As Catalonia prepares for
a referendum on whether to break away from Spain and be a separate country, a
lot of important questions cloud the mind. Would the new country be a part of
EU? Would this benefit the people of the Catalan region or just see a rise in
ultra-nationalism with little economic progress? Would big businesses flee the
Catalan region if it weren’t part of EU? Would this encourage the Basque
separatists or the Andalusian nationalists and lead to a further disintegration
of Spain? Would Real Madrid and Barcelona; the only rivals for the Spanish
League titles, now start winning their respective national titles for the rest
of eternity without each other for competition? And finally, if they do vote
for a separate country – could they PLEASE make sure they get their borders
right?
One of the toughest, yet
most critical parts of being a country is getting your border right. You may
have the finest natural resources, rich tourism potential, a highly productive
population, great reserves of oil, but if you don’t get that border right all
your energy would go into squabbling with that pesky neighbor over a border
dispute for the next 50 years or more. You may think that messing up with maps
is Apple’s forte, but look around and you’ll see a lot of countries have got it
wrong and been involved in bitter border disputes – India, Pakistan, China, Japan,
South Korea, Greece, Turkey, Egypt – the list is endless. You may think that if
they could put a man on the moon, getting the borders correct should not be an
issue, but it is. Sadly, rocket science is overrated – there are so many things
far more difficult to do – understanding women, peace in the Middle East, mastering
calculus, agreeing on national borders, unarmed combat with a Bengal tiger, building a Large Hadron Collider in your backyard, obeying traffic rules on Indian roads – once again, the list is endless.
But coming back to
territorial disputes – as Indians, we may think we’ve seen it all – after all
we not only have territorial disputes with Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and
Nepal, we also have territorial disputes between various states in the country!
The recent ASEAN summit, however, made me realize how little I really knew. I’d
thought that India – Pakistan, Iran – Iraq, Israel-Palestine – was about as
complex as it got, until I heard of the South China Sea dispute. Here was a
region that had 8 different territorial disputes involving 7 different
countries – and I had no clue about it! To help you better understand what this
means, below is a matrix that I’ve prepared listing the disputes and the
countries involved.
So, what is it about the
South China Sea region that’s got 7 countries throwing tantrums and refusing to
talk to each other like gentlemen? Firstly, it has oil – although the estimates are wonderfully enigmatic over whether it's a huge amount of oil or a fairly small amount. A
Chinese estimate puts it at over 200 million barrels of oil, whereas an
American one puts it at 28 billion barrels. While both are amounts that are not
to be scoffed at, it does make one wonder - isn’t one of them terribly wrong
here? Like, terribly, disastrously, insanely and unbelievably wrong? I mean,
it’s ok if you say it’s 230 and it turns out to be 250 – but if you say 28 and
it turns out to be 200+, or the other way round, you’ve done a very bad job,
haven’t you? And these are people who would study this stuff for years to come
up with these estimates, and then get it so badly wrong. Someone ought to be
fired – imagine, it’s like telling your shareholders you’ve made sales of 200
million at the AGM, only to call a sheepish press conference next week saying
that your sales figures were slightly off the mark – that instead of 200, it’s
more like…umm…20! It’s understandable if it’s all part of some propaganda –
like North Korea telling the press that their economy is so prosperous by lining up
20 fat people to pose for the cameras while the rest of the country is
starving, just to show what a good job The Great Undisputed Leader Is Doing
Foiling The Evil Imperialist Designs Of Western Capitalism. It was the
same when I read about shale gas reserves in India – from an initial estimate
of 300-plus trillion cubic feet; it came down to…6 trillion cubic feet! Who
made the initial estimate and why did people believe him? Did he just randomly
wake up one morning and cook up that number?
But coming back to South
China Sea, whether 200 billion or 28, it’s enough to have the countries
fighting over it, so at least the consequences were irrelevant. And it isn’t
just oil – the area is rich in fishing potential, and we’re talking of 7
countries that absolutely love seafood here. And it’s also a very busy shipping
lane, so there’s plenty of money to be made there as well. For those curious
about India’s guest appearance – Indian navy vessels sailing in the South China
Sea received an “unscheduled escort” by a Chinese Navy vessel for a good 12
hours. I have no clue what that means, but I’m guessing “unscheduled escort” is
being used in an extremely euphemistic manner here. I shudder to think what's going to happen if I ever walked up to a girl and offered to "unscheduled escort" her!
