The seminar, “Solving the Economic and Refugee Crises with the New Silk Road!” organized by EIR in cooperation with the Consulate General of Ethiopia in Frankfurt, was attended by an audience of 75, consisting of representatives of several diplomatic offices, of subscribers and contacts of EIR in the region, and about 10 Syrians (students as well as refugees waiting for enrollment at universities). Several contacts even came from as far away as Berlin, and cities in Switzerland. Extending over the entire afternoon, the seminar featured presentations by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, chairwoman of the Schiller Institute; Hussein Askary, EIR Arabic Editor, Stockholm; Mehreteab Mulugeta Haile, Consul General Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia; Marcello Vichi, former Director, Foreign Department Bonifica company, author of the Transaqua concept; Andrea Mangano, Vice President, Italian Association of Water Engineers and contributor to the Transaqua outline. The speakers were joined by Mohammed Bila, Lake Chad Basin Commission, and Ulf Sandmark, Schiller Institute Stockholm and Swedish-Syrian Committee for Democracy, for an expanded panel in the second part of the seminar. The seminar was moderated by Claudio Celani of the EIR‘s European center in Wiesbaden.
In her keynote, Helga Zepp-LaRouche stressed that this would not be an academic seminar but rather a discussion about the fact that in this existential crisis of mankind, shown by the refugee crisis, the wars and the financial crash, solutions are within reach and must be realized now. In the wake of the terror attacks in Brussels yesterday, it is more than appropriate to recall former U.S. Senator Bob Graham’s statement of mid-November last year after the terror attacks in Paris then, that had the classified 28 pages of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 been made public, such atrocities could and would have been prevented.
It is beyond any doubt that the Russian military intervention in Syria changed the rules of game, that it exposed the role of that pro-IS alliance of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United States, and United Kingdom, and particular that of Turkey, whose policies have been attacked harshly by two former U.S. ambassadors to Ankara. The EU agreement with Turkey on the refugees is a travesty which fits in the general picture of Western and U.S. human rights violations which have just been exposed in a Chinese dossier. Whereas the West is talking about an insanity like “helicopter money” to save its own speculative banks, the Chinese “One Belt, One Road” initiative presents a real-economic offer for a win-win strategy; that is, not just in the interest of China but also of the other nations–and real development only will help to dry out terrorism. Either Europe works with Russia, China, India, Iran, Egypt, and other nations to launch a Marshall Plan for Syria and Africa, or its bankrupt economies will crash against the wall, Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche said.
Hussein Askary from EIR, Arabic translator of “The New Silk Road becomes the World Land-bridge”.
Presenting the EIR World Land-Bridge report in its first Arabic translation, Hussein Askary reported that as this seminar was being held in Frankfurt, an event presenting the Arabic report was also taking place in Yemen today under conditions of continued Saudi airstrikes of Yemeni cities. The idea of the New Silk Road is more than just building a few roads and railroads; it is a concept of development corridors improving the life of some 450 million people in the Southwest Asian region, with Syria being at the center. This involves mega-projects of rapid development, financed by national development banks free of the obligation of paying the debt as demanded by the Western monetarist institutions. Like Egypt, Syria will focus on industrial zones, transport corridors and agricultural development, with China showing the way with its massive infrastructural engagement for instance in East Africa.
The Ethiopian Consul-General followed with a presentation on the economic strategy of his country, characterized by policies that have greatly improved the per-capita income, literacy rate, and public health care since the 1990s. With an envisaged annual GDP growth of 11%, Ethiopia wants to become a middle-income level country by 2025, made possible by opportunities for Ethiopians to set up a farm or shop at the price that many pay today to human traffickers to be brought to Europe as refugees. Ethiopia, itself, is the largest refugee host in Africa, with 800,000 refugees from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea taken in–a fact that nobody in Europe talks about. Ethiopia will be transformed from a primary-products exporter to a nation with high-value production and infrastructure, and the country’s cooperation with Russia, China, India, and Brazil in rail projects is important in this context.
Marcello Vichi then gave a review of the history of the Transaqua Project discussion during the past 35 years, from the first proposals presented by Italy’s Bonifica company 1982-1985, to African governments as well as the United Nations, pointing to a transfer of water from the giant Congo River as the only viable option for refilling Lake Chad. The proposal has largely been met with disinterest or pessimism as to the chance of its realization, has been discarded as allegedly “megalomaniac,” but the recent refugee streams have made Europe rethink its views, and Transaqua, which has always been more than just water for Chad — rather the broader framework for the development of entire Central Africa — is the only option that can attract the young generation of African labor force not to become refugees.
Marcello Vichi reviews the 35 year history of the Transaqua Project.
Marcello Vichi introducing Andrea Mangano as a leading proponent of the Transaqua project.
Andrea Mangano then gave an overview of what Lake Chad was 35 years ago and what it is now, with 90% of its water lost. It shares the problem with other evaporating inland lakes in the world that are no longer supplied by their traditional tributaries–the Aral Sea, Lake Urmia, Lake Turikana, the Dead Sea. The only thing that improves the situation is water transfer and reduced consumption by irrigation via new technologies. This is done by Transaqua, which will tap 5% of the water from the upper tributaries of the Congo River, which is otherwise flowing away unused into the Atlantic Ocean at volumes 14 times the water of Germany’s biggest river, the Rhine. Refilling the lake will be done with infrastructure construction that will give the entirety of Central Africa hydropower, irrigation for agriculture, and waterway transport, and relieve the region from its present land-locked situation.
Mohammed Bila elaborated on the Transaqua issue in the expanded panel, pointing to the big and ongoing migration wave southwards from Chad, since the huge drought of 1973 during which the Lake Chad already lost 40% of its water. The farmers and their cattle that have migrated to the south, will not return to Chad unless the lake is refilling, and unless the terrorist movement of Boko Haram has been crushed.
Ulf Sandmark reported on his two visits to Syria in 2014 and 2015, during which it became evident that the reconstruction of Syria actually implies the development of the entire Southwest Asia region, making it an integral part of the New Silk Road–to which he found the Syrians open-minded, and when the “Phoenix” reconstruction plan drafted back in Stockholm was presented to the Syrians during the second visit, it received broad coverage in the country’s media.
The discussion between the audience and the panelists featured more aspects of what was said in the presentations, ranging from the genocidal tradition of the British Empire which has sabotaged real development in Africa and Mideast, the hopelessness of the monetarist system, and the increased threat of a thermonuclear world war if the chance of changing course in the direction of cooperation with the New Silk Road is not taken by Europe and the United States; that it is a race of time to enter a new paradigm before the total collapse destroys everything. Also, that contrary to Western black propaganda, China is not engaged in Ethiopia for raw materials, since Ethiopia has none, but instead is a real partner for development. Zepp-LaRouche repeatedly insisted during the discussion that the participants of this Frankfurt seminar take home with them the commitment to set fire to the behinds of the policy-makers to get things fundamentally changed, that a real mass movement for development has to be created. Vichi made a passionate appeal to be optimistic as a must for people so that things can be changed. A new and creative image of man, as it was developed in the great Italian Renaissance, is required also today, Celani pointed out. Sandmark also insisted that the New Silk Road is not just for engineers but for everyone to study at more seminars and chapter meetings. The first chapter meeting on the Arabic language report in Yemen today was actually being presided over by the leading poet of that country, Askary added.
EIR‘s Southwest Asia specialist and Arabic editor, Hussein Askary, has concluded a very successful one-week trip to Egypt to launch and promote the Arabic translation of EIR‘s Special Report The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge, and the ideas within the report. The report and the presentations made by Askary were enthusiastically welcomed by top government officials, economists, and media.
The highpoint of this intervention was the very high-level and well-attended launching of the Report under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Transport in a seminar on March 17 at the headquarters of the Ministry, presided and introduced by Minister Saad El Geyoushi personally.
Egyptian Ministry of Transport Minister Saad El Geyoushi.
The other highpoint was the reception awarded Askary on March 20 by the Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, Admiral Mohab Mamish, the man who oversaw the breathtaking building of the New Suez Canal. Mamish received Askary at his office in Ismailia right on the Suez Canal, and attentively listened to a detailed briefing on the importance of this achievement not only for Egypt’s economy, but also for the region and the global economy, too, if it is utilized as a development zone and hub for the development corridors stretching from China through Southwest Asia to Africa, and also as part of the Maritime Silk Road.
Hussein Askary with Admiral Mohab Mamish, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority.
Askary’s meeting with Mamish, in which the latter received a gift copy of the report, was preceded by a presentation to the team working under Eng. Nagy Ahmed Amin, Director of Planning, and Research Studies Department at the Suez Canal Authority. Askary was later offered a private guided boat tour of the New Suez Canal.
At the launching seminar at the Transportation Ministry, Dr. Saad El Geyoushi personally presented Askary, as the Southwest Asia specialist of EIR and representative of the Schiller Institute, and in both his introductory remarks and commentary on Askary’s presentation, Dr. El Geyoushi expressed total concordance with the idea of the New Silk Road, and his government’s plans to integrate Egypt’s transportation networks into the New Silk Road dynamic. He also took the opportunity to announce that the Egyptian government intends to invest one trillion Egyptian Pounds (100 billion US$) in roads and railways, not only to develop Egypt’s transportation network, but also to connect Egypt to Asia, and, most importantly, to Africa to the south, in a 50,000 km network.
