Comments by "Persona" (@ArawnOfAnnwn) on "CaspianReport" channel.

  1. That's perhaps not the best way of phrasing it, but it is the case that there are structural / legal barriers in place that get in the way of Western investors putting their money into these places (when going through official channels).
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  2. His name is Shirvan, and he's not Indian. He's Azerbaijani. You can hear that with his signoff right at the end.
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  3. Not really much of a concern anyway, as there's no way tibet is going anywhere. That cause is pretty much lost, it's only idle social media activists in the west who still like to bring it up. Even India, who literally host the Dalai Lama, don't bother with it.
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  4. ​ @ugiswrong  How about you learn the history of Iran. Whatever you think of it, it was the us and uk who made it that way. The 79 revolution was a reaction to what they'd done in 53. YOU made that it like that.
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  5. Tbh I feel that quote is unnecessarily dismissive in this case. Argentina had potential, just not the kind of potential that free market ideologues love to suggest based on its early GDP per capita figures. It wasn't a developed country at the turn of the century like they like to pretend, but it was still developing - like most other nations. They didn't develop backwards, but they failed to go forwards too.
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  6. Imagine comparing Americans to the elves of middle earth. They're nothing alike.
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  7.  @Badger_IV.  No. I suspect this mess is just getting started. You see the state Myanmar is in? Syria is likely heading the same way.
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  8.  @chrisk6687  Says who? You sound like a believer in your own god. Pot calling the kettle black much lol?
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  9.  @Kaybossboi  He was referring to a post Shirvan made saying he was having trouble finding a sponsor, hence the upload delay.
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  10. The best option for India is just going through Iran, as it had originally planned. And in doing that, it isn't China that's screwed us over, but the US. America and its never-ending feud with Iran is hurting our interests, even beyond just this project. We don't have any issue with Iran, but because of the US we have to sacrifice them.
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  11. That's a Churchill quote, not his own.
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  12.  @imran4006  Sri Lanka invading India would be like Cuba invading the US lol. They know they'd stand no chance, and are so close they'd be dead if they tried. Besides which, they don't even have a major beef with India, so why would they? A few foreign debts are hardly something to risk suiciding your whole nation over.
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  13.  @drmodestoesq  They were already involved in Yemen before. The us provided support for the Saudi operation earlier. Then it went south, so they pulled out. Then later the Saudis pulled out too lol.
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  14. @Stardust "The strong survive and the weak perish..." 'cept Qatar seems to be doing fine, while SA just continues to embarass itself with this and in Yemen. Neither side is gonna die here.
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  15.  @President_Mario  That's just what you tell yourselves. Apart from Europe, most of the world is fine with it. There has never been any pressure on the US to do what it does, nor could there be. You choose to do it.
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  16. They may seek secularism, but that doesn't mean they're okay with the US doing it.
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  17. This is the mapping software mentioned in his equipment list (linked in the video description) - https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-pro/overview
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  18. Man the armchair generals are out in FORCE in this comment section lol!
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  19. They don't have an endgame for it, cos this is all basically to keep one man out of jail. The longer it goes, the longer he stays free.
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  20. Just goes to show that all the money and advanced weaponry in the world can't beat a determined enemy with a home field advantage. The US should keep this mind when launching their next war. They've lost like this several times already...
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  21. Tribalism is very much alive and well in the west, it just doesn't trace itself back centuries. But we're seeing plenty of new 'tribes' forming all the time, identifying themselves by social or political ideology rather than ethnicity but acting very much like tribes do in all other respects. There's strong intra-tribal identification and support, their social networks tend to be dominated by people of similar beliefs as they have, they even tend to marry within the 'tribe' and express active disinclination to mix with opposing tribes (surveys have found as much, and it's a trend that's only become more pronounced over the years). We just don't call them tribes.
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  22. ITT: A comment by someone who humbly acknowledges his ignorance, followed by two from people who revel in it.
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  23. Interestingly, the biggest beneficiaries from this are the very people the Democrats themselves are nervous about - Sanders and Warren. Trumps' image is hurt, but then so is Biden. So when the mainstream Dem candidate is vulnerable, who to turn to but the non-mainstream ones? They might have just ended up playing themselves out of pulling off another Hillary in 2020 i.e. this time the radicals will have to come to the fore. The fight that plays out then should be fascinating to observe - Trump fighting Sanders / Warren, while Sanders / Warren also fight their own party establishment. Fun times! ;)
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  24. The best option for India is just going through Iran, as it had originally planned. And in doing that, it isn't China that's screwed us over, but the US. America and its never-ending feud with Iran is hurting our interests, even beyond just this project. We don't have any issue with Iran, but because of the US we have to sacrifice them.
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  25. That's a Churchill quote, not his own.
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  26. Tbh I feel that quote is unnecessarily dismissive in this case. Argentina had potential, just not the kind of potential that free market ideologues love to suggest based on its early GDP per capita figures. It wasn't a developed country at the turn of the century like they like to pretend, but it was still developing - like most other nations. They didn't develop backwards, but they failed to go forwards too.
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  27.  andersonnick038  They'd have been dumb to do that, and I don't think every other nation is dumb. The US was paid back in the form of global political and economic influence, rather than simple money. Many other nations might have made the same offer (had they the ability to), for the same reasons. Hankering after the money is short-term thinking, there are far more subtle forms of reciprocity.
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  28. Malaysia is specialized towards memory chips, which isn't even an industry unique to it. It'll face tough competition even holding its own in its own industry, let alone expanding to processing chips.
