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France and the Maritime Silk Road: Past, Present and Future

The July 2 Schiller Institute conference, “France and the Maritime Silk Road: Past, Present, and Future,” held in Nantes, was a major intervention on a hot topic: France has a maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 10 million square kilometers and the world’s second largest maritime economic area. Nantes—a port city of 900,000 on the Atlantic Ocean and the birthplace of the visionary Jules Verne—has a place in France’s “blue economy.”

Schiller Institute booth at the La Mer XXL Exposition in Nantes, France on June 30, 2019.

Schiller Institute booth at the La Mer XXL Exposition in Nantes, France on June 30, 2019.

The four-hour conference with nine speakers was part of an international maritime exposition, La Mer XXL, that drew 38,000 visitors. Several of the speakers at the Schiller event had important institutional roles in France and all of the speakers were passionate about their subjects and conveyed a sense of optimism and mobilization. The creative ideas and science-driver perspective of Lyndon LaRouche, for the common good of mankind, were very much present.

The Expo was organized by one of the largest media groups in France, the Group Ouest-France; the Maritime Credit Bank; and the French Maritime Cluster, a business association encompassing all ocean-related enterprises—ports, transport o and from ports, shipbuilding, fishing, aquaculture, and deep-water research institutions in biology and mining (oil, rare earths).

Odile Mojon at the literature table during the La Mer Expo.

Odile Mojon at the literature table during the La Mer Expo.

For twelve days, June 28 to July 10, the Schiller Institute manned an exhibit at the Expo. At least 200 exhibitors—associations, companies, research institutions—had booths to present their work. Schiller Institute representatives were able to present the full spectrum of the Institute’s activities and the 484-page French edition of the Institute’s World Land-Bridge report released in November 2018. In the months preceding the event, the Schiller Institute had sent out mailings to regional industrialists and companies; French and Chinese engineers and scientists; and its own contact lists, and followed up with personal contact.

The four-hour, in-depth Schiller conference drew 60 people including representatives from the Friends of the Maritime Museum of La Rochelle, and the Maritime Cluster of Luxembourg, who were eager to get copies of the Land-Bridge report. People came from as far as Provence and Switzerland to participate.

Several copies of the Land-Bridge report were sold on the spot and more during the book dedication event set up at the Expo library. A professor from Africa, who attended the conference, when passing our booth the next day, said he was so excited that he persuaded his university to order five copies.

Prof. Michel Cantal-Dupart (left) and Karel Vereycken, two of the speakers at the Schiller Institute Conference in Nantes, France on July 2, 2019.

Prof. Michel Cantal-Dupart (left) and Karel Vereycken, two of the speakers at the Schiller Institute Conference in Nantes, France on July 2, 2019.

The Schiller Institute’s Karel Vereycken, who has studied the maritime domain for several years, was the moderator, and opened the floor to greetings: André Sobczak, a Nantes city councilman and the 15th Vice-President for International Relations of the Nantes Metropolitan Area, warmly welcomed the participants; Anne Lettrée, CEO of China’s Silk Road Business University and co-organizer of the event; two Minister Counselors of the Chinese embassy who were unable to attend at the last minute, and Minghong Chen, Chairman of the French-Chinese Intercultural Center.

Maritime Silk Road: Ancient and Modern

Karel Vereycken speaks on the Maritime Silk Road.

Karel Vereycken speaks on the Maritime Silk Road.

Vereycken presented the idea that the Maritime Silk Road in history—in China and other countries—has always been a space of cooperation and not of confrontation. With images of beautiful pottery, other ceramics, and other artistic or mechanical objects and utensils, he showed how each one, produced in one area, had designs and decorations coming from elsewhere, thanks to trade on the Maritime Silk Road. He presented another example of the high degree of development of that trade, the shipwreck of an Arab vessel made in Oman, from 826 AD, which was discovered recently on the sea floor near Java, Indonesia complete with the 60,000 pieces of ceramics and manufactured goods, including some with Persian motifs.

University Professor Antoine Cid followed, on Zheng He’s maritime expeditions to the Gulf and eastern Africa in the early 15th century and China’s peaceful and diplomatic objectives of cooperation. This activity was not limited to Zheng He, or to that period of time. Prof. Cid hypothesized that the Chinese, in the early part of the 20th century, decided to make this excellent story a positive epic narrative to convey the message that China is not a conquering power, on sea or on land.

Henri Tsiang, a former researcher at the Pasteur Institute, who also played an important role in mediating between France and China after World War II, went through what is happening in the South China Sea, the issues and the actors, and how the withdrawal of the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has led to the expansion of other peaceful trade initiatives in the zone, a good way of solving disputes that had been used by geopolitical forces to harass China.

