Beethoven: Sparks of Joy — String quartet Opus 18, no. 3
The third of Beethoven’s Opus 18 string quartets was actually the first composed – Beethoven himself placed it third in the cycle. It’s a warm-hearted, genial work, with a rollicking, knee-slapping finale. We present once again the Amadeus Quartet. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]
This call by the Schiller Institute will be distributed internationally Oct. 14 as the IMF and World Bank meet in Washington.
Today and in the coming days, we, informed citizens of the world and patriots of our own nations, stand united, in Washington, Berlin, Lima, Paris, Rome, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Madrid, Stockholm, Brussels and in many other cities of the world, to expose and denounce a crime.
On August 15, after four decades of foreign interventions, a new government took power in Afghanistan. While having orientations we don’t necessarily approve of, the new government has expressed its willingness to face the immediate humanitarian challenges, eradicate opium production, reconstruct Afghanistan’s health system and build the basic infrastructure required to jump-start trade and development. As clearly understood by Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Turkmenistan, Iran and others, it is in the interest of all to allow the new government to stabilize the situation by engaging in normal international relations. But more is required: without a minimal foreign input, Afghanistan will fail in dealing with a deadly food and health crisis that started way before Aug. 14.
Hence, it is outrageous that in the days following the Taliban takeover, the White House announced that all assets of Afghanistan’s central bank held in the U.S. would not be released to the new Afghan government:
On Feb. 29, 2020, the Taliban and the U.S. government signed an agreement. Part III of that agreement stipulates: “The U.S.A. and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan are committed to continue positive relations, including economic cooperation for reconstruction…. The United States will refrain from the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan or intervening in its domestic affairs.”
Today, if the United States wants to regain respect and esteem, it has to live up to its own commitments, especially when millions of human lives, both female and male, are at stake, which is the case in Afghanistan as a result of a food and health crisis of apocalyptic dimensions. Two out of five Afghans, many of them children, are facing starvation.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, call on President Joe Biden to act in the spirit of the 2020 Doha agreement, signed by the U.S.A., and lift all unnecessary sanctions against Afghanistan, including the use of malign pretexts to prevent its control over the assets of its own central bank as well as its normal access to the international financial markets. The urgency is now!
Initial signatory:
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, President, Schiller Institute
Jacques Cheminade, President Solidarité et Progrès, three-time presidential candidate
While some irresponsible idiots, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, are calling for the U.S. to send troops back to Afghanistan, there are developments underway that are kept out of the western media. What, for example, are the Chinese and Afghanistan’s neighbors saying and doing? China has a vested interest in seeing that Afghanistan does not become a safe haven for terrorists, nor drug traffickers. China’s Foreign Minister reiterated that, while China welcomes the pledges coming from the Taliban interim government, recognition depends on following through with a commitment to tolerance, and combating terrorism and drug trafficking. Did you know that the Taliban had nearly shut down opium production by 2000? Only after the 2001 U.S.-NATO overthrow of the Taliban government did drug production take off again — not surprisingly, especially in the province of the country under British control!
Join us for this weekend’s 9/11 events:
Friday September 10, 7pm — 9/11 Memorial Concert, Beethoven’s Agnus Dei: Peace for ourselves, and the world
Saturday September 11, 2pm — Manhattan Project Meeting, Afghanistan and the Surveillance State. Where Do We Go From Here?
It’s no coincidence that governments are falling, energy and food prices are soaring, new wars are being planned, and riots are being organized: We are in a systemic breakdown crisis, and those responsible for it are running psychological warfare operations to polarize the vast majority of people, to keep them from uniting around a policy to bankrupt the globalists, and go back to the principles of physical economy, as presented by Lyndon LaRouche in his “Four Laws”. Helga Zepp-LaRouche and Guus Berkhout of Climate Intelligence have issued a “Wake Up Call,” which must be circulated everywhere — don’t allow your friends and fellow citizens to be manipulated by fake narratives pushed by those who are organizing these crises. They are vulnerable and can be defeated.
