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Message of condolence to the Alexandrov Ensemble and the People of Russia

Founder and President of the Schiller Institute, Helga Zepp-LaRouche issued the following message:


Message of condolence to the Alexandrov Ensemble and the People of Russia

In the name of the International Schiller Institute, I wish to express our deep condolences for the tragic loss of the the 92 human beings who died in the plane crash on the way to Syria. This accident is all the more a cause for sadness, as the music and patriotic spirit characteristic of the members of the Alexandrov Ensemble would have brought a message of hope to the people of Syria. This is a population victimized by more than five years of the criminal policies of regime change and treated as the pawns in a geopolitical game in complete violation of their sovereignity.

The Alexandrov Ensemble has been an expression of the highest moral values of Russia and, like classical choral singing in general, speaks to the soul and the creative potential of the audience. It is therefore extremely important that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that he is initiating auditions to pick the best talents to fully restore the Alexandrov Chorus.

The training of the singing voice is important for everybody, since a well-placed voice can express the creative intention of the composer and directly speak to the same faculty in the audience. It represents, therefore, an irreplaceable element of the harmonious development of the character. Let me therefore share with you the idea that, in addition to rebuilding the Alexandrov Ensemble, thousands of Alexandrov choruses be established in schools all over Russia to honor the heroic contribution of Russia in the liberation of Syria and, at the same time, broaden the uplifting effect of choral singing to the young generation.

There is a New Paradigm in the process of becoming as exemplified by the integration of the Eurasian Union and the New Silk Road Initiative, establishing a completely new kind of relations among nations. We need a dialogue of the best tradtions of each culture for this New Paradigm to grow into a new era of civilization—the knowledge of the best of another culture will lead to a love for it, and therefore supercede xenophobia and hatred with more noble emotions. In this new era, geopolitics will be overcome forever and the dedication to the common aims of mankind will establish a higher level of reason. It is a reason for consolation for all of us, that the tragic death of the victims of the plane crash contribute with their immortality to the building of that better world.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche
Chairwoman, International Schiller Institute


Musical Offering to the Alexandrov Ensemble and the People of Russia

Members of the NYC Schiller Institute Community Chorus sing the Russian National Anthem outside the Russian Consulate in New York in honor of the passengers, many of them members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, who died when their plane crashed enroute to Syria, Sunday, December 25, 2016.

 

 


Ceremony on the Third Anniversary Memorial for the Alexandrov Ensemble

It Is Time That Man Grew Into a New Paradigm

On December 28, 2019 the Schiller Institute participated in the third annual memorial in honor of the Alexandrov Ensemble, at the Tear Drop Memorial in Bayonne, New Jersey.  In 2016, 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, along with 24 others, perished when their plane crashed into the Black Sea en route to Syria.  What follows is a transcript of the memorial including remarks from Capt. Donald Haiber, Father John Fencik, Chief Keith Weaver, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation Mission to the United Nations Mr. Dmitry Chumakov,  Deputy Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic Mission Dr. Louay Falouh, Schiller Institute Founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche,  founder and Co-Director of the Schiller Institute New York City Chorus, Diane Sare, and Mr. Kevin Maynor.

Transcript of ceremony:

Capt. Donald Haiber, Bayonne, N.J. Fire Department: First I want to wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas. Secondly, for those of you that have been with us for the last few years, it looks like we lucked out with some balmy weather. I know it’s been cold and snowing in the past, but today looks like a beautiful day, and it’s a nice way for a remembrance.

Some of the people who are here today, we have our Office of Emergency Management Director Mr. Ferantay [ph], the chief of the department Keith Weaver; we also have the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation Mr. Dmitry Chumakov; and also, I’d like to recognize the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic, Dr. Fallouh. And also a very special thank to Mr. Kevin Maynor, who’s behind me. I also want to recognize Father Fencik: He’s been here every year with us, braving the cold. And the last person I want to thank is the Co-Director of the Schiller Institute New York Chorus Diane Sare, who, without her, none of this happens.

On behalf of the Bayonne Fire Department and the City of Bayonne, we welcome you all to today’s ceremony. Father Fencik, would you please do the invocation?

Father John Fencik: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. O Heavenly King, the Comforter, O Spirit of Truth, Who everywhere present through all things, Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life, come into all within us, cleanse us of all stain, and save our souls, O Gracious Lord.

This is the prayer that is traditionally said at the beginning of any type of function that involves the Russian people. We pray that we who are gathered here today, in memory of those departed members of the Alexandrov Choirs, those who departed with them this life in December of 2016. We pray that God give them eternal rest in His heavenly mansion. We pray that this ceremony retains their memory, and brings them all to life everlasting. Amen.

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Color Guard posts colors. Chorus presents the Russian Federation National Anthem and United States of America National Anthem.

Captain Haiber: Thank you all very much. That was beautiful. I’m going to introduce Chief Weaver who wants to say a few words as well. Professionally, he is my chief, he’s my boss, but I’m honored, personally, to say that he is my friend — Chief Weaver.

Chief Keith Weaver: Good morning to everyone in attendance today. I’m grateful for this opportunity to say a few words in honor of the lives lost on Christmas Day 2016. Today, we pause to remember and honor the tragic loss of Alexandrov Ensemble. The loss of this extremely talented group was a loss for the entire globe. I’m honored to be speaking at this fitting site, as this Tear Drop Memorial was donated to our city from our world neighbors in Russia. The gift is a reminder that although we may be separated by nationality, we are united in humanity. As brothers and sisters, we share in your grief, and also share in your hope for a brighter future for all mankind. May the lives lost on that tragic day, three years ago, rest in peace. Thank you.

Captain Haiber: Thank you, Chief. Mr. Chumakov will have a few words to say.

Dmitry Chumakov: Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends: We are very pleased to welcome all those of you who have joined us today in the memory of the Alexandrov Ensemble, and the victims of the plane crash that happened on the 26th December 2016, just a couple of days from today, three years ago. It was a legendary ensemble, media workers from Russian TV channels, and the famous philanthropist Elizaveta Glinka: They were bringing to Syria, the Christmas mood, they were bringing into a war-torn country, and it was a big tragedy and loss.

The Russian Mission is grateful to the Schiller Institute, to the Fire Department of the City of Bayonne: without you, this event would not be possible. It’s becoming a tradition. We are getting together for the third time now, and this is a great honor for us to share these human feelings and share with you the losses and compassion. This memorial event is a great example [inaudible] honor and solidarity between our countries. The Alexandrov Ensemble has been reinstated, and I just want you to know that the new performers [inaudible] we also want you to know that that humanitarian projects started by Elizaveta Glinka are implemented by her followers. And it’s also important to say that we’re still making a lot of efforts to bring peace to Syria, and to help Syria, and to help the political settlement in this country. So, it is only with political settlement that the problems can be solved.

We once again must give tribute to these brave and merciful people who are our modern-day heroes. They are symbols of patriotism and humanity are given to us today: May their souls rest in peace. And thank you very much for joining us today.

Captain Haiber: Thank you Mr. Chumakov. We are here once again to give our condolences and sympathy to the families of the Alexandrov Ensemble and to the people of Russia. Everyone here proves, I believe, that this small remembrance shows our humanity towards one another — and God knows, we could use more of that.

Once again, it’s fitting that we’re here at the Tear Drop, because the creator of this structure was the Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli. In the darkness after 9/11, this monument helped to bring peace and the light of hope to the many people [inaudible] here. We now wish to pay that forward, back to the Russian people and the families of the Alexandrov Ensemble.

May the serenity and hope that I feel when I am here be conveyed back to the people of Russia. Music has meaning, and this quote from Billy Joel conveys that better than anything I could ever say: “I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by, no matter where we are from, everyone loves music.” It is times like this that we are neither Americans nor Russians, nor Syrians, but we are just human beings who genuinely wish peace and happiness to one another.

Once again, I will try to convey my thoughts in Russian. I’ve been practicing and hopefully this gets it through: [Russian remark].

It is now my honor to introduce Mr. Kevin Maynor. He has sung with the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and many others. Mr. Maynor was the first apprentice artist from the West to study at the Bolshoi in Moscow, where he studied and sang. He will now also share a few words with you.

Kevin Maynor: Thank you. [Sings Russian folk song “Still One Star”] I don’t think anybody can talk about the Alexandrov Ensemble, the great Russian Army Chorus, and not think of the great [inaudible] that was meant to encourage, sung by the Volga boatmen. I think of the Volga boatmen and the Volga River, which I had the pleasure of seeing in the year 2000-2001 upon my return to Russia. My first experience of 1979-1980, and the Russian people embraced me with a certain kind of love that I will never, ever forget. I love them dearly, from the bottom of my heart. There’s no bass in the world — no bass in the world — no singing bass, that does not admire the training and the beauty of the great Russian basses and the great Russian singers. I think these people and the contributions they have made to the world, regardless of the confusions and the politics that might be involved between countries, one thing for sure, music, it is true, it is the healing source. It is the language that we all speak and understand. And when we don’t understand one another, we learn to appreciate, which is the key, actually, to bringing people closer together, appreciation for one another.

I want to take the time to sing for you a spiritual, one that was sung by the great Paul Robeson, who was a great singer, one that many admire — certainly the Russian people admire. He sang this song amongst them, and I want to sing it for you all: It’s called There Is a Balm in Gilead.

God bless the Alexandrov Ensemble. God bless their mission. God bless all of you who are gathered here, today.

Captain Haiber: Thank you Mr. Maynor. I do have to say, that is probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. Thank you.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche: I extend my greetings to all of you gathered today to commemorate the lives of the 92 passengers and crew, who died when the Russian TU 154 crashed into the Black Sea on December 25th, 2016. Sixty-four singers of the Alexandrov Ensemble, plus the crew of the plane, members of the Russian military, Russian journalists and the beloved relief worker Dr. Elizaveta Glinka all perished that winter night, while flying to give Christmas comfort and cheer to soldiers who were battling to liberate Syria from the terrorist scourge of ISIS.

Each of the people on that plane was like the Good Samaritan that Schiller writes about in his Kallias essays On the Beautiful. In Schiller’s story, several people stopped by the side of the road to help the injured man, but some asked for money, some wanted recognition, and to put down others who didn’t stop; but only one person stopped, and very naturally and happily put down his own load, to carry the injured man without a second thought for himself.

In 2020, the world will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi terror in May of 1945. At that time, people vowed, “Never Again!” And now, 75 years later, mankind again is threatened with the danger of cultural decadence and even potentially a great war. As Schiller said, it is only through aesthetic education through great classical art that the ennoblement of man can occur. It is time that mankind grew into a new paradigm where, as Shelley and Schiller proposed, the poets and artists become the natural leaders of the age.

Diane Sare: Good morning, now speaking on behalf of the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus, I would like to say that a chorus is a very special thing. It is a group of diverse individuals, who discover through the art of a great composer that their diversity becomes their strength.

Our chorus had existed for just two years when I received the news on Christmas Day 2016 of the crash of the Red Army Chorus, and it was like getting punched in the stomach. Some of us quickly enlisted the help of a Russian-American chorus member to pronounce the words to the Russian National Anthem, and we went to the Consulate and sang it outside on the sidewalk.

I learned that the NYPD Ceremonial Unit had been deeply moved by the Ensemble at the Military Bands Tattoo in Quebec City in 2011, which had happened to fall on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. A wonderful baritone, Grigory Osipov sang God Bless America, which they performed as a gift to the NYPD Ceremonial Unit, and a young boy came and presented the director, Lt. Tony Giorgio, with a single white rose. You will see Osipov’s name on the list of those who perished in that terrible crash.

The United States, Russia, and Syria have all suffered the devastating effects of terrorism, but I am optimistic that perhaps the warm weather here this year may be a sign of the warmth of the friendship that our nations and peoples may share in our musical dialogue.

Father Fencik: The Church teaches us that as long as we keep a person’s memory alive, they are still with us. It is traditional at the end of any memorial service that the hymn Eternal Memory is sung, and the Russian hymn. So we will conclude this memorial service with the prayer for the departed and the singing of the memorial hymn.

O God of spirits and all flesh, who has conquered Satan and vanquished death, and granted life to your world, Lord give rest to the souls of your faithfully departed servants. in a peaceful, serene place, from which all pain and sorrow and sighing are absent. As the good and gracious God Who loves mankind, forgive all transgressions committed by them in word or in thought, voluntarily as a human frailty. There is no man living who does not sin. You alone are without sin. Your truth is truth for eternity, your word alone reality. For you are the Resurrection, the Life and the Repose for your departed servants, Oh Christ, our God. We rend You glory together, Eternal Father, holy gracious and life-creating Spirit, always now and ever, and forever. Amen.

In blessed repose grant eternal rest, Oh Lord, to the souls of Your departed servants. Make eternal their memories, Vechnaya pamyat! [Eternal memory!]


9/11 Memorial Concert

 

This concert, held at the Presbyterian Church in Morristown, NJ was the fourth of four “9/11 Living Memorial Concerts” to honor all the victims of 9/11 and its aftermath.

Lynn Yen, the executive director of the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture (FFTROCC) opened the event, discussing the importance of the occasion, and why the Schiller Institute chose to perform the four African American Spirituals, the Mozart “Requiem” and the Handel “Amen” chorus at the concert. She also introduced Jose Vega, a student with the Foundation, two Islamic leaders in the audience, and Terry Strada, of the 911 Families and a tireless fighter for Justice. Ms. Strada received a standing ovation for her work.

Lynn Yen introduced Terry Strada, saying,” At this point I would like to introduce somebody very special to all of you. Many of you probably know of her. Her name is Terry Strada. She is the national chairwoman of the 9/11 Families United for Justice Against Terrorism. She and her organization were instrumental in the release of the 28 pages of the congressional report on 9/11. Without further ado, I’m going to turn the microphone over to her.”

Address by Terry Strada: 9/11 Families United for Justice Against Terrorism

Terry Strada addressed the hundreds of concert attendees in the church, which was full: “Thank you! Thank you very much! My name is Terry Strada, and I lost my husband on September 11th, 2001. Tom was 41 years old when he went to work that day, and never came home again. We have three children. At the time, they were 7 years old, 4 years old, and our youngest was only 4 days old.

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Terry Strada, left, and Lynn Yen

“On September 12th, 2001 I woke up — well, I probably didn’t sleep that night — so when the sun came up, the questions were, “Who did this? Why would they do this?”, and “How could they possibly do this? How could they attack our country like this, and how could they kill so many innocent people in one day?”

“Because I wanted to know the answers, I started to ask the questions more and more. And so did more and more 9/11 families. United to Bankrupt Terrorism was our first title, and now we’re United Together for Justice Against Terrorism. Of course it was the 28 pages that we focused on in the beginning that needed to be released. And when they were released, there were two key things that we learned. One, is that Saudi Arabia has never been fully investigated for the role that they played in 9/11; and two, that it is indisputable that the Saudis played a very important role in 9/11.

The second piece of legislation that I’ve been working on for over four years now, is called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. This bill is intended to fix a minor problem in our current Foreign Sovereignty Immunity Act of 1976. So, it’s a 40-year-old law that has stood for 40 years, until we looked further into the Saudi’s role in 9/11, found the evidence, and tried to hold them accountable.

“What happened next was that the courts decided to misinterpret the law and dismiss them on sovereign immunity. Make no mistake. No country, no entity, no individual is entitled to immunity — sovereign immunity, any type of immunity — in the case of a terrorist act. This bill is intended to hold any nation accountable for a terrorist attack on U.S. soil that kills United States citizens.

We’ve chosen this path because it’s a peaceful way to fight terrorism. We don’t want to see more bloodshed; we don’t ever want to see more people die over 9/11. And we also want to protect our borders; we want to protect our country; we want to protect you; I want to protect my children. And the way that we do this, is by holding the nations accountable that fund known terrorist organizations, like al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram.

People say, “You can’t fight the lone wolf.” I say, “Yes, we can!” If we cut off the funding, and we destroy their capabilities to recruit and incite, and bring on more terror and to brainwash people, we can eliminate ISIS. And that is our long-term goal. The short-term goal, right now, is to get Saudi Arabia off of this crazy [situation] that they’re not held accountable.

“In May, the Senate passed unanimously this Bill, and on Friday, September 9th, it went to the U.S. House of Representatives. I was in the gallery and was honored and proud to see each and every one of our 435 Members in the House vote “Yes” for JASTA. [applause] Thank you, thank you. I don’t really know how many times this has ever happened on our history, that we have both Chambers of Congress voting “Yes” unanimously. What this means for the President: as of 4:00 today, he was still threatening to veto the Bill. The Bill will be sent over to his office for signature later on tonight, at the latest tomorrow. We’re doing everything we can to convince him to not do this.

You probably hear things in the news — and I’ll kind of wrap this up, because I want to hear the music as badly as you do — but you may hear in the news, things about the Bill. They’re simply not true, if they’re coming from the Administration. Unfortunately, they are the mouthpiece for the Saudis at this point. We just need to point out to them how important this is, to hold them accountable — any nation, going forward — would be held accountable, and how important it is for our country to have that type of security net.

