Mary Jane Freeman

Christian Democratic Party of Peru States Its Adherence to the Schiller Institute

January 25, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Cultural renaissance updates, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Peru

Jan. 24 (EIRNS) – On the occasion of the celebration of the 66th anniversary of the founding and relaunching of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) of Peru, a national assembly of the party was held in Lima on Saturday, Jan. 22, at which the Schiller Institute was the guest of honor. The occasion included the PDC’s announcement that it was officially adhering to the international Schiller Institute (see full text above).

The opening speech at the Saturday session was delivered by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche to an audience of some 160 participants, including the PDC’s full Executive Committee, 20 delegated representatives of their 40 District Committees, other leading members, and some 30 youth. Many of those present had traveled to Lima from the interior of the country, notwithstanding the pandemic. Zepp-LaRouche’s in-depth strategic evaluation was crowned with a very hopeful and optimistic view of the future, if this Year of Lyndon LaRouche becomes the year in which LaRouche’s Four Laws are implemented as the pillars of an economic recovery which would bring about the universal common good. Zepp-LaRouche’s speech, delivered as a pre-recorded video, received lengthy applause.

On Sunday Jan. 23, an internal party meeting was held with the delegates who had come to Lima from around the country. There, Carlos Gallardo, the President of the PDC, addressed Helga Zepp-LaRouche – who was invited to join the meeting by videoconference hook-up – to officially announce the PDC’s adherence to the Schiller Institute, in light of their profound epistemological and programmatic coincidence. Gallardo also announced that the PDC would shortly hold a series of classes, with the aid of Schiller Institute teachers, on the Science of Christian economy of Lyndon LaRouche, using that book as a guide to develop the party’s platform for the development of its economic program.

Zepp-LaRouche warmly welcomed the PDC’s collaboration with the Schiller Institute and held a 45 minute Q&A session with those present.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche Inspires Pakistani Audience With ‘Operation Ibn Sina’

January 19, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Afghanistan, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, Helga media coverage or interview, Russia

Jan. 18, 2022 (EIRNS)—Participating in a panel discussion on the Views on News program of Pakistan’s public broadcasting channel, PTV World, today, Schiller Institute founder and chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche delivered a concise, hard-hitting, 10-minute briefing on how to win the global fight to defeat the military-industrial-Wall Street/City of London-complex’s unipolar war drive, using the urgency of saving Afghans from death as a fulcrum to build cooperation between the strategic powers, including the United States.

The subjects of the program were Vladimir Putin’s phone call yesterday with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, during which they discussed areas for cooperation, and how PM Khan had thanked Putin for his Dec. 23 remarks rejecting the Islamophobia so prevalent in the Western world today, and Putin’s specifically attacking the cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad. Self-satisfied Americans would do well to take note of the deep anger expressed by the moderator Faisal Rehman, and two other Pakistani participants against U.S. “brow-beating” of countries around the world, with sanctions, bans, military invasions, which led one even to argue that Russia, China, and Central Asian and many other nations of the world should have nothing to do with the United States, if they want to survive.

Zepp-LaRouche’s proposal of “Operation Ibn Sina”—to make the name of Ibn Sina (Avicenna, in the West), the great Islamic philosopher and physician, who discovered how quarantines can end epidemics, synonymous with the actions required to save Afghanistan—sparked real excitement in this emotional environment. Former Pakistani Defense Minister, retired Lt. Gen. Naeem Khalid Lodhi, who was another of the speakers on the panel, responded with enthusiasm as she outlined the idea, and then thanked her for refreshing their memories about this great person, and for the proposal to give the name of Ibn Sina to saving the Afghan people. The entire Views on News program can be found here.

For Afghanistan, and the World: Forge Ahead with “Operation Ibn Sina”!

January 19, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Our conferences, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—The Jan. 17 Schiller Institute international seminar, “Injustice Anywhere Is A Threat To Justice Everywhere: Stop The Murder of Afghanistan,” advanced Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s “Operation Ibn Sina” beyond its initially targeted and already-partly-successful role in “pricking the conscience” of the trans-Atlantic world. In that world of “narratives” and “spin,” governments are presently willfully engaged in the potential “revenge starvation” of millions. But now, with the attempt by that “Adolph Eichmann of medicine,” Ezekiel Emmanuel, to decree that mass death by COVID infection, including through variants yet to be detected, is already “endemic” to the United States, there is already outraged reaction from medical personnel and their unions.

