(Genghis Khan, born Temujin, was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia).

I have been up long enough this morning to be agitated, but I am not going to burden you with the topic that got me going initially. I did not purchase a fuel efficient vehicle, though I do love the Panzer, and there is other gas spewing into the atmosphere. As much as I try to distance myself from the circus that is in progress in this Great Nation, it intrudes on my zen-like tranquility.

I am listening to some idiot on NPR telling me that early voting is “bad,” and we should “wait until everything is heard” before we should be allowed into the polling booth.

Considering that PBS stands to lose 12% of its funding if the challenger wins the election, I am confident that journalistic integrity is running at fever pitch. Wait: don’t accuse me of being anti-PBS. I actually listen to the Pledge Drives and would make up the shortfall through my monthly contribution to Big Bird and Car Talk and all my pet rock shows.

I must say that I resent the implication of the commentator. I think I have heard everything I need to hear to have justified voting already.

There are worse things than suffering through the campaign. I got a note from a pal in the mid-Pacific who is gripped by the ongoing crisis we do not hear much about, even though we have made the “pivot” to the Pacific in strategic orientation.

It is often said that “the enemy gets a vote,” like they did in Benghazi three weeks ago. In this case, regardless of what we want, China is asserting itself by deploying a variety of ships to the disputed waters of the Shenkaku (if you are Japanese) or Diaoyu islets (if you are Chinese).

The whole thing would be much ado about nothing, except when you start to append exclusive economic zones from the shores of the barren and uninhabited rocks. They are located roughly due east of the PRC, northeast of the other Chinese on Taiwan, west of Okinawa and north of the southwestern end of the Ryukyu Islands.

I have steamed by them all one time or another, and the Shenkakus would only have been noted as a hazard to navigation if it were not for all that oil and gas beneath the blue waters of East and South China seas. What is in a name, you know? What is in a line drawn on a map.

Anyway, the Chinese are taking a break this weekend to celebrate their Italian heritage- wait, it is actually National Day, which is a three day-festival that runs 1-3 October. So they are just getting back to things as we take off for Columbus Day.

My pal is taking a break to re-charge, since he and his comrades are watching the PRC deploy a small squadron of ships to the waters near the disputed islands.

Eight Chinese patrol ships entered the contiguous zones surrounding the islands- considered Japanese territorial waters since 1895, late last week. Four State Oceanic Administration ships entered and departed, being replaced by four ships of the PRC Fisheries Service.

Oh, yeah, the fishing thing is part of this, too, though perhaps not  The Japanese Coast Guard is looking on with alarm, and the very sincere desire by the more sane among us is that everyone would take a chill-pill and not have a miscalculation mushroom into something really ugly.

China may need that, and Japan might as well, for perfectly rational domestic political reasons.  Just like here.

 (Things can happen. A boat crewed by Hong Kong activists (center) is surrounded by Japanese patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands on August 15, 2012. Photo JMSDF).

If the Chinese economy really is just a gigantic Ponzi Scheme, and if the Japanese Yen is about to take a severe nose-dive, it is possible that a surge in some jingoistic patriotism might make things more comfortable for the current regimes.

It is hard to tell. I don’t know what is really going on in our experiment in Democracy, much less what is really happening behind the Great Firewall of China.  It is tough for the folks who are watching with all the nerve synapses firing. My pal made a comment about some of the leadership’s approach being slightly more intense that that of Genghis Khan.

I wrote back immediately, saying his comment about the Great Khan being not completely off the mark. Granted, some “mistakes were made” in the Genghis Administration, but he was, after all, in the business of consolidating a world empire. Sometimes you need to break eggs to make an omelet.

Which I did this morning, with a marvelous filling of cheese and Versatile Veggies Southwest Pico with corn and black beans.

Anyway, modern times may cause today’s managers to eschew rolling employees into carpet rolls and allowing them to starve to death on the watch floor. Plus, progressive OSHA rules clearly have made the catapult launch of other employees a sub-optimal solution to work-force strife. But think of the up side. What were the management secrets of Genghis Khan?

1. Leadership: Mongol officers were chosen based on merit, rather than class, in contrast to most armies of the Middle Ages.

2. Lean Organization: The Mongol “horde” was anything but disorganized. The organizational structure of the Mongols had many of the attributes 21st-century companies: disciplined, efficient, flexible and capable of efficient communication.

3. Lean Technology: Each Mongol soldier had two, three or even four ponies so that he could spell them on a march and save them from exhaustion.

4. Technology Transfer: The Mongols were not intimidated or fearful of societies that had capabilities they did not. Instead they quickly assimilated the expertise of the societies they conquered, particularly China.

5. Aggressive Process: The combination of organizational self-discipline, flexibility and aggressiveness allowed the Mongols to defeat larger armies of that era that were rigidly organized, and whose discipline was superficial.

So, I wrote, we can learn a lot from The Great Khan.

Be strong. Get some sleep. Even Genghis dismounted periodically.

What will be most interesting is the possibility that the Chinese may need a great distraction, and now that they are back from their holiday, they are rested, and presumably ready.

I wonder if we are?

(The lovely, if barren, Shenkaku islands).

Copyright 2012 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com