Sr Talent Acquisition Analyst, East Asia

NYT Games added friends option

Join my leaderboard in The New York Times Games app. We’ll be able to follow each other’s daily scores, ranks and solve times for multiple games.: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/apps?code=fb87c464-fa5f-46ea-82b0-bfc6c9f14365

Why nation fall

What is an extractive economy? An extractive economy is one where a small elite holds all the power political and economic and uses it to serve themselves. These people don’t build, they extract. Resources, labor, wealth, and even hope from the masses. The rest of the population gets scraps, if anything. The institutions are built not to include, but to exclude. Over time, this creates deep poverty, stagnation, and chaos. It suppresses talent, kills opportunity, and chokes any chance of a better future for the majority. And here’s where it gets darker. In extractive regimes, when governments fail to provide the basics like employment, clean water, good education, accessible healthcare then they don’t admit failure. They don’t reflect. Instead, they often manufacture or magnify external threats. It becomes their distraction weapon. Because when a nation is “on the brink of war,” suddenly your unemployment doesn’t feel that important. Your hunger, your lack of income, your unfulfilled dreams they all shrink in comparison to the idea that “our very nation is under threat.” It works like magic. And I’ve started noticing a pattern in our country. September 18, 2016 – Uri Attack Terrorists entered an Indian army camp and carried out a brutal attack. No one ever figured out how they got in, how they planned it, how it slipped through intelligence cracks. But right after that came the surgical strike, publicized to the point where it felt like Modi ji himself had led the team across the border. Six months later, UP elections happened. The BJP won with overwhelming support. The narrative was simple: “Yeh naya Hindustan hai, ghar mein ghus ke maarta hai.” “Modi hai toh mumkin hai.” ⸻ February 14, 2019 – Pulwama Attack 250 kg of RDX entered Indian soil. How? Nobody knows. A civilian car got near a military convoy and exploded. Again—no clear answers. But soon after came the Balakot air strike. Patriotism peaked. The government took center stage, framing the military operation as its own victory. May 2019 – General Elections. Guess what? BJP swept again. Why? Because Modi had “done the airstrike,” and Abhinandan was brought back like a national trophy. ⸻ March 2020 – COVID Crisis The country was bleeding. People dying in corridors. No hospital beds. No oxygen. Crematoriums overloaded. But the headlines? Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide. Suddenly, we were all CBI agents. Rhea Chakraborty became the national villain. Weeks passed. Anger diverted. Public pain diluted. Final verdict? Who knows. But the damage was done—distraction achieved. ⸻ June 2020 – Galwan Valley Clash COVID deaths were rising. The system was crumbling. But suddenly, China was at the gates. Instead of focusing on saving lives, we were busy banning TikTok. Talking about boycotting Chinese goods. And just when everything felt like it was falling apart… Rafale jets arrived. News channels ran 24/7 coverage of fighter jets like they were Avengers joining the battlefield. Meanwhile, people were still dying without oxygen in hospitals. ⸻ Now again, another terrorist incident. Possibly a post-raid misreported as a terror attack. But the media is spinning it hard. Visuals. Footage. Narratives. Almost as if the intent is not to inform, but to influence. ⸻ Ram Mandir Timing The Ram Mandir verdict, unresolved for 30 years, suddenly got closure just before the 2024 elections. Fine. But what I can’t understand is why the inauguration happened before the temple was even completed. Shankaracharyas themselves said it’s inauspicious to do that. But it happened anyway. Just in time to stoke emotions ahead of the vote. ⸻ I’m not claiming anything. I’m not saying it’s all orchestrated. I don’t have the proof. But I see the pattern. Again and again. National tragedies turned into nationalist campaigns. Failures turned into war cries. Real questions silenced under the weight of “enemy threats.” Why is it that every time we’re close to an election, a tragedy happens, followed by a military response, and then a victory lap? I don’t know the answer. I’m just a guy observing. But I can’t unsee it now.

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