The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites

India Remains the Epicenter of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

May 14, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, India

India Remains the Epicenter of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

May 13, 2021 (EIRNS)—With record-breaking daily deaths, the total official COVID-19 death toll in India surpassed a quarter-million yesterday. The daily new cases continue to hover just under 400,000, with some experts forecasting that daily infections will peak at about a half-million sometime in June. The country now accounts for about half of all new COVID-19 cases and 30% of deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO has also designated the B.1.617 variant as a matter “of global concern,” given how highly transmissible it is. The Pan American Health Organization reported that the Indian variant has shown up in six countries in the Americas.

Numerous experts continue to report that the total infections and total deaths are probably 5-10 times higher in reality than the official numbers indicate. A large portion of the uncounted numbers remain in India’s countryside.

There is a major discussion going on inside India over how much to lock down and for how long. Dr. Balram Bhargava, head of the Indian Council of Medical Research, said in an interview yesterday that lockdown restrictions should remain in place in all districts where the rate of infection is above 10% of those tested, and that they should stay locked down for at least 6-8 weeks. Test-positivity rates above 10% now prevail in 75% of the country’s 718 districts, including major cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, and the tech hub of Bengaluru, according to Reuters’s May 12 report.

“The high positivity districts should remain (shut). If they come to 5% from 10% (positivity rate) we can open them, but that has to happen. That won’t happen in six-eight weeks, clearly,” Bhargava said in an interview. In Delhi, the positivity rate reached around 35% but has now fallen to about 17%, Bhargava said: “If Delhi is opened tomorrow, it will be a disaster.” Bhargava has been calling for a government-ordered lockdown in with a 10% positivity rate or higher since April 15. Prime Minister Narendra Modi preferred to leave the decision for states to decide, perhaps because of his concern that extensive lockdowns could lead to uncontrolled social explosions in the desperate population.

Absent an international joint attack on the root causes of the pandemic—50 years of global physical economic collapse, especially in the health and food areas—India, like most developing nations, is left with only two disastrous choices: don’t lock down and watch the pandemic spread like wildfire; or lock down, and drive millions of poor and unemployed or marginally employed people over the edge.

Beasley: 9 Million Died of Starvation in 2020; This Year Could Reach 30 Million

May 14, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Agriculture, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, World Food Program

Beasley Describes, 9 Million Died of Starvation in 2020 and This Year Could Reach 30 Million –

May 13, 2021 (EIRNS)—David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Program, in a speech May 7 in his home state of South Carolina, warned that the number of people who could die of starvation in 2021 could be 20 to 30 million. He reported that 9 million perished last year from lack of food, in contrast to the 3.24 million official 2020 world death toll from COVID-19, which, of course, is a vast undercount. His point was to call for intervention with food relief, but also to stress that the armed conflicts should stop.

Beasley spoke in his home county of Darlington, at the Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church in Lydia, which was founded in 1789.

He said, as reported by SCNow daily, “What happened in the past four years? Man-made conflict. And I say that in a gender way. It’s not woman-made. It’s man-made. It’s literally man-made conflict.” He singled out Syria, Yemen, and South Sudan for special attention as examples of dire emergency.

He also pointed to the ripple effects from the pandemic lockdowns. “Now, because of COVID, the economic ripple effect, particularly when Western society shuts down its economy or at least turns the engines down, the economic ripple effect into low-income, middle-income, developing nations is catastrophic. And so, the number is now 270 million people literally marching to the brink of starvation.”

On the well-known warning by Beasley, that we are facing a famine catastrophe of “Biblical dimensions,” he chose to recount the backstory to that phrase, which he used in April 2020, in briefing the UN Security Council. As he has often repeated, it was Tony Blair, who urged Beasley to go to the UNSC, when Blair heard Beasley’s strong language.

