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Webcast⁠—Zepp-LaRouche: A Financial Crash is Coming Like a Big Tsunami

August 21, 2019by Jason Ross in Helga Webcast, New financial order updates, World war danger updates

In this week’s webcast, Schiller Institute leader Helga Zepp LaRouche reviewed the latest financial swindle coming from the Black Rock group as an example of the desperate efforts to buy some time to defend a crashing system. While its promoters refer to this plan as a “regime change” in financial policy, it is just another effort to flood the system with “helicopter money”, to protect $1.5 quadrillion of worthless assets. This was exposed in the 1990s by Lyndon LaRouche, who developed the pedagogy of his “Triple Curve” to show why this approach will destroy the physical economy, and will lead to chaos.

This is the backdrop to the escalated destabilization of China, which shows the British hand, and that of their allies such as Bolton and Pompeo, in a vain effort to prevent the rise of China, and its BRI policy. While Trump wants a deal with China, his opponents, both within and outside his administration, are putting the world on a dangerous course.

One significant, positive development she identified is the coverage, in the Guardian, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, of the Dark Age ideology behind eco-fascism, and how it is being used to create a green bonanza for otherwise bankrupt financiers.

These developments are part of an incredible process, which shows that the system is not working, and opens the prospect that growing numbers of people can be brought to see that the solution depends on the proliferation of scientific ideas and great culture — and that is the basis of optimism.

TRANSCRIPT

HARLEY SCHLANGER: Hello, I’m Harley Schlanger from the Schiller Institute. Welcome to our webcast today with our founder and President Helga Zepp-LaRouche. It’s Aug. 21, 2019.

And we’re in the midst of an extremely turbulent world situation, with things flying all over the place, events taking place, some surprising developments. And Helga, I guess the place to start is the financial situation, where there are some completely crazy proposals being floated which show that the crash is coming. So why don’t you start there?

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think the next financial crash is coming with absolute certainty. It’s coming on like a big tsunami. The only question which is not yet decided is will it be this year, which could very well happen, or will the measures proposed by the central banks and the G7 governments, will that be sufficient to stop a blowout this year and bring it into the next year — but for sure, before the Presidential election in the United States 2020.

So, the signs a many-fold, but I think one of the more telling proposals, is that now the question of “helicopter money” has come out quite openly, and this in the form of a paper proposed by BlackRock. This is the largest private equity firm in the world, and they’re involved in all kinds of things. They have produced this paper for the Jackson Hole meeting which takes place at the end of this week [Aug. 22-24]. This is the meeting where all the top bankers and financial government officials of the world, once a year gather.

What this proposal is, they call it a paper for “regime change,” to abandon the so-called “independence” of the central banks. Now, if you think this is sounding like what we say, that we should go back to a national banking system, that’s quite the opposite, because what they propose is to sort of merge the governments and the central banks, and go to what they call “direct investment” or direct delivery of money to anybody who needs it. And when they talk about meeting the inflation requirements, they don’t mean physical goods, or anything like that, but what they’re talking about is to keep the altogether, estimated $1.5 quadrillion derivative bubble going.

And if people remember the famous “Triple Curve” of Lyndon LaRouche, a pedagogical device which he developed in 1995, for a conference in Rome, in the Vatican, where he in a very astounding but simple and convincing way, showed how the financial and the monetary aggregates are moving in a hyperbolic direction upwards to a certain point, while the real economy is moving downwards, and going down. And we have now reached the point where any kind of liquidity pumping you can imagine is not going to be sufficient to maintain this bubble. So, we are heading toward the storm of storms, and there is absolutely not going to be any solution, except those which were proposed by Lyndon LaRouche: Glass-Steagall; nationalize the central bank, making it a National Bank in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton or for that matter the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau in the postwar reconstruction plan in Germany; and then establish a new, international credit system, a New Bretton Woods system; and then go into a crash program for fusion, for space research cooperation, and cooperate with China on the New Silk Road.

Unless this package is being put on the table, there is nothing going to stop this crisis. But I’m optimistic that things are actually moving in a direction that the implementation of the LaRouche solution is not impossible at all.

