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Schiller Institute Internet Dialogue — ‘Need Creative Genius of the World to Bear on Haiti and Afghanistan’

September 26, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Agriculture, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Healthcare, Healthcare, Power & Energy, Space updates, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, World Land-Bridge updates

Sept. 25 (EIRNS)—Today the Schiller Institute held an international webinar titled, “Reconstructing Haiti—America’s Way Out of the ‘Global Britain’ Trap.” The two-and-a-half-hour discussion featured elements of a proposed development outline for Haiti, as well as immediate emergency action required, and brought together experts, with ties to Haiti, in engineering, medicine and development policy. Today’s deliberations stand in stark contrast to the events of the week, which included the U.S. forced deportation of thousands of displaced Haitians from the Texas-Mexico border, back to Haiti, to disaster conditions from the August earthquake and before.  

The six panelists were Richard Freeman, co-author of “The Schiller Institute Plan To Develop Haiti,” which EIR will publish this week for its Oct. 1 issue; Eric Walcott, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Institute of Caribbean Studies; Firmin Backer, co-founder and President of the Haiti Renewal Alliance; Joel DeJean, engineer and Texas activist with The LaRouche Organization; Dr. Walter Faggett, MD, based in Washington, D.C., where he is former Chief Medical Officer of the District of Columbia, and currently Co-Chairman of the Health Council of D.C.’s Ward 8, and an international leader with the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites; and moderator Dennis Speed of the Schiller Institute. 

Freeman presented both the dimensions of both the extreme underdevelopment forced for decades on Haiti, and also the essentials of a development program for that nation, in the context of development of all the Island of Hispaniola, and the Caribbean. He presented a map of proposed rail, nuclear power sites, safe water systems and other vital infrastructure. He showed maps of proposals that Chinese firms had made in recent years, but which fell into abeyance.

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

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

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

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

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

Two Former US Surgeons-General Respond to Helga Zepp-LaRouche Afghanistan Initiative

September 22, 2021by madeleine in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Afghanistan, COVID-19, General, Healthcare, Our initiatives (petitions, etc), The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites

Two former Surgeon Generals of the United States responded to Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s initiative on Afghanistan.

Dr. David Satcher, who served as surgeon general from 1998 to 2002, had the following to say:

“Dr. William Foege, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1977-1983), in his book, House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox, about the successful effort to eradicate smallpox disease, describes how relationships were prioritized, including assuring that credit for successful interventions was appropriately shared. On the other hand, when we came close to eradicating polio in the last decade of the 20th Century, it was the fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan which prevented our success in eliminating polio in those countries, and thus eradicating it in the world. In other words, we were not willing to allow the immunization of children in Pakistan and Afghanistan to take priority over the killing of people and the winning of the war. But, in fact, nobody won the war in Afghanistan, and we failed to eradicate polio.

“Ultimately, we will eradicate polio, but unfortunately it will be after many lives have been lost and trillions of dollars have been spent.

“We can do better! We can invest in lives rather than deaths! We can bring new thinking into our relationships. We can care about each other and value lives beyond our own and beyond our own culture. We can work to make science work for us and for future generations.

“I am impressed with the idea and the statement. We’re talking about a whole new definition of winning and what it means to win, especially winning together, and supporting the healthy development of children as a priority. What is needed is a new paradigm, relative to what we value and what we are willing to do to bring it about.”

Dr. Joycelyn Elders, who served as surgeon general from 1993 to 1994, responded:

“I agree with Dr. David Satcher’s response to Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s statement regarding the needed approach to the dire health and humanitarian crisis facing Afghanistan and many other nations around the world. When we speak about the need for basic necessities for life, such as healthcare, food and water, that is the same for people everywhere, regardless of where you are or what type of government you have.

“The COVID pandemic is exasperating the crises in previously food and health-deprived countries. It is clear that the only way this will be defeated is with a modern healthcare system, in every nation. The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites has emphasized the need for comprehensive, not piecemeal solutions. Infrastructure, food, energy, and clean water are crucial, combined with modern hospitals and trained personnel. I have long championed the training and deployment of community health care workers, especially recruited from among the young, to augment the resources of trained medical personnel. These workers would now be invaluable in assisting in this effort. Also, here is where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC), a branch of the uniformed services of the U.S. which does not bear arms, and which I and my colleague Dr. Satcher directed, could play an important role.

