On Sept. 15, coinciding with a visit to Paris by Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai, the Bank of China (BOC) was appointed as a yuan clearing service in Paris, and two French groups, BNP Paribas Investment Partners (the asset management arm of BNP Paribas) and Carmignac, were awarded licenses enabling them to invest in China’s mainland securities, in moves to expand yuan markets. In another move by Beijing to expand the offshore yuan market, a BOC spokesman told Xinhua the mechanism of renbinmi (RMB) clearing business in Paris will help Chinese and French companies and financial institutions use the yuan for cross-border transactions and facilitate free trade and investment between the two countries.
The BRICS Post said today that Beijing is keen on substituting the U.S. dollar with the yuan in all of China’s trade with other countries. The Chinese currency now trades directly with the Japanese yen, the Australian dollar, the Brazilian real, the euro, the New Zealand dollar, and many other currencies. The BOC became the renminbi clearing bank in Frankfurt in June, and China Construction Bank got authorization to be the renminbi clearing bank in London. China stepped up its plans to boost international use of its currency in October 2013 by signing an agreement between the European Central Bank and the People’s Bank of China (the central bank) to swap euros with yuan. The BRICS Post also noted that competition is fierce among Europe’s major financial centers, Frankfurt, London, and Luxembourg, to trade in China’s currency.
In a major highlight of an investment meeting earlier this month, Moscow and Beijing have entered into a pact to boost use of the ruble and yuan for trade transactions.
“We’re going to encourage companies from the two countries to settle more in local currencies, to avoid using a currency from a third country,”
Igor Shuvalov
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said, referring to the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom will become the first Western country to issue an offshore bond in the Chinese renbinmi. This was announced after discussions between Vice Premier Ma Kai and U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne earlier last week.
On Thursday evening, June 27, 2019, the Egyptian Consulate of Houston sponsored a symposium at the Arab American Cultural & Community Center in Houston, Texas. The Egyptian Consulate requested that the Schiller Institute co-sponsor the event with them. The theme of the Symposium was “Egypt after the Revolution.” The guests in attendance for the event included Consulates from several countries, including Mexico, Greece, and Russia. There were several friends and guest of the Schiller Institute, and representatives from the World Affairs Council, the Arab community in Houston, the Caribbean American Chamber, and a number of people representing the Houston’s energy sector.
Kesha Rogers, Egyptian Consul General Khaled Rizk, and Brian Lantz of the Schiller Institute.
Joining Houston Consul General of Egypt, the Honorable Khaled Rizk, was Brian Lantz, speaking for the Schiller Institute. Brian and the Schiller Institute’s bold perspective uplifted both the audience and the conference organizers.
Following an introduction, Consul General Rizk spoke and gave prepared remarks which reviewed the efforts of Egypt’s government, led by President El-Sisi to stabilize and rapidly grow Egypt’s economy after the “second revolution.” Consul General Rizk reviewed the ensuing rapid pace of developments since 2013, including future projects now underway, which include the new administrative capital, the industrial zones along the Suez. He also highlighted the new offshore natural gas discoveries and prospects for natural gas exports.
Brian Lantz took up the role of Egypt as a key leader in the development of the New Silk Road into West Asia and Africa—the emerging new center of world economic development. The Schiller Institute’s reports were featured. In the spirit of Egypt’s earlier role in Bandung Conference and the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement, Egypt is once again playing a leading role in south-south relations and world affairs, Lantz said. Lantz also pointed out the importance of Egypt’s diplomatic efforts, working among all the countries in West Asia and North Africa in particular, for peace and economic development. Lantz cited some of Egypt’s initiatives in Africa, and El-Sisi’s role as the new chairman of the African Union. The African Union is deeply involved in cooperation with the Belt and Road and promoting African integration. Now getting the economics right was stressed by Brian, with an outline of Lyndon LaRouche’s principles of physical economy. Africa’s emerging renaissance was thereby highlighted, with its population potential and such mega projects as Grand Inga and Transaqua.
Prior to the presentations there was a reception where people were given the opportunity to talk informally. Likewise, there was a great deal of lively discussion following the presentations. There was recognition and great respect for Lyn expressed by a number of people. A leader of the Arabic community told Brian he had been reading LaRouche’s material for years, exclaiming, “He is a genius. ” Another person, an Indian-American engineer, was very happy to hear of our work in support of the BRI and also volunteered his respect for LaRouche over the years. An Hispanic business women who saw our Silk Road report was so excited: she participated in an art contest as a student, and won first prize for a drawing of the original photograph of the Silk Road and camels, pictured on our original report.
The Schiller Institute participation in the event was very important and timely given the rapid pace of developments around the BRI and the growing recognition of Lyndon and Helga’s role in bringing about this beautiful new paradigm, as we have seen also with the recent events in San Francisco. The Schiller Institute was also an invited speaker at a Chinese consular event in Houston last week, for an audience high school students, with teachers, some media, and consular officials attending.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in her Sept. 11 webcast on the BüSo website was, asked about the alternative to Western policy that is developing around the BRICS. In her reply, she also went into her impressions of her visit to China in late August-early September.
Not only does China continue to make spectacular progress in building infrastructure throughout the country — at a pace unheard of today in Europe, she stressed, but the government is simultaneously striving to make sure that the population remains conscious of its long and rich cultural heritage, such as the Great Wall and the Silk Road. She, herself, got a sense of that during the “fact-finding tour” of the Old Silk Road that she and others took in the West of China.
Her two-week visit was packed with meetings and conferences, but she wanted to summarize the sum of her experiences.
“This is of great importance: We have to make sure that the German population and others in Europe and America acquire a correct understanding of what is going on in China with the Silk Road and its space policy.”
What one generally hears from think-tanks in the West, Zepp-LaRouche said, is that China just wants to extend its influence, and further its imperial expansion. “Nothing could be more wrong,” she commented. But these Westerners judge China’s economic and space policies by projecting onto China what they themselves do when they pursue geostrategic interests, just as the EU is pursuing, and want to expand the EU ever further. Both former EU foreign policy representative Solana and EU Commission President Barroso have said there is no limit to EU expansion.