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  29.  @mikey3932  The nice thing about academic sources is that they're peer reviewed and also typically not anecdotal (quite a lot of it is also highly statistical i.e. informed by actual data). Definitely a much more trustworthy source than random people on the internet, even regardless of whether they sound reasonable or not. One persons opinions and/or lived experience is no substitute for a professional birds eye view studies by accredited experts.
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  30. This channel really seems to be going fast down the sellout route off late. Between its choice of sponsors, alarmist or clickbait topics, chasing trends (this video counts as BOTH of those things), biases to cater to its likely largest audience base, repetition of content to milk the most out of what sells, etc. I used to like Caspian Report, but nowadays it seems to be going down just as RealLifeLore already did (though different from RLL, whose approach seems to be to just saturate every topic he can can cover and hope that quantity makes up for quality)
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  31. Most are small. India has around 20,000. Countries can have some pretty big numbers of dams, as long as you disabuse yourself of the image of the stereotypical giant dam (such as the Hoover or Three Gorges).
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  32. China had to deal with way worse than the slight tickle Japan went through. When China calls it the Century of Humiliation they ain't kidding. Only places like India and Southeast Asia (or most of Africa) can compare with that, not what Japan went through.
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  33. He's Azeri himself. It wouldn't be safe for him. And people would question his neutrality on the topic.
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  34.  @IanGerritsen  So you want to join the US...but then turn it into Australia? Are you sure you even know what you want?
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  35. THIS is what I originally subscribed to Caspian Report for - geopolitical analysis of lesser known issues around the world, NOT repeated (and somewhat repetitive) coverage of the most trending and hot button topics in the media. It's been sad seeing this channel move away from that as time went on. Hopefully we see more attention given to stuff like this, as opposed to more bandwagon programming. If people need to hear about those popular topics, they can just turn on the news and get an earful (and then some) from the mainstream media.
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  36.  @therealuncleowen2588  Not really. Among other things, the elves of ME were reclusive. But the US has marched out to war in foreign lands under the leadership of presidents who were from the side that doesn't want trump as well. The US isn't even like Numenor, which also kept to itself for most of its history, only acting during a world war. The metaphor just doesn't work.
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  37.  @stonedsnakestudios  Caspian Report also focuses on "unknown events and small countries", at least if we take what tends to dominate most nightly news as a basis. Meanwhile, ppl hate VP for a variety of reasons - rightwingers hate the channel cos they're pro-immigration and socially progressive (although they don't cover social topics much), left-wingers hate the channel cos they're transparently neoliberal or even libertarian (i.e pro low taxes, and they even defended tax havens), nationalists hate the channel cos they're all for free trade and most centrists (who tend to identify as more serious-minded and academic) hate the channel because its presentation prioritizes entertainment value and quippy commentary over neutral analysis. However, that last bit is also why the channel is popular as well, as most people aren't the types to seek to strongly research or nuance their positions and instead prefer simplified, relatable and preferably fun explainers, which VP provides. Most of those people would probably find CaspianReport's droning style sleep-inducing, and hence why VP has been so much more successful, despite it not being (imo) anywhere near as good.
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  38. They're already an international pariah, defended only by a certain great power. What the international community thinks is irrelevant to them.
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  39.  @thundershirt1  You already went ashore when the Saudis did. Plus, you know, so did the Saudis. And it didn't work.
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  40.  @ugiswrong  Reza Pahlavi taking over from Mohammad Mosaddegh - that's YOUR fault. YOU are responsible for the crap
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  41.  @kameronjones7139  I said 'apart from Europe'. Besides, how has anyone forced the US' hand? Apart from that time Japan did, the US has always been free to stay out of things and no one could make it do otherwise. Of course that would come with a reduction in their global influence, which is why they keep choosing not to.
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  42. Tbh I feel Shirvan is unnecessarily dismissive in this case. Argentina had potential, just not the kind of potential that free market ideologues love to suggest based on its early GDP per capita figures. It wasn't a developed country at the turn of the century like they like to pretend, but it was still developing - like most other nations. They didn't develop backwards, but they failed to go forwards too.
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  43. It better be, if it's expected to be fully open in the early 2020s.
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  44.  @PK-lo6ws  The US is the most fickle ally you could ever ask for (unless you're an Anglophone country, which we aren't). They've supported Pakistan for longer than they've sided with us, just cos it served their own interests. We've had a more reliable ally in Russia than the US. I wouldn't put my faith in anything the Americans claim - work with them as long it benefits you, but always ensure you can afford to be ditched at a moments notice.
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  45.  @MyVanir  Most likely they learned from their own people - specifically, from Kia and Hyundai...
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  46.  @masonfarnsworth6730  I don't see the west gaining any advantage out of this. Meanwhile Afghans have lost hundreds of thousands of people to a needless war. While the Taliban may be terrible, one silver lining is that if the war finally ends then the death toll will finally reduce as well. And yes, before anyone says it, they're repressive. But war kills more people.
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  47.  @appleslover  Norway. They wield significant economic muscle with their sovereign wealth fund, but relatively little political power as a country.
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  48. There's already a ridiculous amount of media coverage of Russia and Ukraine, plus he's already covered it in prior videos and the present situation is still developing. Best to leave it to the regular media for now and do other stuff. He can assess the Ukraine situation later when things are more settled and clearer. Remember Caspian Report is NOT a news channel. Never has been.
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  49.  @BigBoss1R  True but on the flipside if anything he's undersold how complicated all this is. There are other groups in Afghanistan besides ISIS-K that he didn't cover, but that just means the situation is even more complex.
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  50. The latter will probably get its own video later, I suspect.
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