“Now is the time for us to end confrontation and engage in cooperation to address the basic needs of humanity.”

_____________________________________________________________________________

For more on The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites — founded by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, and Dr. Jocelyn Elders — and the need for a world health platform – see the Founding Statement:

Statement to Form The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites (Coincidentia Oppositorum)

See the most recent statement by Helga Zepp-LaRouche on the need for food and public health in Afghanistan, and a policy of Peace through Development:

Can ‘The West’ Learn? What Afghanistan Needs Now!

Global Health Security Requires Medical Infrastructure in Every Country:

Global Health Security Requires Medical Infrastructure in Every Country—Major Industrial Nations Must Collaborate Now!

Afghanistan’s Drought and Water Crisis Worsening; 2,000 Health Facilities Close

October 27, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Afghanistan, Agriculture, COVID-19, Economic development updates, Finance, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, Our initiatives (petitions, etc), Power & Energy

Afghanistan’s Drought and Water Crisis Are Worsening; 2,000 Health Facilities Close –

Oct. 25, 2021 (EIRNS)–Afghanistan’s collapse in physical economic and agricultural production, the implosion of its health system, as well as the threat to human life, has gotten worse over the last two months. The nationwide drought is intensifying, while the West applies a tourniquet to the flow of necessary funds.

Physical economic conditions never stay in a “metastable state;” they either get better or worse.

In June of this year, then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani officially declared a drought in Afghanistan. This was based on information from several agencies, including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which declared that “80% of Afghanistan is exposed to serious drought”—30% to “severe drought,” and 50% to “serious drought,” comprising 80%—and the remaining 20% part of the country was exposed to “moderate drought.”

Richard Trenchard, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization director for Afghanistan, stated in late September, “This is the worst drought in 35–36 years. Many public institutions which provide a safety net, have ceased to function. Farmers have very little to fall back upon.”

Farming is being destroyed. The UN reported August 25, “Some 40 percent of [Afghanistan’s] crops have been lost to drought in the second massive water shortage in three years—further heightening food insecurity.” The World Food Program already reported that 14 million people in Afghanistan are food insecure, a number that is doubtless rising.

But the shortage of water is affecting not only agriculture, but the whole economy and society, which depends on water. A 2008 report reported “that drinking water supplies reach only 23 percent of Afghanistan’s total population… The country’s total sanitation coverage [is] only 12 percent.”

Two critical infrastructural sectors expose some of the crisis.

Afghanistan has only a combined approximately 100 private and public hospitals for a nation of 40 million people, a meager amount. The nation’s health system is run through a network of 2,200 “health facilities,” about 200 of which appear to be primary health clinics; it is not clear how large the other facilities are. These 2,200 facilities are run through an institution called Sehatmandi which is administered by the World Bank through the Afghanistan Reconstruction Fund and the Afghan Ministry of Public Health. It is funded through the World Bank, the European Union, Canada and Global Financing Facilities.

When the Taliban came to power in the period of August 17–18, these funding institutions cut off money. On September 30, Alexander Matheou, the Asia Pacific director of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies stated that “over 2,000 health facilities have closed.” He added that more than 20,000 health workers in the country were no longer working or were working without being paid; more than 7,000 of them are women. “People might agree to work without salaries for a few more weeks,” Matheou stated. “But once medicines run out totally, if you can’t switch on the lights, if you’ve got nothing to offer somebody who comes to your clinic, then they’ll shut the doors.”

Under intense pressure, on September 20, the Global Fund and the United Nations Development Fund signed an agreement to supply $15 million to the 2,200 health facilities. This is a drop in the bucket.