“The EU is a neo-imperialist entity which pursues geopolitical interests and considers them to be in blatant contradiction with the alleged geopolitical interests of others countries, such as the U.S., Russia, China, the BRICS group. And that is what is wrong.”
But what is motivating Chinese policy and what has become the guiding light for the BRICS and for a growing number of countries around them, Zepp-LaRouche went on,”is not geopolitics. People in the West cannot even imagine that there are countries which are not operating on the basis of neo-liberalism, monetarism, positivism, and geopolitics, and whose axiomatics are perhaps not identical with, but are very similar to, the thinking and principles that Gottfried Leibniz put forward at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries — that is, a true development perspective for the universal history of mankind which is completely comparable to the policy of the American Revolution or of John Quincy Adams, one of the earliest Presidents who said:
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“That is emphatically what China is doing today.”
Many people may not understand that, or believe it, Zepp-LaRouche said. But she can assure them that China is operating for the moment on the basis of 5,000 years of Chinese history, more than that of any other country. That is manifest, for example, in the role that Confucianism still plays today in China’s identity, and also in other “nice things” such as Chinese cuisine, which is famous worldwide.
China “is a cultural nation which is not imperialist, and whose interest is to further develop mankind,” which is the concept of the New Silk Road.”Since the reforms of Deng Xiaoping at the latest, by applying the correct scientific principles, China has realized the greatest economic transformation of any country on this planet. And they are now at the point where they are saying: We will transform the other, still-undeveloped regions of China, and raise the population’s living standards, and above all we will make this model of development available to all, in the form of the New Silk Road being in the tradition of the old Silk Road. This is an open concept. Everybody is invited to join in and contribute. It is explicitly inclusive and not directed against the alleged geostrategic interests of other nations or groups of nations.
“That is a very important difference. It is not geopolitics, but a dynamic concept of the upward development of the human species. And I would ask all our viewers’ who do not believe me to send me their questions. I am more than willing to engage in a dialogue with you, because it is crucially important for Germany that we understand this.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
Helga Zepp LaRouche said in her webcast on July 1 that the Trump-Kim meeting in the DMZ “revived the ‘Singapore Spirit'”, and demonstrated the potential when presidents of leading nations act together. The meeting, following discussions at the sidelines of the G20 summit involving Trump, Putin, Xi, Abe, and Moon, gets back to the idea of policy making on the level of presidents. Trump outflanked the British-oriented neocon warhawks in his own administration to set up the meeting and, from the ridiculously hostile reaction of Democrats, outflanked them as well.
While the G20 summit failed to address the burgeoning economic/financial crisis — she said it is not really designed to do so — the latest BIS report on the dangers of debt, especially corporate debt, and the effect defaults on such debt will have on banks, the potential still exists for applying Lyndon LaRouche’s Four Laws, to stop the danger of a crash. The positive signs from the Trump-Xi meeting, and the Trump-Putin meeting, point to the importance of taking up LaRouche’s Four Power agreement to set up a new financial system.
She called on Americans to take advantage of the July 4 holiday to reflect on the importance of restoring the spirit of the American republic, which was created in opposition to the British Empire.
TRANSCRIPT
Harley SCHLANGER: Hello! I’m Harley Schlanger from theSchiller Institute, welcome to our webcast with our founder andPresident Helga Zepp-LaRouche. It’s July 1, 2019. There’s been alot of developments on the strategic side of things, and Helga,why don’t we start with the Trump-Kim meeting in Panmunjom at theDMZ. What’s your assessment of this meeting?
HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think that is definitely going backto what I called the “Singapore Spirit,” referring to the firstsummit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, and I think this ispotentially, the real thing. Because, as we had observed, thesummit in Hanoi was sabotaged essentially by, I think, Pompeo andBolton. But this time, I think the fact that in Osaka, on thesidelines of the G20 meetings, there were these meetings betweenTrump and Putin, Trump and Xi Jinping, Trump and Abe, which is inthe background, also, and also with South Korean President MoonJae-in — I think this is all back to the idea that policy isbeing made on the level of the presidents. There was this summitbetween President Trump and Xi Jinping, but they also had adinner about which very little is being reported; but Trump’sspontaneous decision was that he would go to the DMZ, meet withKim, which was sort of a surprise; then he went earlier than evenannounced, and he stepped symbolically over this very importantborder [into North Korea].
Now, the interesting thing about it, is that it is veryunusual is that the North Korean media, all, instantly, verybroadly reported about this, calling it a “historic meeting,”“bold,” and “efficient” and that the two leaders will stay inperson close contact from now on. And this is all really a signthat the chickenhawks in the Trump cabinet were outflanked. Andthe policy is back to being made by Trump. I think especially forthe viewers outside of the United States, who generally, at leastin the West, only have an extremely negative picture of Trumpfrom the media, it’s really important to see this difference:When President Trump has the freedom to act, he tends to do veryimportant things, and I think this is very, very promising.
Unlike with the previous summit follow-up, this time it willnot just be Pompeo who will do the follow-up, but there aresupposed to be working groups, entire teams from the StateDepartment and the North Koreans, and they’re supposed to followthis up.
The Italian politician Michele Geraci made a very importantcharacterization which I tend to agree with, where he said thisevent is probably the event of the year and it may be [i]the[/i] eventof the first term of the Trump Presidency. So I think there isall reason to be really optimistic, because, with Russia andChina in the background, and it seems to be that also SouthKorean President Moon was in the environment; he was on the videotogether at the press conference with these other two leaders,that all means that a potential for the solution for the NorthKorean denuclearization is shaping up on the horizon: Becauseonly if there are security guarantees for North Korea, wherebythey could denuclearize, and not fear that Kim Jong Un would facethe same fate as Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi — which isthe main reason why North Korea insisted on their nuclear program— but with Russia and China being in the picture, maybe anentire Asian security architecture which could solve the NorthKorea situation can be made possible. And if that would cometogether, and all signs right now speak for it, naturally, withthe Belt and Road Initiative, the New Silk Road as the economicdimension of this whole program, I think this is a very hopefulsign, and it would mean that one of the most dangerous crisisspots in the world strategic picture could be resolved.