Sebastien Goulard, a public affairs consultant, and founder and coordinator of OBOReurope, countered the fake “debt trap” narrative and other false stories circulated to slander China. He made clear that problems can and do arise here and there, due to changes in political power in participating countries, and due to differing conceptions of investment terms: for the Chinese it’s the long term, while for the West it’s the time of an election cycle.

He showed that the Chinese are quick to find new solutions: The sale of Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port to a Chinese company, with the possibility offered to the state to acquire up to 50% ownership in 20 years, protects that port from political changes created in the country by competitors to China, in this case, India. Chinese investments, he showed, improve competition in a good way. After the Chinese financed the port, the Indians decided to build an airport, which in the meantime has become complementary to the port!

Sébastien Périmony discusses his recent trip to Africa with a conference attendee.

Sébastien Périmony discusses his recent trip to Africa with a conference attendee.

Sébastien Périmony of the Schiller Institute Africa Desk spoke about projects of the African terrestrial and maritime “silk roads,” and reported on his recent experiences in Ivory Coast and Angola. 

Contributions followed from people actively involved in New Silk Road cooperation.

The Silk Road Today and Tomorrow

The next speaker, Professor Mohamed Jebbar, held the audience in rapt attention. He is a professor of microbiology at Brest University, Director of the Microbiology Laboratory of Extreme Environments (LM2E) and co-director of the French-Chinese Laboratory of Deep-Sea Microbiology, called MICROB-SEA, which he fought for several years to establish. The laboratory’s objective is to study the conditions of ocean life at a depth of 5,000 meters—where the total absence of light had led people to believe that life was not possible, or that it was determined by life above those limits. Prof. Jebbar explained that life does exist at those depths, and that it is organized by bacteria that accomplish through chemosynthesis what the Sun accomplishes on the Earth’s surface through photosynthesis. He explained to the audience how this works.

His Franco-Chinese research center collaborates with the astrobiologists of the European Space Agency (ESA) and other space agencies to see what those extreme conditions can teach us about the existence of life in space. The first test carried out in a joint effort between the Chinese and ESA was to see if the microalgae called spirulina, sent in satellites, could grow in space.

Anne Lettrée spoke on “Earth, innovation, technologies, art, nature and health, a whole program.” She is an executive of the Silk Road Business School (Paris and Xi’an) who has become impassioned with China and fully supports the New Silk Road. She is creating a large holistic park, the Garden of Titans, in Normandy, with spaces for research, artwork, and theater, combined with ecology. Jane Han, the official representative in France of China’s largest photovoltaic company, confirmed China’s interest in this park conception.

Two important French figures spoke in the last section on the future of the New Silk Road. Michel Cantal-Dupart, architect, urban planner, and professor at CNAM (Conservatoire Nationale des Arts et Métiers—School of Industrial Arts and Crafts) is engaged in large urban architectural projects and territorial infrastructure—inland waterways, rapid transport—and works with the UN to develop these programs in developing countries. He was clear in his anger at the lack of vision by successive French governments for the  development of France’s waterways and canals—the largest set of inland waterways in Europe, which are all totally disconnected today. Instead of having a system, France has a series of dead ends.

He was followed by Bernard Planchais, the recently retired operational Director General at the National Naval Construction Company (formerly DCNS and today the Naval Group), producing civilian ocean liners and military vessels such as the Mistral and submarines. Planchais presented a “war plan” for France to develop its maritime economy, since France commands, after all, the second largest maritime zone in the world. While at the DCNS, Planchais worked with the nuclear sector to develop Flex Blue, a program using nuclear submarine technology to build small nuclear plants operating on the ocean floor—a great idea which, like many others, was never developed at all by our successive governments.

The conference concluded with Odile Mojon’s presentation of the Schiller Institute’s Land-Bridge report, in the context of the ongoing fight by Helga Zepp-LaRouche today to bring about a just new world economic order.

The organizers of the Expo were impressed by the size of the group gathered for such a four-hour, in-depth conference and requested three minutes of video footage of our event to use in their Expo publicity.


Houston Community Meeting Mobilizes for Project Artemis and Beyond

by Kesha Rogers and Brian Lantz

”Houston, Shackleton Base Here: Artemis 3 has landed!” You may be saying, “What? What is Shackleton Base? Isn’t it Tranquility? Artemis 3 has landed? I thought it was the Eagle.” Yes, it was the Eagle, and this year marks the 50th anniversary of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin becoming the first men to walk on the Moon. Armstrong declared, “Houston, Tranquility Base here: The Eagle has landed.”

