2011 : travel What does the year beckon

2011 : what do we have in store in travel .,
Both NYT and lonely planet have come up with their own versions of places to go around the world .
For the budget backpackers like me, LP also included Budget destinations in its list .

For more on these, you can check it at

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/travel/09where-to-go.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=travel

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bangladesh/travel-tips-and-articles/76216

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/travel-tips-and-articles/76164

So , yours truly has also come up with a list for myself to do in next months and years

So some of  places and regions which are in my list to do ( in no particular order are )

1. North Korea

2. Australia

3. Siberia and East Russia   (inclu Sakhalin Province)

4. Israel

5. USA

6. Ukraine

7. Central Asia ( all the "stans")

8. Northern China ( Beijing and Beyond)

9. Turkey

and finally

10. Morocco

Should be keeping me busy to do this next few years but yes bigger decade plan is to  visit them ..

Now as Ravi Teja says in his movie " Kick" movie .. idi ra kick ante ... kinda holds true here .  :)

Anyway ..  time to start off this . North China  for this quarter has been confirmed to do . Now starts  the exciting process how and budget allocation and roi ..

Should be fun doing this ..

Cheers,

Arvind

random thts

Sitting in the what Milton Friedman describes as the greatest experiment of capitalism , Its amusing to see that the political system which appeals to me most as an individual has been something the present day  Norwegians live in

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/business/global/14frugal.html
this article made me sit up and ponder. two questions
1. Did socialism really fail?
and
2. Did capitalism really succeed ?

4 forms of society has made up think and wonder what is going on ?
China, India, USA and norway these 4 countries , their political system, their economic shift and their basic  belief in life and its agonies and happiness  is making me think what is really going to work in 21st century ?

2008 great recession has showed the fallacies of american dream just like 2010 has showed the ruptures of australian cricket (bad example but as cricket fan it works apt)

the human rights record, censorship, inequality  highlight some of the issues which china needs to work upon to treat itself as global power and moral police worker for the planet .(although current day affairs show that china is not interested in taking up the role although would happily take up the seat albeit with new keyword  soft power)

India unfortunately has slighly larger share of problems, corruption , inequality between cities and towns , a really bad functioning of democracy ( my opinion is india's political system is pseudo democracy , since to be a democractic society , people needs to elect freely on their own free ideas the best form of government and since more than 60% of people living do not even know how to read. write or understand . the whole concept gets distorted and the people vote out on the ply on best promised deals... so when people do not themselves know what is correct for them due to illiteracy, democracy becomes a distorted and biased idea)

but anyway my opinion aside, india still suffers from being at crossroads of the  development with rising urban development , poor infrastructure and distant rural soceity coupled with western influx of societal ideas blurring the concept of "indian" way of life.. Still  the fact that it has remained stable despite all ills and that fact the biggest curse popln also will act as biggest propellant for human development ( youngest population and  highest workforce popln in the world in next 3-4 decades) makes the place an exciting  countrry to watch .

Norway : low popln with high socialist measures make its super attractive place to retire i think.. yes weather gets cold. yes you pay 50% tax and end up living in a boring , street of ugly oslo or beautiful little tromso but nevertheless, the gains you get in welfare of society and indvidual cannot be discarded..


Well  now  i think i will compare with laissez faire of Asia.. and i will say life here is not too bad if you know what you want

On sepearte and final note ,Capitalisam and Socialism have never truly represented in its truest form in the society. What America and Russia displayed in 20th century can at best be called their version of the societies and it will be interesting to see how  the likes of Russia, China, India, Brasil, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico and South Africa will run it  in this century..

It might be Samuel Huntington , the American political scientist was probably partially right  about 21st century .. but nevertheless... if 2 countries in 20th century could dazzle and glitz us with so many events, theories, and history,  imagine what these 11 could produce along with USA  and other key actors ( Iran, Iraq, Af-Pak, Venezuela, EU, North Korea, Rest of Middle East) come up.. Ending on a very cinematic note. 21st century looks as cinema made with Bollywood script of mixing up ( political soceities) coupled with A list stars of Hollywood..