So, I think this is very, very promising, and it reallyshows that on the level of the Presidents Xi Jinping, Putin,Trump, solutions can be found. And in this case, also, theJapanese government is in a supportive role. There are manyJapanese and Chinese scholars who want to improve therelationship between China and Japan. Naturally, South Korea hasall the interest that this problem should get resolved. So, Ithink this shows you the incredible potential of the New SilkRoad to be the inspiration for peaceful solutions and a durablepeace.
SCHLANGER: Helga, you mentioned the outflanking of thechickenhawks within the administration: It appears from thehysterical reaction of the Democrats that they were also caughtoff-guard by this meeting.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Oh, yes. The Democratic reaction just,absolutely, they lost it. Tim Ryan, for example, compared themeeting between Trump and Kim with the meeting between NevilleChamberlain meeting with Hitler in Munich in 1938. That shows youthat they really have fallen off the deep-end, so to speak. Idon’t see Kim Jong Un taking over all of Asia. But it just showsyou that the Democrats are really the war party, and the onlyvery good exception in this chorus of insanity, was in the firstDemocratic debate, where Democratic Presidential candidate TulsiGabbard spent the entire seven minutes she had to participate inthe debate in denouncing the danger of nuclear war, saying it’scloser than at any time since the end of the Cold War. Shedenounced the endless regime-change wars, [i]and[/i] she also attackedTrump that he had let the conflict with Iran get as close as 10minutes to war. So, Tulsi Gabbard, at least on the war issue, sheis a very good exception in the chorus of Democrats, and it’squite good that the population have increased their support forher after this debate, in the polls. That shows you that once youhave leaders who speak to the issue of war and peace, theAmerican people are not for war and that is a very importantlesson in this Presidential campaign.
SCHLANGER: Let’s look briefly at the G20 summit, because ititself seemed to be a waste of time, although there were all theside meetings that were quite significant.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes. The important fact is that the meetingbetween Trump and Putin did take place. Remember, that previoussuch summits there were last minute sabotage actions. This didnot happen. The Trump-Xi Jinping meeting was also very important,and naturally, many other bilateral meetings. But essentially allaround Trump, Putin, and Xi Jinping, while the EU was completelyirrelevant.
Now, as a criticism, I must say that the G20 [i]should[/i] haveaddressed the danger of a coming financial crash, and they didnot do that. But that has probably to do with the fact that theG20 is not a format which is capable of addressing this issue.
On the more positive side was a definite improvement in therelationship between the United States and China. Trump and XiJinping got the trade war at least stalled, so that there is roomfor new negotiations. The Huawei ban was lifted, at least for thetime being, so that American products can be sold to Huawei, andalso China agreed to import a large quantity of U.S. agriculturalproducts, so, that hopefully now this can get now get on a bettertrack. I’m not giving de-warning sign yet, but I think this wasdefinitely a step in the right direction.
But I said that the big one, that the G20 should haveaddressed the pending danger of a financial collapse did not takeplace, and that shows you that our proposal, that you need adifferent combination, preferably the combination of Trump,Putin, Xi Jinping, and Narendra Modi of India, to address theseissues is a viable idea, because the G20 failed again to do whatreally would be their responsibility to the world population.
SCHLANGER: There was a report that came out from the Bankfor International Settlements which said that we are, as a resultof overleveraged corporate debt, heading for a potential crash.What do you make of this report?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, first of all, that’s not the only voicewhich is warning of that, but the BIS, after all, is theso-called “central bank of central banks.” They have basicallyreiterated that the corporate debt crisis and their engagement inderivatives is the equivalent of what the subprime mortgagecrisis was in 2008.
Now, that obviously has been building up for a while, andnow, all the data for the first and second quarter of this yearshow that the world economy, with very few exceptions, mainly ofcountries which are working with the Belt and Road Initiative,but all the European countries, most of the Asian countries andthe United States, have actually all signs of a recession or zerogrowth, all the figures are negative; so I think we are in for avery big crisis.
Our related [i]EIR[/i] publications or that of our colleagues inthe United States, they basically just published a new study,“The Bitter Truth about the Economic Recovery,” referring to thesupposed recovery in the United States. We have there analyzedthe different segments of the U.S. economy, everything fromcollapse of infrastructure, unemployment, homelessness, the drugepidemic, the negative life expectancy in the United States —and the U.K., one should add — so all these parameters of thephysical economy show that there is no recovery. We have warnedall the time that the increase in the price of shares on thestock market is rather an alarming sign, rather than an indicatorof the real economy. For example, Deutsche Bank just announced,or is rumored to be having major layoffs and the stocks went upsignificantly.
So I think we are in an urgent situation, where the economicpackage which was designed by Mr. Lyndon LaRouche, some yearsago, the Four Laws — Glass-Steagall banking separation; aNational Bank in every country; a new credit system, a NewBretton Woods system, and the United States and Europe joiningwith the New Silk Road — [i]is[/i] an urgent, urgent question. Weneed to have a mobilization: So, I’m asking you our viewers andlisteners to help us. Contact us, because this crisis is comingon fast, and it would be almost a miracle if it wouldn’t takeplace very soon this year.
SCHLANGER: One of the important developments was the meetingof Trump and Putin, coming as it did, especially after the dangerthat we saw over the weekend before last, over Iran. What’s yourassessment of where things stand now between the United Statesand Russia?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: It’s not yet a situation where one could besatisfied with, but, according to the Russian Defense Ministry,there were some inspections involving what they call the NewSTART agreement, Russian and U.S. military talking in thiscontext, and Russian specialists doing investigations in Turkeyand in Romania, according to the OSCE document. So, I think thatthere are clearly signs in the aftermath of the Putin-Trumpmeeting, that a normalization could occur. There was also anagreement between Russia and NATO: They agreed on somenon-escalation agreement, and that is not much, yet, but it meansthat for the time being that there will not be not an increase oftroops into the East on the borders of Russia, and no increase ofequipment. So that is not yet a solution, but at least these arevery tiny, baby steps which show some hope. And also the factthat President Trump accepted the invitation by President Putinto attend the 75th anniversary next year in Moscow, celebratingthe end of World War II, which is a good sign.
