Slash, Burn, Earn - US Foreign Policy in a Nut Shell

 It has been a consistent trend in all US foreign interventions not to give a damn about what happens after they are gone, except for installing a puppet regime or dictator who gets deposed in no time. In the US occupation of Iraq after the ouster of Saddam Hussain as much as $ 9 billion of their gold reserve vanished, just like $6 billion of the Iraq reconstruction fund, all paid for by Iraqi oil. All under the watchful eye of the US Presidential envoy Paul Bremmer. The more far-reaching and deadlier consequence was the rise of Islamists in a hitherto secular country with armed and fanatical Shia and Sunni militias, culminating with the formation of Daesh or ISIS.

Laos, which had never been at war with the US is the most heavily bombed country in the world, again courtesy of the US Air Force, only due to being a neighbour of Vietnam where the latter was fighting a losing war. Cambodia is a close runner up, having the largest number of landmines, with even deadlier long-term consequences. Because not satisfied with bombing ricefields and villages of a poor defenceless country from a 1 km up, the US next orchestrated a coup removing the neutral, legitimate and popular ruler, Prince Norodom Sihanouk with a military junta led by General Lon Nol. This started a grizzly civil war that finally saw the China sponsored and US-supported Khmer Rouge or the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) regime, led by Pol Pot grab power.

They proceeded to kill and starve to death more than a million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979. After the Vietnamese army ousted the genocidal regime in 1979, Pol Pot and the remnants of the Khmer Rouge got refuge in Northern Thailand, thanks to, you guessed it, the US. They continued funding them for no reason other than spite against the Vietnamese who were still occupying Cambodia, just because they kicked their butt in the Vietnam war. In 1981, US President Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, declared, "I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot. The US", he added, "winked publicly" as China sent arms to the Khmer Rouge(KR) through Thailand." Being of Polish origins and an avid Russia hater, Brzezinski was also instrumental in the ouster of the Shah of Iran to install Khomeini and an Islamic theocracy to be used as a springboard of Islamic militancy into the Soviet Union, but we all know how it ended. So he went along with Plan B which was arming and funding the Mujaheededn in Afghanistan, against the Soviets. We also know how it ended.

Coming back to the modern days, do you still think that the US is arming Ukrainians because they are a democratic freedom-loving country ?? What is the long term commitment of the US in helping to rebuild the country, provided Russia loses this war? Or is it going to go the same way as the Iraq reconstruction fund where 6 billion USD of Iraqi Petrodollars disappeared under the nose of the Emperial Viceroy Paul Bremer?

How much investment have you raised for your Startup ??"

 It is a matter of vexation that the word Startup these days is associated solely with raising money and not what that concern is trying to do and which problem statement it is trying to solve. It was during a recent expo where I participated, that I had an otherwise well-meaning young chap with his own budding enterprise, constantly asking me the same question in one way or another "Heh, heh, so how much investment have you been able to raise??"

Finally fed up, I made him sit down and told him," Zero"! But I have had over 20 outright rejections to my pitches( I stopped counting after 20) as my work of building safe, sustainable and affordable riverboats and nautical equipment is seen as very limited in size and scalability. I was also told that I was too old to start a Startup, was mocked for not having a formal technical education, that my designs were pinched from the internet, that I lacked a team, traction and that it is a matter of doubt whether my perennially flood-prone State of Assam in NE India which is also crisscrossed by the Brahmaputra and other large rivers has any requirements of boats at all.

That the tiny grants I clawed out from here and there, the modest amount I managed to scrounge as a soft loan along with all my savings were poured into work, prototyping technology trials and development. That I worked 7 days a week, no longer have a family or personal life, live on a hand to mouth budget, got grievously injured with power tools multiple times, suffered from nerve damage and occasional temporary partial blindness from overworking with computer screens and everything that he saw on the display table was either designed, drafted, 3-printed, cast machined and welded either by me or in my presence. That I researched designed, drafted, and drew the CAD diagrams and 3d renderings by myself, sit with propeller design and NavCad software and the same with all the patents I filled. I interact with experts worldwide and do approach professionals like Naval architects and mechanical engineers at times for verifying my work, but honestly, find them unsure, ignorant or incompetent most of the time.

And yes, I stopped participating in most of the pitch fests or interacting with the so-called incubators as I found them to be manned by people with very poor understanding of technology irrespective of their fancy degrees, pompous and often ignorant of ground realities. Moreover, the entire Startup investment scenario in India is not about creating a new product or service but only about increasing the firm's valuation and snaring the bigger fool as an investor; hence for me a colossal waste of time. I am actually trying to solve problems in a completely neglected sector both in India and elsewhere and hopefully, my products and technologies will save a few lives and provide the boat owners and private ferry operators a cleaner, safer greener and more affordable alternative.

#Startup #India #investors #pitches #valuation #sustainbility