The packed hall at the Ministry hosted top experts and advisors of the Ministry and other institutions, and several Egytian TV networks and newspapers. Interestingly, the Chinese Arabic TV channel CCTV-Arabic, was present, and recorded an interview with Askary. Two other TV channels also interviewed Askary.
Two other seminars were organized: one by the Egyptian Society of Engineers (founded in 1920), which was held at the Cairo Great Library, and attended by former Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Esam Sharaf (also a former Minister of Transport in several Egyptian governments), who was the main commentator on Askary’s presentation of the New Silk Road concept. Sharaf expressed his agreement with not only the economic and scientific aspects of the presentation and the report, of which he received a copy, but also with the political, strategic and cultural aspects, too.
Hussein Askary At Cairo Great Library.
Hussein Askary With Egypt’s former Prime Minister Esam Sharaf at the Cairo Great Library.
He stated that he had just returned from a long visit to China, and that he deeply believed that the New Silk Road is the foundation of a new and more humane World Order, unlike the current order which has degraded human existence and dignity. He also emphasized the point raised in the report, that the New Silk Road and any other such projects are not mere trade routes, but development corridors that can transform all societies where they reach, along with the nations that decide to participate in them. He highly recommended that the current Egyptian government take this project seriously, and integrate it in its developmental plans and visions. Sharaf expressed his gratitude to EIR and the LaRouches personally, whom, he said he has taken note of, with their ideas and activities for a long time.
In addition to these events, Askary was invited to three TV shows (CBC Extra, Nile Cultural TV, and Nahdha TV) to present the report and the New World Order it represents.
The events taking place this week and all the discussions and debates that followed, clearly indicate that the idea of the New Silk Road and World Land-Bridge, and the utilization of these ideas for the development of Egypt, the Arab World, and Africa, is regarded as a way to save the Egyptian economy, which has been suffering the terrible consequences of submitting to the Transatlantic system and its institutions, such as the World Bank and IMF. Egypt is still suffering economically and socially, in addition to the security aspect that has been worsened by NATO’s unleashing of the Jihadist terrorist hordes in the region. The urgent demands of the people for reform and betterment of the living conditions are pushing the President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and his Prime Minister to resort at times to crisis-management policies. At the moment this report is written, the Egyptian government is facing a new reshuffling, with eight ministers reportedly being replaced. But the clarity of vision regarding the solutions to this crisis, and the resilience and determination shown by the Egyptian people and their leadership, represent a great hope for this nation and the region.
EIR Special Report “The New Silk Road Becomes The World Land-Bridge” available here >>
Egyptian Transportation Minisitry sponsored launching of Arabic version of EIR’s World Land Bridge Report (Initial Report)
Cairo, March 17 — The Egyptian Transportation Ministry sponsored an event to launch the Arabic translation of the EIR Special Report “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land Bridge” today at the headquarters of the Ministry in Cairo. Transportation Minister Dr. Saad El Geyoushi personally headed the seminar and presented Hussein Askary, as the Southwest Asia specialist from EIR (Executive Intelligence Review) and representative of the Schiller Institute. Both in his introductory remarks and commentary on Askary’s presentation, Dr. El Geyoushi expressed total concordance with the idea of the New Silk Road, and his government’s plans to integrate Egypt’s transportation networks to the New Silk Road dynamic. He also stated that the Egyptian government is intending to invest EGP 1 trillion Egyptian pounds ($100 billion) in roads and railways, not only to develop Egypt’s transportation network, but also to connect Egypt to Asia and most importantly to Africa to the south.
Hussein Askary, introduced as the Southwest Asia specialist from EIR (Executive Intelligence Review) and representaive of the Schiller Instutute, seated to the left of the Minister. source: soutalomma.com
A packed hall hosted top experts and advisers of the ministry and other institutions, and several Egyptian TV and newspapers. Interestingly, the Chinese Arabic TV channel CCTV-Arabic, was present and taped an interview with Askary. Two other TV channels also interviewed him.
There are still few media reports, as the event took place in the evening.
The Arabic-language newspaper Al-Ittihad in the United Arab Emirates published a column by Mohammed Aref, a science and technology consultant, on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Iran, congratulating the New Silk Road Lady—Helga ZeppLaRouche—and the Schiller Institute for this new visionary policy.
The column, titled “China’s 51st Century” (according to China’s record of its history), gives a poetic and exciting image of the tour by President Xi to the region and of China’s emphasis on the New Silk Road and economic development in its policy declaration.
In 1997, Aref was the first Arab journalist to write a full-page review of EIR’s first Eurasian Land-Brige Report, in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat, of which he was the Scientific Editor.
After debunking the argument that China’s economy is in decline, Aref states: “China is redrawing the map of the world, turning the seven continents into six by making Asia and Europe one continent. ‘Let the world be, for no one can succeed in conquering the world and changing it,’ as the Chinese saying goes, and as expressed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry Arab Policy Paper which was issued last week, in which is revived the Silk Road, which used to link Chinese with the Arab world for more than 2,000 years. The road of Chinese wisdom is like the a ‘Silk Road’ which connects the greatest continental AsianEuropean landmass, and extends to the shores of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans through infrastructure for agriculture, industry, trade, technology, science and culture.”
In his concluding paragraph, Aref reports ZeppLaRouche’s historic role:
“‘The Arab-Asian Land-Bridge: The Pulsating Heart of the New Silk Road’ was the title of my report in a London newspaper in November 1997, and I never imagined then that this project, which was designed by the Schiller Institute, would be adopted by China and that the Chinese President would bring it with him to the Arab region this week. Last September, Beijing celebrated the release of the Chinese translation of the new report, ‘The Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge.’ In the next month the Arabic translation of the report will be published, and is prepared by Hussein Askary, the Iraqi member of the Schiller Institute, which was established by the German Academician Helga LaRouche, who is called by the Chinese ‘The Silk Road Lady,’ because she paved the way for the New Silk Road through hundreds of conferences and scientific and political seminars, and she ‘established the concept of the Eurasian Land-Bridge as a war prevention tool,’ according to the Chinese Scholar Deng Yifan. Helga LaRouche and China are like the woman, about whom the Chinese proverb states: ‘The female always surpasses the male by her calmness, and she becomes fruitful even in her silence.’ And the other proverb: The Great Country is like the lower part of the river, where the earth of the world meets the female of the world [Daodejing, Chapter 61—ed.].”
23 Feb.—With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dramatic Feb. 22 announcement of agreement between Russia and the United States on joint enforcement of a ceasefire in Syria, it is natural to ask: but, what about Ukraine? There is more than one potential trigger point for a global showdown and world war, and in recent weeks, the United States and NATO have announced plans for a huge build-up of forces in Eastern Europe, keyed off Ukraine as allegedly exemplary of “Russian aggression.”
As Ukraine marks twin anniversaries this month, that “What about…?” question remains wide open. Ukraine, and not its eastern regions alone, could explode in violence at any moment. The night of Feb. 21-22 was the second anniversary of the 2014 coup d’état, when elected President Victor Yanukovych fled Kiev in fear for his life, as crowds dominated by openly fascist armed bands threatened to storm his offices. One year later, on Feb. 11, 2015, all-night negotiations in the Belarusian capital among Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French Prime Minister Francois Holland and German Chancellor Angela Merkel led to the “Minsk-2” accords, calling a halt to the civil conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Donbass region, in which thousands had died and more than a million became refugees. The Minsk accords, coordinated with “contact group” talks among representatives of the Kiev regime and the eastern Ukraine regions that had rejected the coup, set forth a schedule for a ceasefire, force withdrawals, prisoner exchanges, and a longer-term settlement involving Constitutional changes to give semi-autonomy to the Donbass districts.
The force disengagement happened, but the Constitutional changes, recognition of autonomous status, and the planned subsequent return of control over the Donbass-Russia border to Ukraine, have not. Dr. Gordon M. Hahn of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey (California), in an assessment published Feb. 19 under the headline “Who’s More in Violation of Minsk-2—Kiev or Donbass?” (http://gordonhahn.com). He concluded was that “Kiev is significantly more in violation of the agreement than the Donbass rebels and/or Moscow”, with the Ukrainian regime being “in violation of no less than seven articles and nine obligations” it committed to in Minsk-2.
The chaotic post-coup universe
On Feb. 3, Lithuanian banker Aivaras Abromavičius, imported by Poroshenko in Dec. 2014 to serve as Ukraine’s minister of economics, abruptly resigned. He stated, “My team and I have no wish to be a cover for open corruption or puppets,” citing alleged influence-peddling by Ihor Kononenko, an MP and businessman close to Poroshenko. Within a week, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned, “I am concerned about Ukraine’s slow progress in improving governance and fighting corruption,” hinting that the release of IMF funds pledged for stabilizing Ukraine might not be forthcoming.
Next, Poroshenko demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Arseni Yatsenyuk, the infamous “Yats” who was handpicked by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland for his job in January 2014. On 16 February, the Supreme Rada (Parliament) condemned the performance of the Yats government, but several minutes
later failed to pass a vote of no-confidence. The sudden exit from the hall, before the second vote, of dozens of MPs, including opposition members and members of Poroshenko’s party, triggered rumors of bribery and dirty deals.
Yats remains PM, but two parties left the ruling coalition the next day. Either he forms a new coalition, or early elections could be called. Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose party has risen from barely over 5 per cent of the vote in late-2014 elections to now polling 20+ per cent, and who was one of those exiting the coalition, visited Washington in early February, evidently to curry favor for a comeback bid.
