Miscellaneous News

Are we living in a world of “Go” where most people think we're playing “Chess”?

In a very real sense, we are. Let me explain

In Chess the name of the game is to eat your opponent's king.

Even if you end up in a situation where you only have a couple of pieces left vs many for your opponent, if you eat the king, you've won.

Talk about a Pyrrhic Victory... When that's the case, have you actually won?

Go (WeiQi) is a fascinating game because, unlike Chess, you win by capturing territory and not by eating your opponents' pieces (although you do eat pieces in the process of getting territory).

When you think about it, it's actually a much better metaphor for the world we live in.

Most people think about war as unidimensional: war is military, war is killing people.

This results in most people not involved in a military conflict thinking they're not at war.



*** HAPPY CNY 2022

FairAndUnbiased said:

in the late Qing dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi was besieged by palace intrigue between bureaucratic factions that led to complete inaction, and the defeat of the Beiyang Fleet by Imperial Japan.

Legends say that in the Guangxu era, when a delegation from the upstart Imperial Japan visited the Beiyang Fleet, a Japanese officer put their white gloved hand inside a Qing artillery gun.

The white glove came back with streaks of brown, indicating rust. The Japanese officer reported to the navy that it would be able to defeat the Beiyang Fleet.

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I am very curious as to whether China would be able to do the same to Japan or maybe not because unless Japan has done some secret tests on missiles, China has the ability to return the favor 1000x over but right now let’s see if the collapse of the USA will change their tune or not. Maybe then it will help Japan avoid the inevitable but kicking their are long overdue to receive

emblem21 said:

I am very curious as to whether China would be able to do the same to Japan or maybe not because unless Japan has done some secret tests on missiles, China has the ability to return the favor 1000x over but right now let’s see if the collapse of the USA will change their tune or not. Maybe then it will help Japan avoid the inevitable but kicking their are long overdue to receive

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If the time comes, well, Japan is very good at recognizing strength. They won't force an issue if they can't win. Humiliation is sufficient and their kowtow will be accepted.

Temstar said:

I recall EU also had their version called "Global Gateway". Whatever happened to that I wonder.

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EU works in very sophisticated way of connectivity. They are attracting few million work people each year. how Asia is going to deal with declining working age population?
and EU have subcontractors to work in the field. Turks are global construction contractors so alot of population can reside outside the country. key word is European aka Germanic quality.

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European quality at Asian prices'​

Tre emphasizes that Turkey's strength lies in the fact that it largely maintains its own production. Other European countries, he says, offer more Asian goods. "There is a lot to learn in the building sector, the Turks have a lot of specialized knowledge. They are good when it comes to workmanship, interior design — their color coordination is also spot on and they use good materials," the businessman swoons. But best of all, he adds — "They offer European quality at Asian prices."

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pmc said:

EU works in very sophisticated way of connectivity. They are attracting few million work people each year. how Asia is going to deal with declining working age population?
and EU have subcontractors to work in the field. Turks are global construction contractors so alot of population can reside outside the country. key word is European aka Germanic quality.

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No offense, but if the Turks are as good as you say, then they wouldn't still be offering "European quality at Asian prices" after 100 years of establishing their country next the one of the most developed regions in the world. They wouldn't have a GDP per capita of $7000 and exporting cheap labour.

Likewise, if "European quality" is as great as you hyped, Volkswagen wouldn't be shamed worldwide for dieselgate. They wouldn't have been so behind in semiconductors manufacturing. They wouldn't have missed almost the entirety of the upcoming industrial revolution. I agree that Europe is still extremely strong in many categories, but let's not jump on the hype train here.

Arnies said:

I am not sure what this is but i don't see it more then personal opinion..

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It's not personal opinion. Look at the population, GDP and trade flows for every country and then compare to a map.

Arnies said:

sparsely populated.. really?

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The Middle East is sparsely populated. Look at the population density figures which are publicly available.

Arnies said:

Okay I didn't realize you expected me to explain the central geolocation benefits? Because i see it as formality and something easy to understand..

Example in GCC you have worlds 7th largest economy with 65m population meaning the per capita is highest in the world for a large country as the remaining top 6 are smaller countries. Egypt and suez canal is major market and busiest passage which is close to Turkey..