International donors pledged in October $1.2 billion to Afghanistan. But there are three roadblocks: 1) it is not clear how much of the pledged money will be really delivered; 2) it takes sometimes months for the money to get into the system; and 3) above all, the clinics are greatly inadequate, Afghanistan needs hundreds of new advanced hospitals, tens of thousands of skilled doctors and nurses, and so forth.

In the meantime, COVID is looming. Nine of Afghanistan’s 37 COVID hospitals have closed. Afghanistan has put a reported only 2.2 million COVID jabs into people; it has 1.2 million doses of vaccine waiting to be distributed, that haven’t been. They will expire by the end of the year.

This is pure and simple genocide.

As for water, Afghanistan has an annual surface water runoff water volume of 57,000 million cubic meters per year, which comes out to approximately 1,425 cubic meters/year per capita. This is insufficient, but would be a start. However, Afghanistan does not have an adequate water basin catchment system, and precipitation is not evenly distributed geographically.

In 2016, India spent $275 million to complete what is now called the “Afghan-India Friendship Dam” in Herat province on the Hari River. It will irrigate 75,000 hectares of land. But otherwise, new dam construction and broader water management hardly exists.

The U.S. is blocking more than $9 billion in Afghanistan’s central bank that belong to the Afghan people. The World Bank, IMF, and EU are blocking hundreds of millions more. (See the Schiller Institute’s demand for release of the Afghans’ funds at this link.)

These more than $10 billion, were they deposited in a fund under sovereign Afghan control, could be used to build hospitals, administer the COVID-19 vaccine; begin emergency food and water distribution; make down payments on dams and water management projects; build power stations, etc. Immediate building in Afghanistan must start.

Syria Times Covers Helga’s Webcast and Appeal

April 16, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Color Revolutions, General, Geopolitics updates, Helga media coverage or interview, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Media coverage of our activity, Our initiatives (petitions, etc), World war danger updates

Syria Times Covers Helga’s Webcast and Appeal

April 15, 2021 (EIRNS)–The English-language official Syria Times daily today published a detailed news item on Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s call during the weekly webcast. The video is also posted on the Syrian Times page.

The-moral-collapse-of-the-western-system-cries-out-for-a-new-paradigm The article is accompanied by two pictures, one of Helga and the other of Cardinal Zenari. The full text follows:

          “In her weekly dialogue, Helga Zepp-LaRouche made an impassioned appeal to viewers to join with her in addressing the dangerous moral collapse which characterizes virtually every western government, including the United States. This collapse poses a threat to everyone, as the crisis in Ukraine continues to build toward a war between Russia and the forces of the U.S. and NATO. The possibility of a Biden-Putin summit is a positive development, but at the same time it was announced, his foreign policy team was voicing full support for the fanatical extremist wing of domestic forces in Ukraine, which is pushing to cross the “red line” announced years ago by Moscow, that of placing NATO troops on the Russian border of Ukraine.

          “She also emphasized the urgency of lifting the so-called Caesar Sanctions against the people of Syria, citing the appeal of Cardinal Zenari to end the sanctions. There is nothing “humanitarian”, she stated, in starving children and shutting down hospitals and medical care, based on another fraudulent narrative cooked up by U.K.-U.S. regime-change networks. We must insist that every policy maker who does not speak up against this fraud is complicit in every death which occurs in Syria, and in Yemen.”

Schiller Institute Leaders Zepp-LaRouche and Askary Join Pakistan-Based Online Forum for Afghanistan Development

September 20, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Afghanistan, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Helga media coverage or interview, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Media coverage of our activity, Pakistan, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites

Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—The Asian Institute of Eco-Civilization Research and Development, a Pakistan-based think tank, held an online seminar today to launch its “Kandahar Dialogue.” The event, titled “Afghanistan in Search of Peace and Prosperity,” brought together some half-dozen speakers, including Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute; Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council; and Hussein Askary, Southwest Asia Coordinator for the Schiller Institute. It was moderated by Pakistani political economist Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, who had addressed the Schiller Institute’s international conference on “World at a Crossroad: Two Months into the New U.S. Administration,” on March 20-21. His March 21 remarks were on “CPEC, Connectivity, and Future Prospects.”