The main issue in Ukraine, however, is not parliamentary scuffles. It is ungovernability, and economic breakdown. A major reason for non-performance of the Minsk-2 accords is that neither Poroshenko nor Yats could secure Parliamentary approval of the Constitutional changes required for Donbass autonomy. Meanwhile, in a country that saw the highest inflation in Europe (30 per cent in 2014, 45 per cent in 2015), people nationwide struggle to survive on wages that barely suffice for their home heating bills. The free trade arrangement with the EU, over which the Euromaidan coup was supposedly staged, has brought no boom for the Ukrainian economy.
The political problems are far deeper than the faction fights of the mid-2000s, when the victors in the 2004 Orange Revolution, Tymoshenko and then-President Victor Yushchenko, had a falling out, and that revolution “ate its own children”. This time, matters are complicated by the role violent neo-Nazi, ideologically fascist radical Ukrainian national groups played from the outset of the “Euromaidan” coup process of November 2013-February 2014. That role was revisited and confirmed this month in French filmmaker Paul Moreira’s documentary “Masks of the Revolution” (http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/finally-masks-revolution-maidan-documentary-full-eng-subs/ri12759), which aired on French TV despite protests by Kiev, while the Hollywood nominated a rival documentary, a Kiev puff-piece called “Winter on Fire”, for an Oscar.
Rostislav Ishchenko, an insightful Ukrainian analyst currently exiled in Moscow, wrote 18 February that the country is experiencing not “dual power”, as there was during the Russian revolutions of 1917, but anarchy. The latest example, he said, is the blockade initiated by Right Sector and other viscerally anti-Russian paramilitaries, again Russian long-haul trucks crossing Ukraine to and from Slovakia and Hungary. In retaliation, Russia blocked Ukrainian trucks, forcing them to take circuitous routes to destinations like Kazakhstan, travelling south of the Caspian Sea through Turkey and Iran. This disruption of routine Eurasian trade is of no benefit to Kiev, but the government is powerless to override the radicals.
Fascist-style measures are found not only on Ukraine’s highways. There is another part of Ukraine’s political body politic, which receives little to no attention in the Western press. The Communist Party, which won 13.18 per cent of the vote and 32 seats in Parliament in 2012, was banned last year from running candidates for office, under new laws forbidding “communist symbols”. On Feb. 4 Dr. Natalia Vitrenko, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine and co-chairman of the Left Opposition bloc, and 18 others released an appeal to UN and EU human rights officials, on the suppression of their fundamental rights and freedoms in Ukraine. The full text of their petition follows.
PETITION: from the All-Ukraine Public Association of Left and Center-left Political Parties and Public Organizations — “The Left Opposition”
to the United Nations and the Council of Europe Commissioners for Human Rights concerning the obstruction of the activities of opposition political parties and public organizations by the Ukrainian government, and need to start large-scale international verification of whether human rights and freedoms are being honored in Ukraine
Editorial note: The document below was sent on 4 February 2016 to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra ‘ad Al Hussein and Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muizniek, with copies to Ukraine’s President, prime minister, chairman of Parliament, chairman of the Constitutional Court, and parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights. Official copies exist in Russian and in English. The English text below has undergone literary editing for clarity.
After the 2014 “Revolution of Dignity”, the organizers and ideologists of the Euromaidan, together with its active participants, came into power in Ukraine. But instead of the promised European standards of human rights and the rule of law, a totalitarian dictatorship has been established in our country.
This regime is flagrantly trampling our citizens’ right, provided for under international law and the Constitution of Ukraine, to political and public association in political parties and public organizations, including opposition organizations, for the purpose of organizing society on principles of political, ideological, and economic diversity.
The aforementioned rights are violated by means of:
* prohibition of unwanted political parties;
* wrongful interference in the affairs of political parties by government agencies such as the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs;
* obstruction of the activity of parties and public organizations;
* criminal prosecution of opposition political activists;
* information blockade;
* defamation of opposition political parties and public organizations and their activities through the dissemination of false information;
* dissemination of wrong information for purposes of inciting to the physical elimination of opposition activists and shaping public opinion to support the banning of opposition organizations.
We believe that in regard to our activity the government of Ukraine is in violation of: Articles 18, 19, 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Articles 10, 11 and 14 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; Articles 3, 8, 15, 22, 24, 34, 36 and 68 of the Constitution of Ukraine; and the Law of Ukraine “On Political Parties in Ukraine”.
Today, Ukraine as a state is based on the dangerous principles of an effectively Neo-Nazi ideology, which tolerates no democracy whatsoever. The institutions of state deal with their ideological and political opponents using illegal means.
In order to organize political repressions. the Ukraine government adopted two laws: i) “On the condemnation of the Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of propaganda of their symbols”; and ii) “On the legal status and the memory of fighters for Ukrainian independence in the twentieth century”. On the basis of these laws, the authorities have toughened up regulations and job instructions for government ministries and agencies.
Let us make you aware of following facts:
1) The government of Ukraine initiated a criminal case to discredit communist ideology and to ban the Communist Party of Ukraine. People who profess communist ideology and were not involved in any repressions or crimes of the “totalitarian regime”, are thereby deprived of the possibility of uniting into a political party and participating in the political life of the country, including participating in elections;
2) The Ministry of Justice refuses to register the Official Decision Note of the Extraordinary XXIX Congress of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU), unlawfully interpreting the Charter of the PSPU in a distorted fashion. The Ministry of Justice thereby blocked issuance to the PSPU of a receipt of amendments to its Charter and Program, and thus deprived this political party of the possibility of full-fledged participation in the political life of Ukraine, including participation in elections;
3) The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine illegally refuses to register amendments to the Charter and Program of the Labor Party of Ukraine (Marxist-Leninist), and thus obstructs its activity and violates the rights of party members.
Moreover, Mr. Alexander V. Bondarchuk, the leader of the Labor Party of Ukraine and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Rabochy klass (Working Class) was arrested on the basis of accusations made by a pro-regime political opponent; he was held without grounds for 10 months at a pre-trial detention center, and continues to be the target of a cynical, politically motivated court case;
4) The activity of the Russian-Ukrainian Union Party is obstructed by the regime’s connivance in a “raider”-style takeover attempt against it and artificially drawn-out court proceedings;
5) Mr. Anatoliy A. Mayevsky, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Raboche-krestyanskaya Pravda (Workers’ and Peasants’ Truth), chairman of Central Bureau of All-Union Communist Party-Bolsheviks (ACPB) for Ukraine, Moldova and Transdniestria, and Secretary of the ACPB, was falsely accused and imprisoned for more than one year, before receiving three years probation;
6) From April 2014 until the present time, the Аll-Ukraine Women’s Public Organization “Gift of Life” has been subjected to criminal prosecution on trumped-up charges of supporting separatists and terrorists (for no other reason than the intention to carry out human rights work). The bank account of this organization was frozen and a campaign conducted to discredit the organization and its leader, Dr. Natalia M. Vitrenko.
7) The government of Ukraine illegally interferes in the affairs of the canonical Orthodox Church and abets the seizure of Orthodox churches by armed gangs and schismatics.
The law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and the neo-Nazi groups of armed fighters they patronize act in concert to obstruct peaceful opposition political gatherings and activities. Here several instances:
* On May 2, 2014, forty-six members of anti-fascist groups were brutally burned and killed during an action at Kulikovo Field in the City of Odessa;
* On May 9, 2014, a peaceful demonstration in the City of Mariupol in the Donetsk region was fired on;
* On September 1, 2015, in the City of Kharkov, armed bands physically prevented the Progressive Socialist Party from holding a peaceful rally under the slogan, “Peace and love for children, not war and hatred”;
* On January 29, 2016, in the City of Kiev, members of the volunteer Azov Battalion forcibly disrupted a conference of the Public Movement “Ukrainian Choice”, breaking into the premises and in effect starting a session of mob justice. The armed fighters’ action, which grossly violated the rights and freedoms of the conference participants and flouted the presumption of innocence, was overtly supported by Mr. Z. Shkiryak, advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs.
Acts of vigilante justice and physical obstruction of the activity of oppositional political parties and public organizations, threats (including of physical violence), political murders and driving people to suicide (the cases of Mrs. V. Semenyuk-Samsonenko, Mr. O. Kalashnikov, the Priest Roman, A. Peklushenko, Mr. Walter, О. Buzina, and the editor of newspaper Khochu v SSSR [I Want to Go Back to the Soviet Union] Mr. S. Dolgov), are all being committed in Ukraine. The perpetrators are gangs of right-wing radicals under slogans such as “Ukraine above all”, “Ukraine for the Ukrainians”, “Glory to the nation—Death to the enemies”, “Knife the Muscovites, hang the Communists!”, “Bandera will come and bring order”. All of this is happening with the full legal, information and political support provided of the Ukrainian government.
According to information at our disposal, about 4,000 people are being held in Ukrainian prisons because of their political opinions, while 2.6 million citizens have been forced to abandon their homes, become refugees, and have left Ukraine, including some because of their political convictions.
We, the leaders of the political parties and public organizations, united in the Left Opposition, DECLARE:
The representation of our country by the Ukrainian government as being democratic and as respecting and defending the human rights and freedoms guaranteed by above-mentioned norms of international law and by the Constitution of Ukraine, does not correspond to reality. In fact, a totalitarian state is being built in Ukraine, with all the attributes of a neo-Nazi dictatorship. In is impossible, in such a political environment and using such methods of fighting against the opposition and intimidating the people, to build a democratic state, to ensure compliance with human rights and freedoms in Ukraine, and to conduct democratic elections.