And also Macron obviously, after it’s not going so well forhim, in general, accepted such an invitation from Moscow which isa good step in the right direction — unlike, unfortunately, Ihave to say, the new head of the CDU in Germany, AnnegretKramp-Karrenbauer (or AKK, as she is called) who made another oneof her really mindless, Cold War speeches, defending thesanctions at a family-entrepreneur conference in Germany.
So the dividing line is really those people who try to getin a very dangerous strategic situation, some new discussion,dialogue, rapprochement with Russia, with China, and the West;and those who are in the old paradigm and are backward oriented.I think that that is an important difference.
SCHLANGER: Many Americans are wanting to know what actuallyis going on with the European Union. They seemed to play almostno role in Osaka, at the G20, and they couldn’t even elect a newleadership. Where is this headed?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think the EU is essentially finished: Thisorganization which basically is a large bureaucracy, modeled onthe principles of the British Empire, have completely moved awayfrom the interest of their member-states, of the populationsthey’re supposed to be representing, and I think it’s fallingapart. I mean, the fact that they couldn’t agree on the successorof Jean-Claude Juncker for European Commission President; ManfredWeber, the candidate of Germany was completely rejected, andMacron made intrigues against him. Then, for the time being, theDutch social democrat Frans Timmermans was mooted — he wasopposed by the Visegrad Group [Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary,Poland] and Ireland, and I think Bulgaria. Naturally, then thereis wheeling and dealing that we will give that post to this one,and then the other one gets this post — this is all very muchwithout any dignity, and that becomes visible to the public eye,so they had to break off the EU summit because they couldn’t finda solution as a joint leadership. Now, that, in my view is areflection of the fact that there is no unity in the EU, andnaturally, the EU policies overall are completely unfit for anyof the crises which exist.
So it’s high time to replace the EU with somethingdifferent, and again, I have to quote Michele Geraci, who alsocommented on the fact that the EU has completely becomesuperfluous, and will vanish in a larger Eurasian kind ofcombination. And that actually makes a lot of sense, because youalready have the integration of the Belt and Road Initiative,Eurasian Economic Union, and if European countries would start toassociate with that, in the context of the joint building of theNew Silk Road, then all of these problems could be addressed.
And since I’m quoting Geraci, let me just mention one otherimportant, interesting thing he said, namely, that the West hascompletely underestimated the rapid growth of China, and thatChina is now a leader, not only in 5G technology with Huawei, butalso e-cars, e-batteries, DNA mapping, quantum particles, onecould add fast train systems, fusion energy research, Moonexploration. So I think China is on a very good trajectory, andcountries who really want to solve their problems shouldcooperate. Xi Jinping offered again, at the G20 in his speech,that the BRI is an open concept for international cooperation.And I think the countries of the West would be well-advised totake up this offer.
SCHLANGER: One exception to the dysfunction of the EuropeanUnion seems to be Italy. There’s a very significant statementissued by prominent Italian scientists, from the ItalianAssociation of Research Scientists and Technologists (ASTRI),attacking this climate hoax. What do you know about that, Helga?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: It’s very important. This is a group ofextremely well-known and prestigious scientists who made anappeal to the Italian President, the Italian government, and theparliament, not to adopt policies of reducing CO2 emissions, withthe argument that CO2 is not a pollutant, that to the contrary,CO2 is extremely important for life on the planet. And that inany case, all of these claims about control of the climate byreducing this CO2 emissions is a complete hoax, that there is notone, single fact for that, and that in science, facts cannot bereplaced by the number of people who claim to have the sameopinion. And basically, that all of these predictions are basedon computer simulation models and not on any true physicalscience.
So, I think this is very important. There were about 70original signers, and then one signer, who is very famous, Prof.Antonino Zichichi, who was the leader for many decades of thefamous Erice center in Sicily. And I think this is somethingwhich deserves support by many people in other countries as well,so we are planning to publish this appeal. And actually, ifpeople are interested to have an honest debate, they should signthis appeal, so that reason is being brought back into thedebate.
They also note in this resolution, by the way, that theconsensus among the scientists on this issue, does not exist atall, but that there is a growing number and a large number ofscientists who are absolutely opposing the findings of thesemodels, and naturally, also say it’s a complete illusion to thinkthat you can control climate by CO2 reduction. Climate change isobviously taking place, but it’s almost a fakery to claim thatyou can influence the climate by such measures, because it’s notanthropogenic, it has to do with quite different phenomena in ourMilky Way, in the galaxy, on the Sun — all things which mancannot influence as such.
Now, talking about fakery, just to mention, that we willprobably pick this up in the next program next week, a group ofjournalists has just documented that the OPCW completely fakedtheir report on the supposed chemical weapons attack on Douma,Syria in 2018, and the initial report which the OPCW had,actually said it was staged event! So this is all now coming out,and the role of the British in that fakery, as well. But that wewill deal with more next week.
SCHLANGER: We are coming up to the moment where the BritishEmpire is increasing exposed as not just corrupt, but is thecontinuing dominant force in the old paradigm. This week is theweek of July Fourth, the founding of the American republic. Howshould people think about this situation, by reflecting both onwhat the American Founding Fathers did, and the upgrading of theAmerican Revolutionary ideal by your husband, Lyndon LaRouche?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think the July Fourth celebration is notjust for barbecues: People should remember the proud history ofthe American War of Independence against the British Empire, theDeclaration of Independence, and the principles declared there.The idea of Benjamin Franklin, of Alexander Hamilton, and theFounding Fathers in general, to declare a republic, to give theUnited States a Constitution devoted to the common good, not onlyof the present generation, but of posterity, is an extremelyimportant inflection point in all of human history. And if theUnited States could go back, and with the present policies ofTrump, at least in the first steps, there is the hope thatAmerica can become a republic again.
Now, I’ve said this many times: If the United States wouldremind itself of the ideals of its origins, and actually start toimplement that and go away from being the junior partner of theBritish Empire, then America would have all the friends in theworld. And this [i]is[/i] the crucial step which will decide overworld war or world peace: So, I hope that people on this Fourthof July reflect on that, and make a step in this direction —especially, because shortly after the Fourth of July will be the50th anniversary celebration of the Apollo Moon landing. Therewill be many events, and the Schiller Institute will also havemajor events on that day, especially focusing not on the last 50years, but on the next 50 years, and what kind of economic crashprograms are needed to make possible what President Trump hadpromised, when he said that by 2024 there will be again a man,and this time hopefully also a woman, on the Moon: But thatrequires to go into the kind of economic crash mobilization as itwas defined by the Four Laws of Lyndon LaRouche. And it’sactually the absolute mandate to be implemented in the nearfuture.
