Mary Jane Freeman |

Portuguese Leaders Declare Vaccines a Public Good, Demand EU Invoke Emergency Powers

April 12, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Healthcare

Portuguese Leaders Declare Vaccines a Public Good, Demand EU Invoke Emergency Powers

April 10 (EIRNS)—Ninety leading citizens of Portugal issued a public appeal on April 8 for the European Union to invoke emergency powers to override market interests, and order that COVID-19 vaccine production be undertaken in any appropriate plant available, even if not owned by the vaccine patent holders.

The pandemic has brought “catastrophe” to the world, and “vaccines, an indispensable instrument in the global battle against the pandemic, have become a public interest good. As such they cannot be subject to the supply and demand laws of the market,” they declare.

Europe has around 80 vaccine plants, which, according to the vaccineseurope website run by various vaccine producers, produced 76% of the vaccines on the world market in 2019, they point out. “The lack of vaccines seen today in Portugal and Europe, which subordinates European citizens to the vaccine producers, is incomprehensible. The arguments put forward by the European Commission regarding the nature of contracts, existing production capacity, and prices agreed on are not acceptable.”

The call takes on added force given that Portugal is currently the rotating President of the European Union. Nor is the call’s initiator, Jose Aranda da Silva, a lightweight, having served as the first head of Infarmed, Portugal’s national medicine and health products authority (1993-2000), and co-founded the European Medicines Agency (EMA) itself. The other signers include other former high-ranking health officials, former and current European and national parliamentarians, numerous professors, medical professionals, trade unionists, journalists, a Bishop, an admiral and an Air Force general, and others. And the initiative has been covered widely in Portugal’s main media.

Nearly three million people have died of COVID-19, the call states. The European Commission must “override financial and industrial interests… In cases classified as `catastrophic,’ European and national legislation allows Member-states to invoke `public interest grounds’ and `the overriding importance of public health or national defense,’ to adopt measures compelling vaccine production in locations which are not those of the patent-holders.”

The manifesto here references an earlier call by the Director-General of the World Health Organization for all instruments to be used, including technology transfer and lifting industrial property rights, to secure vaccines.

“In the face of the catastrophe which we are living through, in the face of the tragic lack of European response, the citizens call for measures capable of protecting the health of populations to be taken immediately. These measures require transparent sharing of information, the use of the legislation provided for situations of catastrophe, and a mobilization of productive resources and capabilities.”

The manifesto will be circulated internationally, and presented to the United Nations and World Health Organization, Dr. Aranda da Silva told Portugal’s Lusa press agency on April 8. He elaborated:

Science rose to the challenge of the pandemic, with funding by governments, but “when the vaccines entered the market, the commercial game began, instead of their being treated as a public good. When there is a war, there is a total mobilization. And in this war we are not using adequate weapons.” He was emphatic: this is “not an ideological question. It is a pragmatic question. If everyone is not vaccinated by the summer, we are going to have another wave and a great economic and social crisis.”

Fusion: Successful Test in Superconducting Magnetic Confinement by ENI

September 10, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, General updates, Power & Energy

Fusion: Successful Test in Superconducting Magnetic Confinement by ENI—

Sept. 8, 2021 (EIRNS) — Italian energy company ENI announced a successful test in fusion magnetic confinement through high-temperature superconducting technology. The test was accomplished by CFS (Commonwealth Fusion Systems), a spin-off company of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, established in 2018, of which ENI is a shareholder.
            A statement on ENI’s webpage says that “CFS has successfully completed the test aiming to demonstrate the operation of the innovative magnet for plasma fusion confinement, for the first time made with HTS (High Temperature Superconductor) technology.
            “The test concerned the superconducting technologies and it showed the possibility of maintaining the magnet in the superconducting regime with a high stability of all the fundamental parameters for its use in a fusion power plant. The innovation will contribute to a significant reduction in plant costs, ignition and maintenance energy of the fusion process and in the general system complexity, nearing the time and reducing the effort to build a demonstration plant that will produce more energy than that required to maintain the fusion process (net energy production plant). This will subsequently allow constructing and conveniently deploying power plants throughout the world, connecting them to the electricity grid without expensive custom-made generation and transport infrastructures.
            “On the basis of this important achievement, CFS confirms its roadmap and intends to build the first experimental device with net energy production named SPARC by 2025, followed by the first demonstration plant, known as ARC , that could start feeding energy into the grid over the next decade, according to schedule.
            “SPARC will be built by assembling a total of 18 identical HTS magnet coils (similar to the one tested), in a toroidal configuration (a doughnut shape named “tokamak”) to generate a magnetic field with the strength and stability necessary to contain a plasma of hydrogen isotopes at temperatures of around 100 million degrees, at which the fusion of atomic nuclei can occur with the release of a very high quantity of energy.”