“Operation Ibn Sina” is not, and never was only applicable to Afghanistan. It is itself a form of medicine, intended to cure the epidemic of trans-Atlantic “depraved indifference” that, fortunately, has not yet spread to the whole world. “Operation Ibn Sina,” however, may be the only efficient way to prevent mass death from being prescribed for America’s and Europe’s poor, elderly, and immunocompromised, as a “regrettably necessary cost-cutting measure.” If we don’t move to save Afghanistan, and don’t join forces with Russia, China, India, and other nations to establish a World Health Platform over the course of this year, set up any accountant’s lie you like, but “send not to know for whom the bell tolls—it tolls for Thee.”

The same day as the Schiller Institute seminar, President Xi Jinping of China addressed the Davos World Economic Forum on the topic, “Forge Ahead with Confidence and Fortitude to Jointly Create a Better Post-COVID World.” Here is an excerpt from his remarks:

“We must do everything necessary to clear the shadow of the pandemic and boost economic and social recovery and development, so that the sunshine of hope may light up the future of humanity.

“The world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century. These changes, not limited to a particular moment, event, country or region, represent the profound and sweeping changes of our times. As changes of the times combine with the once-in-a-century pandemic, the world finds itself in a new period of turbulence and transformation. How to beat the pandemic and how to build the post-COVID world? These are major issues of common concern to people around the world. They are also major, urgent questions we must give answers to.

As a Chinese saying goes, ‘The momentum of the world either flourishes or declines; the state of the world either progresses or regresses.’ The world is always developing through the movement of contradictions; without contradiction, nothing would exist. The history of humanity is a history of achieving growth by meeting various tests and of developing by overcoming various crises….

…Strong confidence and cooperation represent the only right way to defeat the pandemic. Holding each other back or shifting blame would only cause needless delay in response and distract us from the overall objective. Countries need to strengthen international cooperation against COVID-19, carry out active cooperation on research and development of medicines, jointly build multiple lines of defense against the coronavirus, and speed up efforts to build a global community of health for all. Of particular importance is to fully leverage vaccines as a powerful weapon, ensure their equitable distribution, quicken vaccination and close the global immunization gap, so as to truly safeguard people’s lives, health and livelihoods….”

Recall, also, the remarks of Anna Popova, Russian head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare—effectively Russia’s equivalent to the U.S. Surgeon General—to the December Conference of the nine Commonwealth of Independent States nations, regarding the war against the pandemic. “Considering the proximity of our states, the commonality of epidemic threats and the level of integration, one of our key tasks is to build a unified system for epidemic response and relief,” she said. At that same conference, President Vladimir Putin himself spoke about “joint scientific activities, the development of medications and preventive drugs, as well as exchanges of test kits and means of overcoming this disease.”

Dr. Joycelyn Elders proposed the issuance of a “Medical Manifesto” by the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites at the conclusion of the Martin Luther King Day seminar, to which Helga enthusiastically agreed. The door is now open to the United States population to reclaim the General Welfare clause of the U.S. Constitution’s Preamble, and join with other nations to reverse the injustice now unfolding in Afghanistan. Lyndon LaRouche’s 2004 Martin Luther King Day remarks should be read by some, reviewed by others, and heeded by all, to discover the “open secret” as to how our lawful present descent into Hell can be reversed by a lawful re-commitment to the future of humanity, and its prosperity.

Xi Jinping Insists No Nation Is Safe, Unless All Are

January 19, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in China, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare

Jan. 18, 2022 (EIRNS)—Chinese President Xi Jinping’s address to the World Economic Forum on Jan. 17 challenged every tenet espoused by that Malthusian nest. His message was blunt: we are in the midst of a world crisis in which no nation can survive, nor can any individual part of the crisis be resolved, unless humanity moves forward as a whole. Xi, through multiple Chinese metaphors, argued that nations must act together to implement a “people-centered philosophy of economy,” which places “development and livelihoods front and center,” if the kind of “high-quality development” required to end the pandemic, poverty, and conflict is to be achieved.

Let Wall Street and the City of London scream “communist propaganda!” Americans who know their own history will take heart upon hearing that China’s President lectured the financier parasites on how humanity can emerge from today’s Dark Age by applying what are essentially the basic principles of Alexander Hamilton’s American System of Economics, which America’s fighting patriot, Lyndon LaRouche, advocated and advanced.

