Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

** 19-Aug-2019 World View Notes: North Korea, Hong Kong, Kashmir Afghanistan


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**** Contents
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-- North Korea: Make boiled head of a cow laugh
-- Hong Kong's peaceful demonstrations
-- Kashmir still boiling, but more slowly
-- Horrific terrorist attack on wedding party in Kabul, Afghanistan


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**** North Korea: Make boiled head of a cow laugh
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• Child dictator Kim Jong-un and his groupies shared a laugh
  last week over projectile launches (KCNA, Reuters, SCMP)

North Korea launched test firings of an unspecified new weapon on
Saturday. Child dictator Kim Jong-un expressed “great satisfaction”
over his military’s “mysterious and amazing success rates” in recent
testing activity and vowed to build up “invincible military
capabilities no one dare provoke." This is the sixth round of
projectile launches since late July.

Donald Trump has downplayed the significance of these missile
launches, pointing out these are short-range missiles, and do not
violate Kim's agreement with Trump not to test nuclear weapons or
long-range ballistic missiles.

One analyst said that Kim is getting frustrated because these
projectile launches are not causing the international news panic that
he's enjoyed in the past, and the "blame" for that is Trump's
downplaying the tests.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in called for Korean unification by
2045 and called for North Korea to choose "economic prosperity over
its nuclear program."

A North Korean official ridiculed Moon's remarks, and said that "the
boiled head of a cow would fall into a side-splitting laughter."


Kim Jong-un expresses ‘great satisfaction’ over North Korean weapons
tests
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia...rth-korean
(SCMP, 19-Aug-2019)


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**** Hong Kong's peaceful demonstrations
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• Peaceful protesters in Hong Kong on Sunday (SCMP)

There were hundreds of thousands of protesters in Hong Kong on Sunday,
despite the pouring rain. The protests were peaceful, giving rise to
hopes that the protests would fizzle out in time for China's big
independence day celebrations on October 1.

For this, I would quote the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC):
"One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one
day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy."

But pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong threatened further
unrest unless the government meets their demands -- now.

‘Now is the time to meet demands’: pro-democracy lawmakers and
protesters warn Hong Kong’s embattled leaders
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/poli...makers-and
(SCMP, 19-Aug-2019)


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**** Kashmir still boiling, but more slowly
****

India is lifting some restrictions in the India-governed portion
of Kashmir. Some phone service has been restored, and some schools
have reopened, but much of the area is still in lockdown.

The Pakistani people seem to be pretty furious about what India did
-- revoking Article 370, taking away Kashmir's special privileges.
Prime minister Imran Khan is using diplomatic threats against
India to cool the anger in Pakistan, but it's hard to predict
where this is going to go.

** 10-Aug-19 World View -- Pakistan-India relations downgraded as Kashmir is locked down
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/x...tm#e190810


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**** Horrific terrorist attack on wedding party in Kabul, Afghanistan
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Dozens of people were killed on Saturday evening by an explosion in
Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. The explosion attacked a Shia
Hazara wedding. Ethnic Hazaras, and other Shia groups, are often
targeted by jihadist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Taliban vehemently denied responsibility. However, ISIS
has claimed responsibility. There have been an increasing number
of terror attacks across Afghanistan claimed by ISIS.

As usual, a terror attack by ISIS does not mean that a bunch
of ISIS thugs in Syria packed their bags and came to Kabul to
blow up a wedding. What's happening is that some jihadist
groups in Afghanistan are claiming allegiance with ISIS rather
than with al-Qaeda. It's possible that the ISIS groups are
a younger generation, breaking away from the older generations
in Taliban. One analyst suggested that the ISIS groups came
from Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), the Pakistan Taliban, which has
had differences with the Afghan Taliban.

Trump wants to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, and so the US
is negotiating with the Taliban, where the US will withdraw its troops
and the Taliban will promise to be nice.

That's about as laughable as anything else going on today.
However, the "peace talks" may be derailed by ISIS attacks.