That extraordinary accomplishment of American astronauts landing on the surface of the Moon for the first time—“in peace for all mankind”—was followed by twelve more astronauts, participating in another six missions. The last mission was in 1972. That was the Apollo program, a program to go to the Moon and explore the lunar surface. The Apollo 17 astronauts would be the last to walk on the surface of the Moon. Following that last mission, despite several additional planned missions, the program was unceremoniously ended and funding for the future Apollo missions was cut. However, the cutbacks didn’t start abruptly in 1972; the mission was being chipped away at even as the Apollo program was getting started—the peak in funding was in 1966.

“Have you heard? We are going, not back, but forward to the Moon again! This time to stay!” The Shackleton Crater is the proposed landing site for the next Moon mission. Shackleton is an impact crater that lies at the lunar South Pole.

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In December 2017, President Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, calling for the return of American astronauts to the surface of the Moon before the end of the next decade. In March of this year the plan and the timeline were accelerated, and it was announced by Vice President Pence, on behalf of the President, that NASA and its administrator, Jim Bridenstine, would be charged with a new mission to launch American astronauts to the surface of the Moon—they will be the first woman and the next man to walk on the lunar surface since 1972. This time, they will build a sustainable presence, and will develop the platform, technologies, and resources required to prepare the way for American astronauts to the land on the surface of Mars.

The bold and exciting new mission to return American astronauts to the surface of the Moon is Project Artemis, named for Apollo’s twin sister Artemis, the goddess of the Moon. Well, you may ask, this all sounds very exciting and optimistic, but how will it be done? We haven’t been back in nearly 50 years. What will be different now? How will we guarantee that we not only achieve the goal of returning to the Moon and go to Mars, but build a commitment and a policy with lasting impact for several generations to come?

Houston Meeting, Shooting for the Moon

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The Schiller Institute is hosting conferences and seminars around the world, not only to educate people on the requirements for returning Americans to the lunar surface in 2024 and building a lunar base by 2028, but going beyond—setting forth a vision for the next two to three generations of space exploration.

In Houston, Texas on July 25, just one day after the 50th anniversary of the splash down of the Apollo 11, the Schiller Institute had its most recent such event. The theme of the community meeting was, “50 Years After Apollo: NASA’s Project Artemis, A New Generation of Space Explorers Emerges.” The meeting, held at the Bayland Community Center, was a major outreach effort with broad attendance and participation. The audience included blue collar families from the Houston neighborhood, university students, a high school science club, friends of the Fabrication and Innovation Laboratory at a local college, robotics club members, families with NASA ties, members of several local AARP chapters who had previously invited the Houston Schiller Institute Chorus to their meetings, and longtime Schiller Institute activists. There was great excitement following the presentations.

The environment was electric from the start! Attendees were greeted with a fascinating “Fabrication Lab” exhibit on 3D printing, overseen by the lab’s supervisor. 3D printing in its industrial applications is known as additive manufacturing and will be a crucial feature of building cities on the Moon and Mars.

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There were also NASA memorabilia and models of a scramjet and a Space Shuttle. Also on display was an exhibit from the Houston Robotic Club, which brought a working robotic Moon/Mars Rover, built to NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) specifications. Discussion was continuous around the tables, including the Schiller Institute’s table and a display of Fusion and 21st Century Science and Technology magazines. Attendees got a direct idea of breakthrough work in 3D printing and robotics applications that are relevant for use here on Earth and in space travel and exploration. A group of high school students, all members of a robotics club, had a great time at both exhibits. Many people saw a 3D printer and a robot, up close, for the first time, and were able to talk to experts about the technologies involved.

Attendees also gained greater insight into international cooperation in space by seeing material from a project called “United in Space.” The project’s mission is to promote space cooperation between the United States and Russia. It is involved in creating and placing a statue of Neil Armstrong in Russia. The United in Space display included a scale model of the statue of Armstrong and announced that ground had been broken in Russia for the placement of a life-size statue. The Russian-American founder of United in Space has already placed a statue of Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly in space, in Houston, Texas.

Project Artemis and International Cooperation

The program was opened by Kesha Rogers, Lyndon LaRouche’s representative in Houston, speaking for the Schiller Institute. She presented a dramatic overview of the Artemis Project, opening with a 3-minute NASA film titled, “We Are Going,” which drew applause and shouts from the entire room. Rogers outlined the Artemis Project with detailed slides drawn from NASA and NASA contractors, including the project’s phased development, emphasizing NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and President Trump’s declarations that international cooperation would be required for Project Artemis to succeed.

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We need cooperation with Russia, Europe, India, Japan and China, and the more so because Trump has committed the United States to use the Moon as a jumping off place to go to Mars, Rogers explained. She made clear that this perspective had been laid out by economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche, inspired by his collaboration with German-American rocket engineer Krafft Ehricke and many other scientists who worked with the Fusion Energy Foundation in the 1970s and 1980s.