We ask you to take this Petition under consideration and to organize a large-scale verification of compliance with to human rights and freedoms in Ukraine.
Natalia Vitrenko, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine
Victor Silenko, Kiev Rus Party
Alexander Bondarchuk, Labor Party of Ukraine (Marxist-Leninist)
Alexander Luzan, Slavic Party of Ukraine
Vladimir Marchenko, All-Ukrainian Labor Organization “Ukrainian Confederation of Labor”
Lyudmila Drobyazina, Public Organization “Assembly of Orthodox Women of Ukraine”
Irina Kravchuk, All-Ukrainian Public Organization “Eurasian People’s Union”
Tatyana Ploshkina, All-Ukrainian Women’s Public Organization “Gift of Life”
Nikolai Lavrinenko, Slavic Committee of Ukraine
Valentin Lukiyanik, Public Organization “Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods of Ukraine”
Yelena Mazur, All-Ukrainian Public Organization “For the Union of Belarus and Russia” (ZUBR)
Gennadiy Selivanov, Public Organization “Union of Soviet Officers of Ukraine”
Evgeniy Pavlov, All-Ukrainian Union of Workers
Amar Al-Anni, Public Organization “St. Sergius of Radonezh Orthodox Brotherhood”
Schiller Institute founder and chair Helga Zepp-LaRouche addressed two Tokyo events on Dec. 2, delivering a clear message to 400 Japanese business leaders that the World Land-Bridge is the only way to end the tyranny of war and geopolitics and solve the ongoing Middle East crisis. In the morning, Ms. Zepp-LaRouche addressed the seventh annual Asia Innovation Forum, attended by 300 young Japanese entrepreneurs and hosted by Nobuyuki Idei, former Chairman and CEO of the Sony Corporation and now the founder and CEO of Quantum Leaps, as well as the founder of the Asia Innovators’ Initiative. Video proceedings of the two events will be available soon. The slides used below are the slide Zepp-LaRouche used in her presentation and are for reference only.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
The sheer number of explosive crises around the globe make previous pre-World War situations look calm by comparison. The recent downing of the Russian fighter jet by Turkey, which qualified American sources say Turkey would never have done without tacit support from the White House, and the subsequent support given by both President Obama and NATO to the Turkish action demonstrate—given the launch-on-warning-readiness of the nuclear arsenals of the US and Russia, with a decision time of mere minutes—how close we are to the present, new Cold War turning into a hot war.
Slide one
The fact that Russia and China correctly regard the US Ballistic Missile System in Eastern Europe, the Prompt Global Strike and Air Sea Battle Doctrines as First Strike Doctrines directed against their nations, has already led to a new arms race. Transatlantic military experts warn, that the situation is more dangerous than during the height of the Cold War, due to the lack of any codes of behavior or reliable “red telephones” between the US and Russia.
Behind this is the overriding dynamic which arises from the insistence of the United States that a unipolar world be maintained, while rising Asia is, by its mere weight, creating a multipolar world. The warnings of experts, such as former US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Martin Dempsey, that the West should not fall into the Thucydides Trap, seem to go unheard.
In addition, the crisis situation in Ukraine, the tensions in the South China Sea, and the satanic degree of barbarism demonstrated by ISIS and Boko Haram underline the mortal danger humanity is facing.
Equally existential, is the prospect of a new crash of the transatlantic financial system, more dramatic than the 2008 Lehman Brothers collapse, while no coping instruments are left to the central banks.
Are we condemned to continue down this road, when all signs speak to the likelihood that these conflicts will escalate either to global chaos or to a global thermonuclear war and the likely annihilation of the human species? Is the human species too stupid, indifferent or degenerate to abandon policies, even when their failure is overwhelmingly clear?
Slide two
Already in the 15th century, the famous German philosopher Nikolaus von Kues stated that solutions for complex problems cannot be solved with a heterogeneous assortment of partial solutions; rather, one must find a solution on a higher level, on which the contradictions of the lower level are resolved. He called that method of thinking the “Coincidentia Oppositorum,” the thinking of the coincidence of opposites, the idea that the One is of a higher order than the Many. It is that method which must be applied to define a new paradigm in the evolution of the human species. And it is eminently possible to define a new paradigm which represents the true interest of all nations and all groupings.
Generally, the willingness to entertain such new ideas only exists when people realize that the assumptions which have been taken for granted for a long time are suddenly shaken in their foundations. And that is precisely the moment in which we find ourselves, around the globe.
This is most acutely true for Germany, where a qualitatively new debate is taking place about the need to reassess the strategic situation in many circles, guided by a growing perception that continuing the present policies will lead to a full-speed crash against a brick wall.
Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa, the father of modern science.
In particular, the refugee crisis shattered the illusion that the country is an island of stability and wars far away. All of a sudden, there is a public discussion about the root causes of the refugee crisis, which is detonating the unity of the EU: the Anglo-American wars based on lies, the Saudi financing of terrorism, Turkey buying oil from ISIS, etc.
All of this is creating an openness to the necessity of a dramatic change of policy! If terrorism is to be permanently eradicated and the refugee crisis overcome, the operations against ISIS must take into account its decentralized structures in many countries, but military means are not sufficient: what is needed is real development!!!
It is necessary to put a comprehensive reconstruction program for all of Southwest Asia and Africa on the agenda. Only if young people, and there especially the young men, have the perspective of a future, the chance to raise a family, to become scientists, doctors or architects, can the environment for the recruitment of the Jihadists be dried out.
Slide four
Presently, the only realistic perspective to accomplish this goal is the extension of the policy of the New Silk Road into both the Near and Middle East, as well as into Africa. The outline for this is presented in the study “The New Silk Road becomes the World Land-Bridge,” which defines basic preconditions for a global reconstruction program.
Slide five
Much of Southwest Asia has been “bombed back into the stone age” or was already a desert. A comprehensive infrastructure program for the entire region from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf must be put on the agenda. War must be declared against deserts, large amounts of new fresh water be created through the desalination of ocean water with the help of nuclear energy, ionization of moisture in the atmosphere, the creation of new rain patterns through the development of agriculture and reforestation. Infrastructure corridors, with integrated fast train systems, highways, and waterways, have to be built in order to provide conditions for the location of industries and new cities.
All major neighbors of Southwest Asia have a fundamental security interest to participate in such an approach, and therefore must join forces in this project: Russia, because of the tight connection between ISIS and the Chechen terrorist networks as well as the influx of heroin from Afghanistan into Russia; China, because of the connection of ISIS to the Uyghurs; India, since they have a Muslim population of 120 million people and already had Wahhabi-Salafist-sponsored terror attacks in Mumbai and other places. Iran, Egypt, but also Germany, France and Italy, and, clearly, in real terms, also the United States, have a fundamental interest to solve this problem.
Every nation and every region would benefit from the World Land-Bridge:
LaRouche plan for Eurasian Land-Bridge.
1. Japan: For Japan, the participation in great projects of the World Land-Bridge would reconnect to the tradition of the Meiji Restoration of Okubo Toshimichi and Okuma Shigenobu and their policies inspired by Alexander Hamilton and Friedrich List: that it is the development of the creativity of human labor and the State development of science and technology which are the source of wealth in society—a tradition that was continued by MITI after the Second World war and by the Mitsubishi Global Infrastructure Fund, which included many of the projects which are part of the World Land-Bridge Program.
One of those projects, the Kra Canal, which will enable the increased flow of goods in the Pacific region, is again on the table. A second Panama canal is being built in Nicaragua by China; the Mekong Delta complex is still urgent; the Transaqua Lake Chad project is presently reactivated by several African countries and a feasibility study is in progress.
Thai proposal for the Kra Canal.
The building of the Bering Strait tunnel has recently gained new up-to-dateness, given the Russian-Chinese collaboration of the “One Belt, One Road” policy and the Eurasian Economic Union, especially for Siberia and the Far East of Russia.
Bering Strait connection proposal.
2. USA: Not only would the US benefit from joining in developing Africa and Southwest Asia, but it is itself in urgent need of a reconstruction program. The New Silk Road approach for the US would mean the construction of a continental fast train system of 50,000 kilometers, (9) new science cities in the South and West of the Rocky Mountains, and various programs for the creation of new weather patterns.
Proposed high-speed rail for US lower 48 states.
3. Ukraine: The collaboration between Europe, the Eurasian Economic Union and the “One Belt, One Road” policy for the construction of infrastructure corridors could reunite Ukraine by having the whole country enjoy an economic miracle instead of the present economic collapse.
4. Europe: All of Europe has a dramatic backlog in infrastructure investment. In Germany alone, it is an estimated 2 trillion Euro. Already in 2012, the Schiller Institute presented a plan for a new economic miracle in Southern Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa, as an alternative to the devastating austerity policy of the Troika.
In light of the escalation of the refugee crisis, this development program as an extension of the New Silk Road would be a complete game changer.
European continent developed under the World Land-Bridge proposal.
5. Africa: Because of the combination of wars and the denial of economic development due to ecologist and monetarist ideologies, much of the continent, as Southwest Asia, resembles hell on earth, not home countries. The announcement and beginning of international cooperation to realize a comprehensive development plan for the continent would send a powerful message of hope to millions of people now on the run from war, terrorism, hunger and epidemics.
The content of Africa connected with high-speed rail, part of the World Land-Bridge proposal, now being constructed by Xi Jinping’s China.