“If the President does decide to veto this Bill, it will be our last hurdle; it may be our biggest. But we plan to overcome it, and override the veto. Hopefully the Senate and the House will fall into line and do that for us.

“If there’s anything that you’d like to do to help, going forward, it’s PassJasta.Org.  That’s our website. It’s updated as often as I can get to a computer and update it. There are usually just simple instructions of how you can reach out to the White House, your Representative, or a co-sponsor of the bill. This is very important legislation. I thank you very much for taking the time to listen to me, and now I’m so honored to have these wonderful musicians. I have heard them practice. You are in for a treat. This is going to be a very wonderful time now for us to just transcend ourselves from the evil, to a higher place — to a place where Good is. I believe Good will win, and I thank you for coming.”

 


NYC Event: Celebrating Schiller’s Birthday and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

30 years ago 0n November 9, 1989, the Berlin wall came down. The anniversary marks a profound moment today where the irreconcilable differences between the hope expressed in 1989, which is embodied now by the New Paradigm, and the doom of geopolitics are coming to odds. The Schiller Institute in NYC celebrated the coincidence of the Fall of the Wall, Schiller’s birthday and the 35 anniversary of the founding of the Schiller Institute with a triumphant demonstration of beauty, outflanking the degenerate culture still dominating political discourse in the United States and Europe. Helga Zepp-LaRouche keynotes the event, followed by musical offerings from Schubert and Brahms and poetry by Schiller and Shakespeare.

A Three-Fold Anniversary
Address by Helga Zepp-LaRouche

Excerpt from video: “The Lost Chance of 1989”
Schubert/Schiller: Die Hoffnung
Michelle Erin, soprano – Margaret Greenspan, piano – Elliot Greenspan, speaker

Schubert/Schiller: An Emma
John Sigerson, tenor – Margaret Greenspan, piano

Shakespeare: Luciana’s Monologue from Comedy of Errors, Act 3, Scene 2
Leah DeGruchy

Max Caspar on Kepler as a Philosophical Mind
John Sigerson

Schiller: “Die Teilung der Erde”
Frank Mathis

Schubert/Schober: “An die Musik”
Lisa Bryce, soprano – Richard Cordova, piano


Manhattan Conference: Building A World Land-Bridge—Realizing Mankind’s True Humanity, April 7th

 

Panel I


Thursday’s Schiller Institute Conference in New York City, “Building a World Land-Bridge—Realizing Mankind’s True Humanity,” marked a success for Lyndon LaRouche’s idea. Although further and fuller reports will follow, and this one only reflects a part of the proceedings, that much can already be said with certainty.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened the conference with a comprehensive and inspiring address entitled, “Beyond Geopolitics and Polarity: A Future for the Human Species,” in which she laid bare the immediate threat of annihilating war, and showed that the idea of the World Land-Bridge, which she developed with her husband during the period of the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, provides the only durable guarantee for peace. She went on to outline a dialog of civilizations in which each of the world’s civilizations is represented by the cultural high-points of its history, such as Germany’s Weimar Classic, and the United States as it was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton.

helga-IV-april-VII

Schiller Institute founder, Helga Zepp LaRouche giving the keynote address.

Transcript of Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Keynote

DENNIS SPEED: So, on behalf of the Schiller Institute, my name is Dennis Speed. I want to welcome everybody here today. We have a greeting to the conference I’ll begin with, which is from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of New York. It says: “Dear friends, On behalf of everyone at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, I extend a warm greeting to all in attendance at the Schiller Institute conference. I truly believe the scientific triumphs of the past century, and the advancements in technology, were not through sheer luck or chance. Rather I believe it is the collective efforts of our species as a whole that allow us to grow and prosper beyond what we could ever accomplish as individuals. Only through cooperation between all nations can we all achieve a greater goal. The conference of the New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge will discuss issues including the designs for the development of Southwest Asia, as well as a path for United States recovery. We sincerely wish the conference will be very successful, and the attendees have a wonderful stay in New York City. Sincerely, Justin Yue, Chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in New York City.”

I just want to say a couple of things in welcome. Of course, what’s referred to in the statement in specific is “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge,” the report that was done at the end of 2014 by the Schiller Institute [sic], and I think everybody has our program so you have the list of our speakers. I just want to say the following in setting us off:

You know, New York City was founded by Alexander Hamilton and George Washington. I’m not talking about the chronological founding, but the fact that as an American city, it was founded on the principle of a single unified government. Hamilton’s role with George Washington in the first American Presidency, was a revolutionary one, which was more important than the victory on the battlefields of Trenton, Saratoga, and Yorktown. His four documents on the National Bank, the Constitutionality of the National Bank, the nature of credit, and the nature of manufactures are the basis for the real United States. It is that real United States that the Schiller Institute seeks to place back on the world stage in collaboration with, particularly, the nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, in the pursuit of the policy called the World Land-Bridge.

The danger of warfare which now lurks and pulsates from a collapsed trans-Atlantic system is what brings us here today, in part, and the Schiller Institute has been doing conferences in Egypt, has spoken at conferences in Russia and India, and many other locations, in the past weeks, and in that light, and in that context, I’d like to go directly to introduce the person who has campaigned tirelessly for this policy. Together with her husband, Lyndon LaRouche, back in 1989, the glimmer of this policy was first enunciated as the Eurasian Land-Bridge, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1996, in June, a conference was held in Beijing, which put the idea of the New Silk Road on the map, and at that conference, the founder of our organization spoke, and that conference basically precipitated what then became known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Many other things occurred. And now, on this stage, we are at the point where if our keynote speaker is listened to, there’s a world that can be made, can be created, of cooperation, and not destruction.

It’s always my honor and pleasure to introduce the chairman and founder of the Schiller Institute, Helga Zepp-LaRouche.

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, dear guests and friends of the Schiller Institute, this conference is taking place at a very serious moment, and it has no lesser goal than that which has been defined by my husband Lyndon LaRouche with the Manhattan Project: that we have to turn the United States back to its founding principles. We have to get the United States away from its present imperial orientation, and the idea that it must pursue an unipolar world, and turn it back to the identity of a republic, as the Founding Fathers and the Constitution designed it.

This goal is something which almost the whole world thinks is impossible. I can assure you that, outside of the United States, the thinking people think the United States is hopeless, and I can assure you that that is a very common feeling. Many people don’t travel to the United States any more because they think it has become a place of horror. Yet, achieving this goal, to turn the United States back into a republic, is going to determine, in all likelihood, the fate of the entire human species.

There is right now an absolutely eerie tension in the air, because many people who don’t always say it, but know it—that we are right now closer to World War III than even at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This has been stated by military analysts and nevertheless, there is no peace movement. There is nobody in the street talking about the fact that we are close to World War III. In the ’80s you had hundreds of thousands of people marching in the streets of Germany against the SS-60 and the Pershing 2. Today, where the situation is more dangerous, and experts have described that if there would be an incident, the warning time to launch general thermonuclear war would be 3 to 6 minutes.

So, only a few people are speaking that, while the vast majority of citizens in the United States and Europe is marching like lemmings towards the cliff.

I want to highlight a case of 78 year old pensioner, a retired teacher from the German city of Kaiserslautern, who, two days ago, was just denied his suit in the third level of the Federal administrative court in Leipzig, where he tried for the third time to sue the German government for allowing the United States to use the air base in Ramstein for a relay system of the drones, without which the drones could not be sent to the Middle East and elsewhere. [He said] that this would be against the German constitution, which does not allow Germany to ever again launch a war of aggression, or help other countries to do so. The judges ruled again that matters of international law can only be taken up by states, and not by individuals, but this pensioner of 78 years old, is planning to take this to the highest Constitutional court in Karlsrühe.

One is almost reminded of the story in the Old Testament where God was about to punish Sodom and Gomorrah for their sinful behavior, and was then convinced that if there would be only ten just men, the punishment would not be carried out. And I must ask: Are there ten honest men to stand up today?

Before I come to the solution, how we get out of this crisis, let me look at the very dire strategic situation. We are now having 12 days of joint military drills involving the United States and the Philippines, Australia, and Japan. The exercise is called Shoulder to Shoulder, and for the first time ever, the U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter will go there to be on the place [on site] next week. Now yesterday, Ash Carter said that the enemies of the United States are first, Russia; second, China; third, Iran; fourth, North Korea, and fifth—oh yeah, there was terrorism.

Parallel, you have the largest ever U.S.-South Korean military exercises until late April, also involving many troops, and the Philippine exercise includes an amphibious landing exercise to simulate taking one of the disputed islands in the South China Sea. The Philippine military also is sending a U.S. high-mobility artillery rocket system designed to shoot down aircraft. And basically it’s the first time that these exercises include Australia and Japan, in the effort to build a quadrilateral military counter alliance to China.

Now other things are taking place in the region. Two weeks ago, the Philippines allowed the United States to have access to five of its bases near the disputed waters in the South China sea, and they renewed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. Now this is against the Philippine constitution, but they bypassed it by allowing the U.S. troops within Philippine bases, so that the Constitution would not apply. Now also Japan has a new national security law, which went into effect last Tuesday, where the national Diet passed a new security bill breaking away from the pacifist constitution of Japan, in order to enhance the alliance with the United States, and with it, the power to exercise the right for collective self-defense.

Now, the whole world watches: Does that mean that Japan is going to go back to its military past?

There is a tendency in Japan right now, to move into alliances with other claimants of the contested territories [in the South China Sea] to contain Beijing.

Now where is all of this leading? China’s position concerning the waters are written in what they call the Nine Dash Line in the South China Sea, and China claims that these are territories which historically belong to China, including the right to reclaim land and build bases on the Spratly Islands. China also says—and that is true—that this does represent a violation of the freedom to the seas, but it will just improve the living conditions of the people living there, give better ways to protect against pirates, and it does not hinder the passage of other ships.

Now the Philippines in 2013 filed a case in the International Court in the Hague, insisting on its right to exploit the South China Sea waters in its 100 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, as defined in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. China did not accept to be in this case, which is their perfect right, but is questioning the legitimacy of the case. The court should have at that point abandoned the case, but they accepted it, and the ruling is expected for the end of April/beginning of May.  The Chinese Defense Ministry said that they have the absolute right to then declare an Air Defense Identification Zone.

Now at the Nuclear Summit in Washington, which just took place, President Xi in a discussion with President Obama, told Obama that China would not accept any behavior in the guise of freedom of navigation, that violates its sovereignty in this region. One day later, exactly one day later, the United States announced a new patrol near the disputed islands in the South China Sea, and Navy officials announced that they plan to conduct more and increasingly complex exercises in the future. So the United States is playing a chicken game against China, increasing the tension over violations of opposite claims, in the forefront [in anticipation of] of the Hague ruling, to create an atmosphere that then, they hope, China would not dare to set up an ADIZ.

But China already said that it will defend its rights in the South China Sea. So the question is, could there be a war between the United States and China over some relatively worthless rocks and reefs in the ocean? Could it be that the United States goes to a war with China on the Philippines’ behalf?

Obviously the South China Sea is of geographical significance for China, but the interest of the United States is geopolitical, and it is the same reasoning as in the TPP, to affirm the right to set the rules in Asia. The United States insists that they will defend a unipolar world, that they are the only superpower, and that they will not allow any other nation to meddle in that. The claim that Russia is only a regional power, which Obama did, is very absurd given the fact that Russia has a nuclear arsenal which is a complete strategic match to that of the United States. And Putin just demonstrated very brilliantly a military flank in Syria against ISIS, that Russia is absolutely needed if you want to have political solutions. Russia played a positive role in the P5+1 negotiations with Iran, and is now helping to end, and making possible, the end of the war in Syria.

There are many leaders in the world who have said, without Russia, you cannot solve existential problems, like terrorism, ISIS, the refugee crisis in Europe. And one should also be reminded that these territorial disputes in the South China Sea are the result of the imperial intention dating back to the Versailles Treaty and the Paris Peace Conference in the aftermath of that in 1919, whereby the former German colonies in the Pacific Islands north and south of the Equator, were given in part to Japan, which at that time caused a tremendous feeling of injustice in China, leading to the May 4th movement. And all the people in China thought the Versailles Treaty was a complete fraud, and as we know from European history, it laid the seeds for World War II.

Now the same game was repeated in the San Francisco Peace Conference after the Second World War, where John Foster Dulles arranged for China to be excluded, despite the fact that China has the highest casualty rate in Asia against the Japanese, and fought the longest. But the Western powers drew the map in Eastern Asia without China, and John Foster Dulles deliberately declared certain Asian frontier territories without owners, an old imperial trick to manipulate then future conflicts, as was the case with the Sykes-Picot Agreement for Southwest Asia, or the 1919 Trianon Treaty for the Balkans.

The fact is that the unipolar world has already ceased to exist. It is a fact that China is rising; the United States is losing its hegemony. China is already exporting much more technologies than the United States. It is educating far more scientists, engineers, and the word in the science community internationally is, if you want to get anything done in frontier science, the place to go is China.

So China, except for a couple of minor corrections in its stock market, is doing very, very well economically—and do not believe what the New York Times is trying to tell you every day. Because China has embarked in the policy of the New Silk Road, the Maritime Silk Road, the One Belt, One Road policy on huge infrastructure projects to connect all the countries of Eurasia through infrastructure development and high technology investments. It is so attractive that already 60 nations are cooperating with China. It has created, together with other BRICS countries, a completely alternative economic system—the AIIB, which has immediately  had 60 founding members, despite the United States making enormous pressure on everybody not to join it; the New Development Bank, which is already operating this year; The New Silk Road Fund and Maritime Silk Road Fund, and many other such institutions.  There is a tremendous attractiveness of this program of a New Silk Road in the spirit of the ancient Silk Road in all of Asia, who are now all talking about increasing Asian connectivity.

The investments of these new banks are going exactly into the areas which were denied for decades by the IMF and the World Bank—namely, in infrastructure—and all of these countries are thirsty and hungry for exactly these kinds of developments. Many countries have recently expressed interest in becoming transport hubs for the New Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road. Indonesia wants to become a hub. Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran. The New Silk Road is moving very, very rapidly in all of Eastern Europe. Just now, when President Xi Jinping was in Prague on a state visit to the Czech Republic, President Zeman praised the New Silk Road and emphasized the role of Prague, the golden city, to be the gateway between Europe and China. The 16+1 countries just met in Riga, and they also—these are the 16 East European and Central European countries—all want to be connected to the One Belt, One Road policy.

So this is moving very, very positively.

You contrast that with the trans-Atlantic sector, the too-big-to-fail banks, Wall Street and London, which are completely bankrupt, and we are in front of an immediate financial crash, much, much worse than what happened in 2008, where the entire two quadrillion outstanding derivatives could blow up any minute. Furthermore the so-called tools of the central banks no longer function. As a matter of fact, every time a central bank does something to correct the problem, it boomerangs and has the opposite effect, as in the case of the Bank of Japan, Norway, or the ECB. When they go to zero interest rates, or even negative interest rates, it furthers the deflationary collapse instead of stimulating the real economy.

Now how desperate the situation in the trans-Atlantic system is you can see by the fact that the head of the European Central Bank Draghi is now talking about helicopter money. Now that is, if you remember, an invention of Ben Bernanke—the idea that in order to avoid a meltdown of the entire financial system, you just fly helicopters over cities, who throw down money, as much as is needed to prevent a meltdown. Now this obviously has caused a complete uproar in Germany, because people in Germany remember what the hyperinflation of 1923 was all about.

Then look at the condition of Europe. The refugee crisis, which is not being discussed much, but the reality is that it’s the result of the wars conducted mostly by the United States and the British in the Middle East, wars which were all based on lies. Iraq—no weapons of mass destruction. The war against Libya was initiated by a lie in the UN Security Council that it would not be a war. Look at Afghanistan: was September 11 really as it was presented? Look at the situation in Yemen and in many African states.

The refugee crisis, which is the biggest humanitarian crisis probably since the end of the Second World War—unbelievable fates of people—has revealed that there is no European Union, because there is no union. There is no unity. There is no solidarity. You have now a situation where children are stuck behind barbed wire, and police are shooting at them, trying to get the back. And then there was this absolutely shameful deal between the EU and Turkey, and Turkey—which, according to documents just delivered to the UN Security Council, is still supporting ISIS.

In Germany politicians are saying, oh, now we have fewer refugees. Yeah, but at what price. They’re being deported on a grand scale from intern camps in Greece, and it is a complete disgrace. Even the UN Human Rights Commission said this is a complete violation of human rights. It violates the Geneva convention on refugees, and all the aid organizations have already left their jobs, because they say, under these conditions they cannot do it. For example, the Doctors without Borders, and many others.

So the world is clearly in a complete mess and disintegration condition, and what is the answer of the leading institutions of the trans-Atlantic sector? Well, they pulled just now a big rabbit out of the hat called the Panama Papers. Now, one year ago, an anonymous source—which is always dubious—gave to theSüddeutsche Zeitung 11.5 million documents, which contained forty years of data concerning the firm in Panama called Mossack Fonseca, which specializes in letterbox firms for the purpose of tax evasion. Now then the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists deployed for one year 400 reporters in 80 countries, financed by whom? By George Soros. And then targeting politicians and industry leaders and sportsmen and others.