A video except from a 2009 speech by LaRouche was shown, in which LaRouche outlined a future Mars mission as a “science driver” project for the United States, which would simultaneously require cooperation with Russia, China, and other nations, and thereby contribute to securing peace on Earth. Rogers then introduced a special guest, the Vice Consul of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Houston, Dr. Viacheslav Levchick, PhD, who received a warm greeting from the audience.

The View From Russia

Vice-Consul Levchick outlined some of his country’s work in space, stressing that he thought that cooperation between Russia and the U.S. had “a solid basis,” based on his visits to Johnson Space Center and the cooperative work on the International Space Station. He talked about some of Russia’s recent contributions, including the “Single Pass” delivery of astronauts to the Moon, which shortens the trip from six hours to two hours, saving astronauts and cosmonauts from exhausting trips as well as saving on costs and equipment. This drew audible agreement from the audience.

He also underscored the important breakthroughs in astronomy that are expected from the Specter RG telescope satellite, launched in July. Russia has its own lunar program, but the Vice-Consul wanted to stress the importance of ongoing cooperation, saying, “In 1998 when the first models of the ISS were launched, it was the U.S. and Russia who did it.”

Now there is a rapidly growing private space sector in many countries. “This is like the dreams of our fathers—or my grandfathers,” the youthful Vice Consul added, drawing chuckles. “It is important that we can talk casually about such huge projects,” he said. All nations are going to the Moon’s South Pole, adding that helium-3, along with ice water, are the major resources being sought. Russia, he reported, plans a manned landing on the Moon by 2030 and a permanent presence by 2040, adding that India and China have similar plans. Vice Consul Levchik’s relaxed and humorous remarks were warmly received by the audience and elicited numerous questions.

The Last Time We Went to the Moon

The next speaker was retired NASA and TRW scientist F. Don Cooper, who began working at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in 1962. Cooper, an Oklahoma native, was soon assigned, as a young physicist and mathematician, to develop the targeting equations for Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI), which guided the Apollo projects to the Moon. Then from Houston, Cooper worked on eight Apollo missions, including Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. He also worked on the Atlas Centaur, the Air Force Dyna-Soar space plane, and the early planned Mars mission NOVA rocket. Cooper gave a very exciting presentation, which took his audience to the Moon, landed on the Moon, and back to Earth with Apollo 11, with a model Saturn V rocket, astronaut voice recordings, graphics, and whiteboard sketches, all making it come alive.

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Since his retirement, Don Cooper has found a new calling—that of encouraging a new generation of students to pursue a future in the physical sciences. He enjoys speaking to youth groups, among others, hoping to inspire the technology leaders of the future with his first-hand account of the events as they actually happened. “Of the seven primary people who did this, I am the last one alive,” said Cooper recently. “Students do not know much about Apollo since it all happened before they were born. My objective is to show them how it happened, emphasize that education is essential, and show how math and physics solve real-world problems.” Cooper makes the point that “Apollo 13 was saved by thousands of nerds.”

Mars and Beyond

Brian Lantz, Schiller Institute spokesperson in Texas, addressed the audience on the need for a science driver perspective to realize the full potential of a Moon-Mars colonization over the next 50 years, as developed by the great visionaries, Krafft Ehricke and Lyndon LaRouche. He made clear that a Moon-Mars program is needed for transforming human civilization. A program to fully colonize the Moon and Mars will require major breakthroughs in science and technology, including a crash program for the development of thermonuclear power and fusion propulsion systems for space travel. The ability to sustain a long-term human presence requires the building of major infrastructure and the building of functional and beautiful cities on the Moon and Mars. This will require construction from the Moon’s regolith.

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Cutting-edge technologies will have to be further developed, including robotic machines for mining and the production and assembly of habitats on the Moon and Mars. More powerful lasers and other electromagnetic plasma beam systems will be required for communications, for additive construction and manufacturing, and the mining of helium-3. Lantz presented LaRouche’s idea, made famous in the 1988 “Woman on Mars” television broadcast, that we require a telescope with the aperture of the Mars orbit, a concept that drew surprised gasps from the audience. As Lyndon LaRouche outlined in 1986, we will build a civilization on Mars, with cities of hundreds of thousands of productive human beings, because that is what will be required.

What will such an investment cost us? A Moon-Mars project, over two or three generations, will cost us nothing, Lantz emphatically stated. The importance of the American System of economics and the re-creation of a credit system and National Bank, as was understood and developed by our nation’s first Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, and used effectively by Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt will be necessary. We know this from the Apollo program, which returned 10 cents back for every penny we spent. How is that possible? The source of wealth is human creativity. We must unleash human creativity and reorganize the financial side of things accordingly. After all, we have done it before.