Afghanistan’s neighbors, Pakistan emphatically included, are eager to create conditions for stability, development, and predictability, to create a welcoming environment for long-term development. EIR magazine will make further reports available in the near future.

Zepp-LaRouche: Urgent Call to Stop the Genocide in Syria and Yemen; the Moral Collapse of the West Cries Out for a New Paradigm

April 15, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Color Revolutions, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Our initiatives (petitions, etc), World war danger updates

PDF available

April 15 — The Schiller Institute is circulating an urgent response from its founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche to Apostolic Nuncio to Syria Cardinal Mario Zenari, who has alerted the world to the acute humanitarian emergency that has been deliberately imposed upon Syria, in the aftermath of nine years of war, through murderous “sanctions” measures imposed by the U.S. State Department and irresponsibly supported by a number of other governments, most emphatically the British. Action to end the so-called “Caesar Sanctions” imposed upon Syria will not only help halt the mass starvation and poverty now engulfing that nation, but will also benefit the rest of humanity. It is time to pursue, as the Cardinal states, a pathway of Peace through Development, and to reject outright the moral indifference which increasingly threatens to unleash this scale of calamity throughout the planet.

In her weekly Schiller Institute webcast discussion on April 14, Zepp-LaRouche demanded that the world come to the aid of the Syrian people. As Cardinal Zenari has stated, more than 90% of Syrians are below the level of extreme poverty, and many are in danger of losing their lives due to famine. The last decade of war, the unjust sanctions, and the COVID-19 pandemic have created an absolutely intolerable condition of suffering for the Syrian people.

Similar horrors confront Yemen, where the agonizing reality of hunger is conveyed in the powerful documentary, “Hunger Ward,” referred to by the head of the World Food Program, David Beasley, who saw children dying before his very eyes in the hospital, and he was unable to help.

There is nothing “humanitarian” Zepp-LaRouche stated, in starving children and shutting down hospitals and medical care, based on fraudulent narratives cooked up by British and American regime-change advocates, in and out of government. “This must stop and the Caesar Sanctions must be lifted. And all the members of the U.S. Congress who do not lift these sanctions make themselves complicit in every death that occurs in the region.”

Zepp-LaRouche continued: “This has reached the point where either the world wakes up and we start to remedy this, or we will not survive, because of our own moral failure as a human species. I call on you: Work with the Schiller Institute. Work with its Committee on the Coincidence of Opposites, which is working to get aid programs and reconstruction. I appeal to you: Get in contact with the Schiller Institute and respond to the call by Cardinal Zenari.”

This appeal is distributed in Portuguese, Arabic, German, Danish, Italian and Spanish, among others.

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

Cardinal Zenari: “Time is running out,” to end the sanctions against Syria

“The Truth About the Syrian Crisis,” State Senator (former) Richard H. Black

Civilization Itself Is at Stake: Will We Rise to the Challenge?

April 15, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Helga statement, article, transcript, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Our initiatives (petitions, etc), Russia, United States, World war danger updates

Civilization Itself Is at Stake: Will We Rise to the Challenge?

Escalating tensions with Russia, driven by Ukrainian’s suicidal push for NATO membership, U.S. encouragement, and the U.S. military itself, threatens — despite President Biden’s reaching out to President Putin for an in-person summit — to explode into war, nuclear war. A provocative visit of former U.S. government officials to Taiwan adds more fuel to the fire of China’s cross-strait relations. Economic lending into the real economy by U.S. banks withers, even as they are showered with money. Inflation accelerates, and a blowout of the trans-Atlantic financial system is inevitable. Death by starvation stalks the impoverished inhabitants of war-zones Syria and Yemen.

Will these crises culminate in what would become nuclear conflict, a devastation of the human race, or will a new paradigm overthrow the oligarchical structures that drive conflict? What flanks can you create to achieve that happier outcome?

In her weekly Schiller Institute webcast discussion, Helga Zepp-LaRouche responded to the urgent call to the world by Cardinal Mario Zenari in Syria for the world to come to the aid of the Syrian people. More than 90% of Syrians are below the level of extreme poverty, and many are in danger of losing their lives due to famine. (Zenari’s Time is Running Out.) The last decade of war, the unjust sanctions, and the Covid pandemic have created an absolutely intolerable condition of suffering for the Syrian people.