So you can imagine the
plight of poor, neutral Cambodia when it hosted the ASEAN meet this year. According
to Reuters, Cambodia spent all its time “batting away repeated attempts to raise the
issue about the disputed waters during the ASEAN Meeting.” It must’ve been
worse than any of those family gatherings where an uncle/aunt or two have had a
drink too many and the secrets start to spill out. If Cambodia had a thick head
of lush, black hair, it would’ve turned listless and grey by the end of the
ASEAN Meeting.
“Listen,
China – I don’t care! You must learn to share your things, ok? Otherwise no
Satay for you!”
“And
Vietnam – look at you – you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You promised you’d
only fish in your territorial waters!”
“Brunei, you too??? I
expected better from you at least – squabbling like a baby over maritime
boundaries!”
“Taiwan – I always thought
you were the smart, sensible one – that you’d be above all this and keep
yourself occupied making all those consumer electronics. What’s gotten into you
– 7 border disputes???”
Needless to say, the ASEAN
Meeting ended badly – but it just raises the question – if bilateral disputes
have been simmering for over half a century – can a seven-way one EVER be
resolved? You may not have that many
borders, Catalunya, but make sure you get it right!
12 comments:
I'd rather read your blog than the newspapers to find out what's happening in the world. Hey!!! Why don't you start a weekly/fortnightly magazine/newspaper?
Thanks! U know, i had started one back when i was in GIM - but there were just two I cud come up with, was not a regular thing although that was the original intention! It would be fun to do something like that with like-minded collaborators - on your own it's too much of a stretch, unless it's your job and ur getting paid!
Had no idea things could be that complex.These last few years,I kept hearing about the Cauvery water dispute and thought it was enough to drive one mad,and here we are talking of so many countries fighting over!! I doubt any productive end to the summit other than you having an article to write about:)
Lol ...that was me, Tania and not saurabh.....I was using his iPad so it took his email by mistake.Back to my iPad now
Funny, as usual. I especially loved the list of difficult things to do. :) Also I must commend you for being so well informed on international affairs. Bravo!! I think countries or states just keep getting divided to serve the insatiable greed of human beings. More the countries, more the heads of state, more the rulers and more the apparent power. Silly politics!!
Thanks, kid! Yes, good thing the summit ended badly and made the news - gave me an idea for another post :) But yea, wonderfully complex the dispute seems to be!
Thanks, Sub! Yes, have been more regular with reading the papers of late - although I haven't always been this aware. And yes, a little bit of research also helped - not like I knew all the stuff. As for silly politics - no need to look beyond Karnataka. Remember Yeddy accusing the Gowdas of black magic?
I just love the way you kick around ideas like football with superb control. Great dribbling n shooting skills as well.Pls keep it coming.Hardly get to read sensible humour these days.
Witty as hell dude!! I am surprised u were able to steer clear of the front page ads, kejri stuff et al in the papers and read about aseaan summits n all. Hope u didn't have to use magnifying lens!!
just to add to all the silly border politics, don't forget the fight between maharashtra & Karnataka over Belgaum!! Its just that countries don't know where to draw a line when it comes to borders!! :)
i dont understand how claiming arunachal pradesh is massively gonna impact the GDP of China!! I mean no disrespect to arunachal pradesh but c'mon.
They make enough making our flags, our crackers, our diwali lights, our toys...etc. they even save costs by giving us stapled visas!! talk about increasing top line and improving bottom line.
Countries should just make peace by gifting each other single malts...lol!!
Sinha - thanks man! Keep those comments coming - always encouraging!
Ronald - haha - yeah, countries sure don't know where to draw the line when it comes to borders! As for Single Malts - that might be dicey. It could lead to a lot of diplomatic tensions if it's messed up. As in, if India gifts Russia a 25-yr old Laphroaig and the US a 12 y/o Glenfiddich, imagine the ramifications on Indo-US relations! Now imagine this played out with all countries - could lead to a lot of trouble ;)
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