President John F. Kennedy launched one of the greatest economic recovery and national credit programs the nation has ever seen, through the unleashing of the creativity of the population through the Apollo program. Indeed, a Moon-Mars colonization program—advancing through the long-term success of the Artemis program and the advancement of mankind in the Solar system—will multiply the productivity of our civilization while it uplifts mankind, as every human being’s capacities will be required.


Amidst US/China Tensions, Schiller Institute Holds “Win-Win” Forum on BRI in Los Angeles

In the midst of a flare-up of tensions between the US and China, sparked by the Anglo-American establishment’s fierce commitment to drive a wedge between the two nations, the Schiller Institute held a forum on June 15 in the Los Angeles area to promote the idea of cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The session was opened by a movement from a composition for unaccompanied violin by J.S. Bach, performed by a student from the Los Angeles County High School of the Arts. This was followed by a five minute video of Schiller Institute founder and chairperson Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who greeted the attendees and provided a strategic context for the meeting. She deplored the recent nasty provocations being directed at China by some notorious political factions in the US, and presented a vision of an alternative path, where the US and China lead the world into the future based on the highest cultural and scientific principles, and the most ambitious infrastructure scheme in human history, the BRI.

Zepp-LaRouche was followed by Shi Yuanqiang, deputy consul general for the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles. Shi provided a very thorough explication of the goals and structure of the BRI, stressing that there is extensive consultation between China and the other nations participating in the project, that all parties participate as equals and share in the benefits. He provided examples of the projects that are being built with Chinese collaboration in Africa and Central Asia, and elaborated on President Xi Jinping’s vision of a “Community of Common Destiny”, a mutually beneficial, “Win-Win” relationship among nations. Shi emphasized that there was a place at the table for the United States.

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Following Shi’s presentation, there were remarks by Richard Chen, a board member of the US-China Forum who had acted as an interpreter for Chairman Deng Xiaoping during his historic visit to the US in 1979. Chen said that the two great accomplishments of the US after the end of World War II were the establishment of the United Nations, and the Marshall Plan. He compared China’s current role with respect to the developing nations, to the Marshall Plan.

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The concluding presentation was by Schiller Institute representative Daniel Platt. He opened with an image that juxtaposed two historic paintings, showing Americans and Chinese fighting their respective battles against British colonialism during the American Revolution and the Opium Wars. Platt asserted that the methodology of the Empire, typified by the “Zero-Sum Game” approach of geopolitics, is an “article of faith” for today’s neoconservative movement. To this he contrasted President Xi’s concept of “Win-Win”, or Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s vision of humanity entering adulthood. He discussed the historical parallels between the US and China with Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s embrace of the economic conceptions of Abraham Lincoln, and their shared approach to infrastructure development. He then reviewed the history of the proposals made by Lyndon LaRouche in the years following the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, culminating in the World Landbridge.

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Among the eminent personalities who took part in the forum were the consul generals of Kenya and Belgium, as well as consular officials from Armenia and Malaysia, and a large delegation from the PRC consulate.


Schiller Institute’s Sébastien Périmony Goes to Ivory Coast & Angola

by Sébastien Périmony, @SebPerimony  

Saturday, June 15, 2019, a conference on the New Silk Road was held at the headquarters of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Foundation for Peace Research in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast.

This conference, organized by the Association pour la Sauvegarde et la Promotion de la Pensée d’El Adj-Boubacar Gamby Sakho (ASPP-BGS) in partnership with the Foundation Félix Houphouët-Boigny for Peace Research, brought together about 400 young students, mainly from the Institut National Polytechnique Houphouët-Boigny de Yamoussoukro.

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The objectives were as follows:

  • Improve China’s knowledge and visibility in Ivory Coast
  • Present the example of Chinese development, with particular emphasis on the crucial role played by the Silk Road
  • Lay the foundations for the bilateral partnership between Ivory Coast and China, between Chinese and Ivoirian industrialists, researchers, etc.
  • Highlight the impact of culture on the harmonious development of Ivory Coast
  • Make Yamoussokro the scientific capital of West Africa in infrastructure, medicine, information technology and telecommunications (5G, Big data, artificial intelligence), robotics, space education.
  • Make Yamoussokro a “smart-city”
  • Develop from Yamoussokro special economic zones and industrial parks such as Ethiopia or Kenya.

The Master of Ceremonies, Dr. Joseph Kobi, introduced the conference with two quotes from President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who urged the integration of culture into the dynamics of development.