Immediately, naturally, the focus was on Putin, even though his name is nowhere to be found in these documents, and Xi Jinping. The New York Times did not waste a day since the beginning [inaudible 27:00] this of  Xi Jinping.

Now, let’s look at this operation: What is this? Jürgen Mossack, one of the founders, his father was a member of the Hitler Waffen SS; Ramón Fonseca Mora, the other guy, was the ex-president of the Panameñista Party, a party founded by the open Hitler supporter Arnulfo Arias Madrid; and the son was actively involved in the overthrow of General Noriega. Now the old Mossack was a member of the Nazi Waffen SS, and then offered his services after the war, to the U.S. government as an informant. Now that is entirely the profile of the Dulles brothers’ famous rat line, by which they transported Nazis from Germany via the so-called rat line, to South America, to deploy them there for other purposes.

The focus on Xi Jinping is obviously especially ridiculous, because if there is one political leader in the world who is conducting an anti-corruption campaign in a completely ruthless fashion, then it is him. So, what is the purpose of this? Obviously, it’s part of the present trans-Atlantic hybrid warfare against Russia and China, with the aim to have regime change, by a variety of means: by color revolutions, by NGOs which are financed from foundations which are probably in this tax-exempt scheme; sanctions, and now the Panama Papers with the obvious hope to steer an uproar among their own populations.  And it almost worked in the case of the Icelandic President, where now people are in front of the residence of President Olafur Grimsson, but the m.o. of this is really not a new one. The way this has been functioning for a very long time is, you use certain assets owned by the governments, or secret services, and allow criminal operations and behavior to go on for a very long time. And then, at a convenient moment, you blow it up, and you cause a shake-up.

Now this was done very efficiently in the 1990s in Italy, with an operation called “Clean Hands” where you had a national juridical investigation into political corruption.  And then they blew it all up, and it caused the end of the so-called First Republic of Italy, because all the parties got involved.  And anybody who ever travelled to Italy knows, that the entire postwar system of Italy was based on a principle called “amici di amici.” You may not approve of it, but that’s what it was, that you couldn’t get a job done without some kickback, public works would always have some bribes, and the whole operation was called Tagentopoli, or in English, “Bribesville,” meaning these kickbacks for public works.  It Italy, at that time, it involved 5,000 public figures; half of the Italian parliament; more than 400 city and town councils were dissolved, and the annual bribe rate in the ’90s was estimated to be $4 billion.

Now, Bloomberg recently reported that the Brazilian “anti-corruption” campaign against Dilma Rousseff, one of the BRICS leaders, is based on the Italian model.  It is called “Operation Carwash.”

So what they do, is they operate by a system of plea bargains, turn mafia bosses into snitches, and that way, you can roll up the whole political system.  Now what comes out there is very interesting, because it reveals the total criminal character, of the entire trans-Atlantic financial system.  In the case of Mossack Fonseca, which is only the fourth largest of such firms, so one has to assume that there are many, many more such cases, it turns out that the HongShang bank [Honkong and Shanghai Banking Corp., HSBC] is responsible for 20% of these letterbox firms, and then comes UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland), Crédit Suisse; almost all the German banks are involved.

So what do you do when you have such a problem? The only solution to stop this, is, obviously, what Franklin D. Roosevelt did in 1933, when he declared Glass-Steagall with separation of the banks, by simply bankrupting the fraudulent parts and that is exactly what is required today:  That you need to separate the banks, protect the commercial banks, and close down the derivatives, the toxic waste paper; and then, you need a Pecora Commission to look into who committed what crime, and for what purpose.

Now, the funny thing is that when the British cabinet member [Chancellor of the Exchequer] Osborne was asked, what about the fact that the father of [Prime Minister] Cameron is also now a target in the Panama Papers, he said, “oh that is a private matter”!  You know, so it is quite amazing what nerve these people have.

So, the FDR solution for the United States.  Then, we need to put down all of these crises, and I think it is absolutely feasible, but one has to take the path as it was now demonstrated by the negotiations between Secretary of State Kerry and Foreign Minister of Russia Lavrov, in the case of Syria.  There has to be a political agreement.

But then, you need a huge development program.  You need to do exactly what President Xi Jinping offered when he was in Iran, namely, to extend the New Silk Road, the One Belt, One Road policy into the entire Middle East.  Because you will not stop terrorism by dropping more bombs!  If you launch more drones and drop more bombs, one every killed terrorist you will create 100 new ones who hate the West even more than before.

So this is no solution. Obviously, ISIS has to be fought, and has to be gotten rid of, but you need a development perspective for the entire region, from Afghanistan to the Middle East, to the Mediterranean, from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf. And we need to have a war on the desert:  We have to have new, fresh water, which is eminently possible with peaceful nuclear energy and desalination of large amounts of ocean water. We need to build new cities, agriculture, industry, so that the people of Syria, and Iraq, and Afghanistan, and Yemen, and Tripoli in Libya, and many, many African countries, that they have a future!

Why can we not take the offer of Xi Jinping to enter into a “win-win” cooperation with the large neighbors of the Middle East, Russia, China, India, Iran, Egypt, and build up the Middle East in a Marshall Plan/New Silk Road fashion.  The only reason why I’m mentioning the Marshall Plan, is because it reminds people that you can rebuild war-torn regions with a crash program.  I know that China doesn’t want to use this word, because the Marshall Plan has such a Cold War connotation; but we need to have a New Silk Road perspective.

Now, the same goes obviously to settle the Ukraine crisis. You probably heard that yesterday, the Dutch people voted in a referendum against the EU Association Agreement for Ukraine. This is very, very good:  Because it means that this horrible EU is one step further to its dissolution, because if you remember, it was the EU Association Agreement which was supposed to be signed by Yanukovych in late 2013, in the summit in

that started the whole Ukraine crisis.  Because Yanukovych, in the last moment realized, that it would have totally have given the territory of Ukraine access for NATO; it would have totally made possible economic warfare against Russia, because of the border and the agreements between Ukraine and Russia.  So he did not sign it in the very last moment.  And then, you had the color revolution, the Maidan, all of these things develop.  And if you look at the chronology of these events, it was not Russia acquiring the Crimea; Russia in every single instance, reacted to a provocative action by NATO and by the EU, including a fascist coup in February 2014 [in Ukraine].

So if you want to solve this problem now? Well, this is now the idea moment, because the EU Association Agreement just detonated, and it cannot be implemented, even if only 32% of the Dutch people voted on it, there were 64% in favor, the government in Holland does not dare to go along with it, because there are many people in 70% who did not vote who don’t like the EU, because remember Holland and France were the only two countries who voted against the EU Constitution in 2005.

So the ferment against this dictatorship which the EU has become, is just too big, and the lament today in the European media about the failure of this agreement is just absolutely loud and noisy.

OK. Let’s use this situation, where, and if there’s one veto, this agreement cannot go through, let’s use it to say: “Stop the confrontation with Russia!”  Extend the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union of Russia into one Eurasian area from the Atlantic to the Sea of China.  Let’s extend the Silk Road perspective, to include Ukraine and develop it!  Because Ukraine is economically absolutely finished!  The people are living a horrendous life, as the result of that happened in the last three years.

Let’s do the same thing for Africa.  Do people really think that we can sit there, and the 1% of the rich become richer and richer, by means which we now get a better window with the Panama Papers, and the majority of people lose everything.  The middle class become the poor, the poor have shortened lives; the gap between rich and poor worldwide is becoming bigger and bigger; and 1 billion people go hungry every day.

Klaus Schwab, the director of the Davos Economic Forum a couple of months ago said, that if the present trends do not change, it is expected that 1 billion people will come as refugees to Europe in the next years.  Well, if it comes to that, and you have the effort to use NATO and Frontex, military ships and fire at the refugees to try to deter them, what remains then of the “European values”? What about our humanism?  What about any value?

So why don’t we take the New Silk Road  and say “well, we have now a very attractive economic model which is already functioning already very well in 60 nations of the world, and let’s join hands, the United States, and Russia, and China, and European nations, and develop Africa.  This is the moment, where we have to have a grand vision, to change the plight of so many people.

Now, in Germany, there is one minister, the Development Minister Gerd Müller who traveled a lot in Southwest Asia and in Africa, and he is mentioning now, which is a big step forward, every time, “we need a Marshall Plan, we need to develop these countries, because otherwise, they will bring all their problems to Europe.”

And let’s convince Japan that it is not in their favor to be drawn into military adventures against China.  Japan is a country, very much like Germany which has almost no raw materials, and achieved a very high living standard because of high rates in science and technology, and exporting.  And for Japan, the natural export market is all of Asia, is Africa, and they should be part of such a new world economic system; and not go the way the Bank of Japan is now going to zero interest rates, negative interest rates, and plunging deeper and deeper into the deflation.

The United States:   Is the United States so much above the need for a New Silk Road?  I mean, if you travel through either roads from Washington to New York, or even on the roads in New York, I don’t understand why the citizens are not in an uprising against these roads!  I mean, they are so bad, that the roads at the end of G.D.R., East German before it collapsed, they were smooth compared to what you have here!  So, what the United States would obviously profit from is to join the New Silk Road, to build infrastructure!  China built 20,000 km of fast train system by the end of last year, and they plan to have 50,000 km by the year 2025 or 2030, in any case, a very short period of time.  And the United States has built how many kilometers or miles of fast train?  Zero!

So what we propose, is that the United States, rather than wasting its industrial capacity in an ever-growing military-industrial complex, trying to militarize the whole world, you can transform these industries and build fast trains, build maglev trains, or import the Chinese fast train system — which is excellent.  It’s smooth, it’s quick, it doesn’t shake at all, like the European fast trains.  So build 50,000 miles of fast train in the United States!  Fight the desert in the Southwest of the United States!  Build a couple of new cities, you know: large parts of the United States are completely undeveloped.  Basically, after Teddy Roosevelt, no new cities were built in the west.  Build some “smart cities,” modern cities based on modular systems, but make beautiful cities!  That would be a real challenge, to build beautiful cities, and not more Houstons.  [applause]

So, we have put this program on the table: The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge.

And the reason why we have proposed a development for the entire world, is because also, multipolarity is not the answer to a unipolar world.  Because the idea that you have multipoles, that you have groups of nations which still maintain their interests against other groups of nations, still has the seed of geopolitics.  And geopolitics is what caused two world wars in the 20th century, and if we would come to a new world war, it would be the annihilation of all of mankind.  Because the idea that you have a limited war somewhere in the Pacific or somewhere in Europe, is complete bunk, and all the military experts we talked to, top-level military  in Europe, the United States and elsewhere, are convinced that it is the nature of the existence of thermonuclear weapons, that it would come to a general, global war, if you start a war somewhere.

What we need to have is the replacement of geopolitics through a new paradigm; a new paradigm which must be as different as was the Middle Ages separated from what is called “modern times.”  The Middle Ages being, scholasticism, superstition, Flagellants, people just going crazy, believing in Aristotle; and when the Renaissance happened with Nikolaus of Cusa and some of the great thinkers of the Italian Renaissance, they designed a completely new paradigm which defined the role of the individual in a completely different way; it established the sovereign nation-state devoted to the common good for the first time; it made scientific and artistic progress possible in ways absolutely unknown before.

And we need, today, a completely new paradigm.  If we cannot lift our thinking above the present, petty, so-called self-interest, so-called “national interest” or interest, really, of the big corporations and Wall Street, then we will not make it as a human species.  What we need is an image of man, which is man as the only creative species, in our knowledge so far.  In the Chinese Confucian philosophy, there is the word, or the notion of ren, which is almost the same thing as in Christian humanism, the word agapë, of love.  That you have to have love and harmonious relation with your family, your neighbor, your nation and the international community of nations.

Now, the human species has come a very long way in a very short period of time.  If you think about the last 10,000 years, we have produced quite a number of great minds:  Confucius, Plato, Mencius, Nikolaus of Cusa, Kepler, Leibniz, Bach, Schiller, Beethoven, Tagore, Vernadsky, Einstein, just to name a few; and that is how people should be.

Now, you say, “these are people who are so extraordinary, they only come one in a century”; but I don’t think so.  I think that if we go now for the kind of reform which we are talking about, and you would eliminate poverty, that no more child, and no more person on the entire planet would be deprived of his or her basic needs.  I think if you then give all the children of this planet a universal education, to give them access to the great discoveries of the past, that you teach them Classical art, that you give them the kind of morality which used to be associated with Christian humanism, or with Buddhism, or with Confucianism, or other great cultures of this planet, well, I think the elimination of hunger and poverty would do the best for human rights you can do!  Because being poor and being hungry does not allow you to exercise your human rights.

So if we go on the other road, and say, let’s have a plan of global development, let’s stop geopolitical wars, let’s join hands to work together, so that every child of the future can have a perspective to become a scientist, to become a teacher, an artist, to become basically an astronaut or some other beautiful thing developing the human mind. Then, I think what we need, is, we have to go back to our own high traditions of our own cultures.  The Americans have to become republicans again, like Benjamin Franklin, or the Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy.  I think  in Germany, we need to go back to the German Classics.  In other nations, we have high points of culture, which we have to revive.

And then we have to relate to each other from the standpoint of the actual highest form of our culture, and relate to the highest form of the culture of the other nation.

And then we will have a human world.

I think we should not give up on the idea that mankind is human! And that is what we have to fight for right now.  So I think that, if we do that, and to speak in modern English, the “new normal” will be that every person will be a genius. [applause]


Helga was followed by former U.S. Attorney General (1966-67) Ramsey Clark, who wove his own long experience into an account of recent world history which underlined the alternative to the war policies of most of the post-Kennedy U.S. Administrations.

The next speaker was a truly unique figure from China, that nation’s leading professor of journalism and the leader of much else as well, Li Xiguang. Professor Li has led a decades-long pilgrimage on behalf of the Silk Road,—across Central Asia, and down each of the three North-South routes, and back again. He has led no fewer than 500 of his students on this pilgrimage with him since 1990, and has written two volumes on the New Silk Road. Although his goals for the Silk Road are not religious goals—they are the same as those of the LaRouche movement—Professor Li models himself on the great Chinese cultural heroes, the Buddhist monks Xuanzang (602-664) and his predecessor Faxian (337-422). Both made extensive and arduous trips along the Silk Road, and brought back the first real knowledge of much of world civilization to China, including most especially Sanskrit language and culture and Buddhist scriptures in the original.

Xuanzang spent no less than 16 years on this voyage, and returned with 600 Indian texts. In 646, at the Tang-Dynasty Emperor’s request, he completed his 12-volume work, “Great Tang Records on the Western Regions,” which has become one of the primary sources for the study of medieval Central Asia and India, and the basis for the Sixteenth Century novel “Journey to the West,” one of the Four Great Classical Chinese Novels.

The afternoon session which highlighted the space program, which Kesha Rogers opened with a vivid presentation, will be reported later. The climax of that session was a question-and-answer session with Lyndon LaRouche by Skype connection. LaRouche led most of the questions back to the cardinal question that changes in the physical system, and in the future of mankind, are created by the thinking human mind itself; no animal can do this. Mankind is organized by his own acts of this type; it is these which lead either to failure or to success. This is the mind of the true scientist, of which Einstein is an example. But this account is only a characterization; the actual answers should be studied in detail.

panel-II_0

Attendance exceeded 200, not including the core membership. About a dozen foreign countries were represented from Europe, Asia and Africa, whether through diplomats, cultural associations or in other ways. Many musicians attended, and at least five people from the Brooklyn church where we performed the Messiah during Easter. This may have been the largest conference we have ever held.

Panel II Q&A Session with Lyndon LaRouche

DENNIS SPEED:  So, the first thing I’d like to do, is go to Lyn, since we haven’t heard him live; and he’s been listening the entire time.  So, do we have an audio on Lyn?  OK, we’re trying to bring you up here.

LYNDON LAROUCHE:  Aah, I am now speaking.

SPEED:  OK, very good.  So, you just want us to go right to questions, Lyn?  Or do you have anything you’d like to say at this point?

LAROUCHE:  No, just let the questions out; I think that’s the best way to do it.  I’ve been listening to things all the way through; now I want to hear some from you.

SPEED:  OK, so anybody who has questions, there are two microphones here in the center.  Just come down; and let’s just take the first question.

Q:  I have a question for Dr. Hsu.  Dr. Hsu, I understand terrestrial photovoltaic is actually, if you calculate all the energy required to manufacture panels, that it’s actually a net energy loss; that it takes more energy to manufacture the panels than you ever recover from the solar energy captured and converted to electricity in a terrestrial photovoltaic.  Are the efficiencies of space-based solar better than that?  And can you also talk to, to the extent you have knowledge of the terrestrial photovoltaic, is there optimism about the levels of conversion, or the efficiencies of conversion such that we might at some point have a net energy payback?  Or will it continue to be the case that the more solar we get, the more old solar — fossil fuels and things — we have to burn to get that, and that’s actually a negative result?