The President argued: “‘The wealth of a country is measured by the abundance of its people.’ Thanks to considerable economic growth, the Chinese people are living much better lives. Nonetheless, we are soberly aware that to meet people’s aspiration for an even better life, we still have much hard work to do in the long run. China has made it clear that we strive for more visible and substantive progress in the well-rounded development of individuals and the common prosperity of the entire population. We are working hard on all fronts to deliver this goal. The common prosperity we desire is not egalitarianism. To use an analogy, we will first make the pie bigger, and then divide it properly through reasonable institutional arrangements. As a rising tide lifts all boats, everyone will get a fair share from development, and development gains will benefit all our people in a more substantial and equitable way.”

Xi made four points. First, that cooperation is required to defeat the pandemic, which has proven protracted, with more variants and faster spreading than before, threatening people’s health and the global economy.

Second, that coordination is required “to turn the world economy from crisis to recovery…. Major economies should see the world as one community, think in a more systematic way, increase policy transparency and information sharing, and coordinate the objectives, intensity and pace of fiscal and monetary policies, so as to prevent the world economy from plummeting again.” Specifically, he warned, if the major economies “slam on the brakes” in monetary policy to fight inflation without developing “new drivers of economic growth,” global financial stability will be shaken, and “the developing countries will bear the brunt of it.”

Third: that global development requires overcoming the “development divide.” The number of poor people in the world “has increased by over 100 million. Nearly 800 million people live in hunger. Difficulties are mounting in food security, education, employment, medicine, health and other areas important to people’s livelihoods.” Not only have some developing countries fallen back into poverty and instability due to the pandemic; many in developed countries are also living through a hard time.

Fourth: That no solution can be reached for any of these problems, without discarding the “Cold War mentality” of dividing the world into blocs which polarize the world. “History has proved time and again that confrontation does not solve problems; it only invites catastrophic consequences.”

Xi focused on the dynamics of the current crisis in his opening:

“As a Chinese saying goes, ‘The momentum of the world either flourishes or declines; the state of the world either progresses or regresses.’ The world is always developing through the movement of contradictions; without contradiction, nothing would exist. The history of humanity is a history of achieving growth by meeting various tests and of developing by overcoming various crises. We need to move forward by following the logic of historical progress, and develop by riding the tide of development of our times.

“Notwithstanding all vicissitudes, humanity will move on. We need to learn from comparing long history cycles, and see the change in things through the subtle and minute. We need to foster new opportunities amidst crises, open up new horizons on a shifting landscape, and pool great strength to go through difficulties and challenges….”

The full text of Xi’s speech is posted to the Foreign Ministry’s website and is available here.

Afghanistan Crisis: Humanity Comes First!

January 10, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Afghanistan, Agriculture, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Our economic development events, Our initiatives (petitions, etc), Power & Energy, Sanctions, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” –Mark 8:36

The head of the United Nations World Food Program, American David Beasley, has fought to bring to the world’s attention the now-unfolding catastrophe in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a nation which has known nothing but war and internal conflict for more than 40 years. The rapidly worsening multiple crises in that nation–lack of food, lack of health care, lack of a sovereign national credit system, lack of production–demand immediate solutions in the next weeks, if the world wishes to avoid the unnecessary, unwarranted deaths of millions– many of them children, who have clearly offended no one. Over 20 million people are presently at risk. Geopolitical rationalizations for continuing inaction, from “taking cautious steps to not allow the Afghanistan government to exploit our good will” to “demanding that other countries step up,” will do almost as much to take the lives of the innocent, through depraved indifference, as the coming famine

Several of us have been outraged by the callous indifference expressed in the worldwide, persistent inequality of efficient distribution of medical care, not merely in the selective availability and affordability of life-saving medicines, but in the widening disparity in available basic facilities and capabilities. Whole continents, such as Africa, are stigmatized as “disease farms” because of deplorable economic conditions that are conveniently perpetuated but then never actually improved. That happened in the 1980s with HIV/AIDS, and is happening today with COVID-19. The clearly man-made Afghanistan disaster is an opportunity to reverse that syndrome. . A crucial first step would be the release of the $9.5 billion of assets of Afghanistan’s central bank, which are currently being held in the United States.

Why? That nation, familiar to the United States, Russia, China and several NATO countries, as well as the five other states that border it, has a clearly urgent, largely war-induced set of problems that could be quickly resolved, and offers a test case for how to actually uproot war, through multinational cooperation involving even real and/or imagined enemies working together for a common good. This Afghanistan initiative has been called “Operation Ibn Sina” after the great Islamic physician known for centuries as “the father of modern medicine” and who comes from that general vicinity. In contrast, it is perhaps the lack of exactly such initiatives that begin with compassion for, and cooperation with others, that has allowed COVID-19 to grow from being a relatively controllable epidemic to a pandemic, and is causing that pandemic to worsen by the hour. That would not be the first time that the vice of selfishness had doomed mankind. Historian Barbara Tuchman, in “The March of Folly,” warns us: “A phenomenon noticeable throughout history, regardless of place or period, is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests.”

