Mary Jane Freeman

Helga Zepp-LaRouche Briefs China Plus ‘World Today’ Program—‘The New Name for Peace Is Development’

July 14, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Helga media coverage or interview, Helga statement, article, transcript, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, New Silk Road / BRI updates, Russia, World Land-Bridge updates, World war danger updates

July 13 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche gave the following interview to China Plus radio’s World Today broadcast today. China Plus is the official English website of China Radio International. The interview is the second news story starting at 12:55 minutes

CRI: Welcome back. The United Nations Human Rights Council has passed China’s resolution on the contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights, at the 47th session, which emphasizes the right to development and that the aim of development is to improve the developing of the people. For more, we are now joined on the line by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, a Germany based economic and political think tank. Thanks for joining us Dr. LaRouche.

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes, hello! How are you?

CRI: I’m good, thank you. So, the resolution stresses that development and the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. How do we understand those?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: First of all, let me express my congratulation. I think this is an excellent development, because hopefully this will inspire a very productive discussion everywhere around the world, what is the right definition of human rights. And I think the interdependence between development and human rights and freedom, you can see best if you look at the lack of development. Because then you have poverty, and you have still on the planet, 2 billion people who have no access to clean water, more than 800 million are and you have no freedom if you have all day to try to get a little bit of water and a little bit to eat, just to try to stay alive, so you have no freedom under these conditions. So therefore, I think development is very clearly the precondition for both human rights with freedom.

CRI: Yes, but that is very different from the Western explanation for human rights, which all starts with the ballot box and has everything to do with individual freedom. How did it get the different priorities when it comes to the human rights issue?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well first of all, I think one has to see that the label isn’t always consistent with the content. Many things which have the label “democracy” and “human rights” have quite some different content, and in the case of the Western parliamentarian system, or unfortunately even the presidential system in some countries, is more a plutocracy, where the money of the multinationals and the big banks determine who gets a seat. Also, I think if you look at the overemphasis of individual freedom it has degenerated into a notion, everything is allowed, and the common good is regarded as a suppression of these individual freedoms.

Now, if you have a crisis, like in the case of COVID-19, you can see what the consequences of this is. China and some other Asian nations took strict measures for the common good, and it worked well, and then also the individuals profited because they were rid of the pandemic earlier; while in the West you had a back and forth, people were even protesting against having to wear masks, regarding that as an intrusion in their personal freedom, and they had to pay a much, much bigger price.

CRI: Well, representatives from countries including Venezuela, Cuba, and Pakistan also made speeches to appreciate China for delivering those draft resolutions and stressed that development should be the focus of every country, especially developing countries. But why is the resolution getting support from these countries?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, it’s very simple: Because in the entire post-World War II period, the IMF conditionalities prevented real development in the developing sector. They were told, you have to pay your debt first before you can invest in infrastructure or health, and the result was a blatant underdevelopment and incredible poverty. So, China, even before the Belt and Road, invested in railways in Africa and other infrastructure, but especially with the Belt and Road Initiative and the COVID crisis, it became very clear that these countries regarded the help from China—which was denounced as “vaccine diplomacy” by some Western media—but these developing countries regarded the attitude of China as a life-saver for them. So, it’s no surprise that they would support it.

CRI: And I think you earlier mentioned about what should be the right definition of human rights. And another question is who gets to pick what the most basic human rights should be? And have you got a feeling that this has been heavily guided by a small number of mostly Western nations which has led to a general bias in favor of the civil, political liberties over economic, social, and cultural rights?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes. You can see that right now very clearly in the case of the so-called “identity policy.” For example, between the EU Commission and countries such as Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, there is a big tension right now, whereas in the East, they have rejected the effort by the EU Commission to impose the values of the Western liberal European countries.

So, I think what needs to be put up front again, is the Five Principles of peaceful coexistence and the idea of non-interference in the different social systems, because they are, due to customs, traditions, cultural heritage and these must be respected.

CRI: In 2019 a study by the Center for New American Security—that is a Washington-based think tank—says that China’s actions in the UN were part of this effort to redefine how such institutions are run and shift away from Western concepts of democracy and human rights. What is your thought on those?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, China has been the leading nation for centuries, and only in the 18th and 19th centuries, because of the colonialist attacks and Opium Wars by the British, you know, that that was diminished. But now, China is again the second largest economy in the world. The lifting of poverty of 850 million people represents a tremendous civilizational contribution, and therefore, I think, it is absolutely correct that China should have a major role in this discussion.

