Mary Jane Freeman

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy!

April 7, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Daily Beethoven — Sparks of Joy, General, General updates, Music updates

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy — Fourth Piano Concerto

Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto is unique in that it opens not with a grandiose orchestral introduction, but with a serene statement of the ideas by the piano soloist. Following its public premiere in December 1808 – part of a marathon concert which also featured the 5th and 6th Symphonies, the Choral Fantasy, and three movements from the Mass in C – the concerto languished until 1836, when it was revived by Felix Mendelssohn.
On November 3, 1838, Robert Schumann wrote, “Today Mendelssohn played the G‑Major Concerto of Beethoven with a power and polish that it transported us all. I took a pleasure in it such as I have never before enjoyed, and I sat in my seat without moving a muscle or even breathing.”
Today’s performance is by Mitsuko Uchida, with Zubin Mehta conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

EIR Publishes “The Schiller Institute Plan To Develop Haiti”

October 1, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Agriculture, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Haiti, Healthcare, Our conferences, Our economic development events, Power & Energy

Sept. 30, 2021—Today, EIR News Service posted, “The Schiller Institute Plan to Develop Haiti,” a 16-page report, which presents a comprehensive program addressing “eight fundamental areas of infrastructure, industry, and agriculture, which are at the core of the Haitian economy … present[ing] what capabilities and what problems exist, along with recommended development plan solutions.” Those areas are 1. Power and Electricity, 2. A Universal Health Care System, 3. Hunger and Agriculture, 4. Railroads and Roads, 5. Airports and Seaports, 6. Sanitation and Water Purification, 7. Industry and Labor Force, and 8. Education. The full report is available here.

The Schiller Institute Plan is clear in the mandate, and the urgent necessity of acting now, saying:

“The task of rebuilding Haiti is a daunting one because of the level of destruction deliberately imposed on it by two centuries of Malthusian policies. Every sector of its physical economy must be rebuilt from the bottom up, to uplift its impoverished population. But it’s not an impossible task if China and the U.S. collaborate along with other nations of the Caribbean Basin and Central America, as part of an expanded Belt and Road Initiative and Maritime Silk Road throughout the region.

“Haiti will have to establish diplomatic relations with China: it is still one of the few countries in the world that maintains diplomatic relations instead with Taiwan. China rightly insists that it will only work with nations that recognize the principle of One China, and Haiti would be wise to follow the path taken by its neighbor, the Dominican Republic—which recently broke with Taiwan and established ties with China—if it is to have any hope of attaining Chinese participation in its reconstruction.

“Haiti has been repeatedly subjected to an intentional depopulation policy every time a ‘natural disaster’ strikes the country. For 125 years, the looting of Haiti by the City of London, Wall Street, and other Trans-Atlantic banks (France is key among them), joined in the 20th Century by the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral lending agencies, has denied it the right to develop into a modern nation, leaving it defenseless in the face of repeated disasters, the August 14, 2021, earthquake being only the most recent one.

“The Schiller Institute program for the rebuilding and reconstruction of Haiti, the initial outlines of which are presented below, includes a unified infrastructure plan, financed by a Hamiltonian system of ample directed credit, created as a central feature of a bankruptcy reorganization of the disintegrating international financial system. The Schiller Institute has estimated preliminarily that a viable Haiti reconstruction program will cost between $175 and $200 billion, or $17.5 to $20 billion per year over ten years.”

The report also reviews the scuttled 2017 Haitian-Chinese $4.7 billion project to rebuild Haiti’s capital, in which “two Chinese companies—the Southwest Municipal Engineering and Design Research Institute of China (SMEDRIC), and the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC)—outlined a series of detailed projects valued at $4.7 billion to carry out the rebuilding of the capital and its environs. SMEDRIC indicated that the projects for Haiti’s capital were part of a broader, $30 billion proposal for the whole country, discussed at the May 14-15, 2017, Belt and Road Initiative summit in Beijing. A short time after that, a Chinese delegation carried out an 8-day investigative visit to Haiti and met with local officials.”

Video Preview—‘Need Creative Genius of the World To Bear on Haiti and Afghanistan’

The report was previewed on Sept. 25, on an international webinar by the Schiller Institute, with the intent of bringing together the forces to make it happen. The 2.5-hour event was titled, “Reconstructing Haiti—America’s Way Out of the ‘Global Britain’ Trap,” featuring the Schiller Institute Plan and the immediate emergency action required. The plan was summarized, and discussed by experts with ties to Haiti, in engineering, medicine, and development policy. This deliberation stands in stark contrast to the events of the past weeks, which included the U.S. forced deportation of thousands of displaced Haitians from the Texas-Mexico border, back to Haiti, to disaster conditions from the August earthquake and before. The full video of the webinar is available here.