We who have devoted our lives to acting upon the conviction, so eloquently enunciated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” say that there is no injustice like famine, no crime worse than slowly snuffing out the life of a child through neglect, through depraved indifference. Though the need is equally important everywhere, the time to change “the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests,” and those of humanity, is now. The world can–must– choose one place, this Christmas season, to begin a march in the opposite direction, and prevent the slaughter of the innocent upon the altar of a geopolitical folly that would sacrifice both conscience and true self-interest for the aura of power.

Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former United States Surgeon General – On behalf on the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites

December 23, 2021

Dr. Walter Faggett, pediatrician, Col. U.S. Army (ret.), former Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health of Washington D.C., professor of medicine Howard University

Dr. Bennett Greenspan, Founder Family Tree DNA

Ernest Johnson, President of the Louisiana NAACP, civil rights attorney

Barbara Kamara, former Associate Commissioner, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, responsible for the National Head Start Program (Carter Administration); former Director of Early Childhood Education, Washington DC, for 22 years

Dr. Khadijah Lang, pediatrician, Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs of the National Medical Association, President of the Golden State Medical Association, the California branch of the NMA

Afghanistan—‘Act Now’!

January 7, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Afghanistan, Agriculture, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, Sanctions, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, World Food Program, World Land-Bridge updates

Jan. 5 (EIRNS)—Today a 30-second video was issued by David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP) on Afghanistan, showing both hungry children, and also food delivery, with the text: “The situation in Afghanistan may have faded from the front page, but don’t let Afghan families fade from your mind. 8.7 million people are on the brink of starvation. Read that again: 8.7 million people are on the brink of starvation. What we do today has the power to change the fate of more than 23 million people. Act now.” Beasley’s immediate message, tweeted with the video, is for WFP donations. He wrote, “The Year 2021 has been a catastrophic year for the people of Afghanistan. Millions of Afghans are counting on WFP for life-saving food this winter. Help us help them.”

However, Beasley’s imperative about keeping in our minds what is important about Afghanistan—the value of human life—is what applies across the board to the crises we now face. Think it through. We are capable of mobilizing the physical resources and logistics to stop mass death in Afghanistan. It takes concerted action. The Schiller Institute will host another conference in mid-January (date to be determined soon) on action in Afghanistan.

Look at the pandemic in the same way. The same principle applies. In China, concerted action has kept the COVID-19 case rate and death toll very low, with massive testing and contact tracing, as well as localized lockdowns. In contrast, the pandemic virus is now surging in multiple locations elsewhere in Asia, in the trans-Atlantic, the Americas and Africa. On Jan. 4, the daily case count was 2.594 million cases officially reported worldwide (a big undercount), of which 35%, 885,500 cases, were in the United States alone.

The Schiller Institute/Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites is preparing an emergency statement of action points required to save lives and roll back the virus. The outline and principle are the same as in prior statements, but with measures specific to the unfolding events. (Prior statements: “LaRouche’s ‘Apollo Mission’ To Defeat the Global Pandemic: Build a World Health System Now,” April 11, 2020; ‘Global Health Security Requires Medical Infrastructure in Every Country—Major Industrial Nations Must Collaborate Now!” May 14, 2021, submitted to the Global Health Summit in Rome; “Open Letter to Virologists and Medical Experts Around the World To Address the COVID-19 Pandemic,” by former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, Nov. 23, 2021; and others.)

There are initiatives in the needed direction. Yesterday, for example, the importance of rapidly expanding medical staff, by calling back into action retirees, was stressed by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, when he declared an official state of emergency. There are many measures that are clearly bipartisan and nonpartisan, overriding the non-stop partisan shouting going on in the U.S. For example, use the Defense Production Act, as was done under Trump, to get all needed items, from material for construction of hospitals and medical materials, to COVID-19 therapeutics in quantity. Ramp up production of antiviral medications and all kinds of monoclonal antibodies, currently scarce.

Mobilizing for emergency action and a world health platform, with a focus on Afghanistan, are entirely consistent with the drive to stop the nuclear war danger. The meetings set for next week, on the initiative of Russia, are critical for that: Jan. 10 in Geneva, between the U.S. and Russia; Jan. 12 in Brussels, between NATO and Russia; and Jan. 13 in Vienna, with Russia and the OSCE. But there are countermoves underway.