WFP’s Beasley Signed a MoU with Venezuela: Addresses Soaring Hunger

April 21, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Agriculture, Economic development updates, Finance, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, Venezuela, World Food Program

WFP President Beasley Signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Venezuelan Government To Address Soaring Hunger

April 20, 2021 (EIRNS) – The World Food Program will begin supplying school lunches to 185,000 impoverished pre-school and special-needs students in Venezuela this year, with the goal of providing daily meals to 1.5 million children by the end of 2023. That was the accord reached in a memorandum of understanding that the WFP signed this week with President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, during a trip to that country by WFP president David Beasley.

Hunger and starvation are not problems happening only “over there” in Africa or Syria. They are here – right on America’s doorstep, in Central and South America, including Venezuela.

Hunger in Venezuela has been skyrocketing in recent years, thanks largely to the killer sanctions imposed on that country by Washington (Republicans and Democrats alike). The WFP conducted a field study which estimated that, in 2019, 32% of the population suffered food insecurity and required assistance. Of those, 2.3 million were facing “severe food insecurity.” It is much worse today.

The hunger is due not so much to food shortages as such, but to the out-of-control inflation and forced devaluations, which are a result of financial warfare and denying Venezuela the ability to sell its plentiful oil exports in the dollar-dominated markets. The bolivar today trades at 1.069 {million} to the dollar; in December 2019 it stood at 55,00 to the dollar.

Internal food and other prices are set mainly in dollars, such that “the average wage which the majority of workers receive is less than five dollars per month, while chicken costs $2.40 dollars per kilo,” according to AP. An economic think tank linked to Venezuelan trade unions reported last December that a family of five with two adults earning the minimum wage did not have “even enough to purchase one breakfast a month.”

Beasley also traveled to Guatemala and Honduras in Central America, and reported that hunger had quadrupled in the past two years in that region, which now has 8 million people going hungry. Of those, 1.7 million are in the “emergency” category, meaning they required urgent food assistance to survive. He tweeted from Guatemala:

“15% of the people @WFP surveyed in Central America say they’re making plans to migrate in 2021—that’s 6 MILLION people! BUT, they also say if they have food security & livelihoods, they want to stay home!! Otherwise, they will do what we would all do to take care of our children.”

Chinese and Argentine Labs to Produce Sinopharm Vaccine in Argentina

May 8, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Argentina, China, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare

Chinese and Argentine Labs Sign Deal to Produce Sinopharm Vaccine in Argentina

May 7 (EIRNS)–The Chinese embassy in Argentina together with Health Minister Carla Vizzotti announced May 5 that the Argentina laboratory Sinergium Biotech has signed an agreement with China’s state-run Sinopharm company by which Sinergium will produce the Sinopharm vaccine at its facility in Buenos Aires. The announcement was made following a high-level meeting including Chinese ambassador, Zou Xiaoli, Vizzotti, special presidential adviser Cecilia Nicolini, the Argentine ambassador in Beijing, Sabino Vaca Narvaja, and top executives from Sinergium labs and Sinopharm. According to the daily {Dangdai} the same day, the Chinese embassy tweeted that “the pharmaceutical companies of both nations will immediately begin consultations to get production started as soon as possible….As always, the Chinese embassy in Argentina will support the efforts of both countries to combat the pandemic, and will help Sinopharm in its close collaboration [with Argentina], so as to elevate the Chinese-Argentine response to this health emergency.” The plan is for Sinopharm to send the first batch of antigens to Argentina in June, so that Sinergium can begin to produce up to one million doses of the vaccine per week.

`… Soaring Food Prices and Conflict’ Increases Hunger by a Third in West Africa

April 20, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Agriculture, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Healthcare, Healthcare, The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites

`Explosive Mix of Soaring Food Prices and Conflict’ Increases Hunger by a Third in West Africa

April 19 (EIRNS) — The hunger situation in Africa continues to deteriorate, as relief efforts continue to be overwhelmed with new crises, and receive little help in response to their calls. In an April 16 release under the above title, the World Food Program warned that “more than 31 million people in [western Africa] are expected to [become] food insecure and unable to feed themselves during the coming June-August lean season – the period when food is scarce before the next harvest. That number is more than 30 percent higher than last year and is the highest level in the best part of a decade.

