a fist or stick.

Students start with unarmed kicks and punches, then would graduate to sticks, swords, spears and daggers and finally study the marmas.

The Discovery Channel says “Possibly the oldest martial art in the world, Kalarippayattu is still being practiced widely today in the Indian state of Kerala. Shaolin chuan is said to have evolved from Kalarippayattu.”

You can read more about Kalari at here and here. To learn it or for more details visit here. Below is a four part documentary about this world’s oldest and the mother of all martial arts.

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