SCHLANGER: Helga, just to make it clear to our viewers: The proposal that’s being made is not to deal with the debt situation in any sane way, but to allow the debt to continue to be carried by creating more debt, by pumping more money in. Is that what the BlackRock proposal ultimately boils down to?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yeah. They’re doing already everything you can imagine. Since 2008, they’re doing quantitative easing, pumping money; then they went to zero interest rates, now they’re going into negative interest rates, and not only for the larger accounts, but there is now a move to even go to negative interest rates for savings and loans banks, and that is pure, simple stealing out of the pocket of the so-called small people. If you have any savings for your pension, they’re just going to take that, step by step, away. So even the Bavarian Minister President Söder is now proposing legislation prohibiting negative interest rates for accounts which are below EU100,000. So, he obviously knows this is an issue where the population really gets completely mad, because it directly affects them in the most direct way.

So I think that the central banks have lost all ability to actually intervene, because they have used up all the instruments, they have all not worked, and this is why we are pushing the LaRouche solution, as the only way to solve this problem.

SCHLANGER: And while they’re trying to deal with this, what we’re seeing is a worsening of the situation. We’ve talked before on this webcast about Deutsche Bank. Now there’s new evidence that Commerzbank is following in the same path.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yeah, Commerzbank, they are talking about closing 400 of their 1,000 branches, laying 9,500 employees, and their stock has dropped in the last several months, from EU24 to around EU6. So this is really another case, just like Deutsche Bank, where you see the absolute inability of the present liberal system to solve these problems, and Commerzbank is half-owned by the state, so this is also a sign of the times. And these are not the only banks are in this condition: This is just the thing which is out in the news in Germany, but that is the condition of more or less the entire Western banking system.

SCHLANGER: Another example of failing to learn the lessons is Argentina, where the present government of Macri followed the IMF policies — austerity, bailouts; and they were just completely crushed in the primary elections, and then they come out and announce they’re going to continue doing the same thing. This could be a trigger for the crash, couldn’t it?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes. Because this is highly contagious. I think the inflation, the collapse of production, all of this the result of the Macri policy, is throwing a bond crisis in Argentina on the table, and that could go to any emerging country — Turkey, Brazil, it would even take larger countries. So, it’s really one more element of this pending blowout.

SCHLANGER: Partly what we’re seeing also as this financial crisis is coming down the pike, is an escalation of destabilization, largely run by the same people who created the financial crisis, the City of London and others. The situation in China, as we covered it last week, has continued to worsen, with other aspects of encirclement. Where does that stand now?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think there is an enormous amount of black propaganda, transmitted by the media in Europe and in the United States, who all claim that the demonstrations in Hong Kong are all so peaceful, and people are so freedom loving and so forth. But this is really — I’m not saying there are not some local issues; if you have a liberal society, which Hong Kong was under the British governorship for many decades, it is quite natural that you would have such a reaction. But this was far from being peaceful: You had these acts of violence, which were documented in videos, police stations being attacked, the airport occupied, the local parliament being violently attacked, so this is not that peaceful at all. And that this is also showing some British manipulation, which the Chinese media have published in the meantime, quite a bit, that all of this goes back to the British hand, the Opium Wars: The fact that Hong Kong at all became British, is the result of the Opium Wars!

Now, in that light, this is really absolutely scandalous, that two students went to the British Parliament and were given the floor, to demand the reinstitution of the Treaty of Nanjing and the Treaty of Tientsin. These were the infamous British-imposed treaties after the Opium War, which made Hong Kong a British Crown Colony and which allowed the sale of opium in China. So if you have students demanding the reincarnation of these legislations, if that’s not giving the show away, I don’t know what is.

And it’s quite interesting that there was an article in the American paper The Hill, which points to the fact that everybody in the United States supports these “freedom-loving people” — Congress, Lindsey Graham, Nancy Pelosi, Bolton — but that one voice is missing in the chorus, and that is the voice of Donald Trump.