Report: Russia Is Getting Wheat, Oil, Medicines to Syria

April 27, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Russia, World war danger updates

Report: Russia Is Getting Wheat, Oil, Medicines to Syria

April 26 (EIRNS) – Alexander Mercouris of The Duran gave a lengthy report from Southwest Asia
sources on his video blog April 25, that Russia has succeeded in conveying significant amounts of
wheat, oil and pharmaceuticals to Syria despite the killing “Caesar Act” sanctions imposed by the U.S.
Congress. This was implied in an April 17 report in the Lebanese newspaper Al Masdar, and
Mercouris was able to confirm and expand the report from other sources.
His Syrian diaspora sources, for example, reported the extremely dangerous situation of food
insecurity and deprivation in the country has improved due to Russian deliveries of wheat; these are
to continue through June with the aim of providing wheat stocks sufficient through 2022. Russia is the
world’s largest wheat exporter. In addition, Mercouris reported that Iranian oil tanker convoys with
Russian naval escort have begun. The original Al Masdar report was that pharmaceuticals were also
coming in “from another country”, unnamed; Mercouris says this certainly refers either to Russia or to
China.
There is a military side to this report as well, related to a separate report about a Russian air
attack on a significant jihadi base; Mercouris makes the point that Syrian national elections are only a
month away and are likely to return President Hafez al-Assad.
But the report points to a broader Russian resistance to UK/US Malthusian population
destruction policies in several parts of the world, often in tandem with China. See the separate report
on Britain’s Royal United Services Institute complaining of Russia’s economic and military influence in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Uganda. That is resistance to the
British/European “green” campaign to destroy technological development there while looting the
strategic metals for mass lithium battery production. A link to Mercouris’ report is here.

China’s Space Station Astronauts Speak to Students at Science and Technology Museum

September 10, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Cultural renaissance updates, General updates, Space updates

Sept. 7, 2021 (EIRNS)—The three astronauts on the Tianhe space module made a video call to students gathered at an exhibition on the space station at the Beijing Science and Technology Museum in Beijing. Mission Commander Nie Haisheng encouraged the students to continue to study hard and “look to the stars.” We hope everyone can stay true to their aspirations, be innovative and inquisitive,” he said. “Let’s learn scientific knowledge and sail together into the stars, thus contributing to humanity’s peaceful development and use of space.”

The astronauts suggested three research projects the youth could begin working on: evaluating the effects of the space environment on human life, exploring new designs and configurations for future space stations, and figuring out how to process and package more Chinese delicacies into space food for astronauts. “We hope our teenagers can exercise their creativity and curiosity when tackling these topics.” Nie said. Yang Liwei, China’s first astronaut to venture into space, was also present at the exhibition. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a life-size prototype of the Tianhe core module of the Chinese stations. The event will also feature a team of renowned Chinese space experts and explorers as science communicators, headed by female taikonaut Wang Yaping, who gave the first science lecture from the Tiangong-1 space station in 2013.

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy!

April 27, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Daily Beethoven — Sparks of Joy, General, General updates

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy — String quartet Opus 18, no. 3

The third of Beethoven’s Opus 18 string quartets was actually the first composed – Beethoven himself placed it third in the cycle. It’s a warm-hearted, genial work, with a rollicking, knee-slapping finale. We present once again the Amadeus Quartet. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]

Schiller Institute NYC Chorus Dedicates Concert to the “Spirit of the Elbe”

April 26, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Boston SI activity, Cultural renaissance updates, Denmark SI activity, Detroit SI activity, Europe SI activity, France SI activity, General, General updates, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Houston SI activity, Ibero-America SI activity, Music updates, New York City SI activity, Northern Virginia SI activity, Our cultural events, Our musical events, United States SI activity

April 25 (EIRNS) – The Schiller Institute NYC Chorus & with friends from Ibero-America and Europe broadcast an uplifting concert this afternoon, which was introduced as follows by Jen Pearl:

Good afternoon, and welcome to `Beethoven’s Credo: Believe in the Future, a World Without War.’ My name is Jen Pearl and I am the chair of the board for the Schiller NYC chorus.

