Rahul M: thank you for the welcome back.
Shiv: Don't laugh now, but for the last couple of years I earn my living by being a consultant to the mining industry in a certain Pacific Island - and yes, I am, peripherially and in my usual unimportant way, it is the stuff this thread is so fascinated with. It pays well

Ramana: Thank you for the welcome. A long time ago, may be 3-5 odd years now, I remember having a discussion with Acharya and warning him that since the standard social attack vector against us had repeatedly failed, i.e. India was still together despite the massive overseas funding of our so-called "minorities" it made sense for the next attack to be along the majority community vector.
It was Rudradev who fleshed out that argument by pointing out that the Soviet Union was destroyed
not by its minorities but by the Russian Republic and its ruler, Yeltsin who withdrew from the Union. Rudradev then went on to point out that it wasn't the minorities that destroyed Yugoslavia but the insane sense of injustice that the majority Serbs subscribed to that tore apart Yugoslavia and turned the Serbs into the dogs of modern EuroLand to this day.
Do I need to remind you that a 1500 year old religion was turned into an insane circus in pakeeLand
not by the Pakees despite their remarkable stupidity, or by the Jews or Christians or Hindus, but by True islamic Believers who believed the Truth that the the University of Maryland gave to the well meaning believers inside pakeeland?
Do I really need to remind you that the Nuclear Power industry was destroyed by a bunch of fanantical anti-nuclear "warriors" in the West, who were *
not* funded by the evil commies but by the Hydrocarbon (oil, and coal) industries, during the 70's and late 80's?
Do I really need to remind you that the way to destroy something is
not through the obvious "enemies" route, but by getting a set of determined
well intentioned, highly motivated, highly ethical folk to simply believe that they were the *only* ones *really* protecting something?
The road to as you well know is always paved with good intentions.
Do I really need to remind you of all people about these things?
N:
The economic upheaval is more than just "seismic". "Seismic" is what happened to to San Fransisco in 1906. trivial stuff. This, using the seismic analogy, is Krakatoa.
JEM: Thank you. Good gawd, you actually spotted it!! Couldn't resist that one either. rotfl.