So, I think this is important, because you have otherwise an enormous effort, and unfortunately, Trump seems not to be in control of all of what is happening in the name of the U.S. administration around the world, but you have a complete escalation against China. The effort to contain the rise of China, with many operation, Taiwan being one of them. There was just the sale of $2.2 billion worth of military equipment to Taiwan. The Taiwan government offered asylum to the protesters from Hong Kong, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry basically said Hong Kong and Taiwan touch the “core interests” of China, and therefore there will be absolutely no capitulation on the side of mainland China on these two points. But then, you also have the orchestration of the so-called Uighur in Xinjiang; then you have the Huawei case. Pompeo is continuing, even so Trump obviously wants to get the deal with China, for sure, before next year’s election, but Pompeo is making bellicose statements despite that.

So you have an atmosphere of, really, very, very negative — I forgot to mention the South China Sea — so I think from the standpoint of China, which has tried to change the policy in the direction of a New Paradigm, new international relations — they are being bombarded right now with a quite significant assault. And this is very dangerous, because there is no solution to the present world crisis without China. And that’s a fact. So, we have to see, but I think the record of who is doing this geopolitical manipulation has to be published, and that hopefully will help to stop it.

SCHLANGER: And sticking with this strategic picture, the Russians and the Chinese have issued a couple of statements, including warning against the attempt to do regime change against both them. Then, there’s a very significant meeting between President Putin and President Macron which just took place, leading up to the G7 meeting. How do you assess that meeting, Helga?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think that was quite good. It was in preparing the G7 meeting in Biarritz [Aug. 24-26], which Putin is obviously not attending, because Russia was kicked out of the G8. But I think the fact that Putin and Macron met in France at the summer residence of Macron, and Macron basically said that France wants to play a role to reopen ties between the European Union and Russia, because there would be no solution to the world’s problems without Russia, I think this is very positive.

Putin on his part, said some very interesting things: They obviously discussed Syria, Ukraine, Libya, and so forth. But then somebody mentioned the idea of a Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok. And then Putin said, “Well, this is not an idea which comes from us. This is actually an idea which comes from Charles de Gaulle, who talked about “Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals,” but Russia is much larger, it goes to the Pacific; it’s a European civilization and culture, and this idea of a “Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok” may sound impossible today, but sometimes the impossible becomes the inevitable very quickly.

And I think that is very interesting, because I think — I don’t know, I didn’t talk to Putin — but I think this is a prophetic foresight, that once you go into an absolute upheaval and a collapse of the present order, then naturally, one resorts to the only concepts available. So I think this idea is quite interesting, and I don’t want to comment on it any further, but it’s for sure, food for thought.

SCHLANGER: Also it’s interesting, Macron and then joined by Trump, emphasized that Russia should be brought back in to make it the G8 again.

Helga the other situation in Europe, that’s really quite explosive, is Italy, where the government was brought down yesterday. What do you think is going to happen there?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: First of all, there is a wide discussion that this is the result of “Ursula,” referring to [EU Commission President-elect] Ursula von der Leyen, because she met with Prime Minister Conte and people really think that that idea, to cause a fait accompli where Deputy Prime Minister Salvini was basically forced to force this crisis, anyway, that remains to be seen.

Now, you have a situation: Conte made a speech yesterday in the Senate, where he accused Salvini of not obeying the rules of the EU. Salvini said something more interesting — he actually talked about his vision for Italy for 2050, so that idea of Lyndon LaRouche about the next 30, 40, 50 years, the idea of the Chinese thinking in terms of 2050, it’s good if politicians start to have a little longer vision than the next election for their own post. So he, among other things, talked about infrastructure, and the American Constitution, that the people have a right for the “pursuit of happiness.” So this is quite good.

Where this thing will go is completely open. Conte went to the State President Mattarella [to offer his resignation], and he will now see if another combination can be formed for a government, and if that doesn’t function, there will be new elections. Now, on some other combination, the only way how the Five Star party could form a government with the Democratic Party (PD) would be with the help of Berlusconi’s party Forza Italia which is completely split. So it’s impossible at this point to say how this will turn out — will it be a short-lived new government, with many factors in it? or will it be new elections? We will see.

But it just is one more sign that Europe is in a complete turmoil. We will have the Brexit in October, and the outcome of the elections in Germany also for sure, will change the landscape, because of the rise of the AfD which is expected in the new local elections. So Europe is in a turmoil and it definitely would need completely different unifying principle that that of cooperating with the New Silk Road.