The six panelists were Richard Freeman, co-author of “The Schiller Institute Plan To Develop Haiti”; Eric Walcott, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Institute of Caribbean Studies; Firmin Backer, head of the Haiti Renewal Alliance; Joel DeJean, engineer and Texas based LaRouche political organizer; and Walter Faggett, MD, based in Washington, D.C., where he is former Chief Medical Officer of the District of Columbia, and is currently Co-Chairman of the Health Council of D.C.’s Ward 8, and an international leader with the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites; and moderator, Dennis Speed.

Firmin Backer pointed out that the USAID has spent $5.1 billion in Haiti over the 11 years since the 2010 earthquake, but asked, what is there to show for it? Now, with the latest earthquake on Aug. 14, we can’t even get aid into the stricken zones, because there is no airport nor port in southern Haiti to serve the stricken people. We should reassess how wrongly the U.S. funding was spent. Firmin reported how Haiti was given some debt cancellation by the IMF years back, but then disallowed from seeking foreign credit!

Eric Walcott was adamant. “We need the creative genius of the world to bear on Haiti and Afghanistan.” He said, “leverage the diaspora” to develop Haiti. There are more Haitian medics in New York and Miami than all of Haiti. He stressed that Haiti is not poor; the conditions are what is poor. But the population has pride, talent, and resourcefulness. Walcott made a special point about elections in Haiti. He said, “Elections are a process,” not an event. He has experience. From 1998 to 2000, Walcott served as the lead observer for the OAS, for elections in Haiti.

Joel DeJean, an American of Haitian lineage, was forceful about the need to aim for the highest level in that nation, for example, to leapfrog from charcoal to nuclear power. He advised, “give China the opportunity” to deploy the very latest nuclear technology in Haiti—the pebble-bed gas-cooled modular reactor. We “don’t need more nuclear submarines, we need nuclear technology!” He called for the establishment of a development bank in Haiti, and other specifics.

Dr. Faggett summed up at many points, with the widest viewpoint and encouragement of action. He served in the U.S. military’s “Caribbean Peace-Keeping Force,” and was emphatic about taking action not only in Haiti, but worldwide. He referenced President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, saying that “you can tell a lot about people, by how they take care of the health of their people.” He reported that, at present, aid workers in Haiti are having to shelter in place, because of the terrible conditions.

But, he said, we should mobilize. Have “vaccine diplomacy,” and work to build a health platform in Haiti, and a health care delivery system the world over. He is “excited about realizing Helga’s mission,” referring to Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, who issued a call in June 2020, for a world health security platform. At that time, she, and Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. Surgeon General, formed the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites.

For more information contact the Schiller Institute at contact@schillerinstitute.org

Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine Producers Plan Technology Transfers to Developing Countries

April 22, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare

Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine Producers Plan Technology Transfers to Developing Countries

April 21 (EIRNS)— Zheng Zhongwei, director of the Development Center for Medical Science and Technology of China’s National Health Commission, raised the problem yesterday that some 5 billion people in the world outside China threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic have no access to vaccines, “while another 1.2 billion people in places where the epidemic is serious—including the U.S., U.K. and Europe—do have vaccines.” Zheng was addressing the session on COVID-19 at this year’s Boao Forum for Asia.

The two top executives of China’s Sinovac and CanSinoBIO vaccine producers told the session that to address that disparity, they are “mulling” how to transfer at least some part of the technology needed for vaccine production to developing countries, Global Times reports.

CanSinoBIO CEO Yu Xuefeng said the company is considering technology transfer to some qualified countries like Mexico and Pakistan, so that countries in South America and Central Asia can get vaccines more conveniently. The company already exports semi-finished vaccine products to Brazil and Mexico, where they are packaged locally. (“Packaging” a vaccine is not like packaging tablets or capsules, but requires special technology and trained personnel.)

Sinovac Biotech CEO Yin Weidong was more decisive, announcing that his company plans “to select 10 countries for technology transfer as soon as possible” to break the bottleneck, Reuters reports. Sinovac Biotech has already supplied over 60% of the 260 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine which it has produced to countries outside China, he reported, and is producing more than 6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine per day. According to Zheng, China plans now to produce over 3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines this year, but hopes to build up its capacity so as to produce some 5 billion doses. China is in the midst of its own vaccination program, and there have been places in the country where a vaccine shortage has meant that some people could not get their second shots in time. Zheng told Global Times yesterday that current production increases should ease the scarcity by June, so that China can provide doses to more people internationally through multilateral and bilateral measures.

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy!

April 22, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Daily Beethoven — Sparks of Joy, General updates, Music updates

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 18, No. 2

The second of Beethoven’s Opus 18 quartets has earned the nickname “Compliments Quartet” or “Quartet of Bows and Curtseys.” With Haydnesque overtones, it was first published in 1801. Good-natured and full of surprises, it’s performed here by the world-famous Amadeus Quartet.