CRI: OK, but do you feel the widespread back and forth surrounding human rights issues around the world currently has been highly politicized? And sometimes it has even been used as a tool for political purposes and sometimes as an excuse to put pressure on other countries or even invade other countries?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes. These notions, human rights and democracy, have become like a two by four: You can smash any argument into the ground. So, I think this double standard needs to be corrected. Those people in the West who support sanctions under conditions of the COVID-19 crisis against such countries as Syria, Yemen, Iran, Venezuela—I think altogether 30 countries—I mean, this is a violation of human rights if you ever have seen one. Or, if you look at how Assange is treated, or what happened to Snowden, all these people just did the right thing, and they have been treated in an absolutely horrible way. So, this double standard should be stopped.

CRI: What are the consequences of such double standards or politicizing such human rights issues? Is it like shifting our focus away from the real human rights problems?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes, it poisons the atmosphere, and it degenerates the idea of human rights, which is actually a beautiful idea, and makes it a victim to geopolitical reasons.

Now, the Schiller Institute is upholding this concept of the “New Name for Peace Is Development.” This comes originally from Pope Paul VI in 1967 in his Encyclical Populorum Progressio, where he coined that idea that the “new name for peace is development.”

And this is very important right now, concretely in Afghanistan. Look, for example, NATO spent there 20 years for absolutely nothing, and now the question is what’s to come out of Afghanistan? Will you continue the geopolitical war? Or, will you have an agreement among all neighbors, like Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, and have real development? The real development would mean to extend the New Silk Road, the Belt and Road Initiative into Afghanistan, but also into Iraq, Syria, Yemen, the whole region. And then you can have peace. So this is not an abstract academic notion, this is an extremely actual issue, that the idea that real peace does require development, that that is a precondition without which nothing will function.

CRI: OK, thank you Dr. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, a Germany-based political and economic think tank.

Biden’s Syria Attacks Aid ISIS, says Sen. Black

March 8, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Color Revolutions, Counterintelligence, General updates, Geopolitics updates, World war danger updates

Sen. Richard Black: Biden Attacks in Syria Are Aiding ISIS

March 7 (EIRNS) — Former Virginia State Sen. Richard Black told PressTV in an interview that the U.S. air strike on Iraqi PMF units operating in Syria actually amounted to U.S. support for ISIS. Colonel Black said he had previously reported his suspicion that ISIS could’ve been responsible for the middle of the three recent rocket attacks in Iraq, the one on the Balad air base, since Iraqi forces were engaged at that moment in an operation against ISIS cells north of Baghdad. Otherwise, he noted, there’s been very little discussion about the possibility of ISIS acting as a “third force” in Iraq to provoke conflict between America and Iran.

“The (Iraqi) PMU forces have mainly fought against Daesh, and they have been highly effective against them. Therefore, when the U.S. attacks the PMU, it assists Daesh terrorists in Iraq and Syria,” Sen. Black said. “The Biden Administration chose to use the rocket attacks on the Green Zone as a pretext to attack Iraqi (anti-terror) forces, who were effectively blocking Daesh militants from operating along the Syrian-Iraqi border. The attacks targeted sovereign Syrian territory and were in clear violation of international law,” Sen. Black said. He noted that, “It is unlikely that the U.S. really knows who fired the rockets.”

Sen. Black suggested U.S. policy is giving ISIS a kind of “Syria White Helmets” capability. “A (U.S.) policy that always assumes that Iraqi anti-terror forces fired the rockets gives Daesh the power to trigger an American airstrike against its enemies whenever Daesh chooses. Daesh fires rockets; we blame the Iraqi militias; the U.S. bombs Iraqi forces. That strategy is unfair and immoral,” he said. It should be noted that Sen. Black’s interview was picked up by Sputnik as well, which highlighted his comments on the necessity of a U.S. military withdrawal from the region. “It is within the power of the U.S. President to stop these wars. However, he cannot accomplish this without totally removing military forces from the region. The U.S. has repeatedly used attacks on its military forces as justification for new troop build-ups. If Joe Biden wanted to create a lasting, positive, legacy, he would order all U.S. troops to leave the Middle East within 90 days. However, I do not expect this to happen,” Black concluded.

China: Space Station by 2022!

March 8, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, Economic development studies, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Scientific research studies, Space updates

China: Space Station to Be Unveiled by 2022!

Mar. 6 (EIRNS)–The China National Space Administration (CNSA), has announced that 11 launches are planned with 12 astronauts by 2023, and the inauguration of a space station by 2022.

The goals were made public on the sidelines of a conference of the National Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference on Saturday by former astronaut and current deputy chief engineer of the China Manned Space program, Yang Liwei.