So, I think we have an incredibly — what Friedrich Schillerwould call “a pregnant moment” in history. I think a greatcatastrophe has been barely avoided with the situation with Iran.And now with talks again between the U.S. and China and Russia,there is actually hope, but that is just the first baby step. Andwe need the full New Paradigm, a new system of internationalrelations, and especially a new economic system based on thephysical principles developed by Lyndon LaRouche. So therefore, Ican only appeal to you, as I have done in the past: Help us withthe exoneration, and the “Case of Lyndon LaRouche” which describesexactly what was done against him and why, and why it is soabsolutely crucial to exonerate him, to make the way free for hissolutions.
So, please watch these two videos, help us to circulate themas widely as possible, and join the Schiller Institute.
SCHLANGER: Well, Helga, thank you for joining us, and we’llsee you maybe even later this week, as events are happening sorapidly.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche has just returned from a 10-day visit to China, including public presentations and private meetings, which she stated went exceptionally well.
The trip began with her participation in the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations, held May 15-16 in Beijing, where President Xi Jinping delivered the keynote. Zepp-LaRouche presented a paper and a 10-minute speech, with the title “The Highest Ideal of Mankind Is the Potential of the Future,” which has already been published as part of the Conference proceedings. We feature it immediately below.
She also had daily, high-level meetings with representatives of many top institutions that she has been in touch with since the 1990s. She reported that these occurred at a moment of very grave tensions between China and the U.S.—because of the collapse of the trade talks, the Huawei affair, and other issues—which made her presence all the more important. Many people look to the LaRouche movement for solutions to these problems, she reported.
Zepp-LaRouche also delivered a speech at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin University in Beijing, and granted a number of press and TV interviews.
In addition to Beijing, Zepp-LaRouche visited Nanjing where she met with the publisher of the Chinese-language edition of the first volume of “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge” special report, where she learned that the publisher had just published a second printing of that report, because they consider it one of the most important books of their publishing house. They also will be publishing a translation of the new report, “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge, Vol. II.”
The Highest Ideal of Mankind is the Potential of the Future
By Helga Zepp-LaRouche
It is the characteristic of turning points in history that the majority of people have no concept of what is occurring. Only those visionaries who have a clear idea of the positive potential of the future are able to intervene in the process at moments of decision, to avert potential catastrophes, and instead usher in a new epoch of humanity. We find ourselves in such a phase change: the old world order, as it developed after World War II and especially after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, is in a process of dissolution, but what the new order will look like is by no means decided yet. We are in a period when even international law seems to be overridden, as at the moment neither the UN nor any other institution seems to be able to enforce it.
But it is undeniable that the pendulum that favored Western civilization over recent centuries—though for thousands of years Asia had occupied an outstanding and even leading place in universal history—has long been swinging back. This is clearly supported by the demographic development of Asia, completely new strategic interventions such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and clear objectives, such as the concept “Made in China 2025” or the outlook that President Xi Jinping has set for China by 2050.
Tremendous opportunities for Asia arise from this, and perhaps along with them a completely new form of responsibility, which should ignite the inspiration to work out concepts about how to advance humanity as a whole. President Xi Jinping obviously has this very approach in mind when he speaks of the “Community of a Shared Future of Mankind.” We are now experiencing a precious moment, for never before in history has the conscious design of a new epoch, with the idea of a unified humanity as a higher idea, been so clearly defined as a task. If we want to create a more human order, it must be built on the best concepts that have been produced by various cultures. Those concepts must, so to speak, have an ontological character, because nothing in them can be accidental or of merely contemporary character, if they are to determine the Dharma—the moral codex—which the spiritual leaders, and with them Asian societies, are to follow in this new chapter of universal history.
It is also obvious that the impetus for defining this “righteous way” must come from the ancient traditions of Asia, such as Confucianism, Buddhism or Jainism, which are clearly linked to a commitment to lifelong self-cultivation and moral refinement of mankind. Though the West had the same claim in its Classical and Renaissance periods of humanism, the idea of the ethical improvement of man as a purpose in life is almost the opposite of the Western liberal model, where any priority of moral requirements or the superiority of one philosophy over another are emphatically rejected.
How then must the principles be designed, so that the new paradigm of a coming Community of Mankind is on such secure foundations that the requirements of modern natural science as well as those of a new system of international relations can be satisfied?
This question must be answered on different levels. A good starting point is The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, or Panchsheel, as laid down for the first time in a formal way in the Trade and Transport Agreement between the Tibetan Region of China and India on April 29, 1954. The preamble states that the two governments have agreed on the following principles: 1. Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, 2. Mutual non-aggression, 3. Mutual non-interference, 4. Equality and mutual benefit, and 5. Peaceful co-existence.
The first conference of independent Asian and African states in Bandung in 1955, led by Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, expanded the Five Principles into the Ten Principles of Bandung. The same principles were underlined as a core element of international law at the 1961 Non-Aligned Conference in Belgrade. With the BRI, China has defined for the first time the concept of this relationship between nations as the basis of a global reorganization which is open to all nations. President Xi emphasized in his keynote speech at the first Belt and Road Forum in May 2017,
“We are ready to share the experience of development with other countries. We have no intention to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, export our own social system or model of development, or impose our will on others.”
These principles of peaceful coexistence have deep roots in several Asian cultures. Some of these concepts are philosophical in nature, others are part of theological considerations. This article is about the identification of the approaches that have advanced humanity and are relevant to the future understanding among peoples. This is also the approach adopted by President Xi on his overseas visits, as he emphasized in a speech in New Delhi to the Indian elite in 2014:
“Even in ancient times, people in China came to the realization that a belligerent state, great as it may be, ultimately fails. Peace is paramount. Harmony without uniformity, and universal peace must be achieved. The Chinese concepts of ‘universal peace’ and ‘universal love’ are very similar to the Indian concepts of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakum’ (the world as a family) and ‘ahimsa’ (do not inflict injury).”