Statement from the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites: Mozambique Project—Medical Supplies, Food Aid & Seeds for the Future
April 11 (Schiller Institute)
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
—Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963
The Schiller Institute’s Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites, initiated by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, and Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. Surgeon General, has launched an effort bringing together people of good will, of various backgrounds including youth, social activists, religious figures, farmers, medical personnel, miltary logistic experts and others, concerned, not just about themselves, but the crises facing all humanity. The Committee has emphasized reviving the non-violent direct action tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. The idea is to demonstrate in a pilot project—beginning in Mozambique—that we can mitigate tragic circumstances, and inspire the large-scale response needed.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) Director David Beasley warns that famine now threatens the lives of 270 million people. It is essential that governments work together to: 1) implement full-scale emergency relief programs; 2) establish modern healthcare systems in every nation, including full-set infrastructure and trained staff; and 3) defend and expand family farm-scale agriculture everywhere.
Our initial effort focuses on delivery of medical supplies, food, and seeds to Mozambique, in southeastern Africa. With a population of 31 million, it is one of the poorest, and youngest (17 years is the median age) nations in the world. Terrorist attacks in the northern province of Cabo Delgado have displaced more than 670,000 people. There is chronic malnutrition, with over half of the children malnourished. There is widespread damage from recent cyclones. Crowded shelters and homes lack the most basic necessities, like soap, contributing to cholera, malaria and COVID-19. The disruption to spring harvesting and replanting is severe.
At the same time farmers in the world’s highest output food-belts—France, Germany, India—are in the streets with their tractors, protesting low prices, and new agro-dictates that will ruin them and cause world food shortages.
The objective of the Committee is to get a delivery of food and medical supplies into Mozambique as rapidly as possible, at the same time publicizing in the U.S. and internationally, the necessity for a global mobilization by governments and institutions for health security for all. Several farm leaders and military experts are joining with us to publicize and support this mission.
The Committee is working in conjunction with the Golden State Medical Association (GSMA), the California branch of the National Medical Association (NMA), to facilitate this project, due to their previous impactful humanitarian experiences in Mozambique. GSMA, along with NMA’s Council on International Affairs, have conducted several earlier missions to Mozambique and know the situation well. Contacts have already been established with government and medical personnel on the ground in Mozambique by GSMA, who can ensure safe and efficient delivery of goods to designated people in need.
The Committee intends to supply food (corn-soy meal, dried fish, etc.), seeds, water purification tablets, medical supplies (PPE, pharmaceuticals, etc.), procured both in the U.S., and directly in Africa to minimize transport costs. Funds and donations-in-kind are now being collected by the Committee and are tax-deductible.
For more information, please contact: Lynne Speed, Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites lynnespeed@schillerinstitute.org
Inflation, breakdown in supply chains, etc., are real. But they are only a reflection of a broader dynamic, which Lyndon LaRouche called a Systemic Breakdown Crisis”. This is being worsened by the push for “Green” policies, and the “Great Reset.” Friday Question: What do you make of the Facebook whistleblower, who charged that Facebook was aware of the “toxic impact” of Instagram, and the algorithms which promote “extremism” and polarization? The narrative emerging is that the company prioritizes profit over public good –No Kidding, but that is the modus operandi of the entire neoliberal system: So, why is this coming out now?
April 25 (EIRNS) – The Schiller Institute NYC Chorus & with friends from Ibero-America and Europe broadcast an uplifting concert this afternoon, which was introduced as follows by Jen Pearl:
Good afternoon, and welcome to `Beethoven’s Credo: Believe in the Future, a World Without War.’ My name is Jen Pearl and I am the chair of the board for the Schiller NYC chorus.
On December 17th, 2019, Beethoven’s 249th birthday, our chorus, the SI NYC Chorus participated in an event at Carnegie of the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture, opening up what was supposed to be a year-long celebration of the Beethoven 250th year. We performed the choral movement of the Ninth Symphony there, with the preeminent Gerard Schwarz as conductor. We took as our objective to perform Beethoven’s great Missa Solemnis a year later.
Then we all know what happened. While many choruses and arts organizations were forced to pull back during the lockdown, the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus pushed ahead, despite the challenges, because we know how important it is to sing beautiful and profound music in times of crisis—music, which connects us at the higher level of humanity as a single immortal species. We managed to present virtual performances of the Kyrie and Gloria last December.
Today’s concert is truly special because it features another movement the Missa Solemnis.