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Two conferences were given on the following themes: “Presentation of the New Silk Road: Opportunities for Africa, the Case of Ivory Coast” and “Africa and the New Silk Road: Cultural and Strategic Approach.” Their moderator was Professor Bamba, a professor and researcher in history at the Félix Houphouët-Boigny University in Cocody, Ivory Coast.

The first lecture was given by Mr. Sébastien Périmony of the Schiller Institute. The speaker first presented the purpose of the New Silk Road project, which is to put an end to centuries of conflict, war and colonialism and instead, move towards “a world of mutual development and dialogue of cultures.”

He described the history of the idea of connecting the world through major infrastructure projects, dating at least back to the 1890s, with the proposal to connect the American transcontinental railway to the railway network in Europe.

Périmony then described the 1975 proposal of American economist Lyndon LaRouche (late husband of Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche)  which was the creation of an International Development Bank that would be entirely dedicated to industrial and infrastructure development. In 1980, LaRouche proposed a comprehensive plan for the industrialization of the African continent.

Building on the economic concepts developed by Mr. LaRouche, the speaker outlined three economic principles: the potential for relative population density, leapfrog, and energy-flux density.

Turning to the issue of New Silk Road, Périmony said that this project began to take shape following the announcement in September 2013 by President Xi Jinping in Kazakhstan launching the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, project based on the idea of a “community of shared future of humanity.”

With regard to the particular case of Africa, the moderator clarified the African Union’s desire to link, by 2063, all African capitals with a view to cooperation with the rest of the world. As such, several projects have been detailed :

  • Transaqua, which consists in revitalizing Lake Chad
  • The trans-Sahelian, a railway project that will go from Mauritania to Chad via Mali and Niger
  • The Lumumba 2050 project aimed at modernizing the Democratic Republic of Congo with 9,500 km of high-speed rail and the development of the Congo River
  • The Great Inga Dam in the D.R.C. and the interconnection of the African Great Lakes in east
  • The Great Green Wall, a project to reforest 12 African countries to stop the spread of the Sahara
  • The development of the Lac Figuibine system in Mali: an irrigation project aimed at the establishment of a modern agriculture
  • Rail modernization in Nigeria: two lines of about 1400 km each are in progress. This could contribute to the reduction of terrorism.

With particular reference to Ivory Coast, emphasis was given to the construction of the railway loop in West Africa, known as Africarail. A project that would be an important first step in the industrialization of the country. This railway loop, which would start in Abidjan, would pass through Yamoussoukro, then on to Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Togo, would strengthen Yamoussoukro’s central position as the scientific capital of West Africa. It should be recalled that the Institut National Polytechnique, which is unique in the region, already welcomes some students from other neighboring countries.  This rail loop will be the central part of the broader trans-Sahelian project and would therefore place Côte d’Ivoire as an inevitable center in the development of the sub-region.

The second lecture was delivered by Mr. Pierre Fayard, Professor Emeritus at the University of Poitiers. The speaker developed the theme “Africa and the New Silk Road: A Cultural and Strategic Approach” around culture, the economy and the strategy of conquest.

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A question and answer session provided an opportunity to gather participants’ concerns which included questions about the debt repayment generated by the New Silk Road; the concern of moving to a neo-colonialism; the participation of African States in the determination of infrastructure construction projects; the means for Africa to achieve Chinese cultural integration; the accession of all African countries to the Silk Road project; the issue of equity and equality in Sino-African cooperation.

The response to presentations revealed that this project will not be launched in Africa without the support of Africans. It will be a win-win cooperation.


Then, from June 18-20 2019, Périmony traveled to Angola for the ANGOTIC  — Angola ICT Forum 2019 — a global event dedicated to information and communication technologies (ICT) for knowledge sharing. The event is a networking hub for government entities, industry players and new mobile service providers that brought together more than 8,000 participants and 150 speakers over three days, from various sectors, public and private, actors from across the ICT ecosystem in the country and abroad.

This information and communication technology exhibition “Angotic 2019,” targets all technological tools that aim to provide solutions to problems related to health, education, agriculture, fishing, etc. National and international speakers addressed various topics related to the digital economy and what some call  “the fourth industrial revolution.”

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Sébastien Périmony, representing the Schiller Institute, was able to speak on the theme “Education in the Digital Era.”

Before more than a 100 people, including the Secretary of State for Technical  Education, managers of an Angolan telecom company Unitel S.A., and IBM, as well as a professor of law at Agostinho Neto University, Périmony presented the Schiller Institute’s dossier on the New Silk Road and its impact in Africa, requiring a revolution in education on the continent to mobilize young people around the major infrastructure, science and technology projects on the horizon.  (see the full speech below)

“We believe that over the next three years, the projects will help to connect all parts of the country, especially as we evolve and provide more and more ICT services to the population” said José Carvalho da Rocha, Telecommunications and Information Technology, at a round table attended by Rwanda’s Minister of Information and Communication Technologies and Innovation Paula Ingabire, former Prime Minister of Cape Verde José Maria Pereira Neves,  and former Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe.