Thus, in the ancient scriptures of India, the Vedic texts, the Upanishads, and the classical Sanskrit literature, there are many important concepts that have both a religious and a practical political significance. This includes, for example, the principle of ahimsa mentioned by Xi, the respect for all other creatures—not only the renunciation of any physical violence, but also of hurting the other in any way, either verbally or spiritually. Ahimsa is also a method of war prevention and conflict resolution, even for complex challenges in the real world.
The collections of the Rigveda are the oldest surviving complete literary work, and have been handed down orally for centuries with the help of sophisticated mnemonics. In the Rigveda there are fundamental thoughts on the cosmic order, which ultimately also provide the guideline for human action on earth.
In the Upanishads there are five principles that reflect the same basic orientation. The most basic concept is that of the all-embracing Brahman. “Ishawaram idam sarvam jagat kincha jagatvam jagat”—Everything that exists, wherever it exists, is permeated by the same divine power. This idea is found in a similar form in Gottfried Leibniz’s idea of the Monad, where within every Monad the entire lawfulness of the universe is contained.
The second principle is that the Brahman, the creative principle whose expression is the entire realized world, is in every individual consciousness, the Atman. Atman is the reflection of this all-embracing Brahman. It is the individual consciousness, but it is not fundamentally separate from Brahman. “Ishwara sarvabhutanam idise tishtati”—the Lord dwells in the heart of every individual. The relationship between Atman and Brahman is the core around which the whole Vedic doctrine revolves. In the philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa, this corresponds to the affinity of the macrocosm and the microcosm, which makes it possible for an intangible force—an idea created by creative reason—to bring about a further development of the physical universe.
A third Vedic principles is that because of their common spirituality all people are members of a single family. The Upanishads speak of humanity as amritashya putra, “Children of Immortality.”
The fourth concept the Upanishads present is the idea of the consubstantiality of all religions, all spiritual paths. “Ekoham svat virpra bahuda vadanti”—“The truth is one, the sage calls it by many names.” This idea corresponds to the “Sanatana Dharma,” the single religion which stands above all religions, an idea also expressed by Nicholas of Cusa in his Platonic dialogue “De Pace Fidei,” which he wrote immediately following the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the associated bloody conflicts. In this dialogue, representatives of various religions and nations turn to God for help, because all of them are fighting wars against and killing each other in His name. God instructs them that they are all also philosophers in their respective nations and religions—beyond all religious traditions and teachings of the different prophets—and therefore can understand that above religion there is one God, and above different traditions, one truth. Incidentally, the Hindu Monk Swami Vivekenada cited the same argument in his famous speech before the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago on September 11, 1893: The followers of different religions have argued and fought each other purely because their point of view is too narrow, and they don’t grasp that the highest Being is infinite.
A fifth Vedic concept is that of the welfare of all creatures. “Bahujana shukhaya bahujana hitaya cha”—the Hindu philosophy seeks “the good of all people and all forms of life on this planet.” The affinity to the Confucian ideas of harmonious development of all is evident, as Confucius says explicitly: “They who have success should help others to succeed.” Naturally, this is the idea at the basis of the BRI and the conception of “win-win cooperation” between various nations. The Confucian philosophy also gives a name to the new era which was to begin with the prospective Japanese Emperor Naruhito: “Reiwa,” which literally means “pursuing harmony.” Japanese commentators emphasize that this term reaches back to the famous classical poetry anthology, “The Poem of Manyoshu,” though as the scholar Wang Peng points out, the term ling-he was used by the ancient Chinese emperors as the name for their reign, just as in present day China there are best wishes for peace and harmony.
The idea of a harmonious development of all as the basis for a world peace order is thus laid out in several Asian cultures, and stands in direct contradiction to the idea that relationships among nations constitute a zero-sum game. However, its realization in practice obviously requires a new stage of development in the evolution of mankind, the Age of the Spiritual Man, as Sri Aurobindo has expressed it; or the increasing dominance of the Noösphere over the Biosphere, in which Vladimir Vernadsky saw a trajectory laid out by the natural law of the universe.
The universe has an inherent lawfulness which advances it to higher stages of development. Vernadsky saw the creative reason of mankind as an essential component of that universe, as a geological power, which has been qualitatively advancing this higher development since the existence of human evolution. In the science of physical economy, Lyndon LaRouche delivered the proof of the absolute efficiency of human creativity, which distinguishes man from all known living creatures, with his concept of Potential Relative Population Density.
Yet this anti-entropic higher development is neither linear, nor the automatic result of objective processes—as in the variations found in historical or dialectical materialism, for instance—as, along with the objective effect of newly discovered physical principles in production processes, now a substantial component of this process has become the subjective intellectual and moral higher development of man.
In meeting the task of consciously shaping a new paradigm for humanity stated at the beginning of this article, it is certainly an enormous advantage for Chinese and other Asian cultures that, thanks to the philosophy of Confucius, the development of a moral character has been the most important goal of education in broad areas of Asia. Despite the considerable hype about the digitalization of the economy and the roll of artificial intelligence in future economic platforms, it will always be a question of the moral qualities of human beings which will determine whether the new technologies are deployed for the benefit of mankind, or for evil purposes. Thus, of first-rank strategic importance is the letter written several months ago by Xi Jinping to eight professors of the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts, where he emphasized the extraordinary importance of aesthetic education for the mental development of the youth of China. Aesthetic education plays a definitive role in the development of a beautiful soul, filling the students with love and promoting the creation of great works of art.
Thanks to the continual influence of Confucianism—only broken by the ten years of the Cultural Revolution—there is a continuing tradition going back thousands of years in which the development of a moral character represents the highest goal of education. It is thus taken for granted in China that attention to public morals and combating bad characteristics in the population constitute the precondition for a highly developed society. For example, the Court Report on Educational Goals of the Academic Ministry of the Qing government in 1906 required, above all course content, the teaching of public morals (gongde) and Confucian teachings on virtue, in order that “each has concern for others as he does for himself, and loves the state as one loves his own family.”
