Let my people play

Just a modest proposal.

State of play.

Give ‘m free apps. Free phones…Free broadband.

Spend hard dollars on soft infrastructure (internet and cyber infrastructure) and softwares.

Go nimble.

This should drain the recruiting pool and drive the ISIS and Taliban of the world crazy.

they can’t find young recruits…who are busy posting on their Tik Tok and Instagram. Not to mention, they will make mistakes, disclosing their whereabout for immediate drone strikes (see…the capture of Bin Laden).

Meanwhile, the Taliban are moving back in (brings to mind the looting of Long Binh PX….the burning of green bags at Tan Son Nhut Airport on the 29 of April 1975 etc..).

After WWII in Berlin,,,same thing.

Wars gotta end. Can’t go on forever from one generation to the next (speaking of which, my other daughter is moving in to her dorm room…it costs a lot..).

Oh well. “unknown unknowns”.

Go for it. If it suits you.

Me? Leave me out of it (war, that is).

I just want to face my end, my beginning in peace.

Can’t even grow hair like the 60’s. (Old man, looks at my life, I am very like you from the Harvest by Neil Young)….

Back to my modest proposal.

There was a broken-window theory about pro-actively handling the terrorist movement…deprive them of their recruiting base – not to mention going EV to slow down the flow of oil and blood money- e.g. educate the young, the girls, have them code, STEM…..so they are exhausted with work, and shopping…in other words, fashion them, the Rest, after the image of the West. Call it a digital Crusade. Convert them.

Westernize them – “Christianize” them. Win the Crusade of the 21st century w/ Independence Day everywhere. (Civil Religion to replace Mono Theism).

Think of a 9-Billion strong market, singing and shopping “in perfect harmony” (Coke not Pepsi, Nike not Adidas).

Thomas Friedman again (when two nations, both have a McDonald, they are less likely going to war with each other).

Flatten the curve, flatten the world.

Kabul as a new fashion centre (Breakfast in Kabul)…skinny Afghan girls with cigarettes on long-holders after our Audrey in Breakfast at Tiffany.

Then the world shall be One.

It’s been 20 years. My daughter grew up without knowing much about 9/11.

Would love to keep her innocent and safe.

Keep the war at bay, at a distance, in back waters and through Blackwater.

Don’t want her to miss her Move-In date (I missed mine, due to war, or end of war to be accurate).

Which Dad doesn’t want a better world and future for their daughters.

STEM for them, a terror-free society and cyber world, where they can “pen-pal” (face-time) with counterparts in Kabul, in Karachi and in Kansas.

It’s an Utopian dream of mine. But first, we need to make iPads affordable or on-loan, so they can pay back on installment, from their direct-deposit paychecks, earned from their jobs, ones which make them too exhausted to join ISIS and Taliban (esp. once they join a gym, as I often see Apple Indian programmers try to work out outside of work).

The broken-window theory on fighting terrorism, here or abroad. A modest proposal. Free game download, long-tail patiently awaiting their life-time earning and loyalty.

May you live long life to reap what you sowed.

Unless Karma is not your thing.

Let my people play….After all, aren’t these unintended consequences of science and medical technologies, vaccines and disease-eradication? drones and outsourcing, lies and unknown unknowns….