DR. HSU:  To answer your first question about terrestrial solar, there’s a lot of study, to answer your question, the reality is the efficiency of the solar cell has continued to improve.  And 5-10 years ago, you can hardly see 15%;  I talk about the solar cell efficiency.  And right now, you can easily see over 19%, even 20% poly-crystalline based solar cells. There’s also new type of material we call the synfilm; and there’s a different type of technology.  And those are not energy intensive to produce.  There’s First Solar, a U.S. company, and they produce the synfilm solar cells right now.  Based on their claim, their study exceeded 20-21; it’s approaching the 25% range.  So, as production process techniques improve, you’re going to see continued improvement on the efficiency.  So, the higher the efficiency, the better you return.  And also, sometimes people don’t realize the poly-crystalline solar cells, mono-crystalline solar cells, are made of dirt basically; silicon sand.  So, we understand 40% of Earth’s composition is this silicon sand, so they can really be made dirt cheap.  So, as technology improves, that question will be obvious to be answered.  There’s a lot of study.  One report came out of the NRL — the National Renewable Laboratory — in Colorado; and it has some dedicated study on the payback of terrestrial solar.

As regarding your question on space solar; the study based on the late 1970 NASA/DOE, it’s contracted to Boeing study.  The report at that time, the solar component, solar elements is based on, of course, the old poly-silicon technology.  But right now, I was in close communication with the Swiss Institute of Technology; a professor in his laboratory has achieved more than 23% efficiency on synfilm.  Those are not very hard to produce, and also are radiation-proof and can be utilized in a space environment.  I recommend there’s a study group called the Solar High Study Group; it’s a group of people like myself and NASA retired engineers and some of the people who were project managers in the Apollo era back in the 1960s.  It’s a volunteer group; they probably should report answering like safety, conversion efficiency, payback, and cost of space solar.  So, a lot of countries already have programs for doing that; like the governments of Japan and China, and also NASA has some small programs they’re working on, on the transmission, we call WPT technology — wireless power transmission.  So, it’s called solarhigh.org; and if you google the material, you can see. Originally, I was going to give a much detailed, technical presentation; but on the flight from Houston I changed my mind. I said probably for this audience, maybe I should talk first and most; a lot of people haven’t heard about the space solar concept.  So, I have another presentation I did not really select to present it here.

SPEED:  Let me just say the following:  What I want to do is, I want to take some questions for Mr. LaRouche, because as I said, we’ve heard from people here.  Let’s do that first, and then other questions that follow.  So, does anyone have a question directly for Lyn?

Q:  Good afternoon, Mr. LaRouche.  My name is R— K—; I’m from Old Towne, Maine.  And I’ve been following you for decades; and I’m glad you’re still here with us.  God bless you.  I’m 65 years old, but when I was going to school in 1971 in Wichita State University, a lot of things were happening in education. And that was the beginning of where we started studying the future.  Our textbook in that class about future change was about the dynamics of change.  And keep in mind that 20-year olds in that class were told that in 20 years’ time, we were going to have 4-day work weeks; gerontology work as a job creator; leisure activities — people should major in those, so that when people get older …  Pollution problems were going to be solved; everything was going to be great.  Twenty years later, I’m in a class at Bangor at the University of Maine, and I heard the same thing.  Well, now I’m 40 years older, and I’m not 20 years old anymore and naïve; and I’ve had a little experience.  Greed and corruption stops it every time.  And when we’re talking about talking about greed and corruption with all of this — space and whatever — it comes down to the petrodollar Ponzi scheme scam that has been foisted on this world.  And everybody who takes part in that, people think oil is just fuel; it’s textiles, it’s pesticides, herbicides, it’s pharmaceuticals, it’s everything. Everybody who’s making money off of that system wants it to continue; especially the ones at the top.  All this fighting that’s going on, the gas lines that wanted to go across Syria; blow Syria up.  The Libya, the gold dinar —

SPEED:  Excuse me, could you ask a question?

Q: cont’d:  They wanted to have a real, solid currency. Murder him.  If you don’t want to trade with the petrodollar, murder Saddam.  It just goes on and on.  We have to —

SPEED:  Excuse me, could ask a question?

Q: cont’d:  — attack the corruption of the Federal Reserve petrodollar Ponzi scheme scam.

SPEED:  Excuse me.

Q: cont’d:  The central banks are private banks; people don’t realize that, and we don’t talk about it.

SPEED:  Sir, you’re simply speaking.  Would you ask him a question?  [Q2 continues on, but mike is cut off.] Let me simply make a — hold on; let me just say something here.  Hold on.  Let me simply say something here.  We’ll have to shut the microphone down if you continue.

Let me say something to the audience, please.  This is a very serious gathering.  It’s not a circus.  If you have a question, please ask it; and ask it respectfully and be short, and hopefully have a thought when you get up to the microphone. Then, allow the speakers to respond.  OK, so Lyn?

LAROUCHE:  Yes, first of all, on this whole problem that was presented; what he was presenting in the course of his blast. First of all, these considerations are really irrelevant; that is, the types of considerations that he has defined are absolutely irrelevant.  But it’s based on an assumption which is a false assumption about the nature of mankind.  Now actually, mankind is a unique specimen; unlike any other known living creature.  Because only the human mind can create a new system of the physical system; and the physical system is to be determined by the action of the mental system.  That’s the way science actually works.  There are other interpretations, but they are mistaken.  It is the human mind, and the human mind alone, that is capable of generating a new physical state in the practice of the Solar System or any other such system.  Therefore, the idea of trying to make deductions from phenomena is a mistake.  There are relationships of phenomena to these kinds of things, but they are understood only in terms of their being an effect; not as being a cause.

Q:  Hi, Lyn; this is D— from Montreal.  I’ve been a full-time member for five years.  I just wanted to, based on what the organization has accomplished in terms of bringing people together in different parts of the world, bringing governments together; there was mention of the LaRouche Youth Movement, which to my knowledge was started in the year 2000 or something.  And we’ve obviously observed that we’re not getting younger, and the LaRouche Youth Movement is gotten older; but there’s always a new generation.  There’s always a new set of younger people.  The idea of who will be the next LaRouche Youth Movement generation, or whatever metamorphosis that takes; if you could say something about that.  And I just hearken back to what I know to be the history of when you started giving classes at Columbia University; where you were going to the school and actually addressing the students.  But with the idea — and I would give credit to the person if I remembered who it was — the idea that although we’re organizing people and we’re organizing them; it’s as important to see the people we’re organizing as organizers. And rather than us organizing them, we’re a tool, we’re a resource that they can come to, to help them organize in the schools, etc.  So, if you could say something on that.

LAROUCHE:  It’s wrong; there are aspects to that thing that are relevant.  But the principle that you present is wrong.  The character is, the humanity of mankind, is that the human individual, who has a voluntary creative power, in order to understand processes, is the individual, who actually efficientlydefines the destiny of the human species; not just in one person, but in terms, of the way of the practice of mankind among persons.  The usual interpretation of cause and effect in human behavior is wrong; it is the human mind’s creative powers, and the human mind has a very specific kind of creative powers.  And the creative powers of mankind are the source of the discovery of the principles of discovery, in themselves.

Otherwise, no; it doesn’t work.  You get all kinds of recipes, all kinds of stories; but none of them really work when you go down and test the matter in detail.

Q:  I’d just like to kind of bring up the subject of global warming and climate change.  Just in this sense:  I wonder if you, Mr. LaRouche, would agree that fossil fuels are comparatively — compared to where we are now — a very primitive form of energy generation.  And that as the population of the Earth increases, it’s hardly better than burning wood; we will simply not be able to sustain an advancing scientific civilization based on burning fossil fuels.  I think maybe you might agree with that, and that instead we have to look at the energy flux density; and say that we have to move on to something more advanced, such as nuclear fission, fusion, etc.  And how about something like this?  Pollution really is a big problem. Over there, they’re using coal fuels over in Beijing, and the smog is so horrible people can hardly live.  So, we do need to move on to something more advanced.

SPEED:  OK, so your question is about fossil fuels?

Q: cont’d:  Yes, but my other question is, can we avoid conflating that with this bizarre theory of global warming?  In other words, even if global warming is false — which I believe it is — nevertheless, don’t we need to progress to higher forms of energy generation?

LAROUCHE:  No, that’s not the way it works.  Take the case of human behavior first of all; and that simplifies what the issues are possibly.  First of all, all creativity of mankind is generated from the primary source of the creative powers of the human individual; not from some external source.  See, that’s what the difference is; what we call creativity in human behavior is the basis for the idea of what the principle of the human mind is.  The human mind is driven by a noetic power; that is, a creative power which is independent of the individual per se. But which some individuals are capable of discovering and using to develop new things.

For example, Einstein.  Now, Einstein is the only man who has succeeded so far in the past 100 years, in really understanding what is the basis of human behavior.  Einstein was unique in this respect; and in fact, in the recent 100 years, it has become obvious that he was right and the others were wrong. You see, the way society is organized, mankind is organized by mankind’s own actions; it is mankind’s generated actions that create the failures or successes of human behavior.  It is not something which you accept and experience by something that flew by you.  Very few people understand this; most people are wrong. They don’t understand how the human mind works.  The human mind is a creative process which is unique; and it is the human mind’s insight to principles, the discoveries of principles by the human mind, which creates the progress of mankind.

SPEED:  Very good.  That’s what I like to see; a man who’s been completely confused by the right answer.  [laughter]  We have another question over here.

Q:  Mr. LaRouche, I come from Queens.  My question is, what is the future of magnetic energy?

SPEED:  Negative energy?

Q:  Magnetic energy.

LAROUCHE:  This is not the way to look at it.  Everything that mankind does, accomplishes, everything that mankind as a species does, which no animal does.  See, no animal can replicate the role of the human mind; no animal can do that if the animal is functional.  And in fact, all of the greatest creative forces in the history of mankind are governed by those principles.  But the idea that you’re getting a practical approach to solutions is a mistake.  For example, the other kind works; it bounces.  You have people who are intrinsically themselves creative people; they discover principles.  They discover the experience of a principle, which may be their own achievement.  If they’re teased adequately, they will become more excited about what they have discovered; they will then turn around and try to lead an audience to recognize what they have discovered as a creative principle.  Now it’s the people who think creatively, successfully, who actually make everything good about the human species; the others tend to be not so good.

Q:  Hi, Lyn.  This is Ian Brinkley here, from Boston.  I was just thinking about how you’ve been responding to some of the questions here this afternoon, and it made me think of a particular problem which everybody who tries to engage in effective political organizing runs into.  Which is a certain kind of fear and anxiety which blocks the intention to convey a truthful idea when you see that you’re encountering an individual or a group of people who don’t understand something which they really need to understand.

LAROUCHE:  Yeah, most people have that problem; most people do have that problem.  And when you want to find out where the solution comes to, you have to look at the one case which is the most brilliant case of all:  Einstein.  Every physicist except Einstein was wrong on the crucial issues.  And only recently have people begun to admit that Einstein was right on the question of gravity.  So therefore, what you’re talking about is a principle of gravity; and it’s a principle of gravity whose characteristic is that it’s peculiar to mankind.  Einstein made discoveries which changed the course of the human species and change the course of history.  His mind did it.  It is the human mind, which when it is capable, which generates all of the great achievements of humanity.  And it’s often a minority of the human species which has the power to do that.

Q7:  Hello, Lyndon; this is A— from Montreal.  We all know that there’s a strong anti-growth movement; and they’re scared that if we use up all our material, we will gradually die.  And we know — Jason Ross gave us a great presentation on how our creativity can actually create new resources; like before nuclear power, it was not readily available.  We discovered that.  But this anti-growth movement will tell us, “Well, maybe our creativity will fail at one point.  Is there a limit to our creativity?  Is there one point where we will not be able to discover new things to replace our new technologies?”  To that, I usually answer, “Well, I prefer to believe that we will continue to discover; and I prefer not abandoning.”  But I wanted to know what would you say?  Do you have a better answer to that?

LAROUCHE:  I would say the point is, the truth of the matter is collectively, individually, all useful developments — expressions of the human mind — are peculiar to the human mind. Anything that’s valid, belongs to that category of human mind. Now what happens, this is not a perfect process; because you have a lot of people who make a lot of mistakes.  So therefore, the answer is, the effective result, the competent resultof the human mind’s work is to inspire a creativity which can be generated only by the human individual mind.

SPEED:  Let me just take a moment and ask if there’s anyone from the panel, who has anything that they want to add or say.

JASON ROSS:  I can say something; I hope you can hear me OK. One specific thing on — I’m at a real press conference, now. So, ladies and gentlemen, to answer the one thing about whether we’re going finish discovering things or not; I think that this goes to a theme that Mr. LaRouche has been bringing up a lot recently over the past couple of years.  Which is the approach of Bertrand Russell, and the 1900 shift in science; where, away from discovering totally new things, the practice of science increasingly became — at least officially — put in terms of “Can you derive your new thought in terms of what we already know?”  Where, what Russell tried to do in mathematics, to turn mathematics into logic, got also applied then to science in general.  And the opportunity to say, “Hey, we just don’t know everything yet; there is more to know,” got put aside.  Bertrand Russell had said in the 1890s, implicitly, that space couldn’t possibly be curved; and that properties of matter couldn’t be any different when you get into the very small.  So, in the 1890s, he said that the big discoveries of the 1900s would never happen; he said that there couldn’t be a quantum, and that there couldn’t be relativity.

So, in terms of the example of Einstein as having made a major discovery that overthrew what existed before; that didn’t add to it, but overthrew what had currently existed.  I think what he did as a personality was very important for thinking through what should science be?

KESHA ROGERS:  I think what is important to think about in this discussion that we’re having right now is, that we’re not dealing with a practical political debate.  It’s not about up and down votes, and opinions and whether or not you agree or disagree on a political view.  But you have to understand that this conference and this panel in particular, is so important, there’s very dividing issues on this panel, because Mr. LaRouche had something much more fundamental, on the question of, this is a human debate!  And I just think about the fact that you take Krafft Ehricke, and I mentioned him earlier, had a very profound concept of this idea of closed world system, versus an open world system.  And right now we’re still debating and living in a closed world system, that cannot achieve the type of creative goals and breakthroughs, and which is necessary for mankind to foster its true creative potential.  That’s what you have to get at.  So if you don’t think your questions are being answered, it’s because you are still stuck in that closed system, and you have to get out of it! [applause]

And so, when I called for a space — and I hope to accomplish this — an international space panel, I wanted to take up this very fight, this very question that doesn’t exist in our political arena right now!  And I ask the scientists, where are the politicians?  They are not responding to real science; that’s why I’m up here.  That’s why Mr. LaRouche and I are collaborating and working on this fight.

And so, just the last thing I want to say, is, Mr. LaRouche is bringing up the genius of Einstein, and he more recently talked about the creative genius of Brunelleschi, and I’d like for him to expound on that a little bit more.  Because when we’re talking about the process of creating these new cities, beautiful cities, creating a commitment to space, I think that’s the example we have to use.  And the point being, is, Mr. LaRouche is talking about fostering a conception which most people don’t think of, most people don’t think of themselves as having, which is, genius, being genius, creating genius, having your children become genius.  You can’t do that in this society!  It doesn’t foster it.  And we have to do that here, today. [applause]

TOM WYSMULLER: I could piggyback on something Jason talked about.  He talked about Bertrand Russell saying that basically most of the science is behind us.  When Einstein applied for a job at the patent office, and he worked as a patent clerk for a while, his boss told him, “there’s no future here, because everything that’s going to be invented already has.”  [laughter] So — that’s the truth.

Now, these days, you’re hearing a lot of stuff on the climate, and I want to address one of the questioners, that “the science is settled”!  Well, guess what?  It’s not settled! We’re getting new data every day about climate!  We’re learning things, we’re learning relationships that we didn’t know.  And you need tolook at the data.  And that’s one of the things that NASA’s been pretty helpful in, is provided the data.  It’s the people who areinterpreting it, and saying that there’s no questions left to ask, that are on the wrong side of that issue.

So, keep your minds open, keep your target toward Mars, and I do want to apologize:  because I was trying to cut my presentation short, I didn’t tell you how to avoid the parking ticket.  [laughter]  But! What I have in the back window of my car is a sticker and it says, “Get Your Ass to Mars!”  [laughter] I was overtime in a parking zone in New York City, they have alternate side of the street parking;  and the policeman’s walking up behind the car, looks at the sticker; he’s about to write me a ticket.  But then he engages in a conversation about it, and he finds out why I had the sticker there.  And he didn’t give me a ticket.

Q:  Hi, my name is A—.  I feel very honored to be here. I’m from Brooklyn.  Something that I do want to say that’s always stuck very close to me, was, an instructor once said to me, while studying Buddhism, “to a beginner, there are many possibilities, but to an expert there are few.”

Now I’m a beginner, and I’d like to keep a beginner’s mind. I know nothing; I come open, but something I did come to understand from NASA’s data, is that there is space junk.  For the past 60 years, we have been throwing manmade junk into space. Is there a way to pick up where we left off and make use and harness this space junk?

LAROUCHE:  Science.  Actual, efficient science!  And you may not be able to get a perfect correction of what the scientific principle is, but you can get closer and closer to it by experiencing your own errors, in judgment.

But the point is, nonetheless, that it is the human individual mind which is the only competent authority for solving these problems.  Now, some people are not as efficient in making these discoveries or development, but nonetheless, the human being is not an animal.  And the usual interpretation of human behavior, is based on the presumption, that mankind is an animal.  And that’s when the mistakes are made.