According to reports in Tass and Sputnik press, Yang encouraged youth to join the space exploration efforts. The CNSA concluded its third recruitment campaign of astronauts last October, which includes 17 men and one woman. Previous campaigns focused only on military personnel, but because their ambitious plan to inaugurate a space station by 2022 will include a variety of disciplines, such as engineering and construction, the recruitment has been opened to civilians.

Growing U.S. Acceptance of Vaccine Usage

March 8, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Healthcare, Scientific research studies

Vaccination Is Increasing Americans’ Acceptance of Vaccines

March 7 (EIRNS) – A number of new polls appear to show a continuing increase in acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination as the vaccines are actually available and their distribution has reached tens of millions of people without ill effects, The Hill reported March 4.

There was a point in September 2020 when no more than 15% of Americans in some polls said they would get vaccination for COVID if it were available. By late January, Kaiser Family Foundation and Axios/Ipsos polling showed that 55-57% intended to get the vaccine or had already received a shot.

But in a Pew Research Center poll published Feb. 26, some 50% of U.S. adults surveyed between Feb. 16 and Feb. 21 said they would “definitely or probably” get vaccinated, in addition to 19% who had already received at least one shot; so acceptance appeared to have risen to near 70%.

The Pew poll reported that just over 60% of Black Americans now said they had been vaccinated or intended to, whereas only 42% had indicated willingness in November. Acceptance among Hispanics remained lower in the latest poll, however, just over 40%.

A section of the forthcoming EIR, “Vaccination: The General Welfare”, reports on the pace of COVID vaccination around the world – the successes and the critical and dangerous problems – and includes an important interview with the head of Meharry Medical College in Tennessee, who focuses on this subject. Meharry is the leading medical school among the Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy!

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

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy — the incomparable violin concerto in D major

Beethoven composed his only violin concerto in 1806, specifically for the young violinist Franz Clement, whose playing was described as being of “indescribable tenderness”. The premier was chaotic, with Clement at one point interrupting the program to play one of his own compositions while holding the violin upside-down! Other violinists attempted the work with little success, and the concerto languished for several decades. It was the sensational 1844 performance by the 13-year-old Joseph Joachim, with Felix Mendelssohn conducting, which firmly established Beethoven’s Violin Concerto as one of the monuments in the repertoire.
Itzhak Perlman and Daniel Barenboim collaborated in this extraordinary 1992 performance. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]

Russia Denounces Sanctions on Syria as “Collective Punishment”

July 10, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Color Revolutions, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Russia, World war danger updates

Russia Denounces Sanctions on Syria as “Collective Punishment” —

July 9 (EIRNS)–In a press conference following the Astana format meeting on Syria yesterday, held in Kazakhstan, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev denounced what he called the “collective punishment” of the Syrian people through Western sanctions. “We believe the consultations that we have held here in Nur-Sultan give hope that our call on the international community [will make it possible] to move the focus from efforts to stabilize the situation in Syria in military terms to humanitarian issues and activities aimed at providing humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people,” he pointed out. “And definitely, the deplorable practice of collective punishment for the Syrian people has to end,” Lavrentyev added.

Humanitarian aid needs to be delivered through the country’s legitimate authorities, and in this regard, Russia calls for the establishment of a mechanism to deliver humanitarian aid to all parts of Syria via Damascus, he said.

About 24 hours after Lavrentyev’s remarks, the UN Security Council passed a compromise resolution, today, on extending the UN mandate for cross-border delivery of humanitarian aid supplies from Turkey to Syria’s Idlib province. The new resolution extends the mandate for six months until Jan. 10, 2022, with an automatic extension for another six months until July 10, 2022, subject to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issuing a report on the “transparency” of the aid operation and progress on delivering aid across conflict lines within Syria as Russia wanted. The resolution also welcomes “all efforts and initiatives to broaden the humanitarian activities in Syria, including water, sanitation, health, education, and shelter” as well as early recovery projects.

American Scientists: No to FBI Anti-China Witch-hunt

March 7, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Counterintelligence, General updates, Geopolitics updates

American Scientists Fight Back Against FBI’s Anti-China, Anti-Science Witch-hunt

March 6 (EIRNS)–Hundreds of America’s leading scientists, including six Nobel Prize recipients in chemistry, physics and medicine, have issued two powerful denunciations of the FBI’s criminal prosecution of hundreds of Chinese scientists in the United States, including American citizens of Chinese dissent, as well as Americans who have collaborated with Chinese institutions for the advancement of human knowledge. These attacks, directed by FBI Director Christopher Wray, in collaboration with the psychotic attacks on China from President Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, were exposed in the EIR Special Report of Nov. 22, 2019, Stop the McCarthyite With-hunt Against China and President Trump. Now, professors from leading US universities have issued two public letters defending targets of this atrocity — one from Harvard, one from MIT — spelling out clearly that the charges are false, are politically motivated, and go far beyond the persecution of these scientists and educators, but are in fact direct attacks on science itself, and on America’s leadership in international scientific research.