Similar horrors confront Yemen, where the agonizing reality of hunger is conveyed in the powerful documentary {Hunger Ward}, referred to by the head of the World Food Program, David Beasley, who saw children dying before his very eyes in the hospital, and he was unable to help.

In both Syria and Yemen, the results of supposedly “humanitarian interventionist” wars — and there is nothing humanitarian about them! — conducted under the guise of defending the people from murderous governments, are genocidal. Was U.S. military intervention in Syria driven by Assad’s chemical weapon murder of the people there? No, that was not the reason, and the claims about the attacks were not true. As Col. (ret.) Richard Black (USA) has explained, the plan for regime change in Syria was developed ten years before the 2011 destabilization, as part of a policy of regime change in the entire region, comprising Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Libya.

The narrative about the causes of the war is completely wrong.

But even leaving that aside, start from the current humanitarian situation: “When you have a people about to die, and the world does absolutely nothing, that means the people watching that are {morally unfit to survive.} And I’m crying out to you to help us make a mobilization to get rid of the “Caesar” sanctions and to have the immediate reconstruction of Syria.”

In contrast, the so-called donors’ conference in Brussels raised a few billion dollars, but it was an absolute charade. The funds will {not} go to the Syrian government, but rather to neighboring countries that have taken in refugees, to NGOs, and to opposition groups. But, as Cardinal Zenari says, without a {reconstruction}, there will be no end to the misery. Peace through development is the only way out of the crisis.

And we know how to do this! The Schiller Institute has worked for half a century on plans for the development of Southwest Asia, dating back to Lyndon LaRouche’s 1975 “Oasis Plan” proposal. Since then, the LaRouche movement has developed a plan for Syria (“Project Phoenix“), a plan for Yemen (“Operation Felix“), all in the context of bringing Southwest Asia into a development paradigm of the New Silk Road / Belt and Road Initiative.

Against this potential stands the Caesar sanctions, based on a lie. Photographs supposedly showing victims of torture carried out by the Assad government were used as evidence to push through these brutal sanctions policy. But these photographs were mainly of Syrian soldiers killed by al-Qaeda-linked groups! This is not the first time such fabrications have been presented. Saddam Hussein’s forces were accused of ripping babies out of incubators in Kuwait. This was used to start the 1989 Iraq War. Then we had the “yellow cake” and other supposed evidence of Saddam Hussein’s program to create weapons of mass destruction — again, all lies. Then we had the lies from the White Helmets about the supposed use by Assad of chemical weapons.

Zepp-LaRouche demanded: “This must stop and the Caesar sanctions must be lifted. And all the members of Congress who do not lift these sanctions make themselves complicit in every death that occurs in the region…

“This has reached the point where either the world wakes up and we start to remedy this, or we will not survive, because of our own moral failure as a human species.

“I call on you: work with the Schiller Institute. Work with its Committee on the Coincidence of Opposites, which is working to get aid programs and reconstruction.

“I appeal to you: get in contact with the Schiller Institute and respond to the call by Cardinal Zenari, which has not been covered much at all by the Western press, which alone should show the one-sidedness of the media, which we must overcome.”

Will you answer the call? Become a member of the Schiller Institute and work to make its vision a reality.

Happy 93rd Birthday Fred Wills! Sept. 18

September 17, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Cultural renaissance updates, General, General updates, Our cultural events, Our initiatives (petitions, etc)

Happy 93rd Birthday Fred Wills! —

The collaboration between Fred Wills (former foreign minister of Guyana) to realize a New World Economic System, Helga and Lyndon LaRouche is commemorated in the Schiller Institute’s hosting of the webpage: Shakespeare in Exile,  inaugurated on Lyn’s 99th birthday earlier this month. The webpage hosts Wills’ series of lectures on Shakespeare’s drama with LaRouche’s ICLC cadre.