Founded in 1947 by refugees from Hitler’s Anschluss, the Amadeus Quartet retained its original membership for the next 40 years until the death of violist Peter Schidlof. First violinist and primarius Norbert Brainin was also famously a close friend of Lyndon LaRouche, whom he considered as more knowledgeable about music than he was! An interview with Brainin is linked here. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]

India Helps Crush the Great Reset and `Green New Deal’

April 7, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, Environmentalism updates, General, General updates, Green New Deal, India

India Helps Crush the Great Reset and `Green New Deal’

April 6 (EIRNS) – In a second “No”, India’s Energy Minister Raj Kumar Singh said at an IEA meeting on climate change that “net zero” carbon is “pie in the sky” no matter when you pledge it for. At a meeting supposed to be preparatory to the COP26 in Scotland in November, Singh said, “I would call it, and I’m sorry to say this, but it is just pie in the sky. What we hear is that … 2060 is far away and if the people emit at the rate they are emitting the world won’t survive, so what are you going to do in the next five years…. You have 800 million people who don’t have access to electricity. You can’t say that they have to go to net zero. They have the right to develop, they want to build skyscrapers and have a higher standard of living; you can’t stop it.”

China’s minister Zhang Jianhua also spoke at that IEA meeting, but when invited to a formal pre-meeting for COP26 – by the UK, remember, which is its host – China declined the invitation.

John Kerry, in Delhi for the same meeting, “happened to meet” Sergei Lavrov, who was in India on the world’s real business (see separate report). Kerry was perhaps trying to gauge whether Russia would attend Joe Biden’s April 22 “Earth” (or “dearth”) summit. But at the IEA meeting Kerry appeared to be criticizing long-term pledges to net zero carbon, like China’s 2060 pledge. “Avoid the happy talk and recognize that this challenge is global”, Kerry chided.

The real challenge is the power to develop, as Minister Singh made clear. The only power that can meet {that} global challenge is nuclear fission and, as soon as possible, fusion. (See BBC News article here.)

These are blows against the royal family’s “Green Deal” which can be amplified in the United States. Americans do have ‘plentiful” electricity but a steadily increasing share of it doesn’t work. In 2020 the percentage of companies which reported suffering blackout problems {every month} leaped from 20% in 2019 – already very high – to 44% in 2020. The FERC attributed this to the increasing share of “renewable” (interruptible) power sources.

This destroys an economy’s productivity, exactly as described in EIR Special Report and The LaRouche Organization’s mass pamphlet, Great Leap Backward: LaRouche Crushes “Green New Deal” Fraud.

In a sign of political pressure for nuclear rising, President Biden’s “climate advisor” Gina McCarthy told press on April 2 that nuclear energy will be included in the Administration’s so-called Clean Energy Standard, which is intended to be a requirement for electric power utilities and generators.

Dante Part II: The Power of Language

September 30, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Cultural renaissance updates, General updates, Our cultural events

On the 700th Anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s Death, the Poet To Be Remembered —

Percy Shelley said in discussing Dante: “Poetry strengthens that faculty which is the organ of the moral nature of man, in the same manner as exercise strengthens a limb.” Do today’s leaders live up to this? Do our American citizens know the difference?

Dante has much to teach us today. He not only was a poet—the grandfather of the Italian Renaissance—but he unified the Italian language so that its unification as a sovereign nation would ultimately be successful. At a moment of crisis such as we face today, let’s take a page from Dante’s book. Here is the recent video presentation celebration.

China’s Secret: Hamiltonian System, Anyone?

September 30, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, Finance, General updates

China’s Secret: Hamiltonian System, Anyone? —

Sept. 29 (EIRNS) – Italian economist and China expert Michele Geraci explained why, in his view, Evergrande won’t unleash a systemic crisis for China.

“China can manage crises because it controls all necessary macro-economic variables, which have been denied to us. … Here is the list of what they have and what we don’t:

1. They issue their (own) currency (and we don’t).
2. They decide at a table the interest rate curve.
3. They have no deficit constraints.
4. They decide currency exchange at a table.
5. They control current accounts through independent trade policies.
6. They control capital in- and outflows.
7. They do not have an international currency, thus they are not captive to Wall Street.
8. Lastly, the key is that they have no big foreign debt.

… That is why Evergrande won’t be, in my view, a systemic risk…”

The reader knowledgeable in the American System of Political Economy will recognize major features of a Hamiltonian system of credit and trade policies in these Chinese policies.