“Food prices have increased dramatically across the region. Local staples are up by nearly 40 percent over the 5-year average, and in some areas, prices are up by more than 200 percent. This is caused in part by the economic impact of measures put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus over the past year. People’s incomes have plummeted due to reductions in trade, tourism, informal activities and remittances.”

Chris Nikoi, WFP’s Regional Director for West Africa, explained that, “In West Africa, conflict is already driving hunger and misery. The relentless rise in prices acts as a misery multiplier, driving millions deeper into hunger and desperation. Even when food is available, families simply cannot afford it – and soaring prices are pushing a basic meal beyond the reach of millions of poor families who were already struggling to get by. The needs are immense, and unless we can raise the funds we need we simply won’t be able to keep up. We cannot let 2021 become the year of the ration cut,” he warned. [emphasis added]

This year, almost 10 million children under 5 are acutely malnourished across the region,” the WFP says, “with the Sahel alone accounting for half of that number. This number could rise significantly alongside the projected 30 percent increase in hunger, and the high prices of nutritious foods.”

Presidents of DR, Costa Rica and Panama Urge Immediate Action on Haitian Crisis

September 27, 2021by madeleine in COVID-19, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Haiti, Healthcare

Meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 22, the Presidents of the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Panama signed a communique announcing the creation of an informal alliance among them, titled the {Alliance for Democratic Institutionality,} which calls on the international community to act swiftly to address the crisis in Haiti. In the communique, Dominican President Luis Abinader, Costa Rican Carlos Alvarado Quesada and Panama’s Laurentino Cortizo Cohen express their “deep concern over the Haitian crisis and its growing impact on the region, particularly its grave migratory consequences.” They have “instructed their foreign ministers to, in alliance with strategic partners such as the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and other friendly countries, immediately devise concrete, comprehensive and sustainable solutions in the framework of respect for [human] dignity and human rights for the purpose of taking on the alarming situation in Haiti.”

All three nations are struggling to recover from the impact of the COVID-triggered economic crisis, made more difficult in the recent period by having to contend with large flows of migrants, largely from Haiti. In a document produced as a result of their meeting, in addition to the communique, the three leaders stress their shared values and “consider it of the utmost importance the exchange of opinions on the challenges our region faces to retake the path of post-pandemic development,” including proposing “joint initiatives that result in the prosperity, sustainable development and the reactivation of our economies.” They stress the importance of reviving regional integration, mentioning “strategic partners” without naming them — all three nations have diplomatic ties with China; and make an obligatory reference to the “green development paradigm.”

They will benefit from learning about the Schiller Institute’s development program for Haiti, the Caribbean and Central American region to be published in the upcoming {EIR}, which was presented in the Sept. 25 Manhattan Project Meeting, “Reconstructing Haiti is America’s Way Out of the `Global Britain’ Trap.”

Spanish-language communique and document available here.

An Underprepared India Is Teetering Under Covid-19’s Second Attack

May 6, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, India

May 5 (EIRNS)—Having withstood the first wave of the Covid-19 attack in 2020 rather commendably, India’s Modi administration declared “victory” and virtually ignored the threat waiting around the corner — the second wave of the virus attack. India is now paying dearly with lives and general chaos caused by global pandemic.

On May 4, WHO figures indicated India accounted for nearly half of the COVID-19 cases reported worldwide in the past week. The WHO said in its weekly epidemiological report that India accounted for 46% of global cases and 25% of global deaths reported in the past week. New daily infections in the country numbered 382,315 on May 5, health ministry data showed, the 14th straight day of more than 300,000 cases. Officially, India has reported more than 3,500 deaths every day throughout the last week.

On May 4, Allahabad High Court (AHC) in Uttar Pradesh observed that the death of Covid-19 patients just because of the lack of oxygen in hospitals, which is widespread throughout the country, is a criminal act and is “no less than a genocide.” The AHC stated that the authorities- in-power are responsible for not taking measures to ensure maintenance of the oxygen supply chain.