The Wills lectures highlight, “[T]he common error among most of those who consider themselves historians of one variety or another, is that lacking a well-developed sense of the distinctive nature of the human species, they turn from the subject of man as a species, to appeal like a pimp to  those passions of sense-certainty which inform and excite the temptations of the  credulous. These shortcomers never touch directly that sublime subject which is the  history of man.*”   — Cloret & Bill Ferguson

Some topics you will encounter include: Schiller; Synarchism II; History; and Love of Mankind. Recommended reading is Lyndon LaRouche’s Nov. 30, 2003 piece, The Role of the Sublime In World Politics Today.

Schiller Institute-Russian Federation 9/11 Memorial Receives Wide Coverage in Russia

September 17, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, General updates, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Media coverage of our activity, Our cultural events, Russia, United States

Sep. 15 (EIRNS)–On Sunday, September 12, The Schiller Institute, with the support of the Russian Embassy in the United States and the Consulate General of Russia in New York, organized a Memorial Ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the mass terrorist attack on the US. To honor those who perished and in support of their families and survivors, an event was held that day at the monument in Bayonne, N.J. known as the “Tear of Sorrow,” and more formally, by its title: “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism.” This sculpture was designed by Zurab Tsereteli, the president of the Russian Academy of Arts, and erected in Bayonne by a team of Russian artisans in 2005.

The Memorial Ceremony was addressed by Terry Strada, chairwoman of Families and Survivors United in the Struggle Against Terrorism, and by many American and Russian government officials, and Police and Fire first responders. There was widespread press coverage in Russia. Media covering the event included: TASS, RIA/Novosti, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Regnum.ru, Yandex.ru, NTV, Russkiymir.ru, and Expert.ru.

The article in Komsomolskaya Pravda begins:

“To see the Russian and American flags flying together has been an almost impossible task in recent years. Nevertheless, Moscow and Washington have common interests, common values, and common memory. Not only in our countries, but throughout the civilized world, they remember the mournful date – the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the United States.”

A rough translation follows of the article by the TASS Washington Bureau correspondent is as follows:

Participants of the 9/11 Event Called on Russia and the United States to Fight Terrorism Together

Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche says: It’s Time to Put an End to the Era of Geopolitics, an Era of Not Achieving Common Goals

BAYONNE / NJ /, September 13. / TASS /. On Sunday, Russian and American participants in the ceremony at the Tear of Sorrow memorial by Zurab Tsereteli honored the memory of those killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and stressed the importance of jointly combating common threats. The event, organized by the Russian Embassy in Washington, the Consulate General in New York and with the participation of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN, began with the performance of the anthems of the two countries, the solemn presentation of national flags, then, the audience bowed their heads in prayer for those who did not return that day 20 years ago.

Was There a Conspiracy? U.S. Publishes 9/11 “Secret Files”

Terry Strada, of Families and 9/11 Survivors for Justice Against Terrorism, spoke via audio link about the recently declassified FBI material and about the circumstances of the terrorist attack. She highlighted the need for further action. “New documents have been released, but the country needs to do more,” she said.

According to one of the Memorial organizers, chairman of the “Schiller Institute” Helga Zepp-LaRouche, it is time to put an end to the era of geopolitics, of failing to achieve common goals. “It is time to unite, especially the United States and Russia, given the several periods of history when [this] cooperation was beneficial to all of humanity,” Zepp-LaRouche said, in a message to the Memorial.

Being Together

Russian Consul General in New York Sergei Ovsyannikov drew attention to the fact that over the years since the tragedy, international terrorism has only gained strength. No power is capable of overcoming this evil alone, the diplomat emphasized.

The American guests of the ceremony especially noted the fact of the gift of the monument, created by the President of the Russian Academy of Arts (RAA) Tsereteli.

Kirk Wiebe, a former analyst with the U.S. National Security Agency, switched to Russian in his speech. “We all have gathered here in an atmosphere of brotherhood, friendship and love. We Americans sincerely thank you for such a monument. Know that we are always with you both for the truth, and in the fight against terrorism,” he said.

