David Dobrodt

Seven African nations have come together to form the Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments (CoSAP), calling for a complete cancellation of debts on the continent, as a prelude to creating a New Paradigm of global development. Spearheaded by the Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speakers of the respective nations’ legislatures of Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, Rwanda and South Africa have vowed to lead “accountability” efforts in their respective nations in an effort to first clean up their own houses in advance of any action by creditors.

In statement released after their initial meeting, on Aug. 17, Gbajabiamila told his fellow MPs: “We all agree that Africa’s debt burden has become an existential threat to our societies, our economies and the future we leave to posterity, and we need to do something about this and treat it as a continent-wide priority. It is safe to say that the burden of debt servicing, vis-à-vis spending on education and health care for example, is a threat to our continent’s stability and development, especially in the era of Covid-19.

“When we find ourselves having to make policy choices between paying debts or saving lives, we know something is not morally right. And as democratically elected representatives of our people, we cannot be silent. We must speak up and we must act. And the time to act is now.” 

Interviewed about the initiative by CGTN on Thursday, Nov. 12, Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament Aaron Oquaye said that “we need a new world economic order,” describing the impossibility of domestic development (specifically food production) under the free trade dogma. “No country ever, in this world, got economic independence by allowing [unrestrained free trade] competition,” Oquaye said. “There is always a need for self-protection and this is the process in which we want debts relieved, so that we can also start all of our [economies] in that process.”

Oquaye then put the efforts in the larger historical context: “It’s a matter of liberating us,” he said, “giving us a free and clean—a new slate, so that we can write our own story thereon…. We need a new paradigm, a new paradigm which cannot take place under a new depressed world arrangement economically. So, we believe that, if you talk about debt cancellation, then you are only cancelling one, so as to start another. But if you forgive, then the slate is clean for us to write a new story. This is the essence of the concept.” (Emphasis in original.) 

According to the Aug. 17 statement, the group held a planning conference in September, and is planning a conference sometime in 2021.

The Chinese new Five Year Plan and Long-Range Objectives are lining up a set of targets in a very interesting way, indicating that China has adopted a planning system which qualitatively is the most advanced of any nation in the world. It has important elements close to the ideas of Lyndon LaRouche, who always denounced the linear thinking of bookkeepers which is dominating the planning systems of the world, and stressed the science of physical economy.

On Nov. 9 the International Department of the CPC, Central Committee held a thematic news briefing for the diplomatic corps in Beijing, think tanks and experts, about the fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China over Oct. 26-29 in Beijing. The most important result of this session was the adoption of the CPC Central Committee’s proposals for the formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives to fully build a modern socialist country in 2035.

The background briefing gave a comprehensive summary of the decisions of the plenary session and the diplomats fielded important questions at the end of the briefing. Among them was the question from the Colombian Ambassador Luis Diego Monsalve, who commented that this plan had “fewer quantitative indicators” and asked: “Without specific growth targets how can other countries be confident about China’s development prospects?”

The answer by Xin Xiangyang, Secretary of CPC Committee and Deputy Director of Academy of Marxism of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, acknowledged that “China in the past had a lot of quantitative indicators for both economic and social development.” He said, “Now China has transitioned into high-quality development and focus on optimizing the structure of the economy so people will focus more on the outcome of the economy and quality. … If we read between the lines, we can see the quantities.” The objective “to become a leading innovative country means top three, and that innovation will take a higher share. A strong culture implies a culture industry of 10% of GDP.” The current success in this year of building a moderately prosperous society means a per-capita income of $10,000. The objective of a medium developed country in 2035 translates into a per-capita income of $20,000.

The plan itself had been the product of many months of deliberation and feed-back from the entire country. The Political Bureau had held over a dozen symposia on various aspects of the plan, inviting speakers from all walks of life, scientists, entrepreneurs, teachers, etc. In addition, the incessant travel by President Xi Jinping himself to all parts of the country was an attempt to get an onsite reading of the conditions of the population, particularly in the rural regions and of the things that have yet to get done to meet the goals for 2035 and the creation of a “great modern socialist country” by 2050.