SCHLANGER: To shift to the United States, I think it’s impossible to talk about the U.S. situation without talking about the work of the LaRouche organization, and this became clear in two ways: One was a Washington Times attack on Lyndon LaRouche and his organization which came out Aug. 19. And the other was the exposure of “ecofascism” in the Washington Post. What do you make of this, Helga?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, first of all, there have been quite a number of attacks on our international movement, which in one sense means we’re doing something well, because if we wouldn’t be doing important things, they wouldn’t find it necessary to attack us. So there was a one-hour slander on the Swedish radio; then earlier a London Times article; and now in the Washington Times, complaining that despite the fact that my husband has died, that we are still moving. And I think that is a very good sign.

Now, the exposure of “ecofascism,” is really very interesting, because for a very long time, we were practically the only ones who went into the historical roots of where all this is coming from, who is financing it, and that is now coming out, and I think it’s very useful. There was an article in the Guardian and then in a different form in the Washington Post, and what these articles basically admit is that the recent mass shootings in the United States, really go back to the absolute despair and pessimistic world outlook of the ecological movement, by basically saying that if the world is so overpopulated and polluted, then killing people is the only thing one can resort to.

Now, that is quite an admission. And then, some of these articles, go into quite some length of the eugenics movement of the ’20s and ’30s, which we have documented in large part; the fact that out of the eugenics movement, which obviously was the basis in connection with the race policy of the National Socialists, that was obviously discredited with the collapse of the Nazi government; and then Julian Huxley basically, in his position as head of UNESCO in 1946 said it quite openly: He said, now this eugenics is discredited for many years, so we have to basically rename it, conservation movement, protection of nature. So that is all mentioned, and also the role of something called “Federation for American Immigration Reform” (FAIR), whose founder is a guy called John Tanton — whom we attacked already, I would say 30, 40 years ago, because he was part of the so-called Paddock Plan of ’70s, which was the idea to halve the population of Mexico. So this is really coming out very, very openly, but basically making the connection, even saying “ecofascism” — that already is a major important characterization, because that is what it is; then these historical ties are also covered, people should really look at our documentation, because we have published a lot of this over the years.

SCHLANGER: People can go to our website, there’s a lot of material that we’ve put out, developing in depth this whole question of where this ecological fascism comes from; and that this in fact is what’s behind the Green New Deal, the FridaysForFuture. You have this publicity stunt now with Greta Thunberg on a millionaire’s yacht coming over to the United States. But this is being exposed: In fact, Helga, you brought up the craziness of the woman who founded the Extinction Rebellion. It’s hard to believe that she’s openly calling for use of psychotropic mushrooms to discover how to save the planet. This is probably some of the reason people are publishing this, because it’s so hard to believe.

But it does bring up the bigger question, which is science versus fascist ideology. And we see this on many fronts, but I think it’s important for you to lay out for people why this is the real fight.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, before I say something to that, I should mention that there is an amazing article in The Sunday Times of London on Aug. 18, illustrating another aspect of Greta Thunberg, basically saying that this is designed to cause the biggest bonanza for the financiers — that coming from The Times, I find quite interesting. And they basically say, there is one narrative, that Greta, the teenager, was sitting for a year in front of the Swedish parliament and all of this was innocently triggering this whole change.

But then, they actually reveal quite a different story, namely, that this guy Ingmar Rentzhog, who is her manager, so to speak, was actually trained by Al Gore, that he is connected to the top think-tank in Sweden, Global Challenge, which in turn, is both connected to a former Swedish minister who is absolutely identical with the Swedish oil and energy industry, and that they’re going to make the biggest bonanza ever by getting everybody to go into green financing. Now, that is really, absolutely the case, and I think the real narrative of Greta Thunberg — she may not even know all of this; maybe she does, may she doesn’t — but this really shows that this poor girl is completely instrumentalized. And that the idea to go now for green financing, is the last effort to prevent, or postpone the collapse of the financial system by causing a straw fire, by causing a last phase boom. But obviously, this would completely destroy the real economy, and therefore it’s very good that these stories are now coming out, because maybe there is a return to reason in time, before disaster is complete.