The World Land-Bridge, as concrete basis for a peace order for the 21st Century, however requires a new paradigm of thinking. The supposed legitimacy of geopolitics—the idea that one nation or a group of nations have a self-interest which they can pursue against another group of nations, if necessary by military means -, is, in the age of thermonuclear weapons, obviously outdated—unless one wants to risk the annihilation of the entire human species. The assumption, that it would be possible to “win” a “limited” nuclear war based on a First Strike Doctrine, is ludicrous, and has been refuted by impeccable military analysts and should be prosecuted against according to the Nuremberg Statutes.
Mankind will only be able to survive the present existential crisis if we can make the qualitative jump to defining the common interests of mankind as the point of reference. The question “Where should mankind as a whole be in a 100, in a 1000 years from now, and beyond?” must guide the decision-making. The World Land-Bridge does not only complete the infrastructural development of the landlocked areas of all continents, but it defines the next phase of the evolution of the human species by extending the idea of infrastructure into space.
If, in the best case, an immediate emergency summit of the UN General Assembly, otherwise an early G20 summit or minimally a meeting of some of the most future-oriented leaders of the world, in government positions as well as present and former representatives of the scientific, industrial, diplomatic and cultural community, would put such a World Marshall Plan, a World Land-Bridge as a peace plan for the 21st century on the table, it would suddenly impart a perspective of hope to the world.
The idea of the World Land-Bridge establishes a higher level of reason, where all the historical and ethnic conflicts disappear or are neutralized in the higher geometry. For example, tensions between Japan and China sometimes seem insurmountable; however, in the context of collaboration with India, Russia, and Southeast Asian and European nations for a Peace through Development Plan, the mutual benefits of such a win-win perspective would represent an overwhelming incentive to shape the future, rather than relive the past.
There are obvious differences to the situation of the 30 Years War, but what motivated the various war parties to come to the negotiation table and conclude with the famous Treaty of Westphalia, was the recognition that if this religious war were to continue, there would soon be nobody left to enjoy a victory. The Peace of Westphalia Treaty established for the first time in European history that peace can only be maintained if all foreign policy takes into account “the interest of the other,” and that it can not be based on revenge, but must be based on love. That treaty became the foundation of international law and the basis for the UN charter, and must be applied also to Southwest Asia, contrary to some different opinions.
Unfortunately, the respect for international law has vanished. The highest authority of the UN, the UN Security Council, since the regime change operation against Gaddafi, does not function any more.
International law must, therefore, be developed further. The principle which must be agreed upon, and which must enclose all following aspects, as a preamble, is that of the common aims of mankind—that there can be no legitimate interest of any nation, if it does not coincide with the interest of all of humanity, concerning its present and future existence.
The principles of the UN Charter remain valid, but this preamble must take into account a higher lawfulness, which is called in different cultures variably: in European philosophy, “Natural Law;” in Asian philosophy, “Cosmic Order.” It expresses the idea that mankind as a whole can only survive in the physical universe at large if the political and economic practices on planet Earth are being brought into coherence with the laws governing our universe.
Man is not an animal, condemned to remain in the mode of existence of the past. Mankind has a quality of creativity to discover again and again the deeper principles of our universe, which redefines its character as a species. When Kepler discovered the unifying principle of our solar system, he created the basis for mankind to be a completely different species, no longer bound to earth, but part of the solar system.
When Einstein discovered the theory of general relativity, he created the foundations for mans exploration of space. It is now clear from the earth history that here are defining influences of the changing relationship of our solar system with the galaxy, effecting cycles of climate change and variations in the evolutionary processes of live. We have yet to discover the unifying principle of our Galaxy, as Kepler had discovered the unifying principle of the solar system.
So what is the meaning of the creativity of the human mind, as being an integral part of the laws of the universe? And where is the future of mankind located? The next phase of the work in space, in the galaxy and beyond, requires the collaboration among top scientists of mayor nations to discover the laws of our universe as a new scientific frontier, We have to discover powers of mankind, which are complete unknown now, as Helium three on the moon was unknown during Kepler’s time, if mankind is to exist.
There is no closed earth system, but life on earth is defined by the lawfulness of the solar systems interaction with the galaxy, and we still have to discover the unifying principle of all the billions of galaxies. The meaning of live is the advancement of mankind’s ability to master the challenges of discovery the pathway of the necessary next discovery, for mankind’s ability to continue to exist in the millions and billions of years ahead. So far, we have only discovered the shadows of the principle.
It is therefore an existential requirement, to return to the principles of physical economy and real science and eliminate monetarism. We have to restate the historic knowledge of the theoretical foundations of the different industrial revolutions, which has been almost eliminated from the economics textbooks of western universities.
American economist Henry Carey, Russian economist Sergei Witte, German-American economist Friedrich List and German philospher and statesman, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
But it is a fact that the industrial revolutions in the United States, as well as in Germany, Japan, Russia and, more recently, the Chinese economic miracle, were always based on the principles of the physical economy of Gottfried Leibniz, Friedrich List, the American system of economy of Mathew and Henry C. Carey and Count Witte.
The Meiji Restoration succeeded in rapidly transforming Japan into a major world economic power thanks to the theories of Alexander Hamilton and Friedrich List. (Erasmus Smith, a very close collaborator of Lincoln’s economic adviser Henry Carey, was sent by the Ulysses Grant Administration as an official economic adviser to the Meiji Restoration.)
The rapid transformation of Germany from a feudal state into an economic powerhouse, was based entirely on the tradition of Friedrich List and on Bismarck’s encounter with the economic model of Henry C. Carey, mediated among others by Wilhelm von Kardorff, then head of the German industrial association. Germany would have not become an industrial nation, but for Bismarck’s conversion from a follower of free market theories into a protagonist of the protectionist policies of List and Carey.
The Chinese economic miracle of the recent 30 years, especially the policies of the New Silk Road and the alternative banking system, with the AIIB, New Development Bank, Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road Funds, follow the same traditions. The 5th World Congress of China Studies in the Spring 2013 in Shanghai, and the 2014 List conference in Reutlingen made emphatically the point that the German economist is the most popular economic theoretician in China, and not Adam Smith.
List regarded the development of the productive powers of labor and industrial capacities as more important than statistical wealth; he would be an adamant critique of today’s asset driven economies. In the paper he submitted to a contest of the French Academy of Sciences in 1837, he developed a vision for the future role of transport systems, a “space and time economy,” which contains ideas still valid for the World Land-Bridge today.
He saw in the continuous perfection of transport and communication systems the precondition for the progress of humanity, enabling human beings to unfold increasingly all the potentials given to them by nature. The more talents could exchange their ideas and collaborate in all areas, the greater progress would be in all areas of knowledge, and the more science and the arts would be inspired and spread to all sectors and disciplines. Anticipating our present jet age, he said that the easier it would be for human beings to move from place to place, the more they would save time and compress space, the more the development and efficiency of his powers would increase and utilize the material riches of nature for his purposes.
The impact of this characteristic of what he called the “Space and Time Economy” would be demonstrated by the wealth of nations, which would develop an advanced transport and communication system, even if their “natural environment” was unfavorable. The high degree of speed, regularity, and cost-efficiency of transport would facilitate new levels of the development of the mental and material productive forces.
In an almost prophetic forecast, he saw this development orienting towards the uniting of all nations in one humanity, in a “Republic of the planet,” based on the “economy of Mankind.”
The realization of the World Land-Bridge, proceeding from the common aims of mankind, is eminently feasible in the near term. But it must be accompanied by a dialogue between the high phases of the different cultures of the world. For many Asian countries that means Confucius; for India, the Gupta period and Indian Renaissance; for Russia Alexander Pushkin and Vladimir Vernadsky; for Italy, the Italian Renaissance; for Germany, the Classics in music and poetry. Out of knowledge of the other culture, will grow love and admiration. It is only in this way, that the representatives of different cultures can access the basis of their identity as members of the only creative species known in the universe, which, so far, has only reached its childhood, but which can and must become the immortal species.
Realizing this vision requires individuals, today, who are guided by a passionate love for humanity.
Schiller Institute founder and chair Helga Zepp-LaRouche addressed two Tokyo events on Dec. 2, delivering a clear message to 400 Japanese business leaders that the World Land-Bridge is the only way to end the tyranny of war and geopolitics and solve the ongoing Middle East crisis. In the morning, Ms. Zepp-LaRouche addressed the seventh annual Asia Innovation Forum, attended by 300 young Japanese entrepreneurs and hosted by Nobuyuki Idei, former Chairman and CEO of the Sony Corporation and now the founder and CEO of Quantum Leaps, as well as the founder of the Asia Innovators’ Initiative.
In her comprehensive presentation, Ms. Zepp-LaRouche warned of the global pattern of regional wars that can easily lead to global catastrophe, including a new superpowers conflict, and emphasized that the only way to change the course of events was by fundamentally changing the paradigms of thinking. She went through a detailed presentation on the World Land-Bridge, identifying the major global projects that can transform the world, citing the Xi Jinping “One Belt, One Road” as the seed of a global renaissance. After spelling out the immediately available great projects, she developed the idea of mankind as a unique species capable of creating a future through creative discovery. She developed the American System concepts of Alexander Hamilton, and Henry and Mathew Carey, and detailed how those ideas spread around the globe in the 19th century, creating the modern nations of Germany and Japan, under Bismarck and the Meiji Restoration.