On December 17th, 2019, Beethoven’s 249th birthday, our chorus, the SI NYC Chorus participated in an event at Carnegie of the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture, opening up what was supposed to be a year-long celebration of the Beethoven 250th year. We performed the choral movement of the Ninth Symphony there, with the preeminent Gerard Schwarz as conductor. We took as our objective to perform Beethoven’s great Missa Solemnis a year later.

Then we all know what happened. While many choruses and arts organizations were forced to pull back during the lockdown, the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus pushed ahead, despite the challenges, because we know how important it is to sing beautiful and profound music in times of crisis—music, which connects us at the higher level of humanity as a single immortal species. We managed to present virtual performances of the Kyrie and Gloria last December.

Today’s concert is truly special because it features another movement the Missa Solemnis.

And while we are excited and joyful about bringing you the Credo movement of the Missa Solemnis and other beautiful selections tonight, we are also performing this concert in the context of a world fraught with crises, including an increasing potential of world war and starvation in Yemen and Syria. The beauty of tonight’s program, which reflects the very best of mankind’s creativity, is also very much in direct contrast or dissonance with the very worst actions being done at the hand of human beings, right now as we speak, toward entire nations and populations of children.

Beethoven once said that, if people understood his music, there would be no war.

On this day, April 25th, 76 years ago there was an event that resonates powerfully still today with that sentiment, that mankind should not settle disputes with violence. This was the day during WW II that American and Soviet troops met from the east and the west at the Elbe River near Torgau Germany, south of Berlin, ensuring an early end of the war, and thus became known as `Spirit of the Elbe.’ We dedicate this concert to that spirit which is much needed today. So we will begin our concert today with this short video introduction.

Near the end of the concert, Jen Pearl made the following closing remarks:

Our final offering this evening is Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus. Mozart composed this motet in a perfect way to evoke from you the awe you would experience when seeing the body of Christ for the first time. Imagine what your reaction would be then as you listen, think of how Mozart evokes that in you!. Mozart’s opening words are `hail, hail true body. . .’ As with any great classical work, the singer and you, the audience, can relive the experience of that actual moment in history and therefore experience true immortality.

We are now in a moment of history, where we need to evoke that quality of empathy and immortality in ourselves in order to take all of mankind into our hearts and souls. As we referenced at the beginning, we invite you to join the chorus of voices that are calling for an end to these wars, sanctions, and starvation, particularly in Yemen and Syria. You can find Mrs. LaRouche’s urgent call in today’s program and I invite you to join us. Thank you, and now you will hear Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus.

Note the concert can be viewed at this link.

Sergei Glazyev: The Future Is Being Created Through Eurasian Development

October 7, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, General updates, New Silk Road / BRI updates, World Land-Bridge updates

Oct. 6 (EIRNS)—Interviewed by an editor of the Russian newspaper Zavtra on August 18, Russian economist Sergei Glazyev spoke optimistically of the entirely new world economic order taking shape around the growing economic integration between the countries of Eurasia, in contrast with the disintegrating Western speculative financial system, whose imposition of “pure usury” is creating “genocide” in countries like Ukraine. The October 2 publication in full of Glazyev’s interview on Spain’s El espía digital website, reflects the growing recognition in Western nations that the high-tech cooperative development model evolving in Eurasia offers some crucial lessons about what works.

Glazyev is no mere commentator, but a man who understands that “ideas rule the world.” He is the Minister for Integration and Macroeconomics for the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), the executive body for the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the common market established by Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, which is coordinating projects with the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative. He is also very familiar with that “titan of thought,” American statesman Lyndon LaRouche, and his “realistic school of economic thought,” as Glazyev describes him, having spoken many times with LaRouche and his wife Helga Zepp-LaRouche over the past two decades, both privately and publicly.

The EAEU has completed the first phase of forming a common market, and is now working on how to “saturate” that market with “new infrastructure, information, and cultural ties, and joint economic projects” in order to bring about “accelerated development,” Glazyev reported.