SCHLANGER: And as you pointed out in a discussion with our colleagues yesterday, this makes the issue very clear, real science versus fascist ideology.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yeah. What this article which I just mentioned also says, it shows the Club of Rome, they had put out recently an emergency action plan, and that the so-called “talking points” of Greta are exactly identical according to these talking points of the Club of Rome! This is really incredible, because the Club of Rome are not scientists, they are quacks, they are fraudsters, who in 1972 had computers with the end result of what they wanted to say, and then programmed the computer in such a way it would produce this result: namely that the limits to growth had been reach, that the Earth is finite, and then the whole ecology movement grew out of this wrong conception.

So, I think it’s not decided at all, because there is on the other side, now, a growing number of scientists, in 20 countries already, who have basically picked up on the petition of the Italian scientists, who some weeks ago denied the idea that there is any connection between CO2 emission and climate change, and therefore, they called on the Italian government not to go into these completely costly, and completely ineffective measures. If you want to change the climate, well, first of all, man can probably not do that at all, because the causes of climate change are not the result of his activities, and you cannot influence the millennia old cycles of the Solar System in the Milky Way, the galaxy, the processes on the Sun, the cosmic radiation resulting out of all of this.

So, it is very important that there is now a growing movement of scientists who basically challenge manmade climate change, and they are appealing to the governments, especially in Europe — maybe Trump, who has in any case left the Paris Climate Accord — to reestablish a scientific debate on this issue. And I think people should spread this idea, and contact scientists and get them to get in touch with these scientists. Once we have this resolution — and the Italian one is known — but I think the international one is being circulated right now for many signatures, and it’s supposed to come out in a few weeks. But help to support this campaign, if you agree, that we should really not go into a New Dark Age, which would really extinguish civilization, but not the way the Extinction Rebellion people are talking about it, but because of a lack of production, food, water, and all of these things.

SCHLANGER: It would seem that the Extinction Rebellion is actually for extinction: They just want it through a New Dark Age, through phony attacks on science.

So, Helga, is there anything else you want to cover?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yeah: I think we are in an incredible process, where many, many people realize that this system is not working. It’s not working in Europe, it’s not working in the United States. Our colleagues in the United States report a very interesting pattern, that many people don’t want to hear about parties any more, which I find very good, because party politics is really evil, because it has completely degenerated into lobbyism for particular interests. So I think to go for the common interest, the common aims of mankind, the common good of nations is a much better approach. And we will fight to have a return to the scientific ideas of the physical universe, of natural science, of great Classical art, basically the ideas of Lyndon LaRouche which I can only encourage people to study. If you go to the archives, you can read an enormous amount of articles by Lyndon LaRouche, and it will blow your mind, because these are the most profound conceptions which have developed by anybody to the present time. And therefore, I again ask you to join the fight for the exoneration of my husband, and join our effort to, in time, get the European nations and the United States to cooperate with Russia and China, in a New Paradigm. Because if we do not change the present lunacy of geopolitical confrontation, the world can actually end up in catastrophe, because the crisis points are many, triggers could easily develop into larger conflicts: So we have to have a new cooperation between the United States, Russia, China, and India; and we should not give up the European nations that they can be brought back to reason. So join our effort.

SCHLANGER: Helga on behalf of our viewers, thank you for making this situation coherent and understandable. And now it’s up to people to act on it. So, we’ll see you again next week.

France and the Maritime Silk Road: Past, Present and Future

August 15, 2019by Jason Ross in France SI activity, New Silk Road / BRI updates, Our economic development events, World Land-Bridge updates

The July 2 Schiller Institute conference, “France and the Maritime Silk Road: Past, Present, and Future,” held in Nantes, was a major intervention on a hot topic: France has a maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 10 million square kilometers and the world’s second largest maritime economic area. Nantes—a port city of 900,000 on the Atlantic Ocean and the birthplace of the visionary Jules Verne—has a place in France’s “blue economy.”

Schiller Institute booth at the La Mer XXL Exposition in Nantes, France on June 30, 2019.