Q:  I completely agree by the way, with Lyndon LaRouche about the human mind.  But for the same reason, I don’t understand why such names is Tesla, for example, who is at least, maybe in my eyes the same level as Einstein; the great inventor of free energy.  Nobody spoke about, by the way, nobody spoke about numerous free energies, carry energy; we never hear about it.  The latest has to do with cold fusion and [inaudible 37.47] — you know, my memory’s not very good about it.  It’s a major breakthrough, but nobody mentioned it.  And I don’t know why, because, although it’s not very widely publicized, but it’s accessible.  I mean the majority of these guys  — same destiny: two or three people appeared in the whole — [crosstalk] against the United States of America, and they can be put in prison unless they turn over the discoveries.  [inaudible] turned over, and then they were closely watched and maybe something could happen to them.

SPEED:  Excuse I think we’re going to have to have your question repeated so we can all understand it.

DIANE SARE:  You’re asking about the cold fusion?

Q: [follow-up] Cold fusion is not basically it, but that was not mentioned either.  But there are so many new and newer inventions which were mentioned by LaRouche, and you know, people may believe that that’s all that’s available, that was presented

SARE:  I think he’s asking about many inventions that have been discovered but have not been made available because there’s a kind of Gestapo that prevents this from being allowed to be known.

Is that the idea?  Yeah.

Q: [follow-up] And among them is Tesla’s inventions…

LAROUCHE:  I don’t think in a functional way, this is not a proper question.  But however, there are cases where the individual who’s trying to follow something, may not be able to make the efficient connection between the two facts of relationship.

But all creativity, of mankind, that is of mankind as a social process, is based on a principle which is unique to the human individual mind.  Now some people don’t have an adequate development, of the human mind, but if they’re educated properly they can.  The case of Einstein is clear.  Einstein is, as you know,  an entire century has passed; Einstein has proven that his way of thinking, on the basis of his way of thinking, — not on the basis of some design, but on the basis of his way of thinking, made a discovery, which has proven and upset everybody.

So the point is, you have to understand that the source of creative powers of the human individual, lies within the human individual not within that nature.

SPEED:  Let me say before we go to the next question; someone on the dais here, pointed out that questions begin with words like, “who, what, why” [laughter], “which?”  You know, the problem of the age of Donald Trump has apparently visited the United States with a vengeance!  So, please:  Use the interrogative when you come to the microphone!  Thank you.

Q:  Mr. LaRouche, my name is K— S—, I’m from Baltimore, Maryland.  I was really overwhelmed by [Egyptian Consul who spoke in the morning panel] Mr. Farouk, and, Egypt, and the way they handled getting into the Land-Bridge thing.  Why can’t we do that as Americans?  Start our own fund, instead of waiting for the United States to turn around and say, “let’s get on board?”  Why can’t we do this like Egypt did [in financing the New Suez Canal] and tell the United States or our government to back out and let us just take it on ourselves?

LAROUCHE:  Well, you know the problem is, most of the members of the establishment in the United States today, are crooks.  And they have strong opinions!  And they believe in those opinions, or they pretend to believe in those opinions. And they do it, and they’re scattered all over the place.

So you’ll need something a little bit better than that.  And you’ve got to understand one thing:  The question is, is the mind of a scientist — specifically a scientist — is the mind of a scientist, or an especially good scientist, is his opinion or her opinion, is it or is it not, the source of the discovery of a principle which is otherwise not discovered?  That’s the issue.

Now, some people are better at that business and others are less good at that principle, but that’s the principle. The entirety of mankind’s success, as mankind, depends upon the creative powers, specific to some specific, individual human beings, —  or else they’re wrong!  That’s your alternative.

The medicine that is presented, is it correct or is it not? And all the important things in science, all the important things in human individual knowledge, depend upon the validity of these kinds of discoveries.  Without that, maybe we’ll get accidentally lucky or something, that does happen;  but the question is, when it comes to an actual principle, the creative principle, an efficiently creative principle, is actually generateduniquely by the mind of a human individual.  Now that individual may make mistakes; but the question of that individual’s ability, to make a discovery of that type, is what’s crucial. And some people are good at it; some of them are not perfect at it.  But the whole basis of the human process of human progress, depends upon that principle.  Otherwise, you’ve got nothing but animals!

SPEED:  We have 15 minutes left for questions, so please be questionable.  Try to state very clearly what is on your alleged mind.  [laughter]

Q: I’m very questionable.  This is more of a social scientific question, I guess.  We have many enemies to genius, and you’ve come up against your share in your lifetime, so I guess this is more of a social science question in terms of, do you have any insight, or principle we might use to overcome this fear-based life that we were brought up in? I mean, where we’ve seen genius thwarted time again.  So we’re here to bring something home where we can begin to instigate change. Any insights on that?

LAROUCHE:  The only insight is, that the educational system of the United States is lousy.  It could be improved!

Q:  Hi, Mr. LaRouche, I’m A— S— from Baltimore, Maryland. I totally agree with your creative moment and the individual. What is your position on synchronization of individual creative effort [crosstalk] in terms of a mastermind community?

LAROUCHE:  Oh, the problem is what happens is often we’ll find, we don’t know which end starts first sometimes.  You sometimes get a child who turns out to be a genius, and that’s a discovery.  And then you find somebody who is supposedly a leading scientist who’s a bum!  So therefore, you have to understand that there are categories that you have to learn to be familiar with, in order to discern which person is probably likely right, or at least right to have an opinion.

And that, the important thing, it’s very important for all mankind, to have access to human minds which are able to deliver maybe not just from the start, but from somewhere in the process; who are able to actually understand something which is tantamount to an original human principled discovery.  That’s what the whole thing is based upon.  That’s what every scientist does who’s competent.  The scientist will work and sweat and do all these kinds of things they do, in order to achieve something which is truth.  And what they’re trying to do is understand what the truth is of the matter.

And the whole system, of success of society, and cultures as such, depends upon the ability of some people, to make progress in discovery of human principles, absolute human principles, which are uniquely human.  In other words you cannot fake it; you cannot fake that. You cannot fake any kind of principle; you have to actually work, and fight your way through and find out, what the truth is.

And Einstein, for example, is an ideal example of the kind of person in society, who is capable of making those kinds of discovered things.

Q: Hey, Mr. LaRouche, my name is M—.  So, I just want to address some things that this gentleman said and a couple other people said, in regards to what’s kind of going on out there in the world.  I do have a question, I just have a few statements beforehand.

SPEED:  Make them very few.

Q: [follow-up] This lady here [rogers], I’m sorry I don’t know your name, on the panel.  You’re beautiful.  You said something along the lines of thinking outside the box, and we don’t want to get into this other stuff that’s going on.  But the fact of the matter is, it’s real.  There is a Gestapo like organization, there are these banks, there are these stuff going on, and in my humble opinion, I disagree that we shouldn’t be focussing on it, because I think it’s possible, and not just possible, I think it’s probable, that the fire out there, that these people, these greedy, corrupt, — I’ll just call it the fire — will eat us alive, and burn us alive before we have the chance to go out to Mars and do these things.  And that’s just my opinion, I think we need to really focus on that.  So my question is why would we not focus on that?  Why would we not get down to the bottom of that and really address these criminals and these thugs?

LAROUCHE:  Because the influence of the society’s culture, destroys the ability of the human being, the individual, in many cases, to be responsible.

We should educate our people better and treat them more kindly.

SPEED:  Kesha has something she wants to say.

ROGERS:  Just quickly, in response to the young man’s question. I think the point is, we are addressing it. We’re addressing it directly and we’re going after the enemy of humanity and human progress, by getting you to first recognize that the threat is to your humanity.  And yeah, the discussion has already been had, that we have a Wall Street criminal apparatus; the imperial powers of the London British Empire that stands in antithesis to that creative power and threat.

So, until you’ve destroyed that, until you’ve rid society of that threat, but you have to know what you’re going to rid it with, which is, with this conception and understanding of who we are as human beings, you’re right, we do have a problem. [applause]

Q:  Hi my name is R—M— of Goshen, New York.  I just wanted to ask you, if you could mention a few things on Louis Pasteur? On understanding and curing diseases and stuff?

LAROUCHE:  It’s a similar kind of thing.  Louis Pasteur was a genius.  He was a genius in terms of biology, and many other ways.  He actually was very variegated, in terms of his disposition for discovery.  And he’s really a great figure.  And he’s a most honorable figure.

Q:  I think you’re absolutely right, that people have to understand that even Einstein took a role of the threat of nuclear warfare, or warfare as such.  And I think your comments of direction of learning what Einstein knew, I think that’s pretty much the aspect that I’m taking on, myself.  So obviously, it’s a role that I think you’re playing very well.  I wanted to see if you could promote in some way, or form — to tell people basically, this is the only way that mankind will save itself.

LAROUCHE:  Well, no, you know, I’ve had quite a history in my lifetime, coming from  a fairly obscure background from military service, and going into all kinds of prestigious positions.  And therefore, my family, my wife and others, represent a part of a circle which is very important, and which is quite valid and which is very influential in many parts of the planet.

We have these skills, we don’t usually just go running around and talking about “I’ve got a skill, I’ve got a skill.” But you know that you have some skills, and you have proven them, as I have done many times.  And therefore, when I say I know something and argue it, I’m not fooling around, I’m just stating that I know on the basis of proven facts.  And that’s what I stick to.  And I’m also quite a fighting person; I’m a little old now, for fighting purposes, but I have done a lot of that sort of thing, in terms of political terms.  And this is part of what I do.

But I know, from my own standpoint, that I know what I’m doing in terms of science, insofar as I present a claim on science, I’m correct, because I’m experience; and a lot of other people aren’t.  So they should get some advantage in that.

Q: It’s an honor to be here, and Mr. LaRouche, it’s an honor to get a chance to ask you a question.  I’m from Boston, Mass., and my question is, how do we pursue new technology without losing the reliability of old technology?  Because it seems like all around the world, people are kind of stuck in a comfort zone with things that they know work, and don’t necessarily make the leap to newer technologies because of the lack of understanding and the lack of reliability being that it’s new technology.

LAROUCHE:  Your reference to a lazy mind, not coming up to a standard, is really the appropriate thing.  People will say, “I feel more comfortable, with what I think and the smell I exude, than I would anything else.”  And therefore they like to smell themselves and feel that that smell is the good smell; and they’ll just walk away from everything with that, without considering what the proper smell of the animal should have been. And if it runs into a skunk, well, that’s what the result is. [applause]

SPEED:  [laughs]  We’re going to take a final question, and then ask for summaries from the panel. And then we’ll be concluding.  Sir?

Q:  Hi Lyn, how’re you?  I have two questions:  Number 1: Do you write your goals down with pen and paper? And number 2, would be: What are those goals that you still have left?

LAROUCHE:  I do not.  I don’t need to.  If I thought I would, if there are occasions when somebody tries to give me a passage and essentially explain for it, then I’ll probably investigate and find out what the principle is.  But in the normal course of events, no, I don’t have any problem with that.

SPEED:  OK, let me ask if there’s any summary remarks?  If anybody from the panel first of all, wants to say anything, and then we’ll go to Lyn.

WYSMULLER:  Kind of paraphrasing in answer to the young lady who said when she was young, everything was possible, and then as she got older she found it wasn’t.  Well, the truth is, as you get wiser, you find out again, that there is much more to find out in the universe than you’ve ever dreamed of.  And I’m going to  close with a quote from Isaac Newton, I’m paraphrasing, but he said:  My life has been like a child walking along the beach, picking up one colored rock of sand and examining it and finding out something about it; and then finding another — while the great ocean of undiscovered truth lay before me.

We have a lot more to learn.  We have a lot more to learn.

SPEED:  OK Jason!  OK Jason!  [laughter]

ROSS:  Well, you know.  To be honest, I didn’t have any — I had a lot of specific thoughts on some of the specific questions. The only general thing I think would make sense, I imagine as a contribution would be, that, it’s just really important to develop a culture in this way. I mean, this evening, we’re going to be having a panel on musical — what we typically call “culture.”  Music, poetry, etc.

There’s also a culture to science. And it’s very easy to look at the fruits of science, or its effects, or what it does for you, and neglect the fact that there’s a whole culture to the practice of science:  How did it get made?  What were the people who figured things out like?  How did they think?

And I think that there’s as much  —  I won’t compare — there’s a great deal of beauty and insight that we can gather from that, just like we do with typical culture.  And that we need to have both of those, culturally, living in us.

SPEED:  Kesha?

ROGERS:  Well, I think I will end by saying that most of you came here today, because you know that our society is in grave danger, and we’re facing a grave threat to our existence as human beings, and want to do something about it.  And so, I think if you take the discussion that we’ve had here today, and will continue to have, you know, this idea of fostering a Renaissance for mankind, what is the requirement of mind, to truly bring that about?  And I think that — I just want to say that, for those of you who will be staying, and I encourage you to do so, the next panel discussion and presentations, gets at that very fundamental question.  As we look at what is necessary to inspire beauty in our society, we have to actually rid ourselves of this — as Jason said — of this culture of degeneracy, of ugliness, and that’s why, when Mr. LaRouche brings up Einstein, you know, you think about, Einstein knew that the fostering of his creative mind was also the participation in the beauty of great art, of great Classical music.

And the way that you dumb down a society is to take away that potential for what makes us human, what makes us beautiful. And so that’s what you should take from this conference.  And be inspired to go out there and organize your communities.  Because we have people represented here, of all different backgrounds, that in other countries, wouldn’t be sitting together at all! But we have a responsibility, here in the United States to foster something that is what the United States was actually organized and created around in the first place.  What our Founding Fathers had intended.

I was out in the hallway just a moment ago and someone said, “You know, it’s nice to hear all of this discussion about the great things that China and Russia, and various other countries are doing — but, you know, what about the United States?”  Well, that’s up to you!  What about the United States?  What are we going to do?  How’re we going to make the United States represent the greatness of who we are, as what we have fostered from the standpoint of, why China looked to the United States at one point in time as a great beacon of hope, under President Franklin Roosevelt?

And so, the United States has to join in this new mission, as I said, in fostering this new Renaissance, and this has to be taken as something real in all of our minds. [applause]

SPEED:  So, Lyn do you have any final remarks?

LAROUCHE: Just the fact that I’ve learned a little bit from what people do as opinions, again from this experience here; which is highly variegated, of course, in terms of the composition of the whole.  But some people get really fretful, about protecting their something-or-other, and that is a little bit problematic at times. But I think it’ll clear its way out.

SPEED:  OK.  I’d like to say to everyone that may be here for the first time, for some of you, who have never been in a dialogue with Lyndon LaRouche before:  This is the LaRouche experience! [laughter, applause] He may not even like the fact that I call it that, but for those of us who’ve been doing this with Lyn for 45, or 46 years as I have, it’s always new, it’s always challenging; it’s always fun, and it’s always damned irritating.  [laughter]

That concludes our panel for now.


What must be said in conclusion is that this conference marked a victory for an idea of Lyndon LaRouche’s: that of the Manhattan Project which he unveiled in October, 2014. Yet at that time, as Einstein famously wrote of Kepler in 1930 at the third centenary of his death, he was “supported by no one and understood by very few.” Lyndon LaRouche, the inventor of the Strategic Defense Initiative, and later the inventor, with his wife, of the Eurasian Land-Bridge, had once more invented a new and wholly different original idea. Again it has proven true.

Panel II


Panel III


Manhattan Project

Building a World Land-Bridge – Realizing Mankind’s True Humanity

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Saturday, October 5 Conference—Mankind as a Galactic Species: The Necessary Alternative to War

Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche and speakers from around the world LIVE on October 5 at 1pm EDT. to discuss mankind’s necessary development of a policy committed to our destiny in the stars. Only by considering mankind’s common destiny first can nations determine their appropriate national policy to serve both their own interest and that of the world. October 5th has been declared “International Moon Day” when thousands of people will be gathering to learn about the moon and man’s mission in space. We invite you to join us in our celebration and in the development of a political force capable of transforming mankind from mere Earthlings, to inhabitants of the Solar System and beyond.


The Necessity of Redefining “Sustainable Development” as “Sustained Development”


The Belt and Road and Apollo Program: Sources of Inspiration

By Hussein Askary and Jason Ross

In just a few days, world leaders will gather in New York for the 74th U.N. General Assembly summit, whose theme this year is “Sustainable Development.” The gathering is expected to attract developing nations’ leaders who are eager to see the implementation of the prioritized UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG2030). The priority goals are the eradication of poverty (Goal 1), eradication of hunger (Goal 2), providing good healthcare (3), quality education (4), clean water (6), available and affordable energy (7), economic growth (8), and infrastructure and industrialization (9). Despite the very real urgency of achieving these goals, the US, the EU, and the UN bureaucracy itself will likely place the greatest emphasis on Goal 13 (Climate Action)!