Ms. Zepp-LaRouche was joined on the panel by former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn; former head of the Russian Railroad Corporation and co-founder of the Rhodes Dialogue of Civilizations, Vladimir Yakunin; and Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr., the former Brazilian director of the IMF, who is now a Vice President of the New Development Bank, founded by the BRICS and heaquartered in Shanghai. The panel was moderated by Daisuke Kotegawa, a former Japanese Ministry of Finance top official who was also Japan’s IMF director at the time of the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
During his presentation, Dr. Yakunin strongly endorsed Ms. Zepp-LaRouche’s World Land-Bridge proposal, noting that Russia’s Eurasian Development Corridors and China’s One Belt, One Road policies were thoroughly compatible and represented the “new paradigm” of thinking that is urgently needed to avoid wars brought on by the dying system of neo-liberalism. He emphasized that Presidents Putin and Xi were committed to Russian-Chinese cooperation to realize those Eurasian infrastructure links.
In his opening remarks of the panel, Strauss-Kahn detailed the ongoing crisis of the world financial system, and acknowledged that the austerity policies were a failure and had to be replaced by a growth model, while admitting that there is no real support for a viable change in policy from within the dominant world financial institutions today.
In the afternoon, Ms. Zepp-LaRouche addressed a separate event, sponsored by the Canon Institute for Global Studies, which was attended by 100 top executives of the major Japanese industrial corporations and financial institutions, as well as of the Japanese government’s overseas investment agencies and funds. EIR Senior Editor Jeffrey Steinberg also addressed the Canon Institute forum, delivering a detailed picture of the real process of economic and social breakdown of the United States. Ms. Zepp-LaRouche delivered her presentation on the World Land-Bridge as the only way to defeat the geopolitical drive to world war. Nogueira Batista gave an in-depth report on the progress of the New Development Bank and the plans to begin issuing development loans by April 2016. He reviewed the history of the launching of the New Development Bank by the BRICS countries in response to the abject failure of the “Washington institutions”—the IMF and the World Bank—to reform in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse.
Video proceedings of the two events will be available soon.
Former Philippine Senator Kit Tatad issued a scathing attack on Obama and fullsome praise of Putin and Xi Jinping in this morning’s Manila Times, the first day of the APEC Summit, quoting directly from the Press Club event featuring Helga Zepp-LaRouche and Senator Mike Gravel on Oct. 27.
“So the Aquino government is determined to splurge ten billion pesos on the APEC Economic Leaders Summit and all its related lower-level meetings. At the same time, private firms are to be bled white by the forced shutdown of their operations and the cancellation of hundreds of international and domestic flights during the main event. Nothing could be more absurd and bizarre, but it could soon turn tragic if most of the summiteers fail to realize that inclusive economic growth, which they saucily long for, won’t happen unless the global casino economy is replaced by a new paradigm.
– A new paradigm –
Indeed, the world needs not just a paste-up job, but a new paradigm. No significant intervention has occurred since Lehman Brothers, with assets of over $600 billion, declared bankruptcy in 2008. None since the most vulnerable European economies began to flounder. None since Iraq and Libya lost their unwanted governments. Bail-outs in Wall Street and bail-ins in Europe saved the big banks but not the small depositors. Since 2008, the too-big-to-fail banks grew bigger by 40-80 percent, and enlarged their derivatives debt contracts to up to $2 quadrillion, said the founder of Schiller Institute Helga Zepp-Larouche in a recent address at the National Press Club in Washington.
There are no more tools in the toolbox of the financial institutions, Zepp-LaRouche said. So chaos could soon break out. For some international players, chaos, more precisely war, is the solution. They have invested so much in stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, including thermonuclear weapons with the capacity to kill the entire human population 20 times over, that they seem obliged to consider using them, regardless of the cost or consequence. But war can only translate into death and destruction [in] our clearly civilizational crisis.
The solution has to be something moral, social, political and economic. Mankind must recover from the global blurring of fundamental moral principles, the clashing political agendas and ambitions of men and nations, and the utter bankruptcy of the global economic system. The overindulgence of our sexual appetites, the unfettered desire by an unaccountable elite to impose their own ethic upon the rest, the resultant divide that sets apart the one percent at the top from the ninety-nine percent at the bottom of the pyramid — not these, but the opposite of these, are the pillars upon which our future civilization should be built.
– Who will teach whom? –
Which nation, and which leader of what nation, will drive home this point? And who has the best credentials to do it?
The United States, according to the renowned social-work educator Paul Adams in a book on social justice with Michael Novak and Elizabeth Shaw, was the first to lift a large majority of its poor (largely immigrants) out of poverty within a generation, and to keep on doing so. The United States was, as it were, the laboratory for how underdeveloped peoples break through the chains of centuries of poverty. It was the first developing nation. No one could argue against this.
– US vis-a-vis China –
But the record has shifted since. In the last seventy years since its founding, the United Nations, according to President Obama, has raised more than a billion poor people to the middle class. But it was former US Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska, who has pointed out in a paper he filed before our Supreme Court,that more than half of that number — 600 million, twice the total population of the United States — were Chinese. It happened within a little more than one generation or three decades; by adopting free-market capitalism while remaining communist, China — and not the United Nations — did it. – Poverty in the US – Today in the United States, by Zepp-La Rouches own reckoning, at least seven (7) percent of the population live in extreme poverty; some 21 percent have no access to sufficient food; 95 million have lost their jobs; and 104 million who are eligible cannot find jobs. In Europe, one-third of all the youth are unemployed; in the south of Europe alone, 60 percent are unemployed….
– 60 million refugees – Yet there is a new class of people whose problem is worse than sheer poverty. Many of them drown at the Mediterranean trying to flee the war, hunger, ethnic strife, unemployment in their own countries. These are the refugees….
– Most powerful in history –
But some leaders seem to be more concerned with projecting military might rather than manifesting compassion for the excluded and the marginalized. In his address to the 70th UN General Assembly on Sept. 28, 2015, Obama left the world gobsmacked when he said: “I lead the strongest military that the world has ever known, and will never hesitate to protect my country or our allies, unilaterally and by force where necessary.”…
As if to make sure that nobody missed this point, the US guided missile destroyer USS Lassen reportedly sailed within 12 nautical miles of one of the China-built land formations in the Spratlys while the Asean defense chiefs were meeting in Kuala Lumpur, together with US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his Chinese counterpart, Chang Wanquan.
– Putin in contrast –
Addressing the same UN General Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin took a different path. He decried the aggressive foreign interference that has resulted in a flagrant destruction of institutions and peoples lifestyle itself. Violence, poverty and social disaster have marred the growth of democracy and progress; “nobody cares a bit about human rights, including the right to life,” Putin said. In the Middle East and North Africa and elsewhere, anarchy areas have been created, which are now filled with extremists and terrorists, he added.
As though in anticipation of the Nov. 13 terrorist attack in Paris, which left over a hundred people dead and more than two hundred wounded, and prompted the Hollande government to declare a state of emergency, Putin proposed the creation of a genuinely broad international coalition against terrorism. He promised that under Russia’s chairmanship, the UN Security Council would convene a ministerial meeting to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the threats in the Middle East and seek to coordinate all actions against the Islamic extremists.
He proposed to restore government institutions in Libya, support a new government in Iraq, and provide comprehensive assistance to the legitimate government in Syria. And he asked that the international community now live without dividing lines, build on transparent and jointly formulated rules, including WTO principles stipulating the freedom of trade and investment and open competition, harmonize regional economic projects to promote the integration of integrations.
Finally, he offered a vision of the Eurasian Economic Union interconnecting with Chinas new Silk Road Economic Belt project to create a new development paradigm for the 21st century.
– Xi Jinpings new Silk Road –
The unexplained crash of a Russian passenger plane which killed all 224 passengers at Egypts Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31 has prevented Putin from coming to Manila. But Chinas President Xi Jinping will be here. He should be encouraged to talk about China’s vision for the world economy. Supported by Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa which, together with itself, constitute the relatively new economic bloc called BRICS, China has defined a 30-year vision to unite the worlds economies through high-speed railroads, roads and other fiber optic communications across the Eurasian land mass of Russia from western China to Europe, extending all the way north into the Scandinavian countries and South into Iran and the Arab countries. Its maritime component seeks to build efficient ports in strategic places to enhance the development of world trade.
The new bloc represents a power center based on economic growth, and above all, on leading-edge technology, including, for now, the exploration of the Moon to bring back to Earth large quantities of helium-3 for the future economy of thermonuclear fusion power.
This could lead to a scientific and technological revolution that would dramatically increase the energy-flux density in production processes on Earth, and in fuels for space travel, thereby hastening the evolution of the human species.
– Ambitious yes, but nothing to fear from –
Among the ambitious projects being lined up by China are a second Panama Canal through Nicaragua, a transcontinental rail connection between Brazil and Peru, the Kra Canal in Thailand, a bridge to connect Malaysia and Indonesia, a system of bridges across the Sunda Strait between Java Sea and the Indian Ocean, etc. These are not small projects, each one of them will require a massive mobilization of manpower, technology, engineering skills, and financial resources.
But anyone who remembers how America opened up its wild frontiers, brought in the railroad to transport people, beasts and goods across that great continent, built ports for its ships, and eventually airports and planes, to connect to the outside world will perhaps recognize in China’s new Silk Road a global expansion of what the hardy American pioneers first successfully put to work as a genuine achievement of man in the great United States.
November 2, 2015 (EIRNS)—The following resolution was released today by Schiller Institute, with the intention of rapidly collecting signatures from qualified professionals, political leaders, and ordinary citizens internationally.