Lucas and Spielberg , Are you wondering  as what could be next epic movie in making ?

Cheers from Hong Kong

Arvind

Bilderberg Group?

One of the things which has amused and intrigued me in recent time was BilderbergGroup .

Does anyone know what Bilderberg group is and does? If i do a survey of 1000 people from all countries , chances are maybe less than 5% of people would know what it is and thats exactly why its has been running for all these years .,..

So ,,What is Bilderberg group ?
 Bilderberg Group  can be defined in a crude manner as World Economic Forum upgrade  or can be said as secretive executive forum  of wef .. .indeeed it exists and is not myth as some spook mentions it

Who attends the meeting ?

130 elite people from the "West"  attend the event . These people are most the influential people in politcs, business,  bankers, royal family .. are part of the group .. 2/3 come from European Union nations and remaining 1./3 come from the other part of the atlantic.  Some of the participants in the previous meetings were Barack  Obama , Queen of Netherlands, CEOS of major firms like IBM, Xerox,.Nokia, Prince Charles , Timothu Geithner, Henry Kissinger, Paul Volcker,Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Jose Manuel Barosso, Angela Merkel,Bill Gates..

Where do the meetings take place?

Usually the meetings are sceretive ,and media coverage is  not allowed. But they do nicely let people know where they meet .  It could be  cosy and exotic place like Kitzbuhel or sleek and gorgeous Istanbul .. The 2010 meet was held in sitges, spain .

What do they  do ?

its bassically a  group who meet and discuss about world issues . 2010 meeting had discussed following issues . (soruce official website)

• Current Events: North Korea, Iran and Non-Proliferation
• Global Cooling: Implications of Slow Economic Growth
• The Growing Influence of Cyber Technology
• Is Financial Reform Progressing?
• US and European Fiscal and Financial Challenges
• The European Union and the Crisis of the Euro
• Promises of Medical Science
• Energy's Promises and Challenges
• Security in a Proliferated World
• Social Networking: From the Obama Campaign to the Iranian Revolution
• Europe-US: A New Approach
• Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Region
• Can We Feed the World?

Now what amused me most  was the idea the 130  people from Influential west come once a year for gala evening to discuss the problems of the world in an informal gathering attending in as private capacity , when half to almost each and every problem soolution /impact and effect is in principle determined by one nation "China " .. Thus my next question which i ask  is Is Bilderberg group irrelevant ? If yes ,then why it does get continued  year by year and press  balking behind them to get a snap or slight picture .,


Second Question  i have .. Whats the whole idea of a single west meeting together ? Understandable  during 60s, 70s, the event made sense in a wide west world .. But in 2011 .. with macro dyanmics of the world changing so fast , its hard to imagine what the result of such event makes sense of global  world .. Why not include influential people from  growth markets as well ... G8 was moved to G20 as wider talks scenari0. Why not bilderberg expand its membership ?

Finally . How does Bilderberg group connect with  other instititions like bretton woods system , or the the national governments of US and China ? Surely Sino-US relations on key areas like Nuclear Proliferations, Iran and North Korea cannot be undermined. And if  people from one of the group attend this event and other doesnt ? what are the implications in understanding the viewpoint of these issues, when chances are  bilderberg particpant already has biased or even different viewpoint because he is part of the group.. I know it sounds too far fetched but it nevertheless is a point to ponder  about

So my question is as we head towards a sam huntington puts in "clash of civilization - a new world order" as a multipolar world with different pillars  along USA to govern the planet , Will Bilderberg group change?  as the new order forms out or will it become one of those razzmatazz event of  glitz and secrecy for the elite west to dream and charade their  synthetic glamour aided by Chinese investements .


Arvind .Ganti
Date : 17th Jan 2011 .Location : Hong Kong