In January-February of this year, the first wave of Covid-19 had waned in India and the official numbers showed a 90 percent drop from the peak of 96,000 per day in September 2020. The daily death toll dropped from 1,200 to 80. A sense of triumphalism began to emerge, led by a pack of cheerleaders close to Prime Minister Modi who unleashed vigorous political campaigns in five states going to the polls in March-April. On February 21, the senior leaders of the ruling party, BJP, thanked Prime Minister Modi for his “visionary leadership” that effectively weathered the Covid attack. Addressing the annual conference of Delhi Medical Association on March 7, Modi’s Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan triumphantly declared : “We are in the end game of the Covid-19 pandemic in India.”

By April 4, the second wave of Copvid-19 attack became evident, when daily new cases exceeded the peak load of September 2020. Other than banning exports of vaccines at the end of March, the Modi administration did not take any new measure to either ramp up vaccine production or the production and supply chain of oxygen. Foreign vaccine developers that applied for authorization were told to carry out bridging trials that would take a few months before emergency use authorization could be given. The dam broke loose in mid-April.

It became evident on April 15 that India’s fragile health infrastructure, under the second attack of Covid-19, had collapsed. Oxygen shortages were causing deaths at hospitals throughout India and the vaccination rates dropped from about 3.5 million jabs a day to below 2.5 million, reflecting a looming vaccine crunch.

From one million active cases a week during the last peak, India already has 3.2 million active cases, and the peak lies somewhere in the future. The second wave of Covid-19 has hit India like a tsunami and the Modi government is wholly paralyzed, leaving the people unprotected to face this deadly wave.

Schiller Institute’s Helga Zepp-LaRouche Calls for Urgent Support Action For Afghanistan—“Operation Ibn Sina”

October 31, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Afghanistan, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, Helga media coverage or interview, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Russia

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)–Schiller Institute founder and President, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in a discussion on Afghanistan Oct. 29 on Islamabad TV, said that she is promoting the Schiller Institute’s proposed solution to Afghanistan, in terms she calls, “Operation Ibn Sina.” Zepp-LaRouche participated on the program from Germany, and has indicated that she will be filling out this “Ibn Sina” initiative very soon.

She stressed at the outset that we are “at a watershed” time, in which the United States and other nations now holding back, must instead work closely with the Afghan government, which is the Taliban. Release the Afghan government’s funds, support stabilization and a future. The alternative is chaos, more opium production, mass death and terrorism.

The TV broadcast was PTV World, hosted by Omar Khalid Butt, on his Views on News program, whose additional guests for the 42 minute discussion were Dr. Andrej Kortunov, Chairman of RIAC (Russian International Affairs Council) in Moscow, and Dr. Farah Naz, foreign affairs expert in Pakistan.

Zepp-LaRouche explained her proposal, in her closing remarks, addressing the significance of Ibn Sina. “He was a doctor, who probably was born in what is today Afghanistan, and he was the most famous doctor until the 17th century, who wrote books which were studied in all of Europe.

“So he’s a hero in the history of Afghanistan., and right now there is a huge health crisis—COVID-19. More than 2000 hospitals have closed down…

“The international community—everybody who wants to be part of the solution, [must] help to build up a modern health system in Afghanistan, as the first step to stabilizing the situation, [therefore] give that the name, Ibn Sina.

“He can rally all the different ethnic groups inside Afghanistan, because he’s a figure of the national history, a hero; and he gives pride, and also hope, for a good future in Afghanistan.

“And building a modern health system can be the first step, because to build a modern system, you need energy, water and infrastructure…”

Deadly Great Game

Butt began his program by asking the guests to address all aspects of the significance of the crisis situation in Afghanistan, including “the geopolitical and strategic.” In opening the discussion, he showed the video clip of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov issuing a call at a Tehran conference (by video) earlier this week, that Afghanistan’s neighboring countries “not allow a military presence of U.S. and NATO forces which plan to move there after leaving Afghan territory.”