The four-hour conference with nine speakers was part of an international maritime exposition, La Mer XXL, that drew 38,000 visitors. Several of the speakers at the Schiller event had important institutional roles in France and all of the speakers were passionate about their subjects and conveyed a sense of optimism and mobilization. The creative ideas and science-driver perspective of Lyndon LaRouche, for the common good of mankind, were very much present.

The Expo was organized by one of the largest media groups in France, the Group Ouest-France; the Maritime Credit Bank; and the French Maritime Cluster, a business association encompassing all ocean-related enterprises—ports, transport o and from ports, shipbuilding, fishing, aquaculture, and deep-water research institutions in biology and mining (oil, rare earths).

Odile Mojon at the literature table during the La Mer Expo.

For twelve days, June 28 to July 10, the Schiller Institute manned an exhibit at the Expo. At least 200 exhibitors—associations, companies, research institutions—had booths to present their work. Schiller Institute representatives were able to present the full spectrum of the Institute’s activities and the 484-page French edition of the Institute’s World Land-Bridge report released in November 2018. In the months preceding the event, the Schiller Institute had sent out mailings to regional industrialists and companies; French and Chinese engineers and scientists; and its own contact lists, and followed up with personal contact.

The four-hour, in-depth Schiller conference drew 60 people including representatives from the Friends of the Maritime Museum of La Rochelle, and the Maritime Cluster of Luxembourg, who were eager to get copies of the Land-Bridge report. People came from as far as Provence and Switzerland to participate.

Several copies of the Land-Bridge report were sold on the spot and more during the book dedication event set up at the Expo library. A professor from Africa, who attended the conference, when passing our booth the next day, said he was so excited that he persuaded his university to order five copies.

Prof. Michel Cantal-Dupart (left) and Karel Vereycken, two of the speakers at the Schiller Institute Conference in Nantes, France on July 2, 2019.

The Schiller Institute’s Karel Vereycken, who has studied the maritime domain for several years, was the moderator, and opened the floor to greetings: André Sobczak, a Nantes city councilman and the 15th Vice-President for International Relations of the Nantes Metropolitan Area, warmly welcomed the participants; Anne Lettrée, CEO of China’s Silk Road Business University and co-organizer of the event; two Minister Counselors of the Chinese embassy who were unable to attend at the last minute, and Minghong Chen, Chairman of the French-Chinese Intercultural Center.

Maritime Silk Road: Ancient and Modern

Karel Vereycken speaks on the Maritime Silk Road.

Vereycken presented the idea that the Maritime Silk Road in history—in China and other countries—has always been a space of cooperation and not of confrontation. With images of beautiful pottery, other ceramics, and other artistic or mechanical objects and utensils, he showed how each one, produced in one area, had designs and decorations coming from elsewhere, thanks to trade on the Maritime Silk Road. He presented another example of the high degree of development of that trade, the shipwreck of an Arab vessel made in Oman, from 826 AD, which was discovered recently on the sea floor near Java, Indonesia complete with the 60,000 pieces of ceramics and manufactured goods, including some with Persian motifs.

University Professor Antoine Cid followed, on Zheng He’s maritime expeditions to the Gulf and eastern Africa in the early 15th century and China’s peaceful and diplomatic objectives of cooperation. This activity was not limited to Zheng He, or to that period of time. Prof. Cid hypothesized that the Chinese, in the early part of the 20th century, decided to make this excellent story a positive epic narrative to convey the message that China is not a conquering power, on sea or on land.

Henri Tsiang, a former researcher at the Pasteur Institute, who also played an important role in mediating between France and China after World War II, went through what is happening in the South China Sea, the issues and the actors, and how the withdrawal of the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has led to the expansion of other peaceful trade initiatives in the zone, a good way of solving disputes that had been used by geopolitical forces to harass China.

Sebastien Goulard, a public affairs consultant, and founder and coordinator of OBOReurope, countered the fake “debt trap” narrative and other false stories circulated to slander China. He made clear that problems can and do arise here and there, due to changes in political power in participating countries, and due to differing conceptions of investment terms: for the Chinese it’s the long term, while for the West it’s the time of an election cycle.