Unlike the previous world order, which “had an imperial character, in which the principal centers of development, the US and the USSR, dictated their will upon the other countries which fell in their area of influence … the new world economic order is not monocentric,” he emphasized. “In our new world economic order, there is mutual respect for the sovereignty of different countries, both large and small; cultural diversity is preserved; interference in internal affairs is not attempted; and cooperation is based not on the zero-sum principle within the framework of liberal globalization, but rather on the search for a combination of competitive advantages to achieve a synergistic effect, in order to raise the social well-being of all the countries which participate in integration processes….

“This is what unites our approach with the Chinese approach in the framework of building a complete new world economic order.”

Glazyev stresses the great importance of the Chinese model of development, which in the last 30 years achieved three times greater growth than the United States, by combining strategic planning by the State with markets and private entrepreneurship. Under this dirigist model, if a private corporation tries to destabilize or manipulate the market to gain super-benefits, the State can shut it down. This system has proven to be “extremely effective,” and many countries are introducing such measures, following China’s path, which is widely known through the Belt and Road Initiative, he argued.

This, he emphasizes, is how a new world economic order is emerging, accelerating economic development, not only in Asia, but in other continents, such as Africa. Yes, we have problems and differences, he said, but “the logic of history, … the logic of development, the objective interests of the countries participating in the transition to a new technological world economic order allows us, despite all the obstacles, achieve positive results in order to advance, step by step.” [All quotes are translated from the Spanish translation of the original Russian.]

Pandemic Gains Upper Hand in India; Biden Looks the Other Way

April 26, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, India, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, United States

Pandemic Gains the Upper Hand in India; Biden Looks the Other Way

April 25 (EIRNS) – India has reported over 300,000 new COVID infections per day for the last four days – a world record. That means that {one million} people are getting infected every three days in this nation of 1.3 billion. Chinese medical authorities are estimating that the daily rate could rise to 500,000 by June, and that the real numbers are likely much higher than recorded as many homeless people infected with the virus have not been included. The country now has recorded a total of 16.6 million cases, including 189,544 deaths. Worse still, the new strain reportedly directly attacks the lungs and typically causes significant damage before it is even detected.

While much of the international media remains focused on the sheer horror of the collapse of the Indian health system, the deadly lack of oxygen, and the open-air improvised crematoria, the true scandal is that the United States, and other western nations, are not only standing by, but have actually turned their backs on India and are – so far – refusing to send desperately needed vaccines and other medical supplies to India.

Delhi medical and government authorities have been pleading with the US to supply it with Astra Zeneca jabs that have been stockpiled by the Biden administration, as well as the raw materials needed to manufacture COVID vaccines in India. India’s former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal told Sputnik: “The attitude of the Joe Biden administration is very self-centered and selfish. India has been very generous in exporting and donating vaccines to other countries during the COVID pandemic,” said Sibal, who was previously a deputy chief of India’s Embassy in the US.

“The US, on the other hand, wants to create a stockpile to buffer itself against the next wave. Millions are being affected in India due to the virus and the US is effectively ignoring the plight of Indians”, complained Sibal. “The US is sitting on 350 million doses of COVID vaccine which India could use urgently”, he stated.

The raw materials required to manufacture COVID vaccines include bio-reactor bags, cell culture media, and filters, among others. The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing facility, this week tweeted out an appeal to President Biden urging him to lift the ban on the export of raw materials. The SII claims that its vaccine production has been cut by almost 50 percent due to a shortage of raw materials.

To date, the best the Biden administration has been able to do is send empty words to India: “Our hearts go out to the Indian people in the midst of the horrific Covid-19 outbreak,” Secretary of State Tony Blinken tweeted. “We are working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and will rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and India’s health care heroes.”

NASA’s Mars Helicopter Sets New Records!

April 26, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, General, General updates, Space updates

NASA’s Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Sets New Records!

April 25 (EIRNS)—NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter had a third outstanding test flight on Mars—it lifted off at about 1:30 am EDT (12:33 pm Mars Local Time), rising to an altitude of about 16 feet (5 meters), which was the same as its second flight—but then, it {really} took off! Moving at a top speed of 4.5 mph (2 meters/second) it zipped downrange 164 feet (about 50 meters)—nearly half the length of a football field. Its flight lasted about 80 seconds.

As data from Mars started streaming in at around 10:15 am EDT, the mission team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California was ecstatic, anticipating that the data would not only facilitate additional Ingenuity flights, but possibly inform new designs for rotorcraft on Mars in the future.