The Angolan minister stressed the commitment to the implementation of structural projects such as the deployment of a 22,000 km fiber optic network.

Paula Ingabire offered Angola a partnership in these areas, announcing the signing, during the event, of a memorandum of understanding that will allow the governments and companies of both countries to transfer their knowledge and technologies.

Angola does not cover 50% to 60% of what it could develop in the field of telecommunications, so the potential for investment in the sector is very high. Introducing the forum, Angolan Vice President Bornito de Soussa Baltazar Diogo stressed the government’s focus on the digital transformation sector, but argued that the executive must first examine all sectors of activity, from submarine cables to optical fiber and satellites. About 65% of African communities are located in rural areas and most often have no access to digital services.

Historic day for Angola

The very first satellite produced in Angola was launched in Cabo Ledo on Wednesday, June 19, 2019,  on the occasion of Angotic 2019. Called “CanSat,” the mini-satellite is the result of collaboration between the National Space Program Management Office (GGPEN), the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology (MTTI), the Department of Space Science and Applied Research (DCEPA), and several Angolan students.

The conference participants were able to watch the launch live, remotely from the conference in Luanda, which was broadcast from a helicopter at an altitude of 500 meters, and waited with apprehension to see if the results were captured from the ground by the students who set up the project. The emotion reached its peak when the first results arrived on the students’ computers and the room exploded with joy and endless applause erupted to celebrate this historic day in Angola. Long journeys always start with a first step.

The excitement was palpable at the various stands dedicated to Angolan space policy, and the mini-satellite was present on the Angosat stand (the Angolan satellite program).

Agreement with France

According to the newspaper Jornal de Angola, a technical and scientific cooperation protocol, valued at $1.2 million, was signed in Luanda by the Agostinho Neto Universities (UAN) and the Belfort Montbéliard University of Technology (UTBM) in France. The agreement provides for a disbursement of $600,000 by each party, mainly to facilitate the two-way mobility of teachers and students from both countries, as part of an exchange of experiences inherent in the industrial systems engineering course. Pedro Magalhães, Dean of Agostinho Neto University, and Ghislain Montavon, Dean of the Belfort Montbéliard University of Technology, signed the agreements. The meeting coincided with the Angotic 2019 in Luanda, where key issues in the sector were discussed.

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On June 20, Périmony was met with the president of the Agostinho Neto foundation, the widow of the first President of Angola Agostinho Neto, and his daughter Irene Alexandra Neto, who is deputy in Angola and presented the Schiller Institute report on the New Silk Road.


SPEECH DELIVERED AT ANGOTIC 2019 THE FORUM BY SÉBASTIEN PÉRIMONY to present the “African space” part of the Schiller Institute’s report on the New Silk Road

Mr. Secretary of state,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great honor to be invited to attend the conference held in such a beautiful country. I am responsible for African issues at the Schiller Institute and I am very honored to speak here on behalf of its president, Mrs. Helga Zepp-LaRouche. I will start by quoting a statement she recently made in the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper, just before her intervention at the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations forum in Beijing last month [May 15, 2019].

“I think we are probably the generation on whom later generations will look back to, and say, ‘Oh! This was really a fascinating time, because it was a change from an epoch to another one.’  And I have an image of that, which is, this change that we are experiencing right now, is probably going to be bigger than the change in Europe between the Middle Ages and modern times.  Now, I think we are before, or the middle of such an epochal change, where the next era of mankind will be much, much more creative than the present one, and that’s something to look forward to, because we can actually shape it, and we can bring our own creative input into it.  And there are not many periods in history when that is the case:  So we are actually lucky.”

I’ve been invited to present the report that we have just published, “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge: A Shared Future for Humanity.” A 500-hundred pages report which has been produced by our organization and which was already translated into Chinese, Arabic, and recently in French too. This report presents the new paradigm initiated by President Xi Jinping in 2013 with the launching of the “One Belt, One Road initiative” that integrates (includes plutôt) major development projects from around the world. An important part of this report is devoted to the future of Africa. Because the New Silk Road is also aimed at helping Africa do what the Chinese managed to achieve, which is already considered as an economic miracle, that is, pulling 700 million people out of poverty.

So as I said, an important part of this report is devoted to the development of Africa. With a top-down approach, which consists in laying the basis for the breakthroughs in science and the creation of new technologies that define the future of mankind.