Wealthy doomsday prophets from Western countries will be descending on the UN building in New York, flying in planes, sailing on yachts, or crawling on the ground to preach the prophecy of the “end of the world” through the collapse of Earth’s climate—caused, they say, by continued economic growth and industrial development. They are joining a growing group of powerful financial and banking interests in the Western world who intend to enrich themselves through what they call “green growth” and “green finance.” The intention is to stop real economic growth and technological and scientific progress on a global scale to “save the planet.” In the meantime, the aspirations of poor countries and developing nations will have to take a back seat, because, obviously, there are more urgent matters than eliminating poverty and hunger, providing healthcare, education, and clean water and electricity to billions of people.

During the colonial period, the people of colonized nations were told that they were inferior beings, for whom poverty was the natural condition. In the post-colonial period, they were told that their poverty was the natural result of having corrupt leaders. Today, developing nations are told they are poor because the greedy, greedy industrial world caused climate change, and that they should never ever attempt to emulate the industrial world. Instead, they will get “climate-change mitigation” aid and handouts. Following this outlook would make poverty permanent (sustained) for generations. 

The continued drumbeat for ending economic development is not new, but it has reached a hysterical level threatening both industrialized and developing nations. The vague discussion of “sustainable development” is partly to blame. The authors of this article are inclined to believe that there is a fundamental contradiction and discrepancy between how this term is propagated in the West and how it is perceived in China and other developing nations. In China and other developing countries, it is read “sustainable development” (with emphasis on “development”), while in the West, the emphasis lies on “sustainable.”

The Main Premise: Limited Resources! 

The term “sustainable development” was formally codified by the United Nations through the 1987 Brundtland Report. (footnote 1) It is usually associated with promoting the use of so-called “renewable” sources of energy, such as solar and wind power, and is generally concerned with alleged adverse impacts of human activity on the environment. The referenced report states that “sustainable development” is defined as sufficient development to cover the “basic needs” of poor societies, i.e., the bare minimum to ensure survival, as well as extending to all nations and peoples the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations for better living standards.

However, the report states that many people in modern societies “live beyond the world’s ecological means, for instance in our patterns of energy use,” and warns that “sustainable development requires the promotion of values that encourage consumption standards that are within the bounds of the ecological possible and to which all can reasonably aspire.” How are these bounds determined? The report concedes that “the accumulation of knowledge and the development of technology can enhance the carrying capacity of the resource base. But ultimate limits there are, and sustainability requires that long before these are reached, the world must ensure equitable access to the constrained resource and reorient technological efforts to relieve the presume.” But are there truly ultimate limits for irreplaceable resources? Are the limits fixed by nature, or are they determined by our discoveries and inventions? 

The notion of limited natural resources and the so-called “carrying capacity” of the ecological system are not applicable to human society, since it is the level of scientific and technological progress which defines the range of “resources,” rather than an a priori “natural” limit. Therefore, adopting the “sustainable development” goals determined by such notions as are presented in the Brundtland Report poses a great obstacle to eliminating poverty and providing higher living standards and quality of life for all individuals and nations. What is needed is either a new definition of these notions, or the adoption of completely different concepts.

China has proven that the way out of poverty and onto the path of progress is through fast-track “industrialization” and large-scale development projects, including mega-projects, using the full range of resources, whether scientific, human, or natural. For example, all useful sources of energy, such as coal, oil, gas, hydropower, and nuclear power, must be used. While it is imperative that the sources of power with a greater energy-flux density, like nuclear fission and fusion, should replace the less dense sources, it is neither reasonable nor moral to ask poor nations to avoid the sources of power that enabled the United States, Europe, Japan and others to become modern industrial societies. The speed of power expansion required necessitates the use and construction of hydrocarbon power sources, while the needed nuclear industrial base is developed and scientific advances for fusion are made.

China’s economic miracle is based on implementing sound policies that seem to be the opposite of those demanded by such international institutions as the World Bank, the IMF, international environmental organizations, and financial consulting corporations and think tanks. China has followed a policy which was, ironically, the policy that made the US the greatest economic power on earth by the end of the 1940s, and made a ruined Germany the second greatest industrial power in the post-World War II world.

China’s is a dirigist policy of centralized, state-financed development of infrastructure and industry through national credit for long-term development, by using the latest technological and scientific innovations and developing new ones.

This discrepancy—between the proven successful methods of development, both current and historical (as in industrialization of the United States and Germany, for example) on the one hand, and what is now being promoted by international institutions on the other—must be addressed and eliminated. The new paradigm of development spearheaded by China and the BRICS nations is a key element in this process.

It is therefore necessary to state in clear terms, here, in this context, that the definition of the term “sustainable development” should mean the ability to maintain a process of providing ever higher levels of productivity and standards of living, both physically and culturally, to whole societies through scientific creativity and technological innovation. “Sustainable development” should not be used to mean the adaptation by society to an ever-shrinking base of fixed resources, because there is no such a thing as limited resources! What puts a limit to growth is the lack of cultural, scientific and technological progress.

China: The epitome of a developing nation

Between 1981 and 2018, China lifted 800 million of its citizens out of poverty—as attested by such institutions as the World Bank—by investing in urban and rural infrastructure projects, by completing mega-projects in transportation, water, and power, and by building an industrial and scientific capacity unparalleled in world history. The only close example of such rapid industrialization is the 1930s and 1940s New Deal and WWII mobilization under U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This unparalleled achievement can be replicated, in its outline, by all developing nations, although with different dimensions and characteristics. Over the past forty years, China built more water management projects than the United States had done in a hundred years. Another metric that emphasizes the immense magnitude of the undertaking is the fact that China used more cement in the three years 2011–2013, than did the United States during the entire 20th century! The Chinese 20,000 km high-speed railway network has already surpassed the combined networks of the Western European nations. China has 37 operating nuclear power plants (70% of which were built in the past decade alone), and a further 20 plants are under construction.

Enter the BRI 

The announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by Chinese President Xi Jinping in late 2013, (footnote 2) which was a breakthrough for the New Silk Road policy adopted by China since 1996, transformed China’s development policy into a global strategy, an all-inclusive initiative for all nations, without exception, to join and to shape. The BRI hinges on the construction of infrastructure mega-projects whose scale has not been seen in the world since the U.S. New Deal before World War II, the post–World War II reconstruction of Germany, and the U.S. space program of the 1960s.

The 6 Corridors of the Economic Belt of the New Silk Road (A-F) and the Maritime Silk Road (F) which were announced by President Xi in 2013. The other global transcontinental corridors were envisioned by the Schiller Institute as early as 1992. Credit: Belt and Road Institute in Sweden (BRIX)

The 6 Corridors of the Economic Belt of the New Silk Road (A-F) and the Maritime Silk Road (F) which were announced by President Xi in 2013. The other global transcontinental corridors were envisioned by the Schiller Institute as early as 1992. Credit: Belt and Road Institute in Sweden (BRIX)

The BRI is based on the solid foundation of China’s own economic miracle in the past few decades, and is backed by the entirety of the massive financial, technological, human resources base, and political power of China. It has evolved from a national Chinese project of economic development and industrialization into a massive intercontinental initiative for connectivity and economic cooperation, an initiative that more than 120 nations have joined so far. The BRI is already becoming the biggest economic undertaking in the history of mankind. The developing sector nations, many of which enjoy massive geographical advantages and human and natural resources, are poised to reap major benefits from this global initiative.

The fact that China is sharing its amazing experience of industrialization and development of the past three decades with the rest of the world is a key element of success. 

Through the BRI, China is offering the rest of the world its know-how, experience, and technology, backed by a $3 trillion financial arsenal. This is a great opportunity for West Asia and Africa to realize the dreams of the post–World War II independence era, dreams that have unfortunately been sabotaged for decades. The dramatic deficit in infrastructure both nationally and inter-regionally in West Asia and Africa can, ironically, be considered in this new light as a great opportunity. Although many other industrial nations in Europe, Asia and the Americas have technological and labor capabilities similar to those of China, they lack the vision and political will to apply these capabilities and to finance their use. Since West Asia and Africa are such strategically important areas for both East and West, it is, therefore, a perfect place for bringing the capabilities of the nations of the world into one concrete project of peaceful cooperation and development.

Encouraging signs have simultaneously emerged from African nations that have realized the importance of joining and benefiting from the new paradigm of development based on industrialization and large-scale infrastructure projects. Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Kenya, for example, have all designed impressive national development plans that are being implemented in rapid steps. But even here, China’s role is decisive.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)—the most compact and well-defined BRI project—is revolutionizing Pakistan, a nation which until a couple of years ago was indebted and broken, economically. Now, Pakistan is bustling with optimism and its economy being transformed by all the power, water, transport, and logistics projects being undertaken at breathtaking speed under the CPEC. The industrial base of Pakistan which was mostly shut down in the past few years due to lack of electricity, is poised to reemerge now. Pakistans ports, like Gwadar, are in the process of moving from an isolated and abandoned fishing village to world-class maritime transport and logistics hub. China’s investments in Pakistan are reaching USD 60-70 billion from the originally planned level of $45 billion. 

Before the CPEC projects came to fruition, Pakistan’s economic development was stymied by the lack of electricity, which lack prevented the needed growth to escape the actual debt trap related to a lack of development. As a result of its large trade deficit, Pakistan’s growing foreign debt reached $95 billion in 2017. It has been running a yearly trade deficit of over $23 billion for the past few years. Pakistan’s main export items are raw materials and staple foodstuffs, and its main manufactured export is textiles. Staple food and raw materials suffer from price oscillations, whereas the textile sector’s competitiveness is crippled by the unreliable and inadequate energy supply. And it is precisely the crucial energy sector and transportation, that are the main focus of Chinese investments in the CPEC.

Pakistan’s energy imports have contributed significantly to its trade imbalance and indebtedness. Over the fiscal year 2017–2018, imports stood at $60.86 billion, 2.6 times the $23.22 billion of exports, resulting in a historically high trade deficit of $37.64 billion. Nearly a quarter of Pakistan’s imports were energy (oil and gas), amounting to $14.43 billion. (footnote 3) These energy imports constitute nearly half of the annual deficit! On August 3, 2018, the Pakistan Express Tribune reported that the British Standard Chartered Bank was to extend a $200-million commercial loan (at 4.2% interest rate) to Pakistan to finance LNG imports. The SCB is one of Pakistan’s largest lenders, with $1.1 billion in loans in 2016–2017 alone. This is how a nation walks into a debt trap.

Before the full completion of CPEC power projects, Pakistan’s total installed electrical capacity was 25,000 MW (2017), with the average demand being 19,000 MW.

Installed capacities, broken down by production type, was as follows: 1. Hydrocarbons (thermal) 14.7 GW, comprising 64% of installed capacity, 2. hydropower 7.1 GW (31% ), 3. nuclear 0.7 GW (3%), 4. wind, solar, biogas 0.4 GW (2%). (footnote 4)

Considered in terms of actual electricity production, the figures are as follows: (1) hydrocarbons (thermal) 58.5 TWh, comprising 60% of electricity production, (2) hydro 32.9 TWh (34%), (3) nuclear 5.0 THw (5%), (4) wind, solar, biogas 0.8 TWh (0.8%).

In the decade preceding the CPEC, Pakistan’s annual electricity consumption lingered in the range of 70–80 TWh, approximately 50 watts (or 440 kWh/yr) per capita. With the completion of a portion of the CPEC power projects, the nation’s electricity consumption rose to 100 TWh in 2018, bringing the average up to 500 kWh capita. This growth is good, but the figure is still far too low, and tens of millions of Pakistanis do not yet have access to grid electricity.

The CPEC energy projects will play a significant role in expanding electricity access in Pakistan. (footnote 5) This can eliminate the energy deficit and prepare the economy for a further surge in industrial activity. The breakdown of the investments that are completed, under construction or negotiation is as follows: Coal plants: 8,580 MW; Hydropower: 2,700 MW; other thermal plants (natural gas): 825 MW; Solar power plants: 900 MW; wind farms: 350 MW. (footnote 6) The expected total new electricity generating capacity is 13,355 MW. And the total cost of all these power generation projects (including mining of coal and electricity transmission lines) is estimated to be $23-30 billion, which is approximately the cost of two years’ imports of oil and gas, and less than the annual trade deficit.

To tell Pakistan today to stop the coal power plants amounts to telling its people to commit collective suicide. 

Pakistan was never enabled, or allowed, by its Western “friends”—who needed the country to fight the Soviet army in Afghanistan throughout the 1980s and the Taliban since 2001—to fully develop its clean and “carbon-free” nuclear power. This is poised to change, since China and Russia are fully capable of assisting in the construction of nuclear power plants. The choice of coal power at this moment is due to the fact that Pakistan has the raw material in abundance, because it takes a relatively short time (18-24 months) to construct a modern coal power plant, and because the necessary skills, equipment, and planning to produce them in large numbers currently exist. Nuclear power plants are complicated in both time and physical requirements. While coal may not be an ideal choice over the long term (30-40 years), the only reasonable alternative is nuclear power, for which the necessary construction capabilities must be geared up worldwide. For the Pakistani nation and economy to reach the platform of being able to build or participate in building its own nuclear power plants, its economy needs to be revived and developed now.

The attempt to supply the energy needs of Pakistan—or nearly (footnote 7) any nation, for that matter—by so-called “green” or “renewable” technologies for electricity production, would be an exercise in extortionately expensive futility, leading to real human suffering.

Chinese President Xi’s Philosophy of Development: “Make the cake bigger!”

Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Chinese President Xi Jinping.

By carefully reading the speeches and writings of the Chinese President Xi Jinping without ideological prejudice, we conclude that what Xi means by “sustainable development” is not what politicians and economists in the West mean by that term.

In his speech to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on October 18, 2017, Xi thoroughly describes the goals of development set out by him and the party, and clearly explains his understanding of the “Scientific Outlook on Development.” According to him, this is one of the key five guiding principles of the Communist Party of China (besides Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of the Three Represents). In point four of his speech, “Adopting a New Vision of Development,” Xi said: “Development is the underpinning and the key for solving our country’s problems.” He emphasized: “We must pursue a model of sustainable development featuring increased production, higher living standards, and healthy ecosystems.” 

Rather than focusing on “limited resources” and how to divide them, Xi often uses the metaphor of “rather than fighting over a small cake, make the cake bigger” when urging his party comrades to think outside the box. Most indoctrinated so-called experts in the Western world would see this today as a contradiction of terms, because they believe that increased production and raising the living standards cause ecological problems and will inevitably hit the wall of limited resources.

Even more provocative to Western observers are Xi’s repeated calls for the industrialization of Africa. In his speech at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 2015, Xi said the following: 

“Industrialization is an inevitable path to a country’s economic success. Within a short span of several decades, China has accomplished what took developed countries hundreds of years to accomplish and put in place a complete industrial system with an enormous production capacity…

“It is entirely possible for Africa, as the world’s most promising region in terms of development potential, to bring into play its advantages and achieve great success…. The achievement of inclusive and sustainable development in Africa hinges on industrialization, which holds the key to creating jobs, eradicating poverty and improving people’s living standards.”

President Xi did not say this as a provocation to the West, but because he truly holds this view, which is completely in sync with China’s own fantastic feat of development in the past three decades. 

The most transparent and scientific definition of “sustainable development” according to Xi is described in a speech titled “A Deeper Understanding of the New Development Concepts,” which he delivered on January 18, 2016 at a study session of the implementation of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. The term “coordinated development,” he says, has acquired new features. In the usual Chinese philosophical manner that is not fearful of contradictions that lead to solutions, he stated: “Coordinated development is the unity of balanced development and imbalanced development. The process from balance to imbalance and then to rebalance is the basic law of development. Balance is relative while imbalance is absolute. Emphasizing coordinated development is not pursuing equalitarianism, but giving more importance to equal opportunities and balanced resource allocation.”

Xi continued: “Coordinated development is the unity of weakness and potential in development. China is in a stage of transition from a middle-income country to a high-income country. According to international experience, this is a stage of concentrated conflicts of interest, in which imbalanced development and various weaknesses are inevitable. To pursue coordinated development, we should identify and improve our weaknesses, so as to tap development potential and sustain growth momentum.” (footnote 8) 

No state of equilibrium: Breaking the boundary conditions

In this speech and other speeches on the concepts of development, Xi has emphasized that the way to overcome such contradictions is to pursue scientific and technological creativity and innovation. It is very clear that Xi realizes that there is no such a thing as a “state of equilibrium,” but rather there is a process of progress and sustained growth, although he emphasizes that the goal is growth that is qualitative, rather than merely quantitative.

People in the West hear every day that the modern civilization has hit the wall, that limits of growth and technological development have been reached, that Earth’s carrying capacity has met its limit, and that the solution is to slow down, roll back industrialization and reduce the world population, because we cannot sustain growth indefinitely. 

The proponents of zero-growth base their theories on a fictitious “state of equilibrium” in nature between limited natural resources and the biological needs of all species, humans included, on this one and only planet! Life itself, the biosphere and the human species have proven that there is no such a static state of equilibrium, but that there is a process of progress and development. But that process of development usually bumps into certain boundary conditions, because a previous key “natural resource” is depleted. However, creative and revolutionary technological leaps break that boundary condition and brings life to a new and more intensive platform of progress. In other words, when a society hits a wall, it has to build a ladder and climb the wall to come to the new, but higher platform of economic development. That ladder is scientific and technological progress.