To say this involves fine tuning and precise execution of complicated commands is an understatement.

The helicopter’s black-and-white navigation camera tracks surface features below, and the images are processed onboard; its flight computer autonomously flies the craft based on instructions sent up hours before data is received back on Earth—radio instructions to Mars can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the relative position of the two planets. As Ingenuity flies greater distances, more images are taken, and if it goes too fast, the flight algorithm can’t track surface features. Additionally, the camera needs to track images clearly; dust can obscure the images and interfere with its performance, and the software must perform all of this consistently and flawlessly.

The Mastcam-Z imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, which serves as a communications base station, captured a video of Ingenuity’s flight, and in the days ahead, segments of that video will be sent back to Earth.

NASA reported, “Today’s flight was what we planned for, and yet it was nothing short of amazing,” said Dave Lavery, the project’s program executive for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With this flight, we are demonstrating critical capabilities that will enable the addition of an aerial dimension to future Mars missions.”

With this third successful flight under their belts, the mission team is looking forward to planning Ingenuity’s fourth flight in a few days’ time.

WFP’s Beasley Promotes ‘Hunger Ward’ Documentary on Malnutrition in Yemen

April 10, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Healthcare, Stop the Sanctions, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, World war danger updates

WFP’s Beasley Promotes ‘Hunger Ward’ Documentary on Malnutrition in Yemen

April 9 (EIRNS)—A new documentary was released online today on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, titled “Hunger Ward,” after which release World Food Program Director David Beasley and filmmaker Skye Fitzgerald, held a live discussion (see hungerward.org).

The new half-hour film focuses on the terrible plight and death rate of malnourished children in Yemen, featuring coverage at the Sadaqa Hospital in Aden, the nation’s largest hospital; and the Aslan Clinic, the largest malnutrition treatment center in northern Yemen. The scenes and the words of the medical directors—Dr. Aida Alsdeeq in Aden and Nurse Mekkiah Mahdi at the Aslan Clinic—are gripping. The film also shows the sad horror of the wreckage of a Saudi missile strike against a funeral gathering in Yemen, with shoes of dozens of the dead still scattered in the rubble of the ruins. The postscript states simply that Saudi Arabia, with U.S. backing is still making war on Yemen, and that France, Germany, other nations, and the Houthis are complicit.

Beasley has given this documentary advance publicity to mobilize world attention on the growing famine in Yemen and internationally, which he spoke about on April 7 in a virtual forum at the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware. Speaking to a student audience, Beasley repeatedly stressed that the warfare must stop, and famine is “man-made.” He said that in the next ten days, he will visit Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, and if possible, Venezuela, because of the worsening food situations here.

Beasley gave the Delaware students a status report on world hunger today, and how it is increasing. He said that when he came into office in 2017, there were 700 million hungry globally, and 80 million on the brink of starvation. That number on the brink increased to 135 million just before COVID-19 began. Today, that number is 270 million. Out of this number, 34 million are nearing the point of starvation. He called it phase 3 to 4 (on the UN scale called IPC—Integrated Phase Classification: No. 1, real, but minimal food insecurity; 2, stressed; 3, crisis; 4, emergency; 5, famine).

Beasley went into a “breakdown by country,” according to the IPC scale. This includes, for example, 19-21 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at Phase 4; and 19 million in Afghanistan at Phase 3 to 4. “Syria is imploding”; Haiti is in crisis, he said.

Beasley called for $5 billion for world anti-famine work, on top of the ongoing anti-hunger funding. “We have a vaccine for starvation … it’s called food,” he stressed. In the Q&A, when one student asked about nutritious food, Beasley said, in essence, that, of course, that is necessary, but he explained to the young questioners the fact that “food for survival” is now the issue before us. He declared that the WFP budget was covered at $5.9 billion in 2017, then in 2020 rose to $8.9 billion, but said that is not enough. This year it needs to be in the $15 billion range. He recognized that the U.S. increased its contribution to the WFP from $1.9 billion four years ago, up to $3.47 billion. He identified that while Washington is typically “fighting over everything, with rinky-dink concerns,” there has been a bipartisan agreement on food aid. He scored the billionaires who watch the deaths happen: “I get upset … in 2020 a new billionaire was created every 17 hours.” There were 493 new billionaires created last year. “And all I need is $5 billion.”

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