Taiwan

Some months ago I read a short text (in a nice book about geopolitics) about the China/Taiwan relations that quite surprised me. I knew that Taiwan as a country was created after the Chinese Civil War, when the losing side, the nationalists, retraited to the island. As part of the Cold War, USA decided to protect the island from an invasion from the mainland, communist China. Ever since China has reclaimed that Taiwan is part of China and there's always been the potential for an invasion. Well, there's quite a bit more to the story.

I used to think of Taiwan as a normal free, wealthy country, with a powerful hi-tech economy and a good standard of living. Their big problem, the fear of a Chinese invasion, would be similar (thought more intense and justified) to the fear that Baltic republics have for a Russian invasion. Well, I was a bit confused. One could say that Taiwan is not a a normal country, because it lacks a seat in the United Nations and basically no other nation (save for a handful of small ones) consider it a country and maintain official diplomatic relations with it (the rest of the world keeps informal relations). This lack of formal recognition is also the case for USA, even if they more or less protect the island from a mainlad Chinese invasion.

There are some key points to better understand this odd situation. What we commonly know as Taiwan officially calls itself Republic of China (ROC), while what we commonly call China officially calls itself People's Republic of China (PRC). So, yes, it seems like there are 2 Chinas... Well, not really... The One Chine Policy basically says that there is a single country of China, but with two governments, the ROC and the PRC. For example the ROC government tends to consider itself as the legitimate government of both Taiwan and Mainland China.

One could think that Taiwanese population would massively support independence save for the fear of being invaded by mainland China, but indeed this is not the case, as many people consider that both Chinas form a cultural unity and they should join together, but of course under a democratic government, not under the pseudo-Communist regime. As this is not feasible, many people support the current situation.

Bearing in mind that Taiwan's flagship companies like Acer and Asus have factories in mainland China, one should think that the relations between both countries are not so bad as they could seem.

The Salafists and the Balkans

I've recently watched 2 very interesting and disturbing French documentaries about the expansion of salafism in the Balkans. La Bosnie-Herzégovine, fief du salafisme européen is not so suprising to me. It explains how the moderate (with many Sufist influences) Islam that was common for Bosniaks (Muslim Bosnian population) was first exposed to the radicalisation disease when Jihadists from Arab countries and Pakistan, Afghanistan and other shitholes (indeed many of them had just finished their "work" in the Afghan war) ran into the Balkans to support their Muslim "brothers" during the collapse of Yugoslavia. After the war, some of these scum bags decided to settle in Bosnia and began to spread their poisonous ideas. Some of them would settle in rural areas and create "salafist villages".

These yihadists played a role, but for sure the main actors in bringing and spreading fundamentalism in Bosnia have been the Golf countries and Turkey, that have built new mosques managed by imported or reeducated radical Imams and have funded "cultural associations" aiming to push Bosniaks into fundamentalist Islam. This is clearly seen in the documentary, with the "hispter salafists" leafletting on the streets and the caritative associations helping the poor to buy their acceptance.

This documentary was like the appetiser, the main dish is served by this other documentary, Bosnie, Serbie, Kosovo, les nouveaux territoires de l'islam radical. This is an excellent report. It starts with Bosnia, and shows an even more worrying portrait. The drift towards a much more strict interpretation of Islam can be clearly felt on the streets. It's not just a matter of the increasing presence of women with niqabs and men with the salafist dress code. Now many bars have stopped serving alcohol, the Halal market (not only for the soaked in suffering meat) has just exploded, and the socialization habits are changing. The part that surprised me a lot is that part of these changes are also due to the country having become a tourist destination for the middle classes of the Golf countries. Huge touristic villages (well, they are planning a city for 100.000 people) made up of secondary residences for Arab families are springing up like mushrooms. It makes sense, if you are a devote Arab family and want to enjoy a green, mountanious landscape (even ski sports) in a place where your strict moral views won't be disturbed, a place desperate for investment like Bosnia seems ideal (adjusting their secular Islam to a more rigorist one is just a compromise). It's particularly sad to see in this documentary how the huge radical mosques funded by Saudi Arabia are full of "believers", while a Sufi mosque preaching a tolerant and moderate version of Islam is almost empty...