Zepp-LaRouche denounced such a prospect as a continuation of the British Great Game, which is unacceptable. Dr. Naz put forward that chaos can well be “the larger goal” of Western circles, which see the rising of China as a threat to be stopped, and are perpetrating vast harm in the Afghanistan region “by design.” Zepp-LaRouche described the West as “in a real collapse phase,” and should shift, instead, to working with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In the immediate term, massive aid must be supplied to Afghanistan to prevent genocide.

The same day at the Pakistan TV colloquy, the latest grim report on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan was summarized by UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Aid, Martin Griffiths, in an AP interview. He said, “The needs are skyrocketing.” The Winter snows have started. The World Food Program, which had already been supplying daily food, not just supplemental aid, to four million people, is now facing this number rising to 12 million people. These are people completely dependent on receiving all their daily food, or they will die. In addition, another 12 million need supplemental food.

Dr. Kortunov led off his remarks with three fundamental points: supply the food, act on the medical needs, COVID-19 in particular, and get fuel to people. Later in the dialogue, he forcefully made the additional point that, with the right policies and follow through, we could expect to see Afghanistan, this beautiful mountainous nation, be “the Switzerland” of Central Asia. There are the soils, the water, the location, the resources, the youth and all the other assets.

The full PTV World broadcast can be reviewed here.

West Sends Thimbles Full of Aid to India

May 6, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, India, United States

West Sends Thimbles Full of Aid to India

May 5 (EIRNS)–According to India Today, 3,000 tons of aid has arrived in the country so far. That may sound like a lot; but what it boils down to is that this nation of 1.4 billion people, with over 20 million cases of COVID which are growing at the rate of more than a million new cases every three days, has received a grand total of 1,656 oxygen concentrators, 20 large-sized oxygen concentrators, 965 ventilators, and an unknown number of pulse oximeters, Remdesivir packets and some PPE. The Indian government claims that, in some cases, the aid is still in transit. They added that the limited amount of the foreign aid also meant that splitting it up equally was not optimal; so the hardest-hit states were preferred.

This is hardly a serious response to a nation in peril from a global pandemic.

A particular problem is that India’s vaunted vaccine production capacity has been crippled by the Biden administration’s ban on export of vital components, which was only lifted a few days ago after major pressure was brought to bear on Washington. Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of the Serum Institute of India, said that their production of Covishield (AstraZeneca) is now about 60-70 million doses per month, and is able to rise up to 100 million/month by July.

Vaccine doses are desperately needed, given that only 2% of the Indian population has been vaccinated. Last month the government announced that they were now fast-tracking vaccine approval, and on Monday Pfizer announced that they were in discussions with India on providing vaccines. Russia began sending in the first portion of three million doses in May of Sputnik V. And pressure continues to mount on Biden to release the 60 million doses of AstraZeneca warehoused, unused, in the US. That stockpile by itself would double the vaccination program in India this month – nowhere near what is actually needed in this emergency, but certainly helpful.

Some Countries: No Vaccines … and a Lack of Electricity or Refrigeration

May 10, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Healthcare, Healthcare

Some Countries with No Vaccines … and a Lack of Electricity or Refrigeration–

May 9 (EIRNS)—According to the World Health Organization, as of this week, Chad, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Eritrea, Tanzania and Haiti have not even received vaccines for their medical personnel. AP explains: “Delays and shortages of vaccine supplies are driving African countries to slip further behind the rest of the world in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout…” While the Farcha hospital in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, has 13 ventilators, along with oxygen from Doctors Without Borders and KN95 masks from the Chinese, none of the medical personnel have been vaccinated. Already, nine health care workers at the hospital have been infected, including cardiologist Dr. Mahamat Yaya Kichine, who explained: “I think that if there is a possibility to make a vaccine available, it will really ease us in our work.”

A key bottleneck in Chad, and elsewhere, is the lack of sufficient cold storage facilities. For example, Haiti is scheduled to receive 756,000 AstraZeneca doses via COVAX, but problems with basics such as electricity and refrigeration have delayed their arrival.

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