He showed that the Chinese are quick to find new solutions: The sale of Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port to a Chinese company, with the possibility offered to the state to acquire up to 50% ownership in 20 years, protects that port from political changes created in the country by competitors to China, in this case, India. Chinese investments, he showed, improve competition in a good way. After the Chinese financed the port, the Indians decided to build an airport, which in the meantime has become complementary to the port!

Sébastien Périmony discusses his recent trip to Africa with a conference attendee.

Sébastien Périmony of the Schiller Institute Africa Desk spoke about projects of the African terrestrial and maritime “silk roads,” and reported on his recent experiences in Ivory Coast and Angola.

Contributions followed from people actively involved in New Silk Road cooperation.

The Silk Road Today and Tomorrow

The next speaker, Professor Mohamed Jebbar, held the audience in rapt attention. He is a professor of microbiology at Brest University, Director of the Microbiology Laboratory of Extreme Environments (LM2E) and co-director of the French-Chinese Laboratory of Deep-Sea Microbiology, called MICROB-SEA, which he fought for several years to establish. The laboratory’s objective is to study the conditions of ocean life at a depth of 5,000 meters—where the total absence of light had led people to believe that life was not possible, or that it was determined by life above those limits. Prof. Jebbar explained that life does exist at those depths, and that it is organized by bacteria that accomplish through chemosynthesis what the Sun accomplishes on the Earth’s surface through photosynthesis. He explained to the audience how this works.

His Franco-Chinese research center collaborates with the astrobiologists of the European Space Agency (ESA) and other space agencies to see what those extreme conditions can teach us about the existence of life in space. The first test carried out in a joint effort between the Chinese and ESA was to see if the microalgae called spirulina, sent in satellites, could grow in space.

Anne Lettrée spoke on “Earth, innovation, technologies, art, nature and health, a whole program.” She is an executive of the Silk Road Business School (Paris and Xi’an) who has become impassioned with China and fully supports the New Silk Road. She is creating a large holistic park, the Garden of Titans, in Normandy, with spaces for research, artwork, and theater, combined with ecology. Jane Han, the official representative in France of China’s largest photovoltaic company, confirmed China’s interest in this park conception.

Two important French figures spoke in the last section on the future of the New Silk Road. Michel Cantal-Dupart, architect, urban planner, and professor at CNAM (Conservatoire Nationale des Arts et Métiers—School of Industrial Arts and Crafts) is engaged in large urban architectural projects and territorial infrastructure—inland waterways, rapid transport—and works with the UN to develop these programs in developing countries. He was clear in his anger at the lack of vision by successive French governments for the development of France’s waterways and canals—the largest set of inland waterways in Europe, which are all totally disconnected today. Instead of having a system, France has a series of dead ends.

He was followed by Bernard Planchais, the recently retired operational Director General at the National Naval Construction Company (formerly DCNS and today the Naval Group), producing civilian ocean liners and military vessels such as the Mistral and submarines. Planchais presented a “war plan” for France to develop its maritime economy, since France commands, after all, the second largest maritime zone in the world. While at the DCNS, Planchais worked with the nuclear sector to develop Flex Blue, a program using nuclear submarine technology to build small nuclear plants operating on the ocean floor—a great idea which, like many others, was never developed at all by our successive governments.

The conference concluded with Odile Mojon’s presentation of the Schiller Institute’s Land-Bridge report, in the context of the ongoing fight by Helga Zepp-LaRouche today to bring about a just new world economic order.

The organizers of the Expo were impressed by the size of the group gathered for such a four-hour, in-depth conference and requested three minutes of video footage of our event to use in their Expo publicity.

Schiller Institut⁠e⁠ in China⁠—Xinjiang Province: China Rejects All Accusations

August 12, 2019by Jason Ross in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Asia (Central & Northern) SI activity, France SI activity, General, New Silk Road / BRI updates

by Christine Bierre, Bierrechristine@gmail.com

Hardly had the breakthroughs of the Xi-Trump meeting occurred at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan than London and its neo-conservative allies, in and out of the Trump administration, escalated a new flank in the war of nerves against China. Following the demonization of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by London’s neo-con and liberal acolytes in the United States and Europe, the trade-war hype, the Huawei saga, and the Hong Kong mass demo destabilization, in come accusations of mass torture in Xinjiang.