Seeing how Arab investment is shaping (destroying) the present and future of Kosovo was not surprise to me either, but what shocked me is the influence of radical Islam in Serbia and Montenegro. Come on, Serbia!? a country that represents slav "culture" at its most (Orthodox Christianity, nationalism, conservadurism...), that during the wars against Bosniaks and Kosovars made of ethnicity and religion a huge factor... Well, to my surprise, there's a region stretching over the borders of Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia, Sandjak, where there's a huge percentage of Muslim population, that is also being exposed to fundamentalist views. Odd that the Serbian authorities allow salafists to proselytize on the streets of its main city, Novi Pazar.

Climate Engineering

I've recently watched a pretty good documentary about Climate Engineering (the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climate system). I came across with the Spanish version, "Un Clima Mecanico" (not sure about the English title), but there seems to be quite a few other documentaries on this topic.

I thought the idea of voluntarily changing the climate or the weather for someone's benefit lied mainly in the realm of fiction (let's exclude Global Warming, that could benefit a few people at the expense of the rest of us), but indeed it was already done by the USA during the Vietnam War, in the Operation Popeye. Furthermore, it seems like the Soviet Union used to artificially clean up the skies of Moscow for the May 1st parades, amazing.

Modifiying the local weather for one or several days seems scary (causing huge storms that can damage crops, flood cities...) but modifying the climate would have a global effect, and that's terrifying. If you modify the climate to do your country more rainy others will become drier, and the same goes for the temperatures. Conflicting entities would end up in a traditional war... The documentary shows how the Soviets had a crazy plan for melting the Artic to benefit of its resources, it's sad to see that they just had to wait a few decades to let Global Warming do the job for them.

For the moment, Climate Engineering remains such a dangerous and conflictive topic that apparently governments are not supposed to promote research on it... but well, who knows what is really under the surface...

Agriculture 2.0

This documentary about Vertical Agriculture is just amazing. I used to think of "Urban Agriculture" mainly as a nice hobby with a social component. If you live in a flat in a city you need to be a bit lucky to enjoy that hobby. The options are:

• You have a balcony (relatively common in France, totally uncommon in Asturies) and you can grow there a few tomatoes, strawberries and even have a small orange tree in a pot.
• The building where your flat is placed has some sort of private garden (rather common in France, very uncommon in Asturies) and the neighbours have agreed in setting a growing area. This could also happen in your building's roof.
• Some neighbours association has agreed with the city council to set up some growing area in some park or unused space (this happens sometimes in France, is unknown to me in Asturies).

Well, all the above is cool, but has nothing to do with the documentary. This documentary is about how to set up agricultural facilities in towns that would really help to feed the town regularly (with veggies that in many cases do not grow in the city's climate), not just a neighbours lunch. City space is rare and expensive, so the idea is taking the conventional greenhouse to its version 5.0! You can start by hanging up if possible different layers of growing veggies in one container and then move to setting multistories plantations. You can also skip using soil and move into Hydroponics. The concept envisioned by one Swedish entrepreneur where a building would be used for office space and agricultural space is beautiful.

What amazed me the most is how by fully controlling the weather in your container: temperature, light, humidity... you can grow anything maximising its nutrients and taste. If you know that certain harvest a certain year in a certain place was particularly tasty, and you have access to the weather patterns in that place that year, you can be close to replicating it. Agriculture is becoming the new IT freaks realm!

When in October 2016 I was travelling by train from Amsterdam Airport to Rotterdam I felt totally amazed by the huge extension of modern greenhouses. These had nothing to do with the ones covered in plastic that are so important in Southern Spain, these were glasshouses, like the ones in a botanical garden, but on a massive scale. This shows up in the documentary and happens to be called Westland.