The FBI targets in question are Professor Charles Lieber, Chairman of the Harvard chemistry department and a world leader in nanotechnology research, and Professor Gang Chen, the Chairman of the MIT mechanical engineering department, also a leader in nanotechnology. Lieber, described by the 42 signers of the March 1 letter as “one of the great scientists of his generation,” was arrested in January 2020 for infractions regarding his federal reporting of his participation in China’s “Thousand Talents” program, which aims to recruit scientists from around the world to work in China or in cooperation with Chinese scientific research centers. There were no secrets involved, only technical infractions normally simply corrected, but now criminalized, through a “tragically misguided government campaign,” which “reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of modern science,” Lieber’s defenders write. This campaign, they add, “is threatening not only the United States position as a world leader in academic research, but science itself.” While Lieber is the “most notable” scientist targeted by the FBI, they add, “these prosecutions are rampant.” see https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20493785-read-the-full-letter-from-harvard-scientists-calling-to-save-professor-charles-lieber-and-scientific-collaboration

Over 170 members of the MIT faculty signed a similar letter defending Prof. Gang Chen, arrested on Jan. 14 of this year. He faces similarly false charges which could sentence him to 30 years in prison and a huge fine. “We are troubled that the complaints against Professor Chen vilifies what would be considered normal academic and research activities, including promoting MIT’s global mission,” the letter reads. It adds: “Because America’s competitiveness depends so heavily on scientific and technological talent from abroad, its national security is harmed by the message that the US government will question the loyalty of foreign scientists.”

UN Warns of ‘High Food Price Hot Spots’ in Africa; Hyperinflation In Many Countries

July 10, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Agriculture, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Healthcare

UN Warns of ‘High Food Price Hot Spots’ in Africa; Hyperinflation In Many Countries—

July 9 (EIRNS)–The UN News office issued a release July 8 on the crisis of rising food prices, quoting Arif Husain, Chief Economist at the UN World Food Program, that, “High food prices are hunger’s new best friend.” Overall, the WFP paid 13 percent more for wheat for food relief, during the first four months of 2021, than it paid in 2020. Individual countries—especially the poor and food-import dependent, are experiencing terrible price shocks. The release gave many examples, from the recent WFP Market Monitor:

Lebanon: The price of wheat flour here from March through May was 50% higher than the previous three months. The year-on-year price rise was 219%.

Syria: The price of cooking oil March through May rose nearly 60% from the prior three months. Cooking oil year-on-year has increased in price by 440%.

Mozambique: The price of cassava March through May shot up by 45% over the prior three-month period. Mozambique is among what the WFP calls the “high food price hot spots” in Africa.

LaRouche Legacy Foundation announces online seminar: So, Are You Finally Willing to Learn Economics?

July 9, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Cultural renaissance updates, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Lyndon LaRouche legacy

So, Are You Finally Willing to Learn Economics?

On the 50th Anniversary of LaRouche’s Stunning Forecast of August 15, 1971

August 14, 2021

9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. EDT

The LaRouche Legacy Foundation is pleased to invite you to an online seminar with leading international experts to examine the unique contributions of Lyndon LaRouche (1922–2019) to the science of physical economy. The seminar will consist of a morning and an afternoon panel, and it will be held on the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s fateful announcement of the end of the Bretton Woods system on August 15, 1971.

This is also an urgent invitation to reflect on what went wrong with economic policy in the trans-Atlantic sector over the last five decades, in order to correct those persisting policy blunders and change course before we plunge into a breakdown crisis comparable only to the 14th century New Dark Age.

Some background:

On August 15, 1971, Nixon delivered a dramatic 18-minute national television address in which he announced:

The dollar was being taken off the gold standard: the dollar would no longer be redeemable in gold;
A floating exchange rate system would replace the existing fixed exchange rate international monetary system;
A temporary wage and price freeze would be instituted in the U.S., which quickly became Phase I, II and III drastic austerity measures.