There is Iran with 80m+ population and big economy top 20. there is central asia, and china plus there is connectivity and chinese goods that come via train as transit exit either to bulgaria and on to europe or take a ship further into west europe. there is Russia and the black sea access point and not to forget there is the maghreeb region which connects to west Africa and thats a huge market...

geograpically speaking Turkey has connectivity to all markets in the old world meaning the world(minus the americas and indo-oceania) Stragetically it is a central point in the world as in geolocation.

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There are lots of countries which are close to Egypt and the Suez Canal. What makes Turkey special?
You can see that COSCO has made Greece their regional shipping hub because it has better connectivity to the European Union.
Seriously, if you want to talk about a regional connectivity hub, it would be Egypt with the Suez Canal which is central to global trade flows because sea transport is far cheaper than rail or road. The Suez Canal is the logical location for a regional transhipment hub or export processing zone because ships have to stop and queue up anyway.

Also the GCC is not actually a country or even a trade zone. And bluntly speaking, 65Mn people in the GCC is not a lot.
Plus for Turkey to reach the GCC, it has to pass through Syria, Iran or Iraq - which are not noted for their roads or railways.

AndrewS said:

That chart is really out of date.

The China and US figures are moderately off.
The India and Turkey figures are just delusional.
I haven't even looked at the others.

You should be embarrassed to be even sharing it.

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Also, Turkey is not the centre of the world.
Turkey's neighbours are respectively for example: Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria
Plus the Turkish market is just not large enough to dictate terms to multinationals or grow many domestic world-class industries

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Agreed. Honestly, the only figures that do sound believable are the US, Japan, and Germany. Even in the case of Japan, it would require them to solve their deflationary pressures, while Germany would require to have above-average growth to reach those numbers. Chinese GDP PPP right now is around $27 trillion (correct me if I'm wrong), having $64 T economy would require a growth of more than 8% for the next 10 years, I think it is unrealistic and most likely China will grow at 5-5.5% per year (which is fantastic compared to the absolute majority of other countries). Russian growth for the last years was 2-3% on average, reaching $7.9 trillion means that their economy will essentially double over the next 10 years, which is doubtful. Turkey is projected to have $3 trillion GDP PPP in 2022, no way I'm buying that their economy is going to expand 3 times over 10 years, lmao. And so on.

GodRektsNoobs said:

No offense, but if the Turks are as good as you say, then they wouldn't still be offering "European quality at Asian prices" after 100 years of establishing their country next the one of the most developed regions in the world. They wouldn't have a GDP per capita of $7000 and exporting cheap labour.

Likewise, if "European quality" is as great as you hyped, Volkswagen wouldn't be shamed worldwide for dieselgate. They wouldn't have been so behind in semiconductors manufacturing. They wouldn't have missed almost the entirety of the upcoming industrial revolution. I agree that Europe is still extremely strong in many categories, but let's not jump on the hype train here.

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That dude loves licking European (including Russian) balls. Too bad that most of the time he just writes his white supremacist fantasies (e.g. he wrote that all Asians should be bowing down to Russia for the FDI and when I pointed out that most of the investment comes from other Asian countries, he stopped replying) and provides some irrelevant links.

xypher said:

That dude loves licking European (including Russian) balls. Too bad that most of the time he just writes his white supremacist fantasies (e.g. he wrote that all Asians should be bowing down to Russia for the FDI and when I pointed out that most of the investment comes from other Asian countries, he stopped replying) and provides some irrelevant links.

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@Arnies

Note China has 9-10x the population of Russia.
Plus the average Chinese person has recently become richer than the average Russian (as measured by GDP per capita in nominal terms)

You can look up the latest figures for yourself.

AndrewS said:

@Arnies

Note China has 9-10x the population of Russia.
Plus the average Chinese person has recently become richer than the average Russian (as measured by GDP per capita in nominal terms)

You can look up the latest figures for yourself.

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You have mistaken me with pmc and i don't share that opinion. China is by far stronger then russia anyone who says otherwise would be lying.. Nor have i ever held such opinion