They have not set any quantitative targets for the Five-Year Plan but have focused on the creation of an innovation-driven economy, with the type of non-linear effects in the growth model that cannot be predicted. More free enterprise zones will be set up to encourage more foreign investment and the technological “hotbeds” like Shenzhen and the Pudong district in Shanghai will be brought to a higher level.The primary investment will be in the country’s “human resources” with a major push to enhance education at all levels, and with several “science drivers” already in motion, in space, in astronomy, in quantum communications and in biotechnology.

The improvement of the labor power has taken tremendous strides with the building of a free education system, modern housing, as well as the spectacular success in eradicating poverty by the end of 2020. The introduction this year of a basic medical insurance system for 1.3 billion people and a social security system for 1 billion people were two other giant steps to improve the labor power. The investments in machines and improvement of nature has likewise taken tremendous strides in the direction of high value production and infrastructure, building the most modern railway system of the world, modern cities, and other infrastructure.

And the relationship between scientific progress and cultural advancement has been clearly stated in the government push for general “aesthetic education.” And this will include mandatory participation by students in some form of the arts or music as a criteria for graduation. The issue of “aesthetic education” had been made a formal element in university education by the first Minister of Education of the Republic of China Cai Yuanpei, who based himself on the ideas of Friedrich Schiller. While this has waxed and waned through the years (with almost total destruction during the “Cultural Revolution”), it has never entirely died and is now high on the agenda of President Xi.

A team of researchers from the Italian National Tumor Institute in Milan has detected the presence of the SARS-Cov-2 virus in Italy already in September 2019 in a study that “may reshape the history of pandemic”. The team has tested blood samples of individuals enrolled in a lung cancer screening and reported the results in a study published by the “Tumori Journal” datelined Nov. 11. They  “investigated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD)–specific antibodies in blood samples of 959 asymptomatic individuals enrolled in a prospective lung cancer screening trial between September 2019 and March 2020 to track the date of onset, frequency, and temporal and geographic variations across the Italian regions. SARS-CoV-2 RBD-specific antibodies were detected in 111 of 959 (11.6%) individuals, starting from September 2019 (14%), with a cluster of positive cases (>30%) in the second week of February 2020 and the highest number (53.2%) in Lombardy. This study shows an unexpected very early circulation of SARS-CoV-2 among asymptomatic individuals in Italy several months before the first patient was identified, and clarifies the onset and spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Finding SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in asymptomatic people before the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy may reshape the history of pandemic.”

Independent of this and other worthwhile investigations into the origin of the virus, the attacks leveled against China for various supposed crimes of malfeasance or deliberate promotion of the virus’s spread have been, in the main, lies spread to drive a wedge between China and other nations, especially the United States.

The marathon begins at 7am EST on Friday, February 12, and end at midnight. In commemoration of Lyndon LaRouche’s passing on February 12, 2019, we invite you to meet, or reacquaint yourself with the mind and the personality of one of the greatest geniuses of the last 100 years. Genius without beauty is not genius at all. Join our LaRouche marathon, and bring your friends young and old alike.

If you haven’t already, sign up for emails from the LaRouche Organization.​

Today’s webcast focuses on three topics. 1. The continuing fight to defeat the vote fraud done on behalf of a Biden presidency; 2. The significance of the Pentagon shake-up undertaken by President Trump, which provides clear evidence that he intends to win the vote fraud fight, and pursue his strategic objectives — especially to end the “endless wars” — in a second term; 3. Why the defeat of Trump is a necessary precondition for the “Global Reset”, with its intent to establish a banker’s dictatorship, which will enforce a genocidal Green agenda.

Iraq has been a scene of conflict for decades, and has been devastated and denied development by the 2003 U.S. invasion under George W. Bush. But where the West sees conflict, China sees opportunity. Could Iraq become a focal point for development, where East can meet West? Hussein Askary, The Schiller Institute’s Southwest Asia Coordinator, discusses the perspective for infrastructure and a change of paradigm in Southwest Asia and the world.