Common Values

The representative of the Schiller Institute in New York, Richard Black, told reporters that, despite the serious tensions in relations between the two countries, there was “genuine solidarity at this event, where Russians and Americans, both officials and ordinary citizens, stand for the same values – the right to life, to freedom, the right to live happily with one’s family.”

“Many people understand, in the small communities, that our peoples, American and Russian, have the same interests,” he added.

The expert stressed the importance of contacts at the highest level, including the statement adopted at the end of the Russian-American summit in Geneva on June 16, in which the principle was affirmed: “a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought.” “This is a significant advance, because some in the Pentagon and in the State Department have stated differently: that a nuclear war can be won and the United States must be determined to win,” said the spokesman for the institute.

In addition, Black considers it necessary to organize a summit of the “five” of the UN Security Council, as initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to him, the proposal is very relevant. “There are urgent topical issues – the fight against international terrorism, the coronavirus pandemic. I hope that we will be able to convince the U.S. President to agree to the initiative. These are very important matters, now, more than ever,” the expert said.

The Tear of Sorrow monument to the victims of international terrorism was presented by the United States as a gift from Russia. Putin took part in the groundbreaking ceremony in 2005.” The ceremony can be viewed at this link. 

Linking Up Scandinavia and Europe to the Belt and Road via Pakistan

April 30, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in BRICS updates, China, Denmark, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, New Silk Road / BRI updates, Norway, Our economic development events, Pakistan, Sweden, World Land-Bridge updates

STOCKHOLM, April 29, 2021 (EIRNS)–The Zoom webinar meeting of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden, together with the Embassy of Pakistan in Sweden, and the Embassy of China in Sweden, was an extraordinary success. More than 130 participants were present at the height of participation. The first part of the program was moderated by the Commercial Counsellor of Pakistan for Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. The focus was on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the tremendous potential for European and Scandinavian business interests to invest in Special Economic Zones (SEZ) that are connected to the current industrialization phase of CPEC.

There were welcoming remarks by the Ambassadors of Pakistan to Sweden and Denmark, and by the Ambassador of China to Sweden. The Chinese-language website of the Foreign Ministry the next day highlighted the BRIX event, printing the greetings of Chinese Ambassador Gui Congyou at the event.

There were several leading governmental agencies from Pakistan, like the Board of Investment, as well as regional officials, who outlined the great potential for investments and business in all areas when the basic infrastructure, especially electric power, is built. There were also important presentations from Business Sweden, Innovation Norway, and the Trade Council of Denmark to welcome and provide support and help for Scandinavian businesses that are ready to invest in Pakistan. The significance of Pakistan’s cooperation with China on the BRI was highlighted, and many business interests from China also participated.

The second part of the webinar was focused on the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and how the work of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden continues to present truthful and accurate information on BRI, despite deliberate distortions by Western media and other institutions.

This section was moderated by Stephen Brawer, the Vice Chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden, and the responsible leader of BRIX for webinars and seminars. His preliminary remarks summarized three of the most important points on the BRI as a global development policy, open to all nations, and the necessity of eliminating extreme poverty worldwide as has been achieved in China in 2020. He also noted the importance of the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, as a principle for cooperation, in which the interests of the other are primary, as opposed to only serving your own interests, i.e., geopolitics.

There were four speakers in the afternoon session. Professor Michele Geraci of Italy pointed to the primacy of commercial relations behind the much discussed and dramatic geopolitical controversies. Mr. Henry Tillman of the UK reported from his own investigations the meteoric rise of the Chinese pharma industry in just one year, showing how China and India are now the main suppliers of vaccine to the world, as the USA and Europe have limited their deliveries to their domestic markets. In the UK the entire vaccine production has been kept 100 percent for the British people.

Dr. Maria Sultan of Pakistan situated the CPEC in the global landscape of container trade and digital transmissions, showing the tremendous growth in the Asia-Europe and Asia Pacific corridors with the Pakistani ports of Karachi and Gwadar in the crossroads. Hussein Askary of the BRIX highlighted the Health Silk Road as the only possible approach to counter the current and future pandemics, providing the necessary infrastructure needed for a modern health system.

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