A key to understanding the special significance of aesthetic education in China today, however, lies not only in the teachings of Confucius—who assigned a crucial role in the development of a moral character to the occupation with poetry and good music—but in the scholar who has influenced China’s modern education system more than anyone else: the first Minister of Education of the Provisional Republic of China, Cai Yuanpei. Cai acquired the academic title of xiucai at the age of 15, due to his extraordinary intelligence and diligence, the highest title jingshi at age 24, becoming a bianxiu in 1894—and at the age of 26 had reached the highest level of academic career in the Qing dynasty. He had excellent knowledge of the classical script and was famous for his beautiful classical style.
During this time, Cai, along with the entire Chinese elite, was shocked that China was defeated in the war against Japan, and had generally lost out in every invasion since the Opium Wars, paying high reparations and ceding rights to the invaders. Among intellectuals, it was discussed how Japan—which for centuries was considered backward—had become so strong through the Meiji Restoration, and they sought to learn the lesson of this transformation.
The corruption of the Qing dynasty was also blamed for these disgraceful defeats. Cai was convinced that the state would only survive if there was a change in the consciousness of the people, and that this improvement could only be achieved by improving the content of education. Cai first began to investigate the Japanese and then the European educational systems. Finally, he traveled to France and Germany, where he studied civilizational and cultural history of the West in Leipzig from 1907 to 1911, before he was appointed as Minister of Education by Sun Yat-sen in 1912.
Cai undertook in-depth studies of the aesthetic writings of Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Schiller, as well as the concept of education of Wilhelm von Humboldt. Inspired by the excellent studies on the history of philosophy of Wilhelm Windelband, and by direct study of Kant, Schiller and von Humboldt, he realized very quickly that Schiller’s conception of aesthetic education was not only in complete affinity with Confucian morality—Schiller’s concept of “the beautiful soul” completely corresponded with the Confucian idea of the junzi—but Schiller spoke about these questions with greater clarity and from a higher point of view than any earlier or contemporary philosophers. “The comprehensive theory of Friedrich Schiller and the idea of aesthetic education brought great clarity to everyone,” writes Cai. “Since that time, the European idea of aesthetic education can supply us with a great deal from which we can draw for developing our own understanding of the subject.” Cai Jianguo further quotes Cai Yuanpei: “In Germany, aesthetic education impressed me greatly. I want to use all my powers to promote them.” Cai created the Chinese term meiju, which had not previously existed in that language.
Schiller wrote the “Aesthetic Letters” in response to the failure of the French Revolution, and argued that from then on, any improvement in the political realm can only come from the ennoblement of the individual. Only if man rises above the transient happiness of the world of the senses, and engages his efforts not only for himself, but the community; not only for the present, but the future; not for physical pleasure, but spiritual creativity; only then could the state prosper. In the “Letters” and in further pioneering writings on aesthetics, Schiller developed why this ennoblement of character can be achieved by immersion in great classical art.
Cai Yuanpei recognized the striking coincidence between the teachings of Confucius and the aesthetics of Schiller. The immersion in poetry, music, and painting during one’s leisure hours awakens in the beholder an aesthetic pleasure in which lies neither a desire for nor a rejection of the sensible world. Rather, the taste is formed and the emotions are ennobled. Aesthetic sensibility embraces beauty and sublimity, thus forming a bridge between the sensual world and reason. Every human being has a mind, but not everyone is capable of producing great and noble deeds. Therefore this mind must become stronger as a driving force, by ennobling it.
In 1912, Cai wrote the “Theses on New Education” and the “Textbook on Moral and Personal Development for the Secondary School,” in which he characterized human conscience as the essential guide to behavior. In an essay of May 10, 1919, he wrote: “I believe that the root of our country’s problems is in the shortsightedness of so many people who want quick success or quick money without any higher moral thinking. The only medicine is aesthetic education.”
Of course, it should not go unmentioned that Cai, as president of the University of Beijing, led this institution to internationally recognized scientific renown, taking up many suggestions from Wilhelm von Humboldt, who established the unity of research and teaching, and the beauty of character as an educational goal at the University of Berlin. Because of Cai’s prestige, the University in Beijing soon became a magnet for many young Chinese scholars returning from overseas, just as he became the inspiration for many other art colleges and academies.
In my view, Cai Yuanpei’s conception of the state as a larger family in which the interests of the state must take precedence over the interests of individual families, is also of paramount importance for understanding the policies of President Xi Jinping and his idea of the “Community for the Future of Mankind,” because for him the prosperity of the state was the prerequisite for the happiness of the citizens. However, the interests of the world as the home of all living beings was also set before the interests of the individual state. Cai wrote: “Until the ‘great community’ of the world is realized, the interests of society cannot be identical with those of the world.” He also emphasized that in fulfilling the duty to the state, one must be careful not to contradict the duty of the world. He dreamed of a “great community” of the entire world, (datong shijie), which would be peaceful and harmonious, without class distinctions and state boundaries, without armies and war. All humans would understand each other in this world community and help one another. Cai saw the “Dialogue of Cultures” as the pathway to this goal: “I have often thought that a nation must necessarily absorb the culture of other peoples. This is like the body of a human being who cannot grow without breathing the air of the outside world, without eating and drinking.” Yes, he saw in this meeting of cultures the absolute prerequisite of higher development: “If one takes a look at the development of the world history, one sees that the confrontation of different cultures always leads to the emergence of a new one.”
The realization of this vision is absolutely identifiable through the dynamism and the “Spirit of the New Silk Road.” The principles that must determine the “righteous path” for the new paradigm are not static axioms, but consist of the prospects arising from the aesthetic education of, eventually, all human beings. In a world where economics is not based on the principles of profit maximization and the greatest possible satisfaction of individual greed, but on the best possible promotion of human creativity as the motor of an anti-entropic developing universe; if, so to speak, the “cosmic order” inspires political, economic and cultural life, then the dreams of Confucius, Schiller, Cai Yuanpei, Xi Jinping and Lyndon LaRouche are the political legislators of humanity. As Tagore expressed it in his famous dialogue with Einstein: “When our universe is in harmony with people, we feel the eternal that we know as truth, as beauty.”