The conditions of life for billions of people depend upon rejecting the agenda being presented at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (“COP21”) to be held in Paris this December. The COP21 Paris initiative to adopt a legally binding agreement to reduce CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions must be rejected on two grounds: the scientific reality that mankind’s activity is not going to cause catastrophic climate change, and the very real, lethal consequences of the CO2 reduction programs being demanded.
There is no legitimate basis for having the COP21 conference. Put an end to this now!
Despite the climate-change narrative being presented by an extremely well-funded, top-down propaganda campaign, there is an immense amount of solid scientific evidence which clearly contradicts and/or refutes the claims of coming catastrophic climate change caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases. For example, satellite measurements have shown that there has been no average rise in global temperatures for over 18 years, despite the fact that human greenhouse gas emissions have been increasing at an accelerating rate. This underscores the reality that the climate simply does not respond to CO2 levels in the way claimed by climate alarmists; said otherwise, the Earth’s climate system is not highly sensitive to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
Because many climate models are using these false assumptions of high climate sensitivity to CO2, the predictions of these climate models have been consistently wrong, and with each year they are diverging further from reality. The gradual changes in the climate that have occurred over the recent decades, and the gradual changes which will continue to occur in the future, are not and will not be a cause for alarm. Most of these changes are natural, and any impact mankind may have would be relatively minor. A healthy and growing world economy will be able to adapt to these changes.
We must also recognize that CO2 is not a pollutant—it is an essential part of the biosphere. Because the present atmospheric CO2 levels are well below the optimum for plant growth, human-caused increases in CO2 concentrations are already contributing to increases in agricultural productivity and natural plant growth—creating a measurably greener planet.
But the Paris 2015 summit is not only about nations potentially wasting time and resources on a phantom problem existing only inside computer models—the ugly reality is that the CO2 reduction programs being proposed would increase poverty, lower living conditions, and accelerate death rates around the world. The world simply cannot support a growing population with improving conditions of life using only solar, wind, and other forms of so-called “green” energy.
More to the point, this scheme is being intensely promoted by modern followers of the population reduction ideology popularized by Thomas Malthus. Organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund for Nature have repeatedly declared that current human population is billions of individuals beyond the Earth’s “carrying capacity,” and must therefore be reduced by some billions of people. The present push for a CO2 reduction program is deeply rooted in this Malthusian ideological motivation. But Malthus was wrong in the Eighteenth Century, and his followers are wrong today.
Energy-intensive scientific, technological, and economic growth is essential to human existence. This can be measured by transitions to higher levels of energy flux-density, per capita and per area. Such progress, growth, and development is a universal right, and CO2 emissions are presently a vital part of that process for the overwhelming majority of the world’s population. The adoption of a legally binding CO2 reduction scheme at the COP21 conference in Paris will condemn billions of people to a lower quality of life, with higher death rates, greater poverty, and no ability to exercise their inherent human right to participate in the creation of a better future for society as a whole.
This is deeply immoral.
For these reasons the CO2 reduction scheme of the COP21 conference in Paris must be rejected.
(In signing this statement, I authorize my name to appear in its publication.)
Helga Zepp-LaRouche is the founder of the Schiller Institute and the Chairman of the German Civil Rights Movement Solidarity political party (BüSo)
The escalating refugee crisis has split Germany into two fundamentally opposed camps: the majority (as of now) of people who respond as good Samaritans to the distress of the refugees, and actively help in one way or another to alleviate some of this distress. With her statement “We will do it!”, Chancellor Merkel expressed the attitude of that majority.
Then there’s the other side, which ranges from Christian Social Union head Horst Seehofer, to Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, to Schäble’s son-in-law Thomas Strobl, Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Söder, the Alternative for Germany Party, and the xenophobic Pegida movement.[1] Their common denominator is stoking the fear and resentment of the population and offering proposed “solutions” which ultimately violate human rights, in some cases marked by open racism, all of which share one thing—total inadequacy for solving the problem.
The political climate between these two camps has now become so hot, aggravated by an objective overload on the municipalities and inadequate housing capacities for the refugees, that the situation in Germany is about to become uncontrollable. If it should come to that, this crisis would have fateful consequences for all of Europe, due to the relative weight of Germany on the continent.
A Syrian woman and her children, among the lucky ones who made it to the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey (UNCHR)
This is not a crisis whose end is in sight; on the contrary, on an almost daily basis, streams of incriminating pictures come out of bodies of refugees washed up on the Mediterranean coast, among them babies and small children, a mirror-image of the failed EU policy, which has ignored the looming catastrophe for years, and left primarily Greece and Italy to handle it alone. Officially, 2,600 people have drowned this year alone; the number of unreported cases must be much higher. But it’s not only desperate Syrians who are risking their lives in the attempt to escape death; millions of people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and many more African countries, or in refugee camps in countries such as in Turkey, see no future, and set off for Europe.
There are some, who, like Frontex director Fabrice Leggeri[2], are demanding that deportation prisons (or jails) be established in the so-called hotspots of Italy and Greece, in order to prevent the refugees from entering EU territory through its external borders. Others want to deploy Frontex-ships against the traffickers—which obviously puts the lives of the refugees in great danger.
Striking the same tone are proposals like those of Markus Söder to change the Constitution in order to restrict the right of asylum to specific quotas—a clear violation of the Geneva Convention. Human rights organizations also consider the new asylum proposals by Interior Minister de Maizière to be unconstitutional and totally inappropriate for solving the problems in managing the refugee crisis, not least because they increase the panic among the refugees at having Europe’s gates shut on them.
It is dawning on some that this refugee migration is in reality a mass migration comparable to the great migrations of late antiquity. They are the result of a decades-long failed policy of the geopolitical wars of Bush and Obama in Southwest Asia, which were based on lies; and of the conditionalities policy of the IMF, which suppressed economic development and created the breeding ground for terrorism through the resulting poverty.
The idea that you could remedy this situation which is totally coming apart at the seams, by building a new Limes Wall around Europe, and declaring the Near East and Africa terra incognita,—as is proposed in the 1991 essay by Jean-Christophe Rufin “The Empire and the new Barbarians: North-South Rupture,”—is absurd, and ultimately reflects the moral and political bankruptcy of its advocates. Should pictures of terrorized refugee children shown between NATO barbed wire and tear gas, who are the victims of a failed policy,—should shot refugees and drowned bodies become the “new normal?”
With reference to the xenophobic Pegida demonstrations and the burning refugee shelters, Die Welt wrote that Mrs. Merkel could only survive the next two years if she gets the refugee problem under control. A fair assessment, and even more so in view of the fact that the trans-Atlantic financial system can implode at any minute, and the gigantic derivatives bubble evaporate in a super-crash, as, among other things, the Glencore crisis calls to mind. It should be clear to any thinking human being that the chaos which would result from such a crash, would destroy the foundations of society, and scuttle all calculations on the refugee question.
A New Paradigm
There is a way out—but it requires a totally new paradigm and a totally new way of thinking. Only if the military operation by Russia, and now China, in Syria, and possibly Iraq, is followed by a comprehensive economic reconstruction program, that actually develops the Southwest Asian region which has been bombed back into the Stone Age, and permits people there to have the future which they don’t have now, can the mass migration be stopped. The same goes for Africa.
Development Plans for the Middle East and Africa on the Table in 1991
Prior to the escalating wars and terrorist onslaught in the region, these projects proposed by Lyndon LaRouche were all under discussion
Already in 2012, the Schiller Institute worked out an extensive development program for Southern Europe, the Mediterranean region, Southwest Asia and Africa, which was based on earlier development plans. In 2014, the Schiller Institute’s associates at the news magazine EIR—this magazine—published the report “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge,” which includes those development plans.
The basic idea is to develop the whole of Southwest Asia with a comprehensive development program; the greening of the deserts with desalination of large amounts of sea water, and other modern methods of fresh water production, such as ionization of the moisture in the atmosphere, together with the building of integrated infrastructure projects, industry and agriculture, and new cities will totally change the characteristics of the region.
Only if poverty is eliminated, and, most important, young people, and especially young men, are given a real perspective for the future, can the problem of terrorism be overcome. Naturally, the known sources of funding this terrorism—for example, through drug cultivation in Afhganistan and certain Wahhabi “charity” organizations, must be cut off.
It is clear that such a change in paradigm is only feasible if all the major neighbors of the region—Russia, China, India, Iran, Egypt, and the European nations—and hopefully also the United States—work together. To stop mass migration from Southwest Asia and Africa, geopolitics must be shelved, and replaced by the common aims of mankind. Among these aims is victory over terrorism, which threatens Europe, as well as Russia, China, India, and the United States,—and the need to preventing the refugee crisis from shattering the foundations of European society.
In addition to adopting a development perspective, the problem of the integration of those refugees already in Europe must immediately be addressed. In Germany today there are about 45 million employable persons; in 2050 that figure will only be 29 million, and in many other countries the situation is similar. The integration of such a new workforce is therefore in our own fundamental interest.
Why should the young employable refugees not be involved immediately in the construction of a half million units of subsidized housing? The financing could be undertaken by the Reconstruction Finance Bank (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau) just as it financed the German economic miracle after the Second World War, and it would have the same economic effect. The mere announcement of this project, in combination with an extension of the New Silk Road toward Southwest Asia and Africa, would eradicate the current despair and anxiety for the future, and give way to a spirit of optimism.