Human Creativity: the Greatest — and Infinite — Natural Resource

In a discussion of the role of science as a driver for the development of any nation, President Xi stated in a speech delivered to the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee on October 29, 2015, “Innovative development focuses on the drivers of growth. Our ability to innovate is inadequate. Our science and technology is not fully developed, and is unable to create momentum to support economic and social development. This is the Achilles heel for such a big economy as China.” (footnote 9) Concerning the primacy of human creativity to so-called natural resources, Xi stressed: “So we must consider innovation as the primary driving force of growth and the core in this whole undertaking, and human resources as the primary source to support development. We should promote innovation in theory, systems, science and technology, and culture, and make innovation the dominant theme in the work of the Party, and government, and everyday activity of in society.” (footnote 10)

This chart of human population over historical time reflects the unique characteristic of human life among all life known to us. Our species continually breaks the limits to its growth, by developing new knowledge that opens up new resources and increases the productive powers of labor.

This chart of human population over historical time reflects the unique characteristic of human life among all life known to us. Our species continually breaks the limits to its growth, by developing new knowledge that opens up new resources and increases the productive powers of labor.

Elaborating on the history of the impact of scientific progress since the Renaissance on the industrial development of Europe and later the United States, Xi informed his Party comrades: “In the 16th century, human society entered an unprecedented period of active innovation. Achievements in scientific innovation over the past five centuries have exceeded the sum total of several previous millenia… Each and every scientific and industrial revolution has profoundly changed the outlook and pattern of world development… Since the second Industrial Revolution, the U.S. has maintained global hegemony because it has always been the leader and the largest beneficiary of scientific and industrial progress.” (footnote 11)

Xi is not expressing frustration and envy over the fantastic past progress of Europe and the United States, but is urging his people to learn from those successes. As Confucius said in the Analects: “He who learns but does not think is lost. However, he who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.” 

President Xi’s thoughts are clearly in harmony with those presented by American Economic Lyndon LaRouche, who has defined and treated economics in a scientific manner the same way physics is treated. LaRouche, the pioneer of Physical Economics, defined the process of progress of society as the building of new economic platforms.

The LaRouche View of Economics:  Successive Economic Platforms!

Following his service in World War II, economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche tackled a central problem to understanding economic growth: the seeming impossibility of representing the incommensurable value of scientific revolutions. To give an example of the difficulty involved, consider the initial development of steam power. This new technology transformed the power of coal, which had been used as a source of heat, into a source of motion, making it tremendously more valuable than it had been. The ability to separate the process of production both from the muscle power of people and beasts, and from a reliance on such local peculiarities as the availability of wind or flowing water, transformed the economic geography completely. The power of an individual worked increased by an order of magnitude. Goods that previously were created by hand by artisans and were consequently available only to the wealthy, could now be produced efficiently in larger numbers, making them available to a broader population. How can these varied benefits — in changing resources, increasing productivity, and altering the importance of geography — be understood?

Lyndon LaRouche (1922-2019) speaking at a live webcast in 2010.

Lyndon LaRouche (1922-2019) speaking at a live webcast in 2010.

LaRouche begins his theory with a consideration of the most important metric of human economy, the potential population density that can be achieved by a given society’s cultural and scientific development, adjusted for the conditions of geography (including man made improvements to that geography). This metric, potential relative population density, gives a rough understanding of the economic power brought to bear by a civilization. True economic value exists in those processes and developments that act to increase this metric.

As an additional metric, LaRouche insists that the intensity of power applied by a society — at the point of production as well as more broadly considered per capita and per land area — must increase with economic growth. This metric, energy flux density, involves both the quantitative increase in power available, and also its qualitative nature, as expressed in its intensity. For example, a laser uses a greater density of energy than does a metal cutting device, yet it may be able to cut a metal part using less total energy. This is a reflection of the greater energy flux density embodied in the laser. A similar example is the increasing ratio of energy use specifically as electricity — a more concentrated form of energy — to total energy use in an economy.

In addition to the concepts of potential relative population density and energy flux density, add another: the concept of the economic platform as a superior concept to that of infrastructure.

Mankind Creates

As we progress, we rely increasingly on an improved environment. Rather than walking on paths made by herds of animals or floating on natural rivers, we use roads, rail lines, subways, sidewalks. We increasingly work in illuminated buildings and enclosed vehicles, safe from the ravages of weather, rather than unprotected outdoors. The substrate upon which we depend, this built environment, is often considered as an accumulation of pieces of “infrastructure.” LaRouche takes a fresh approach to this concept, as in a 2010 paper:

We should then recognize that the development of basic economic infrastructure had always been a needed creation of what is required as a “habitable” development of a “synthetic,” rather than a presumably “natural” environment, for the enhancement, or even the possibility of human life and practice at some time in the existence of our human species. . . .

Man as a creator in the likeness of the great Creator, is expressed by humanity’s creation of the “artificial environments” we sometimes call “infrastructure,” on which both the progress, and even the merely continued existence of civilized society depends. (footnote 12)

LaRouche reconceptualizes the history of human development from the standpoint of a succession of economic platforms. The earliest human civilizations were limited in their movements to land and to the oceans and rivers. And this water transportation itself required the technologies of ship-building and navigation. The sky itself served as an infrastructure platform, its stars providing a means of finding one’s way. The construction of new rivers, in the form of navigable canals, marked the next great stage of human advancement, providing a new platform upon which to develop. The land itself changed in value, as areas that were previously quite distant from the seas and rivers were brought within its reach, including through supplementary road networks. The railroads — rivers of steel — were the next great platform, utilizing the scientific knowledge of metallurgy and of the steam engine to transform our relationship to the land, and to space and time themselves. Distances that were traversable only in weeks could now be crossed in days.

Connectivity grew and the economic potential of land increased by the availability of rail transport.

The next great platforms upon which human civilization will be based, will rely on new technologies of greater energy flux density. With the realization of nuclear fusion, building on the gains already achieved through the control over nuclear fission, our relationship to travel and to resources will be fundamentally altered. Processing of ores, which today requires the use of coke produced from coal for its chemical transformation, could be achieved in a much simpler way. The value of high-level concentrations of mineral deposits will decrease, as lower concentrations will be economically viable to use. Our relationship to water — a precious resource required in great quantities — will take on a new form as we use nuclear fusion to use the plentiful water in the world’s salty seas. Our power over space will grow exponentially as nuclear-powered rockets propel us quickly through the solar system, and move asteroids that might strike the Earth onto safer orbits!

In all of this analysis, money itself plays a secondary, although important role. Money, being a scalar value, cannot be used to assign a value to the steam engine, to the development of railroads, to the 1960s Apollo mission to the Moon, or to the coming breakthrough of nuclear fusion. While money can measure more of what existed previously, the benefits of these leaps is that they allow us to accomplish more than we could before. In each of these cases, the potential population density of the human race is increased, processes of higher energy flux density are used or unlocked, and a greater platform of created environment upon which other activity unfolds is born.

LaRouche has consistently urged the creation of economic and political systems that cohere with the laws of physical economics. This means national and international credit systems under which long-term credit can be provided for projects that increase the physical productivity of the nation or society, including in the many circumstances that such investments would not be financially profitable to a private investor. Instead of suffering under economic “laws” that have no universal validity, the financial system itself must be subjected to the creative will of man, and brought into coherence with the long-term goals of the species.

Key in upgrading our potential is the conquest of space, that great domain lying always over our heads, beckoning us to look up and to think big! From space, there is only one Earth, populated by a single human race. From space, the overwhelming potential of that beautiful, creative species becomes manifest. It is for this reason that many of the greatest space visionaries and engineers have developed profound reflections on the human race itself. The German-American Krafft Ehricke is one such example.

A species not Earth-bound

Space visionary Ehricke, whose scientific contributions made the Apollo Program possible, strongly disputed the “limits to growth” philosophy, and his arguments in opposition to it were informed by his deep relationship to science and technology. In a 1984 speech, Ehricke said: “If you have a no-growth philosophy and if you regress into the Middle Ages, then you create an environment in which that, what you are asking the human being to do — namely to live with less and being very modest … and not to grow — is impossible, because a dog-eat-dog fight is bound to break out under those conditions. We’ve come too far. We have to go on. Life shows us that technological advances are the road to go. But based on those technological advances, must come the advances of the species and the advances of our civilization.” (footnote 13)

Ehricke argued that in the process of evolution on Earth, organic matter faced this crisis and overcame it: “Earth was like a gigantic flower, which soaked up solar energy and also utilized other energy to establish basic organic compounds, and amino acids. And when life began to stir here, there lived, of those fossil assets, Haldane’s famous ’soup that ate itself up,’ or something similar to that, and of course, eventually the resources ran out. And the first great crisis of life on this planet occurred, because they were living off previously generated organic substances… It was then, that we saw for the first time, two things: That what seemed to be an absolute limit to growth, was no limit to growth. It was a hindrance, that had to be overcome, and was overcome by technological advances — incredible technological advances, namely photosynthesis.”

The “first industrial revolution” is how Ehricke termed this advancement whereby organic matter found in outer space a new, extraterrestrial resource—solar radiation—for its continued development and survival.

Ehricke called for the human species to do the same, by going to outer space to explore and tap the unlimited resources that the solar system and the universe offers us: “This goes far beyond that… Information metabolism transcends planetary limitations, and is the metabolism on which life moves now over into space itself.”

Krafft Ehricke summarized his philosophy of astronautics in three laws, formulated in 1957:

First Law: Nobody and nothing under the natural laws of this universe impose any limitations on man except man himself.

Second Law: Not only the Earth, but the entire Solar system, and as much of the universe as he can reach under the laws of nature, are man’s rightful field of activity.

Third Law: By expanding through the Universe, man fulfills his destiny as an element of life, endowed with the power of reason and the wisdom of the moral law within himself. (footnote 14)

In a stark contrast to the mantra frequently repeated respecting environmental concerns that “there is no planet B,” the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the July 20, 1969 moon landing by the US Apollo 11 mission (Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins), has spread a new wave of optimism across the world, because it is such groundbreaking achievements that remind people of their true mission in life, on Earth and the universe — the mission to be creative, to discover and explore new frontiers of knowledge, science and technology while at the same time resolving a myriad of issues and conflicts that stem from the pessimistic and cynical view that the nature of humans is egoism and the characteristic of nations is to undermine each other and fight over purported “limited resources.”

A science city on Mars, as proposed by Lyndon LaRouche. In 1988, he wrote that “If the United States follows the approach I have proposed, we shall have our first permanent colony on Mars by the year A.D. 2027. During a few years following that, that colony will grow into an increasingly self-sustained community, the size of a medium-sized city on Earth. Long before A.D. 2027, the average U.S. taxpayer will have gained an enormous personal profit from the earlier, preparatory stages of the program as a whole.” The development of new scientific breakthroughs and technologies allows us, uniquely among known species, to transform our relationship to nature by improving the productive powers of labor. This creative potential, common to all people, is the basis for international collaboration in space, science, and culture, to advance the common aims of mankind.

A science city on Mars, as proposed by Lyndon LaRouche. In 1988, he wrote that “If the United States follows the approach I have proposed, we shall have our first permanent colony on Mars by the year A.D. 2027. During a few years following that, that colony will grow into an increasingly self-sustained community, the size of a medium-sized city on Earth. Long before A.D. 2027, the average U.S. taxpayer will have gained an enormous personal profit from the earlier, preparatory stages of the program as a whole.” The development of new scientific breakthroughs and technologies allows us, uniquely among known species, to transform our relationship to nature by improving the productive powers of labor. This creative potential, common to all people, is the basis for international collaboration in space, science, and culture, to advance the common aims of mankind.

“A community of shared future for mankind,” the concept pronounced by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the UN General Assembly in September 2015, should no longer be Earth-bound, but rather encompass everywhere human civilization reaches in the Solar System and the universe beyond. The fruits of space exploration by any nation should be celebrated and shared by all nations. This idea is shared by the best of the US and European astronauts and space scientists. When Armstrong set foot on the surface of the moon, he said this was “one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” He did not proclaim it a “giant leap for the US,” but for all mankind, because he understood the full implications the achievement.

In a recent intervention at a George Washington University event titled “One Giant Leap: Space Diplomacy, Past, Present, and Future,” Buzz Aldrin called for the creation of an “international space alliance” where the U.S. would cooperate with the space programs of China, Russia, Europe, Japan and India. He correctly argued that colonizing the Moon and making it a launchpad for manned missions to Mars cannot be achieved efficiently by one nation. In addition to the technical necessity, cooperation is also a means to achieve global peace, and to advance scientific and technological cooperation which should eventually include every nation in the world.

Harrison (“Jack”) Schmitt, one of the astronauts on Apollo 17, which made the last human landing on the Moon, and who is perhaps the most insightful spokesman for the space program, told the Daily Telegraph (footnote 15) that “Moon and Mars settlement is extremely important for the dispersal of the human species throughout the Solar System, and possibly beyond.” Harrison Schmitt envisioned the “100th anniversary of Apollo,” saying that at that time “there will be settlements on the Moon, people living there permanently, producing the resources of the Moon… Settlements on the Moon are going to be a piece of cake.”

The Moon’s status as a launchpad to further space dreams arises from its physical characteristics. The lunar regolith (soil) harbors unique resources, its small mass allows for easy takeoffs, and its proximity to the Earth makes it a convenient location.

One of the Moon’s unique resources is related to power. The best designs for nuclear fusion power require nuclear reactions without neutrons (uncharged particles, which cannot be controlled electromagnetically), and the ideal fuel for these reactions is helium-3. This special isotope of helium is almost non-existent on Earth, but is constantly emitted by the sun. Because the Moon lacks a magnetic field (or an atmosphere), this fuel source flung generously by the sun is caught in the lunar soil, where millions of tons exist today. This helium isotope, the best fuel for nuclear fusion power, can serve humanity both in space and on Earth, to meet the needs of all nations for probably hundreds of years to come.

There are several other benefits of Moon industrialization. Water on the Moon can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, which can be used as fuel for rockets. Metals can be mined to set up local manufacturing on the Moon. This manufacturing will benefit from the Moon’s small size. As a result of the weaker gravitational attraction on the Moon, less than one-tenth as much power is required to a payload from the surface of the Moon to Earth orbit as would be required to bring the same payload from the surface of the Earth to Earth orbit. And since the Moon is relatively close by, the journey time is not long.

Schmitt emphasizes these benefits of lunar development:

“Not only will that assist a Mars mission, but helium-3 is an ideal fuel for electric power generation because it creates no radioactive waste and demands for electrical power are not going to decrease; civilization depends on it [electrical power], and this is one of the major potential and long-term sources.

“The Moon’s debris layer provides the opportunity to produce water, hydrogen and oxygen as fuels. It’s also very fertile, so if you want to produce food, that’s achievable. Settlements on the Moon are going to be a piece of cake.”

The industrialization of the Moon could become the joint development project of the world. Not only does it open the frontiers of space, but it also breaks the pessimistic and unscientific ideology of limited resources. One of the important objectives of the Chinese lunar mission is to gather the helium-3 that is uniquely abundant on the surface of the Moon.

Conclusion

Lyndon LaRouche has been famous for his promotion both of nuclear fusion and of a fully developed Moon-Mars program, which would serve for decades as a driver of new scientific and technological breakthroughs. His 1988 campaign for U.S. President included a thirty-minute video, The Woman on Mars, which detailed his program to the general audience of American voters and thinkers worldwide.

In a presentation he gave in 2010, LaRouche put forward the motivations for humanity to reach into the heavens: (footnote 16)

Therefore, we have to go to Mars, not because we want to get there, but we don’t want to fail to get there! … We’re going to a new conception of basic economic infrastructure, which started with the space pioneers in the 1920s, and into the United States. We began to realize that mankind needs a new dimension, beyond railroads, beyond old water systems, needs a new dimension for the expression of humanity in the Solar System.

This is not just for “getting there.” This is for giving man a mission, a natural mission for mankind, on which we will base the culture which increases mankind’s options, and also the security of humanity. That is, by developing ourselves, instead of sitting on one planet and depleting that planet and doing nothing else, and becoming fat and lazy—instead of that, let’s take on a mission!

Let’s look ahead 75 years, three generations. And let’s take what we have now, with these—we’ve got young people under 25 who are in a disastrous state of education in life. They’re going no place, unless we do something for them. We’re going to have to give them a mission, and an opportunity, which inspires them, so that their children will not be so damned stupid. And therefore, by three successive generations of development … I’m satisfied that we could develop the scientific and technological capabilities, in three successive generations—all the time, bringing our people up to a higher level of productivity—to make up for what we’ve lost, and to go beyond that…

We know we have to develop the Moon, which is accessible to us, readily, with technology already developed by us. We know we can develop an industry on the Moon, because you don’t want to take off from Earth, and lug a lot of things up from Earth; there’s just too much effort involved. Go to the Moon, take your technology to the Moon, develop industries on the Moon: You can build the spacecraft and other things you need to go to Mars!