Circulate everywhere the Schiller Institute Memorandum, Are We Sleepwalking into Thermonuclear World War III?

TASS Interviews Schiller Institute’s Black on P5 “No Nuclear War” Declaration

January 7, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Media coverage of our activity, Russia, United States, World war danger updates

TASS Interviews Schiller Institute’s Black on P5 “No Nuclear War” Declaration

Jan. 6, 2022 (EIRNS)–{The following is the full text of an article published today by Russian news agency TASS, based on an interview with Richard Black of the Schiller Institute.}

Expert: The Statement of the Nuclear “Five” Means Countries Can Resolve Shared Challenges; Schiller Institute Spokesman, Richard Black, Believes Countries Can Work Together to Avoid Nuclear War and Guarantee Stable Development

NEW YORK, January 6. / Corr. TASS Grigory Sapozhnikov /. The statement by the leaders of the nuclear “five” (Russia, Great Britain, China, the United States and France) indicates that the countries can work together to resolve strategic problems and crises of an extraordinary and unexpected character. This opinion was expressed in an interview with a TASS correspondent by the representative of the Schiller Institute in New York, Richard Black.

“The statement of the ” five” countries of the UN Security Council is positive in two aspects. First, it is a confirmation by all five countries of the earlier joint statement by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. as has been also stated more recently by Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin. Secondly, the statement of “the five” of the Security Council demonstrates that it would be possible for those countries to act together to solve other most urgent and complicated strategic problems concerning the life and death of civilization.

According to the Institute’s spokesman, Russian President Putin immediately has put on the agenda the need to stop “the current slide into a nuclear confrontation between the US and NATO on the one side, and Russia on the other.” Black stressed the importance of the required signing — by the US and the North Atlantic Alliance — of draft treaties on legally binding security guarantees, demanded by President Putin. “The draft agreements proposed by the Russian President are a call for action in the immediate days ahead,” Black said.

Black generally regarded the “five” statement as a step in the right direction. The “five” can now work “on special extraordinary problems, such as the situation in Afghanistan and the fight against the pandemic,” he said. Countries can cooperate both to prevent nuclear war and to ensure stable development. The question is, he said, “Will they cooperate?” {The article is found here.}

Russian Amb. Chumakov and Schiller Institute’s Helga Zepp-LaRouche Delivered Remarks at Memorial Wreath Laying in Honor of Alexandrov Ensemble

January 1, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Cultural renaissance updates, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Helga statement, article, transcript, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Our cultural events, Russia, United States

Press Release:

Ambassador Dmitry Chumakov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, and Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Founder of the International Schiller Institute, Delivered Statements at the Memorial Wreath Laying Ceremony in Honor of the Alexandrov Ensemble and Other Victims of TU-154 Plane Crash

Ambassador Dmitry Chumakov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, and Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the international Schiller Institute gave keynote remarks on December 29, 2021, at a memorial event in honor of the Alexandrov Ensemble members who were killed in a plane crash on Christmas Day, 2016. The members of the renowned Alexandrov Ensemble – previously the Red Army Chorus — were on their way to perform in Syria during the Syrian war. The commemoration took place at the Teardrop Memorial in Bayonne, NJ – a monument donated and built by the Russian people and government in condolence to Americans for the tragedy of 9/11. The monument is named, “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism.” Ambassador Chumakov’s are found here.

Ambassador Chumakov’s remarks, available now on the website of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, noted that the cultural collaboration of the Russian and American people in events such as this yearly commemoration of the loss of the Alexandrov Ensemble, shows “that human relations and friendly ties between Russians and Americans are indissoluble.” He concluded that “Amidst a very complicated international situation, it is the humanitarian ties that strongly bring us together,” and noted particularly to the Schiller Institute and the Fire Department of the City of Bayonne that “Your contribution to the friendship and solidarity of the people of Russia and the United States cannot be overestimated.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s remarks, read by Diane Sare, founder of the Schiller Institute NY Community Chorus, referenced President Putin’s recent interventions, and bluntly described the danger of a “reverse Cuban Missile Crisis to which the President of your country has reacted in an unmistakable fashion: he insists, rightfully, that the promises given to Russia around the time of the German Unification, that NATO would not move eastward, closer to the borders of Russia” … “were [promises which were] broken repeatedly”, and that they be “now belatedly” “restated in a written and legally binding form — at least as it concerns Ukraine and Georgia.” She closed: “The Schiller Institute fully endorses the demand by Russia that these treaties must be signed, and that the world must be pulled back from the brink of the abyss. … Let us revive the spirit of the cultural contribution of the Alexandrov Ensemble to mobilize the strength in ourselves to create a more human civilization!” Mrs. LaRouche’s full remarks are available at this link.