Brazil’s P.1 Variant Ravaging All of South America; Desperation Prevails

April 6, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in General

Brazil’s P.1 Variant Ravaging All of South America; Desperation Prevails

April 5 (EIRNS)–The rate at which Brazil’s P.1 or “Manaus” variant has spread to the rest of South America has rightly earned it the term “superspreader.” As The Washington Post reports today, the fear now is that P.1 could become the dominant variant in all of South America, given the fact that all but two countries on the continent border Brazil and that there is fluid two-way traffic across those borders. With good reason, several countries have either closed their borders with Brazil or are about to. But keeping the virus out of their countries is another matter.

The rapidity with which the variant has spread into nations whose healthcare systems border on collapse and whose economies have suffered severe declines because of the pandemic, is a cause of despair among healthcare professionals in those nations. As Venezuelan infectious disease specialist Julio Castro put it, “it’s spreading. It’s impossible to stop.” In Peru, 40% of all cases are being attributed to P.1, although in some parts of Lima, the capital, it’s 70%. In Uruguay it’s 30%. In Paraguay, half of the cases at the border with Brazil are due to P.1.

The situation in Paraguay is so dire that the head of the country’s Infectious Disease Society, Elena Candia Florentin, told the Post that “Paraguay has little chance of stopping the spread of the P.1 variant,” because it has nothing with which to combat it. “With the medical system collapsed, medications and supplies chronically depleted, early detection deficient, contact tracing nonexistent, waiting patients begging for treatment on social media, insufficient vaccinations for health workers, and uncertainty over when general and vulnerable populations will be vaccinated, the outlook in Paraguay is dark,” she said. In Paraguay, as in most other countries, expanding poverty, mistrust, and generalized “Covid exhaustion,” make stricter public health measures an unlikely option.

Vaccines are the obvious solution, but lack of accessibility and slowness of distribution have greatly hindered vaccination efforts in most countries, with the exception of Chile.

The region is one of the hardest hit in the world, but has administered only 6% of the world’s vaccines. The UN’s COVAX mechanism is kicking in, but very slowly, and in most cases, every country is left to its own devices. There is no regional bloc, as is the case in Africa, capable of negotiating for a group of countries.

Transport Sector Associations Warn of Massive Disruption Of International Supply Chains

September 30, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Environmentalism updates, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Green New Deal

Sept. 29 (EIRNS) – The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and other industry groups representing 65 million transport workers globally today issued a public letter addressed to the heads of state gathered at the United Nations General Assembly, in which they warned of a “global transport system collapse” if governments do not restore freedom of movement to transport workers and give them priority to receive vaccines. “Global supply chains are beginning to buckle as two years’ worth of strain on transport workers take their toll,” the groups wrote. “All transport sectors are also seeing a shortage of workers, and expect more to leave as a result of the poor treatment millions have faced during the pandemic, putting the supply chain under greater threat,” it added.

The other signers include the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).

The U.S., like other countries, is already suffering significant shortages and inflation, as a result of the sharp inflation of energy prices, in part due to the Green de-carbonization agenda, along with industrial closings. This is expected to worsen sharply between now and year-end. CBS TV’s Oakland affiliate reported: “Retailers are sounding the alarm on the upcoming holiday shopping season due to serious supply chain issues that are slowing shipments of manufactured goods around the world.” They quote John Drake, VP of Supply Chain Strategy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: “There are not the people in place to move the containers and the chassis where they need to go. So you’ve got a lot of stuff piling up at the ports and at the warehouses. When that happens, the harder it is to get the stuff that is ready to move.” The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are particularly backed up.

Ingenuity Helicopter Successfully Dropped to Mars Surface; Will Fly 4/11

April 6, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, General updates, Space updates

Ingenuity Helicopter Successfully Dropped to Mars Surface by Perseverance Rover; Will Fly 4/11

April 5 (EIRNS)–NASA was proud to announce that late on Saturday, April 3, the Perseverance rover successfully dropped the small helicopter Ingenuity four inches down to the surface of Mars where it will remain until April 11 when it is expected to take its first flight. The four-pound, solar-powered helicopter, had been attached to Perseverance’s “belly,” where it was kept warm by the rover’s nuclear-powered system, space.com reported April 4. Now that it is detached from Perseverance, the helicopter is using its internal battery to power its heater, to keep it warm through the frigid Martian nights. Bob Balaram, NASA’s chief engineer for the Mars Helicopter project, explained that the heater will protect key components “such as the battery and some of the sensitive electronics from harm at very cold temperatures.”

Ingenuity is designed to test technologies for future flying vehicles on other planets; it carries two cameras to document its flights, which the Perseverance rover will also observe. The data from its first flight on April 11 will reach NASA on April 12. Provided all goes well, Ingenuity will then perform several longer flights over Jezero Crater (where Perseverance landed) over the next 31 Martian days. Space.com reports that each flight should reach no higher than 16.5 feet, and will be conducted over a 300-foot-long (90 m) flight range.

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