Imbalance is Russia's fine balance

How effective is the UN? It took a month to broker the Lebanon-Israel deal, after hundreds died. On the flip side, without the UN, a deal would have been impossible. The bloated UN juices resources, but it has anamazing micro-level success rate where political agenda doesn't rule.

On a macro level, it's a different and exciting affair for the UN, like the Georgia-Russia bouts. After a long silence, their dormant UN sparring affair is back.

Georgia recently arrested four Russian soldiers, accused of being spies. These were army officers, not just enlisted men, so Russia raised a stink in the UN. Russia also staged an overdramatic evacuation of its embassy personnel in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital.

Russia either does it or overdoes it. There's never a fine balance. That also applies in the larger context of the decade-old Georgia-Russia conflict, which has killed millions. The arrests are tied to the conflict.

Georgia wants the UN to stop Russia from supporting rebels in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, regions seeking independence from Georgia. Russia's response? Georgia can't handle its own regions, so the UN should vote to grant Abkhazia and South Ossetia independence. I chronicled the Abkhazia conflict in an earlier entry.

Russia's vision of the ground reality could be true. Georgia's treatment of Abkhaz and Ossetians was and is pathetic, which is why locals rebeled. Georgia is now loading up on arms to fight the rebels.

Russia is alarmed by Georgia's arms race over the rebel threat, as it doesn't want another conflict spilling into its borders (let's say they don't want another Chechnya). We're big, so let's be the peacemakers, Russia thinks.

If a conflict starts, Russia will be forced to send its army as peacekeepers (which has happened before). The peacekeepers will help the rebels break away from Georgia. It will bring regional stability and Russia can close the door on this issue.

Georgia seems right in contending that Russia is meddling with its internal affairs. The rebels are receiving some help, and the KGB still bug washing machines. But having an embassy evacuated is a poor reason to waste eardrum space in the UN.

It's hard to judge who's right and who isn't because of the imbalance. Beyond the political chess, the ground reality seems somewhat different. The Russians and Georgians seem eager to cooperate.

(to be continued...)

Wedding -- not yet!

Maybe I blew the wrong fuse in the last entry -- I rarely double-check my entries, so this one slipped. I may have misled people into the fact that I was getting married. Congratulatory mail's been flowing in, even my family grapevine's rumbling a bit. What's standing out though is some people wondering how I even reached this decision.

I am miserably indecisive, people know of my disastrous past with relationships ending because of, uh, indecisiveness. I can't turn vegetarian, I can't stay in one city for long, I can't give up the thought of being a lifelong student.

Some people understand my conundrum, but some wonder "who's the gal who can live up to all that crap?" Hold your horses. I don't want anyone else to suffer from my indecisive past. It's been my bugaboo through past relationships, and before I commit, I want to be sure where my life is going. And things could change.

So much longing...

So, wow. Hello. I approach blogger.com for the first time in forever, and I get asked "do you want into Blogger Beta?" or similar. I've learnt it the hard way: avoid Betas, especially Microsoft garbage. Isn't Gmail in Beta? Maybe Google is safer.

It's never pleasant to be MIA. So where was I? In a dark room, imagining why 'Dancing with the Stars' is so darn popular? Perhaps, that could really be the answer.

Actually, every day has become bone-crushing busy as the *real* transitional phase approaches a close. I am excited, but a bit apprehensive. As you age, change is a bit hard to swallow, but it's not causing me sleepless nights yet.

For those wondering marriage, nope, the transition is not marriage at all. Not until the football season ends atleast. But that should be coming too. Invite-only. People keep telling me "I want to attend your marriage, that's the only chance I get to attend a *real* Indian wedding!" Now how about if I respond with a court wedding. The guest's Monsoon Wedding passions will go aflame, and damn, my house will get ransacked by a disgruntled person whose plane ticket money I wasted.

I'm writing this to get my blogging feet wet again. I feel lost, unsure what to write about. Things will be back to natural in a while. For now, I'll pump up the Bhangra music and rock up for what's going to be a wild Saturday nite.