The event was moderated by Capt. Randy Geis of the City of Bayonne Fire Department, and the invocation and benediction prayers were presented by Reverend Dorothy Patterson of Bayonne, NJ. The laying of the wreath at the Teardrop Memorial was led by the Bayonne Fire Department, followed by a public laying of flowers to the Alexandrov and to all victims of world terrorism, added at the base of the Teardrop Memorial. Musical selections included Russian songs sung by soloists Everett Suttle, Michelle Erin, and Lisa Bryce; the Christmas Spiritual “Sister Mary had-a but One Child,” arranged by Roland Hayes; and Grechaninov’s “Praise Ye the Name of the Lord.”

The video of the event is available on the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus website.

‘Gift to the World’: James Webb Space Telescope – Launched!

December 28, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Cultural renaissance updates, General updates, Space updates

Dec. 25 (EIRNS)—Following a flawless launch on Dec. 25, at 7:20 a.m. EST, of the James Webb Space Telescope from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana, Greg Robinson, NASA Webb program director told a press conference: “The world gave us this telescope, and today we give it to the world.” Indeed, the building and crafting of this precision instrument has involved over 10,000 people from over 14 countries, working together over 25 years.

NASA tweeted, “We have LIFTOFF of the @NASAWebb Space Telescope! … the beginning of a new, exciting decade of science climbed to the sky. Webb’s mission to #UnfoldTheUniverse will change our understanding of space as we know it.” Using optics that can see in the infrared spectrum, this new “gift” to humanity will examine every aspect of our cosmos history, including a look at first galaxies formed 13.5 billion years ago, as well as the atmospheres of exoplanets, and hopefully answer questions about how planets formed and evolved. It also will observe the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The Webb telescope is “unequaled in size and complexity,” the Indian web daily NDTV reported. To give the reader a sense of Webb’s magnification power, “#JWST can see the heat signature of a bumblebee in the distance of the moon,” Dr. John Mather Senior Project Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope, Tweeted.

During the next “29 days on edge” the Webb will perform a series of complex tasks to ready itself for gazing into the deep space of our Universe. On day three its five-layer sunshield will begin to unfurl. It is “the size of a tennis court,” CNN reported. By day five the sunshield is expected to fully deploy, a process using 107 release mechanisms. Then two weeks into its flight the primary mirror will deploy, and its 18 hexagonal mirrors are to align into “precise positions using 126 actuators,” Florida Today reported. Once all the readying tasks are done, Webb will fire its thruster to travel to its destination, nearly 1 million miles from Earth.

Reflecting the “simultaneity of eternity” and man’s role in developing the Universe, it is noteworthy that the Webb telescope’s destination is what is known as the Lagrange 2 point. Its new home is so named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange who in 1772 discovered five unique points of equilibrium between the forces of gravity of the Sun, Earth and the Moon. This L2 point will allow for the Webb to remain in an orbit with Earth, the Sun and the Moon on the same side as its solar shield while being close enough to Earth for communications. Webb project scientist Klaus Pontoppidan pointed to the lasting import of this “gift” when he said, “Webb will probably also reveal new questions for future generations of scientists to answer, some of whom may not even be born yet.”

Putin Reiterates Call for Global Cooperation To End COVID-19

December 28, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Healthcare, Healthcare, Russia

Putin Reiterates Call for Global Cooperation To End COVID-19 —

Dec. 25 (EIRNS)—Problems in global healthcare systems and pockets of low immunity drive virus mutation, Russian President Vladimir Putin replied when asked at his annual press conference why waves of new COVID-19 mutations, each seeming worse than the last, keep hitting.

“Speaking about new coronavirus strains and waves, what causes them is the virus’s ability to mutate, nothing else,” Putin replied. “The answer is simple. Ever new strains emerge where there are problems in the healthcare system and low immunity. For example, in Africa, there is a high incidence of immunodeficiency, the human immunodeficiency virus—hence new coronavirus strains. It is not surprising at all. This is why I keep saying it is important to mutually recognize vaccines and make them available around the world as soon as possible in sufficient amounts. Otherwise, we will not be able to tackle this problem on a global scale and humanity will always live with this virus and sustain huge losses. We even have a new term: excess mortality.”

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