The lunar regolith (soil) includes many of the basic elements required for industrial production of rocket components and fuel. And its helium-3 is an ideal fuel for nuclear fusion, surpassing anything economically available on Earth. Once components are built on the Moon, they can be easily brought to Earth orbit. In fact, bringing payloads from the surface of the Moon to Earth orbit uses less than 10% of the energy required to bring them from the surface of Earth to Earth orbit! LaRouche continued:

Why do we go to Mars? Because it’s the nature of man to do so: The nature of man is expressed by the fact that we are not a fixed species, with fixed behavior. We’re a species that must develop, as mankind has developed, despite all the setbacks. Mankind has greatly improved, since our first evidence of what mankind was on this planet. Improved through technology, through intellectual development, stimulated by technology; by improvements in culture, especially Classical culture.

And the purpose of man, is to find his place in the universe.

Don’t worry about what the destination is. We’ve got to find our place in the universe: We must develop! Mankind is creative. Mankind must create! Mankind must develop!

And if we do that—the space program, as we would develop it—my estimate is, that it will take three generations to develop the capability to actually put human beings safely on Mars. To solve the problem of gravitation in interplanetary flight and that sort of thing. We can do it! We don’t have a population which is trained, yet, to undertake that mission. But we have a population, which is ready to be uplifted from despair, now, and plan that the grandchildren of people today, of young people today—the grandchildren of young people today will solve that problem! And it should be our mission to dedicate the United States, in particular, and the planet as a whole to that mission, to give mankind a sense and a determination of a future which should belong to mankind.

Mankind was put in this universe for some purpose. We’re not always too sure what that purpose is. But we’re sure of one thing about that purpose: It requires, as history has shown us, the development of the intellectual powers of mankind, the intellectual powers of man’s progress. The future, if it means anything to have children and grandchildren, is to ensure that the children and grandchildren have made an upwards step, beyond what’s impossible now. And to do as we’ve done before, from our past experience, in making the kind of progress, the changes in behavior, and progress, and increase in the power of mankind, to solve great problems, problems of disease, all kinds of problems.

What is the greatest focus for this human mission? LaRouche answers:

Therefore, we have to put a name on it, and the name we put on it for the short term, is the Mars Mission. And we say, that within three generations, we’ll take this wretched nation, this poor, broken-down, ruined, betrayed nation, and, in cooperation with other nations on this planet, we will develop a technology and the people capable of carrying it, which will, step by step, bring man to his true dignity, to recognize the place of man in the universe. Not to what we’re going to do in the universe, ultimately, but to know we’re there!

And we need that.

You know, people talk about immortality and so forth—what’s it mean? Just another person being produced, to replace the one that died? No. Immortality is the certain understanding, that you are living today, because you are doing something, which is going to lead to the development of man’s power in the future. Your immortality lies in your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren beyond that. Your immortality, your purpose of your life, is what comes out of it! That you’re a permanent part of the universe! Because, by developing within the universe, you’ve demonstrated that you’re not just a drop on the planet: You are part of the universe, forever!

And that should motivate you.

It is from this greatest of mission-orientations that we can draw inspiration for developing the necessary platforms of economic development to enable people from all nations of the world to live lives allowing us to meaningfully aspire to contribute something of enduring value to all of human history.

The endless pursuit of that goal is the only process of development that can truthfully be called sustainable.

Footnotes

1. Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland headed the UN-appointed World Commission on Environment and Development, which released the report “Our Common Future,” also known as the Brundtland Report, in 1987: http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm
2. President Xi Jinping announced the creation of the “Economic Belt of the Silk Road” in a speech in the Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan in September 2013. The Belt is a land-based economic corridor extending from eastern China to western Europe and engaging 69 nations in its path. One month later he announced, from Jakarta, Indonesia, the intention to launch the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road together with other nations. This includes building numerous ports on the sea lanes of the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean. The two projects complement each other and together make up the BRI. http://english.gov.cn/beltAndRoad/
3. “Pakistan’s Trade Deficit Stands at $30.19b” Salman Siddiqui, The Express Tribune, Aug 14, 2018
4. Figures from Pakistan’s National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, “State of Industry Report 2015”
5. For detailed description of the energy projects involved in the CPEC, consult the project’s official website
6. Since the expected capacity factor of solar and wind would be no greater than 30%, the energy generated by these systems should be estimated as being at most one-third their official capacity. These projects, by dint of the low intensity of their power sources, are also expensive. Considering both their cost and their likely capacity factors, the (intermittent) electricity produced by these projects will cost several times more than coal or large hydro.
7. There is a temporary exception of those few nations capable, by virtue of their geography, of utilizing large hydro plants and geothermal energy. Iceland is currently such an example, although future development will require energy beyond what can be supplied by these means.
8. Xi Jinping, The Governance of China II, pp. 226-227. (emphasis added)
9. The Governance of China II, Page 217. Speech titled “Guide Development with New Concepts”.
10. Ibid. Emphasis added.
11. Ibid.
12. Lyndon LaRouche, “What Your Accountant Never Understood: The Secret Economy” EIR, May 28, 2010.
13. “Lunar Industrialization and Settlement — Birth of Polyglobal Civilization” Presented at the October 1984 Conference of the National Academy of Science, on “Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century”
14. Cited in Marsha Freeman, How We Got to the Moon: The Story of the German Space Pioneers (Washington, D.C., 21st Century Science Associates, 1993), p. 297.
15. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/07/21/mining-moon-could-help-save-humanity-says-last-apollo-astronaut/
16. Transcript available as “Change is a’Comin’” EIR, July 16, 2010


The writers are the authors of the Schiller Institute Special Report “Extending the New Silk Road to West Asia and Africa”. Both are long-time members of the International Schiller Institute founded in 1984 by the German thinker Helga Zepp-LaRouche. 

authors Hussein Askary and Jason Ross

Hussein Askary, Iraqi-Swedish citizen, founding board member of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden (BRIX). hussein.askary@brixsweden.com   brixsweden.com

Jason Ross, American citizen, Editor in Chief of the 21st Century Science and Technology Magazine.  jason@21stcenturysciencetech.com  21sci-tech.com 

 


Helga Zepp-LaRouche: Bring America Into the BRICS Paradigm!

Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute, prepared a video address on Dec. 6 to be played at the Schiller Institute’s Dec. 13 conference in New York City, as well as other meetings in Boston, Detroit, San Francisco and Houston. The following is a transcript of her remarks.

I think that if the average American knew how close we are to World War III, people would be out in the streets, and they would demand a change of the present policy of the Obama Administration.

The former Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army, Gen. Yuri Baluyevskiy, a couple of days ago gave an interview in which he said that he believes the conflict between NATO and Russia is already underway, that it began with an information war, with a tremendous psychological campaign, pressuring the minds of the population, and that military force proper will only be the final phase of this. When he was asked if he thought it still could be stopped, he said, unfortunately, he believes that it is no longer possible; that the mechanism has been set into motion; that our adversaries’ aim has been clearly defined: They will try to prevent Russia from becoming their equal partner, militarily or economically.

At a recent conference in Slovakia, Prime Minister [robert] Fico said that he believes that the likelihood of a thermonuclear war, involving more countries than just Ukraine and Russia, is 70%.

Yesterday, there was a group of people in Germany, very important dignitaries, who issued an appeal to the German government and the German Parliament, with the headline “War Again in Europe? Not in Our Name!” [See EIR, Dec. 12, 2014] They outlined why they think the present course of policy is going to go to war with Russia in the short term, and they appealed to the German government and to the media to stop the disinformation campaign, the demonization of Russia and China. It was signed by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, by former President Roman Herzog, by the former head of the Munich Security Conference, Horst Teltschik, and many important people from industry, politics, the media, and the cultural world.

Now, that is very good, because we are right now on a confrontation with Russia in the short term, which can only mean the extinction of civilization.

All of this really started with the neo-con policy at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the neo-cons decided to create a world empire with the British, based on the model of the British Empire and based on the “special relationship” between Great Britain and the United States. And all the steps that have been taken since—the color revolutions against Ukraine and Georgia; the attempt to do so in many other countries in the world, to cause regime change among all countries which would not submit to this idea of the empire. The promise at the time of the German unification, not to expand the borders of NATO to the Russian border, was obviously broken.

The sanctions against Russia, as Foreign Minister [sergei] Lavrov recently said, are not really aimed to force Russia to change its policy, but to create such havoc economically in Russia, that the Russian population would turn against Putin and topple his government, and then go for the dismemberment of the Russian state.

This all is a situation which must not happen, because there is an alternative. What the mass media in the United States have completely blocked out, is the fact that since July of this year, since the summit of the BRICS countries in Fortaleza, Brazil, a completely new economic system is developing very, very fast. You have right now a situation where more than half of mankind—the BRICS countries, most Latin American countries, many Asian countries, even some African countries, like Egypt and South Africa—are on a road of a complete explosion of economic reconstruction, of development projects which had been prohibited by the IMF conditionalities for the last several decades.

Following the Fortaleza summit, for example, China is now helping Nicaragua to build in five years a second Panama Canal through Nicaragua, which is immediately creating 50,000 jobs; it will create two ports; a major transport line from one ocean to the next; a new city, a new international airport, and it will transform Nicaragua from a poor country into a very, very hopeful country of prosperity.

The same is happening in many Latin American countries: China is helping Brazil to build a transcontinental railroad from Brazil all the way to Peru. Many of these countries are cooperating in the building of new nuclear plants, between Russia and Argentina, China and Brazil, India and Russia, and many other combinations; and they’re also going on the path of absolutely fantastic space exploration.

Also these countries have created new financial institutions, which are only devoted to financing physical economy, development projects, and are devoted to the common good of the people. There is the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) by China; there is the New Development Bank of the BRICS countries; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is in the process of creating a new bank. Also the South Asian countries of the SAARC [South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation] states are creating a new bank. There is a new development fund for the Silk Road.

All of these projects will go in a very positive direction, to eliminate the poverty of these countries in only a few years. Since India’s new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, came into office, there is an explosion of enthusiasm in India. He has announced that he will build 100 new cities, that he will create 1 million jobs per month; he is reviving 30 water-management projects which were put on hold after Indira Gandhi was assassinated. So there is an enthusiasm in India which you have no idea about!

The same is true for China: Don’t believe one word that you have heard about China! I was in China two times this year and I can assure you that the population is absolutely optimistic. They are convinced that the unbelievable Chinese economic miracle, which they were able to accomplish in only 30 years, will make an industrial revolution possible, which most countries of Europe, and the United States, needed 200 years to accomplish! And when President Xi Jinping announced the New Silk Road as the basis for a new world economic order, this meant simply that the Chinese government is offering now, that every country which wants to participate can repeat the same principles of this Chinese economic miracle in their own country.

I’m absolutely certain that the only way we can stop the escalation to World War III, is that we take up the offer of President Xi Jinping, which he made at the closure of the APEC summit, in a press conference together with President Obama, where he offered to Obama that the United States and other major countries should join the New Silk Road and these new financial institutions.

I have not heard Obama making any response that he would do so, but I’m absolutely certain that the countries of Europe, which are in rebellion against the war danger, are absolutely capable of joining with the BRICS countries for this global development.

And I appeal to you: We have to get the United States to stop the war posture against Russia and China, and we have to get the United States to work together with the BRICS, for a new world economic order.

We will only come out of this mortal danger to the existence of civilization if we get the United States to join this new paradigm which these countries are already living in. Do not believe the propaganda! China is based on Confucian ideas right now; India has revived the great spirit of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru; and that optimism is profound and it has been contagious for the populations of these countries. There is a completely different paradigm already working in these countries, which, together with the other Asian, African, and Latin American countries, after all, represent the majority of civilization.

So, let’s join, to get the United States and Europe to join with the BRICS, to join with the new paradigm, because that is the only war avoidance strategy which will work.

 


NYC Schiller Chorus Gets Standing Ovation at South Bronx Church

On Sunday July 28th, the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus gave a concert at the Church of St Anselm and St Roch in the South Bronx.  The chorus of about 60, performed four Negro Spirituals (one was an encore) a couple of Spanish hymns (including a popular setting of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from his Ninth Symphony), two movements from Schubert’s Mass in G, the Sicut Locutus Est from Bach’s Magnificat, and Gradual by Afro-Brazilian composer Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia.  This concert was unique because it came together as a result of a real collaboration between the chorus and the church, which serves a largely Spanish-speaking population from the nearby neighborhood, as well as English-speaking immigrants from various European nations.

The approximately 100 people in attendance rose to their feet in a standing ovation after the chorus performed the William Dawson arrangement of “Soon Ah Will be Done” as an encore. The fact that we included music of an Afro-Brazilian Classical composer in the program, was of particular interest to the priest, who stressed that in his Sunday announcements. The church also prepared an amazing reception. Many members of the church expressed interest in joining the chorus, but hesitation because of difficulty speaking English.
Founder and Co-Director of the Schiller Institute Chorus, Diane Sare.

Founder and Co-Director of the Schiller Institute Chorus, Diane Sare.

We look forward to future endeavors in collaboration with this historic church. Here is a story about the church, which, unlike many city churches, is packed with hundreds of people at its 11 am Spanish-language mass.  It has an earlier mass in English which is attended by 70-100 people as well.  It is related by design to a Byzantine church in Turkey, and has been home to many immigrants for over a century.

Conference: APOLLO +50

MANKIND’S FUTURE MUST DETERMINE OUR PRESENT:

A Dialogue of Cultures on How to Develop the Population and the Productive Workforce for Earth’s Next Fifty Years

Saturday, July 20, 2019, 1 PM – 5 PM

New York City


Full Conference


Keynote: Helga Zepp-LaRouche


Andrea Jones, Goddard Space Flight Center, LIVE from Washington, DC


Dr. Xing Jijun,  Counsellor, Head of Science and Technology Section, Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China


 Ben Deniston — Solar System’s Next 50 Years


Thermonuclear fusion, applied as a commercial power source, not only supersedes any other available power source, and is non-polluting—it would supply the only efficient power source for travel throughout the solar system. Humanity—not merely China, or the United States, or Russia, but all humanity—has always looked up to the stars, because we have an extra-terrestrial imperative, to know the secrets of the universe. Eliminating war through the joint investigation of the solar system and galaxy—the local neighborhood in which we reside—is our first next step toward the adulthood of the human race.

On this 50th anniversary of mankind’s greatest scientific achievement, let us take a page from the same President John F. Kennedy, who had proposed the Apollo Project to an inspired America, and who, together with America’s “mortal enemy,” the Soviet Union pulled the world away from the brink of extinction in October 1962. In September of 1963, Kennedy told the United Nations:

Finally, in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have a special capacity-in the field of space—there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts in the regulation and exploration of space. I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon. Space offers no problems of sovereignty; …Surely we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts of our two countries—indeed of all the world—cannot work together in the conquest of space, sending some day in this decade to the moon not the representatives of a single nation, but the representatives of all of our countries.

Now, many other nations—India, China, Brazil, several European nations—possess capabilities far more advanced than those of the 1960s Soviet Union or United States. If a mere fraction of the wealth now wasted on war, or foolishly misspent on global warming, were pooled and deployed in a joint space effort, we could in fifteen years create an entirely new economic platform for all of humanity—a worldwide cultural “paradigm shift” as has been proposed by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche—that propels the human race forward, in the spirit of what has been called by China “win-win cooperation,” in the form of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI.) Lyndon LaRouche in his 1984 “Draft Memorandum of Agreement Between the US and USSR” provided a model for a durable survival solution to potentially lethal conflicts among nations, by elevating the discussion to the higher self-interest of humanity, thereby dissolving the basis for conflict.

President Donald Trump has recently met with Presidents Xi of China, Putin of Russia, and Chairman Kim of North Korea, as well as others, to avert war. President Trump has also proposed a return of the United States to the Moon in five years, by 2024. Might the United States take the occasion of the July 20 commemoration to propose a joint Moon-Mars mission, involving Russia, China, India, the European Space Agency, and nations in the continents of Africa and South America, both essential launch sites for the continuous and permanent missions required?

Why permanent? Because mankind will now permanently move to the first level of human civilization, which is expressed in the ability to navigate the solar system as a whole. The higher, galactic level (the second stage), and the yet higher intergalactic level, are what we are now only able to observe, in part. For these, we yet “see as through a glass, darkly.” But we know that it takes humanity as a whole, in the tens and hundreds of billions, to develop the scientific competence to investigate and explore the more than two trillion galaxies we now know to exist. We need the creative potential of every single person on the planet to accomplish this.

To prepare for this, the new space program must be part of a broader commitment to simultaneously revolutionize the labor process on Earth as well as in space, through new stages of technologies, and through ending poverty on the planet in the next years through the cooperative arrangements and economic development made possible through the World Land Bridge. Both tasks require mastery of the concept of increasing the energy flux-density of power systems. Lyndon LaRouche’s book, Earth’s Next Fifty Years, outlines how more than one billion jobs in mining, manufacturing and agriculture, of the highest skill levels, must be created now, to fulfill mankind’s “extraterrestrial imperative” to investigate the solar system, the galaxy, and beyond.

It is the power of this vision, the potential of what the astronauts saw when they watched the Earth rise from the Moon, which we of the Schiller Institute must seek to invoke in our fellow citizens, the nation, and the world, this July 20. Join us in this mission, for which “failure is not an option.”


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