And while we are excited and joyful about bringing you the Credo movement of the Missa Solemnis and other beautiful selections tonight, we are also performing this concert in the context of a world fraught with crises, including an increasing potential of world war and starvation in Yemen and Syria. The beauty of tonight’s program, which reflects the very best of mankind’s creativity, is also very much in direct contrast or dissonance with the very worst actions being done at the hand of human beings, right now as we speak, toward entire nations and populations of children.
Beethoven once said that, if people understood his music, there would be no war.
On this day, April 25th, 76 years ago there was an event that resonates powerfully still today with that sentiment, that mankind should not settle disputes with violence. This was the day during WW II that American and Soviet troops met from the east and the west at the Elbe River near Torgau Germany, south of Berlin, ensuring an early end of the war, and thus became known as `Spirit of the Elbe.’ We dedicate this concert to that spirit which is much needed today. So we will begin our concert today with this short video introduction.
Near the end of the concert, Jen Pearl made the following closing remarks:
Our final offering this evening is Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus. Mozart composed this motet in a perfect way to evoke from you the awe you would experience when seeing the body of Christ for the first time. Imagine what your reaction would be then as you listen, think of how Mozart evokes that in you!. Mozart’s opening words are `hail, hail true body. . .’ As with any great classical work, the singer and you, the audience, can relive the experience of that actual moment in history and therefore experience true immortality.
We are now in a moment of history, where we need to evoke that quality of empathy and immortality in ourselves in order to take all of mankind into our hearts and souls. As we referenced at the beginning, we invite you to join the chorus of voices that are calling for an end to these wars, sanctions, and starvation, particularly in Yemen and Syria. You can find Mrs. LaRouche’s urgent call in today’s program and I invite you to join us. Thank you, and now you will hear Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus.
Note the concert can be viewed at this link.
Oct. 6 (EIRNS)—Interviewed by an editor of the Russian newspaper Zavtra on August 18, Russian economist Sergei Glazyev spoke optimistically of the entirely new world economic order taking shape around the growing economic integration between the countries of Eurasia, in contrast with the disintegrating Western speculative financial system, whose imposition of “pure usury” is creating “genocide” in countries like Ukraine. The October 2 publication in full of Glazyev’s interview on Spain’s El espía digital website, reflects the growing recognition in Western nations that the high-tech cooperative development model evolving in Eurasia offers some crucial lessons about what works.
Glazyev is no mere commentator, but a man who understands that “ideas rule the world.” He is the Minister for Integration and Macroeconomics for the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), the executive body for the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the common market established by Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, which is coordinating projects with the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative. He is also very familiar with that “titan of thought,” American statesman Lyndon LaRouche, and his “realistic school of economic thought,” as Glazyev describes him, having spoken many times with LaRouche and his wife Helga Zepp-LaRouche over the past two decades, both privately and publicly.
The EAEU has completed the first phase of forming a common market, and is now working on how to “saturate” that market with “new infrastructure, information, and cultural ties, and joint economic projects” in order to bring about “accelerated development,” Glazyev reported.
Unlike the previous world order, which “had an imperial character, in which the principal centers of development, the US and the USSR, dictated their will upon the other countries which fell in their area of influence … the new world economic order is not monocentric,” he emphasized. “In our new world economic order, there is mutual respect for the sovereignty of different countries, both large and small; cultural diversity is preserved; interference in internal affairs is not attempted; and cooperation is based not on the zero-sum principle within the framework of liberal globalization, but rather on the search for a combination of competitive advantages to achieve a synergistic effect, in order to raise the social well-being of all the countries which participate in integration processes….
“This is what unites our approach with the Chinese approach in the framework of building a complete new world economic order.”
Glazyev stresses the great importance of the Chinese model of development, which in the last 30 years achieved three times greater growth than the United States, by combining strategic planning by the State with markets and private entrepreneurship. Under this dirigist model, if a private corporation tries to destabilize or manipulate the market to gain super-benefits, the State can shut it down. This system has proven to be “extremely effective,” and many countries are introducing such measures, following China’s path, which is widely known through the Belt and Road Initiative, he argued.