Although Nixon announced these measures purportedly to rein in financial speculation against the dollar, they in fact opened the floodgates to the most massive, lengthy speculative binge in the history of mankind, coupled with physical economic collapse— which continues to this day.

The August 15, 1971 announcement was the most far-reaching and catastrophic economic policy decision of the 20th century in terms of its consequences down to the present. One economist, and one economist alone, called it. He warned that it was coming and explained what it meant within hours of its announcement.

That man was Lyndon LaRouche.

LaRouche spent the next five decades warning that, if those policies were continued, the world would head into a systemic breakdown crisis and the likelihood of fascist economic policies. All the while he presented detailed programs to reverse the crisis, based on the idea of peace through development and on fostering the productive powers of labor of every person on the planet.

For this, LaRouche was reviled and unjustly imprisoned for five years. His policies were not implemented in the trans-Atlantic sector, and the planet today is paying the price for that folly in the form of a hyperinflationary blowout, an uncontrolled and deadly pandemic, and the danger of thermonuclear war. As a result of the campaign to defame LaRouche and silence his ideas, most people in the United States and elsewhere have never studied his writings.

But some people, leading scientists and political leaders in different parts of the world, did listen to LaRouche and did study his works— such as the Russian scientific giant Pobisk Kuznetsov and former Mexican President José López Portillo.

Other specialists and students of LaRouche’s works will participate in the Aug. 14 seminar, and you will be able to hear from them directly about LaRouche’s economic breakthroughs, about his unmatched record of forecasts, and about his programmatic proposals to develop every corner of the planet—and the solar system. The seminar will help you understand why it is past time to exonerate LaRouche’s ideas, both for reasons of simple justice and to be able to at last implement his policies.

As José López Portillo, the former President of Mexico, stated in 1998 in a joint seminar with Helga Zepp-LaRouche: “It is now necessary for the world to listen to the wise words of Lyndon LaRouche.”

RSVP here to receive updates about this event.

Top Renewable Energy Co. Fails

March 6, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, Environmentalism updates, Finance, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Green New Deal, New financial order updates

Leading Renewable Energy Company Abengoa, Once the Cat’s Meow, Fails

March 5 (EIRNS)–A leading renewable energy firm, Abengoa SA, which has been the darling of the City of London and Wall Street financiers, and green Malthusians, filed for bankruptcy, on Feb. 23. The Spanish company has carried out projects in the United States, and in 2010, it received a large United States loan guarantee from the Barrack Obama-Joe Biden administration to build a solar energy plant in Arizona. This is the second largest bankruptcy in Spanish history, according to the El Pais newspaper, and has global implications. This represents a snap shot of the significant vulnerability of a planned $40 trillion green speculative bubble in “renewables,” even before it is built.

This will be the third failure of Abengoa; having cooked its books in 2015—it was later found out—in order to present a picture of functionality, it collapsed in 2016 (wiping out almost all the value of its stockholders). It restructured its debt in 2018, and was in the process of attempting to restructure its current 6 billion euro/US$7.3 billion debt load, when the Spanish regional government of Andalusia unravelled a larger bail-out package by withdrawing its part of the package: an offer of a 20 million euro loan to the failing Abengoa.

The July 5, 2010 GreenTechMedia reported that in 2008, Abengoa ‘negotiated with the Obama-Biden administration, along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, that the U.S. government would extend to Abengoa a $1.4 billion U.S. federal loan guarantee—a very large sum at that time for renewables—to build a “250 megawatt “Solana solar concentrating power plant near Gila Bend, 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, Arizona. It would be a parabolic trough plant, that would supposedly be able to store some of the solar rays in the form of thermal energy. But the trick was that the plant would generate about 38% of its rated capacity, meaning that it would generate almost two-thirds below what its rated capacity said.

Abengoa also built in Hugoton, Kansas a hybrid biomass plant, which would convert 350,000 tons of biomass/year into 25 million gallons per year of liquid fuel. Abengoa opened this plant in October 2014; the plant shut down operations in December 2015. Abenoga sold the plant, which cost more than $110 billion to build, to another company for $43 billion.

It has not been made known what will happen to the $1.4 billion Obama-Biden loan guarantee that was made to Abengoa.

It should be noted that many solar and wind turbine companies survive only through U.S. government tax breaks and subsidies. According to the America’s Power organization, solar and wind have received $82.1 billion in tax subsidies just between 2010 and 2018.

The failure of Abengoa is a cautionary tale of what may unfold from a $40 trillion geen speculative bubble. That would take down the energy and electricity generating process, and slash agro-manufacturing processes, and human population. It would also, through its insanity, collapse financially.

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