The mean-spirited skeptics should ask themselves the question: do they really believe that the current policy toward the Middle East and Africa can actually go on forever? On the positive side: With China’s policy of the New Silk Road and President Xi Jinping’s offer of “win-win” cooperation for building the New Silk Road, we already have the framework in place for the perspective outlined here. The fact that the report “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge” has just been published in Chinese translation, and at the book launch received the enthusiastic support of ten representatives of leading Chinese economic institutes, demonstrates that this perspective presents a realistic opportunity, for which cooperation from Russia, China, and India can be relied upon, to resolve the refugee crisis in a totally new way. That opportunity need only be seized.
Footnotes
[1]. PEGIDA stands for Patriotic European Against the Islamicization of the Occident. The movement was founded in Dresden, Germany and has been holding anti-Islam demonstrations since October 2014.
[2]. Frontex is the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union. It was established in October 2004.
The Chinese edition of the EIR report, “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge” was officially presented by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institutes, at a symposium sponsored by the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University on Sept. 29. The Chongyang Institute is also a co-sponsor of the Chinese-language report.
The Chongyang Institute was established a few years ago by graduates of Renmin University, and fashions itself as the new type of think-tank called for recently by President Xi Jinping, who is concerned about receiving the best analysis of the present world situation and some key recommendations for policy as China and the world enter into a new era of international relations. Wang Wen, the Executive Dean of the Chongyang Institute, as well as Mr. Fu Jianming, the Vice President of the Pheonix Publishing & Media Group which published the Chinese version of the report, made introductory comments at the press conference, which drew 70 people, including at least 15 journalists.
The full 370 page EIR World Land-Bridge report, now in Chinese.
The Genesis of a New Paradigm
In her address to the symposium, Mrs. LaRouche explained her role in the germination of the idea known in China as the “One Belt, One Road.”
She explained how she and her husband, economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche, had, with the break-up of the Soviet Union, expanded on the series of development programs they had worked on for decades, to elaborate a program for linking the entire Eurasian continent.
Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche in Beijing, September 2015.
This would be done with a system of high-speed rail lines that would help bring the land-locked and newly independent nations of Central Asia, and vast underpopulated and underdeveloped regions of Central Russia, into the mainstream of international commerce and trade, thereby creating a land corridor for trade and economic development between Europe and Asia. The LaRouches dubbed this “The Eurasian Land-Bridge.”
Discussions with representatives of the Chinese government in the early 1990s led to a conference in Beijing organized under the auspices of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology in 1996, Mrs. LaRouche explained. This conference with leading experts from China and 34 other Eurasian countries, included an address by Mrs. LaRouche devoted to the implementation of this project.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche speaking at a 1996 international symposium in China on the New Eurasian Landbridge.
The Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the ruble crisis of 1998 prevented the further movement of this project. And it was only in September 2013 that Chinese President Xi Jinping revived the notion in his famous speech at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, calling for the creation of a Silk Road Economic Belt to unite Europe and Asia.
The concept of the New Silk Road points in the direction of a new paradigm of mankind, Zepp-LaRouche told her audience, and away from the “geopolitics” which caused two world wars in the last century, to replace it with the idea of the common aims of mankind, which is reflected in Xi Jinping’s “win-win policy.” While the “One Belt, One Road” has become the going term for the Chinese project, Mrs. LaRouche underlined the importance of the Silk Road precedent. “We should keep the term the New Silk Road,” she said, “as it clearly expresses this cultural vision of cooperation manifested by the ancient Silk Road.”
She then went into the crisis in the Middle East and the massive flow of refugees into Europe from the war-torn areas created by U.S. policy under Bush and Obama. There is a very recent recognition by many European nations, that there must be a change in policy and the root causes of the refugee crisis must be adressed, she said. It is not enough to fight the Islamic extremists militarily; there must also be a real economic reconstruction of the entire region, which is now completely destroyed by war, to create a future for the young people now being attracted to violent jihad.
“We can extend the Silk Road to the Middle East,” she said, “creating centers of development. We can make the deserts bloom and create new cities. The New Silk Road can become a peace order for the Twenty-First Century,” she said. “If successful, it will create a new age of civilization, and if it fails, we will enter a new dark age.”
Reversing 40 Years of Disaster
EIR‘s Washington Bureau Chief Bill Jones then outlined the tremendous possibilities opened for the world, including the United States, with the implementation of the Silk Road project. He noted how Lyndon LaRouche, in 1975, proposed the creation of an International Development Bank for financing the development of the Third World, and how the Foreign Minister of Guyana Fred Wills, had, in collaboration with LaRouche, issued at the UN General Assembly in 1976 a call for a New World Economic Order and a debt moratorium for the developing nations.
“But there would be no new world economic order nor any debt moratorium,” Jones said. And the world then entered into a new phase of inflationary expansion of the world financial system which now encompasses over $2 quadrillion of accumulated—and unpayable—debt. “President Xi’s project of a land and maritime Silk Road Initiative offers now the possibility of reversing that dangerous trajectory,” Jones said.
EIR’s Bill Jones speaking in Beijing, September 2015.
“The world stands in amazement over China’s development in the last few decades,” Jones said, “and now China is offering a similar development for the rest of the world.”
Jones also noted that, while the U.S. Administration has been less than enthusiastic about the project, there was a growing understanding in the United States, particularly at the state and local levels, which are greatly suffering the effects of the financial crisis, as well as among industrial layers, that what China is doing—and is offering the world—represents a ray of hope in an otherwise disastrous economic situation.
The Appreciation by Experts
These two presentations were followed by comments from eight leading Chinese scholars, who had read the report. Their reaction to the report was absolutely electric. Professor Bao Shixiu, formerly a Professor of Military Strategy at the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, said that bringing together the countries of the region around the New Silk Road initiative in a process of regional development was the task of the day.
“It is also related to the notion of good governance,” Professor Bao said, “and everyone has good feelings about this concept. We will thereby create a good neighborhood and begin to build a European common destiny.”
This was also the idea behind the notion of the Eurasian Land-Bridge put forward by the Schiller Institute in the 1990s, he said.
Ding Yifan, the former deputy director of the World Development Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council of the P.R.C., underlined the importance of the economic concepts of Lyndon LaRouche, laying at the basis of the report.
“I have known the Schiller Institute for a long time,” he said, “and I have learned much from them. They have very specific ideas about the world economy. The concept underlying LaRouche’s view of the economy is that of the physical economy. LaRouche used the term negentropy to characterize the underlying laws of a healthy functioning economy,” Ding Yifan said.
“Helga Zepp-LaRouche put forward the concept of the Eurasian Land-Bridge as a war avoidance concept,” Ding added. “The new concept of the Belt and Road has received great attention from the whole world. … We cannot allow capital to control everything. Instead, we must control capital.”
Shi Ze from the China Institute of International Studies explained how the problem in the world today is caused by geopolitical thinking.
“Geopolitics has led to the dangerous situation we have today. The aim of the report is to develop a concept to replace geopolitics. And I found such a concept in this book,” Shi said. “On the other hand, is the economic aspect of the report, which places the stress on creating infrastructure. We have to look at the infrastructure needs of the other countries,” he said. “I am confident about the development of the Land-Bridge and I believe Mrs. LaRouche has made great progress in her idea.”
Tao Qingmei of the Beijing Long Way Foundation noted that the report also mooted the question of a new order and a new relationship between nations.
“This book reflects the views of U.S. experts and I really respect them. We should rethink the world on the basis of the new relationship between nations.”
Wang Xiangsui, the director for the Center for Strategic Studies at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, called the report “a road to the future.”
“Today we have to proceed from a regional perspective, one which involves economics, politics, and culture. China is learning from other countries. And this book is very important in that respect,” he said.
Zhang Jianping, the Director of the Department of International Economic Cooperation at the National Development and Reform Commission, underlined the collaborative nature of the Silk Road Initiative and its openness to all countries. While noting skepticism from the U.S. side about the Silk Road project, he saw a certain shift in policy with regard to the U.S. view of the AIIB. Europe, on the other hand, was becoming absolutely enthusiastic about the project. Zhang felt that the EIR report, which he also noted was the result of 20 years’ labor, was an important element in promoting the idea of the New Silk Road in the United States.
Zhao Changhui from the China Export-Import Bank praised Progress Publishing for bringing out this report. He called the Silk Road project a thousand-year initiative. “When reading the report we have to ask ourselves how we can make a difference. It leads us to reflect on our own obligations.” He said that scholars must develop a long-term vision, as it was reflected in the report.
Liu Ying, the Director of the Department of Cooperative Research at Chongyang Institute, noted that the report was written from a global perspective, but from a modern global perspective, including from a space perspective.
“This report is about predicting the future rather than just explaining the past,” Liu Ying said.
All the participants received a copy of the Chinese report. The Chongyang Institute had purchased 1000 copies which they will distribute free of charge to a wide section of the Chinese political and intellectual circles. There was a considerable amount of coverage of the press conference in the economic press stressing the fact that this was the first analysis by “American scholars” of the Chinese project. There was also widespread recognition in the media reports of the role of Mrs. LaRouche and the Schiller Institute as a key initiator of this project in the early 1990s.
The high-level participation in the event by eight Chinese scholars, and the sponsorship by the prestigious Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, underlined the fact that the EIRreport has now become an authoritative source for Chinese scholars in pursuing the “One Belt, One Road” project. The economic concepts championed by Lyndon LaRouche over the period of 50-plus years have now become a staple for the intellectual layers in this, the most populous country in the world.