This, he emphasizes, is how a new world economic order is emerging, accelerating economic development, not only in Asia, but in other continents, such as Africa. Yes, we have problems and differences, he said, but “the logic of history, … the logic of development, the objective interests of the countries participating in the transition to a new technological world economic order allows us, despite all the obstacles, achieve positive results in order to advance, step by step.” [All quotes are translated from the Spanish translation of the original Russian.]
Pandemic Gains the Upper Hand in India; Biden Looks the Other Way
April 25 (EIRNS) – India has reported over 300,000 new COVID infections per day for the last four days – a world record. That means that {one million} people are getting infected every three days in this nation of 1.3 billion. Chinese medical authorities are estimating that the daily rate could rise to 500,000 by June, and that the real numbers are likely much higher than recorded as many homeless people infected with the virus have not been included. The country now has recorded a total of 16.6 million cases, including 189,544 deaths. Worse still, the new strain reportedly directly attacks the lungs and typically causes significant damage before it is even detected.
While much of the international media remains focused on the sheer horror of the collapse of the Indian health system, the deadly lack of oxygen, and the open-air improvised crematoria, the true scandal is that the United States, and other western nations, are not only standing by, but have actually turned their backs on India and are – so far – refusing to send desperately needed vaccines and other medical supplies to India.
Delhi medical and government authorities have been pleading with the US to supply it with Astra Zeneca jabs that have been stockpiled by the Biden administration, as well as the raw materials needed to manufacture COVID vaccines in India. India’s former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal told Sputnik: “The attitude of the Joe Biden administration is very self-centered and selfish. India has been very generous in exporting and donating vaccines to other countries during the COVID pandemic,” said Sibal, who was previously a deputy chief of India’s Embassy in the US.
“The US, on the other hand, wants to create a stockpile to buffer itself against the next wave. Millions are being affected in India due to the virus and the US is effectively ignoring the plight of Indians”, complained Sibal. “The US is sitting on 350 million doses of COVID vaccine which India could use urgently”, he stated.
The raw materials required to manufacture COVID vaccines include bio-reactor bags, cell culture media, and filters, among others. The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing facility, this week tweeted out an appeal to President Biden urging him to lift the ban on the export of raw materials. The SII claims that its vaccine production has been cut by almost 50 percent due to a shortage of raw materials.
To date, the best the Biden administration has been able to do is send empty words to India: “Our hearts go out to the Indian people in the midst of the horrific Covid-19 outbreak,” Secretary of State Tony Blinken tweeted. “We are working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and will rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and India’s health care heroes.”
NASA’s Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Sets New Records!
April 25 (EIRNS)—NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter had a third outstanding test flight on Mars—it lifted off at about 1:30 am EDT (12:33 pm Mars Local Time), rising to an altitude of about 16 feet (5 meters), which was the same as its second flight—but then, it {really} took off! Moving at a top speed of 4.5 mph (2 meters/second) it zipped downrange 164 feet (about 50 meters)—nearly half the length of a football field. Its flight lasted about 80 seconds.
As data from Mars started streaming in at around 10:15 am EDT, the mission team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California was ecstatic, anticipating that the data would not only facilitate additional Ingenuity flights, but possibly inform new designs for rotorcraft on Mars in the future.
To say this involves fine tuning and precise execution of complicated commands is an understatement.
The helicopter’s black-and-white navigation camera tracks surface features below, and the images are processed onboard; its flight computer autonomously flies the craft based on instructions sent up hours before data is received back on Earth—radio instructions to Mars can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the relative position of the two planets. As Ingenuity flies greater distances, more images are taken, and if it goes too fast, the flight algorithm can’t track surface features. Additionally, the camera needs to track images clearly; dust can obscure the images and interfere with its performance, and the software must perform all of this consistently and flawlessly.
The Mastcam-Z imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, which serves as a communications base station, captured a video of Ingenuity’s flight, and in the days ahead, segments of that video will be sent back to Earth.
NASA reported, “Today’s flight was what we planned for, and yet it was nothing short of amazing,” said Dave Lavery, the project’s program executive for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With this flight, we are demonstrating critical capabilities that will enable the addition of an aerial dimension to future Mars missions.”
With this third successful flight under their belts, the mission team is looking forward to planning Ingenuity’s fourth flight in a few days’ time.