A friend forwarded me this link where Shashi Tharoor speaks at TED about India. He makes a case for India as a superpower through soft power. He is fluent and the talk is heartwarming. A minor question I had which he didn't address and was probably not in the scope of his talk: Can a country secure it's strategic interests and protect it's territory with soft power?
The part about the connectedness of India via cellphones is certainly very true and has been spoken and written about a lot. The amazing thing is, that this change has only come about in the last few years, yet people will tell you it's an old story, nothing new.
And on that part about the number of news channels in India, do checkout Rajpal yadav's dialogue in this trailer. Hamari filmon ko hum... NEWS kahte hain
Nice talk by Shashi Tharoor. He's a glib talker. Soft-power theory is right. Soft-power also increases the wealth of the nations. We should advertise yoga, ayurveda etc etc to bring in more tourism $$$. Italy is one of the best examples of SW power. Their food, wine, monuments etc brings in so many $'s, that it literally runs their economy.
ReplyDeletePS: Shashi Tharoor for PM! hehe
heh :)
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