The Houston Schiller Institute Community Chorus, with Maestro Dorceal Duckens, our great pianist Joshua, and newly added string players, made beautiful music unto Heaven during our May 5th concert at the Riverside United Methodist Church, 3rd Ward, Houston. Ironically, the lights in the church sanctuary were not working the day of the concert; thus, creating a dramatic setting as the sun set through the church’s gorgeous stained glass windows. With wonderful acoustics in the church, and the evening sun filling the sanctuary, the concert made a big impact on the audience. The “Mozart Effect” on the 50+ attendees in audience was palpable.
While the church was not full, those in attendance reflected a broad outreach of our organizing around the city. We had a number of pastors, several members of the Ebony Opera Guild, members of our director’s church, Chinese contacts of the Schiller Institute, and a few members of the Riverside Church. Many attending knew Maestro Duckens only as a great singer and were amazed to discover he is also a great conductor! Also in attendance was the vocal coach from another local opera company, as well as the Choir Master from a local church. A couple drove over an hour after they had seen the concert advertised on an online blog. Before the concert, while speaking to a member of the chorus, the couple was very curious about the connection between Schiller the poet, economics, politics, and music but as they were leaving, they shook the member’s hand and promised they were going to look up Schiller when they got home. One of the directors from a homeless center was amazed. He had never heard Mozart performed before and had no idea about his role in the American Revolution. Another woman, employed by the church, told a member of the chorus she used to be a singer until she developed nodes on her vocal chords and could no longer sing the high soprano notes. Imagine her fascination when she learned we sing at the C=256 pitch to preserve the human voice and instruments! During the performance she was observed singing softly with every Spiritual. Another attendee, who has followed the work of the Schiller Institute and chorus member Kesha Rogers’ campaigns for congress, told a member afterwards that this concert had “healed him” since he had just suffered the loss of a child two weeks ago.
Worth noting is the impact the Mozart Solemn Vespers on this audience, many of whom knew the Spirituals well. One of the “church ladies” remarked to a chorus member, “you guys were full of the Spirit—even the Mozart was like that!” In observing the ladies during the concert, he noted how they looked at each other in amazement during the intense contrapuntal sections. One turned to two others and mouthed, “I want to clap” after the Laudate Dominum, but held herself back, as did the rest of the audience, until we had completed the entire work. Following the event, we had a small reception where several of the attendees joined us for discussion; people were just beaming with joy.
Several people inquired about joining our chorus. This was certainly on a higher level than anything that we have done before. We truly unified and brought the community together from all walks of life around beautiful bel-canto music that moved the mind and soul. We were so happy to be joining our friends there in NY as both choruses sang in harmony together in different space times.
For more information about the Schiller Community Chorus or how to join, visit our Houston Chorus page.
The Second Belt and Road Forum on International Cooperation will be held in Beijing from April 25-27, and although the Indian government has announced that it will not be attending, the governments of China and India went out of their way to hold high-level bilateral consultations at the foreign minister level on April 22, designed to “strengthen strategic communication, enhance political mutual trust, and maintain close coordination on international and regional affairs.”
India also did not attend the First Belt and Road Forum two years ago, and has kept the entire Belt and Road Initiative at arm’s length largely for geopolitical reasons: concerns that the BRI’s China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infringes on Indian sovereignty, and that China keeps putting obstacles in the way of placing Masood Azhar on the global terrorist list. Azhar is the founder and leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is active mainly in the Pakistani administered Azad Kashmir; the Indians view him as responsible for major terrorist attacks inside India.
Asked about India’s non-participation in the Second Belt and Road Forum at a press conference April 19, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi emphasized that last year’s Wuhan informal summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “established mutual trust between the leadership, and they jointly planned for the future of improvement and strengthening of China-India relations.” Wang also said that a new summit between the two leaders was being prepared. He continued:
“After the Wuhan summit, we see all areas of progress between the two countries and we have bright prospects for this relationship. We are now preparing for the next summit of our leaders…. One of our differences is how to look at the BRI. The Indian side has their concerns. We understand that and that is why we have stated clearly on many occasions that the BRI, including the CPEC, is only an economic initiative and it does not target any third country and has nothing to do with the sovereign and territorial disputes left from history between any two countries.”
The April 22 China-India talks were led by Wang Yi and Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale, who had been India’s ambassador to China until his elevation to Foreign Secretary (essentially, vice minister to Minister Swaraj) last year. After their talks, Wang told the press:
“As two major neighbors, emerging economies representatives and strategic cooperative partners, China and India should continue to strengthen strategic communication, enhance political mutual trust, and maintain close coordination on international and regional affairs.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang added:
“Common interests are far greater than difference between two sides…. The two sides should strengthen unity and cooperation, maintain the positive momentum of the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations since the leaders’ summit in Wuhan, Hubei Province from both countries, and safeguard the common interests of emerging markets and developing countries.”
For his part, Gokhale said that India is willing to maintain high-level exchanges with China, enhance mutual understanding, take care of each other’s concerns, and promote greater development of India-China relations, according to Geng. Gokhale also said: “It is one year since our leaders met in Wuhan and my colleague and [we] have been following up on efforts to see that we implement many of the understandings reached in that meeting.”
As I’m sure you’re now aware, special counsel Robert Mueller’s so-called Russiagate report admits there was no evidence of collusion by President Trump or his campaign with Russia (leaving no legal basis for any charge of obstruction of justice).
This has forced many to raise the key questions: who was behind it, and why?
In his tweets last week, Trump identified the British role in launching Russiagate, correctly stating that the intention was to stop better relations between the U.S. with Russia and China. The release of the Mueller report has opened a “time of reckoning.”
It is clear from the response of the anti-Trump forces that they will not stop. In today’s webcast Helga Zepp LaRouche pointed to the escalation against the government of Venezuela as “a continuation of the coup against Trump, in different colors.”
However, Helga insists, this will not stop the emergence of the New Paradigm, as the trip of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Europe this week demonstrated. The Italians stood up against the bankrupt would-be dictators of the EU, while French President Macron and German Chancellor Merkel were forced to acknowledge that the momentum is on the side of China.
Since Lyndon LaRouche’s life’s work is being realized in the advance of the New Paradigm, his exoneration would provide a crucial impetus to bring the U.S. into the mobilization to realize the common interests of mankind.