Ironically, the deficit of basic infrastructure in Africa, as it was in China, is an advantage, in that it allows nations to skip the intermediate stages of development that occurred over centuries in the industrialized countries, to leapfrog directly into the technologies that are at the frontier. This is the approach that has been taken by China, deploying high-speed rail and magnetically levitated trains, and fourth-generation nuclear fission technology. Similarly, China’s space program is not simply repeating what other nations have done, but is carrying out challenging missions that have never been attempted before.

The great projects underway, and the drive to lift the remaining millions in China and Africa out of poverty, will depend upon the use of space technology. Satellite communications will connect rural populations to their neighbors, their governments, and to the rest of the world, and provide capabilities for distance learning and telemedicine. Data mapping of geographic and geologic features will inform the location (je comprends pas, s’il s’agit de permettre d’identifier le lieu idéal pour la mise en place de nouveaux projets, je dirais : will permit to choose ideal locations for new projects and transport routes) of new projects and transport routes, and to detect new water and mineral resources.

In the future Earth remote sensing will monitor agricultural crops for drought and disease, provide disaster warnings, and locate ocean resources. Technology has recently been developed, using GPS satellites, in order to monitor the most minute movement of large structures, such as bridges and dams.

But even more important than the practical benefits of space exploration is the drive for knowledge that is humanity’s sole responsibility. The greatest contribution space programs will make in Africa, will be to develop the talent and creativity of a new generation of scientists, who will make new discoveries far into the future. This is why education is the priority.

Unfortunately, and it is the subject of the day: today the level of education in Africa is still too low.  The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) which tracks literacy publishes statistics to show that the literacy rate for Sub-Saharan Africa was 65% in 2017. In other words, one-third of the people ages 15 and above were unable to read and write.

And if Africa in general, or any country in particular, wants to succeed in its industrialization process, and in “Making the Future,” it will have to be implemented through a very efficient education program.

You know that before the French Revolution, 50% of men and 70% of women were not able to read or write!

But In 1801, Jean-Antoine Chaptal, the father of public education in France stated in 1801: “To not make public education free for all is to strike the people in their very body, to cause the nation to become demoralized. Therefore, it is a necessity to ensure education and to make it general and available to all. The government must create public schools everywhere.”

He was a collaborator of Lazare Carnot and Gaspard Monge who found the Ecole Polytechnique, which has since been one of the best schools in the world, and generated major breakthroughs in science and technology. At the same time l’Abbé Grégoire has found the CNAM, the national conservatory of arts and trades in 1794 in order to “perfect national industry.”  And I think those could can be models for Africa’s education strategy.

That said where should we start first? So the first thing to do is:  One village, One school in all the countries in Africa!

And at the same time, building universities for science and technology as it is currently done in China, as I said in my introduction: high-speed rail,  fourth-generation nuclear fission technology and fusion, modern agriculture, space industry and so on and so forth.

So a double dynamics, one village, one school and then universities providing the highest education possible in science and technology and art.

I’m optimistic, in 2017, science and education ministers representing the nations of the Africa Union adopted the first “African Space Policy: Towards Social, Political and Economic Integration.” It describes the benefits of space technology as “crucial to the economical development of the continent”

We need to prepare the youth to meet this challenge.

Dr. Lee-Anne McKinnell, currently the Managing Director responsible for the Space Science Program of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), explained that through her program, students from throughout Africa are being trained, with exchange visit among student from Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia.

On Feb. 11th this year, Angola’s Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology José Carvalho da Rocha said that Angosat-2, under construction in France, will be operational in 2021. And built by our French aerospatial company Airbus.  I noticed that recently ANGOSAT EDUCA was launched here as an educational-purpose application, an initiative of the Office of Management of the National Space Program (GGPEN), in the field of space education, which aims to disseminate basic concepts on space and gather information about the ANGOSAT project, which is framed in the National Space Program.

So to conclude: The announcement of the One Belt, One Road initiative has defined a new paradigm in the world.  It is not a hypothetical or academic speculation, it is a reality taking hold in the world now.

There is a profound reason for optimism for the African continent, because with the rise of China, and especially the New Paradigm which emerged with the Belt and Road Initiative, the world has been changing, especially in the last five years at an incredible speed. What China has done with the New Silk Road is to develop a new model of relations among nations, and it is an initiative which is open to all nations of the world.

This report presents in detail an integrated, continental transport plan, a trans-African transport network, but also inter-regional project for water, the Transaqua project, to fight desertification with the great green wall, the development of the Republic Democratic of Congo and its neighbors, and many others projects.

So now it is high time to see Africa with the eyes of the future.

Thank you very much

 


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