Attacks have been growing in recent months against China’s counter-terrorist offensive in this region, one that has suffered the most from the spillover of terrorism spawned in recent years’ Middle East wars. A Uyghur contingent that had joined ISIS and Al Qaeda in those wars brought that terrorism home to China. Accusations have been made that China has illegally jailed 1-3 million Uyghurs, and is subjecting them to torture, brainwashing and even organ harvesting!

Photo Credit: Adam Ludwiczak

These accusations came to a head on July 10 when a group of 22 nations (18 European nations joined by Japan, Australia, Canada and New Zealand), addressed a letter to Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, noting “disturbing reports of large-scale arbitrary detentions of Uyghurs, and other Muslim and minority communities.” On July 13, however, a group of 37 other countries sent their own letter to the UN authorities, backing China and praising its government for having invited diplomats, think-tanks and media to visit Xinjiang, noting that “what they saw and heard in Xinjiang was in total contradiction with what had been reported by certain Western media.” Among the signers were ten Muslim States!

Foreign Affairs Ministry in Beijing with Wang Lixin Deputy director general at the Department of External Security Affairs and international tour of journalists.

The Chinese government has, in fact, successfully conducted a counter-terror operation and is continuing to organize visits to Xinjiang. Between July 7 and 14, representing the French Schiller Institute’s China desk and as a journalist who writes on strategic and defense questions, this author had the opportunity of participating in one such visit, with a very interesting group of experts. They were representatives from Russia, Italy, France, Poland, Pakistan, Thailand, and New Zealand, including journalists and academic think-tank experts, most of whom had in-depth experience and knowledge of China. Our eight-day “Information Mission” concentrated on China’s policies towards ethnic and religious minorities in general, and on its policies of counter-terrorism in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

China’s Policies Towards Minorities

Our tour started with seminars at the Institute of Tibetology and the Institute of Borderline States, in Beijing. China, with its more than 5,000-year history, is a centralized but multi-ethnic and multi-religious state, home to 56 different ethnic groups, which benefit from having equal rights with the Han majority (92%). China has created 5 autonomous regions and 30 autonomous prefectures, in which minorities are granted some advantages beyond those available to the Han majority, such as favorable quotas to enter schools and greater access to jobs in the public companies as well as an exemption from the “one child only” policy that had been applied to the Han. Religious practices are strongly protected as long as they don’t promote separatist or extremist ideas. The Koran, the Bible and other scriptures are published by the State and are accessible through the internet and available at all libraries. The Muslim religion is practiced in 39,000 mosques in China (25,000 in Xinjiang alone) and requires only certification of the Imams.

Seminar at the Institute of Tibetology in Beijing.

The contribution of ethnic minorities to the particularly rich cultural and religious heritage of China is fully recognized by the State. However, due to the difficulty of reaching out to them in the border lands of China (e.g., Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang) and the daunting challenges of their geography, economic development has lagged, a weakness which the enemies of China have always exploited.

Xinjiang has been part of China ever since the Han dynasty, under the name of “Western territories.” But, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, taking advantage of China’s weakness, the British, the Russians, and the Japanese fought for the control of this area in what was then called the “Great Game.” The ideologies of Pan-Turkism and Pan-Islamism promoted by the different camps gave birth to a movement in favor of an “Oriental Turkestan.”

Xiahe county at Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Gannan (Gansu).

Some were calling for an independent state on Xinjiang’s territory; others, for an Islamic State extending from Turkey to Xinjiang. The heirs to the British Empire today are following the same policies towards the Uyghurs and Tibetans. Is it a coincidence that the so-called freedom and liberation movements are both financed by the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington and that their main propaganda instrument, Radio Free Asia, was recreated by the U.S. government in 1996 and has been run by it ever since?

What is important in the Chinese counter-terror offensive is that it is based on the recognition that economic development is the key to solving those problems: “We have to eliminate the soil which allows extremist groups to recruit people, and that is poverty,” insisted Xu Jianying of the Institute of China’s Borderlands at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. The counter-terrorist campaign is also based on a clear differentiation between those who have committed major crimes, who are punished severely, and those who have committed minor crimes, who are offered a very positive rehabilitation program if they admit to their crimes and clearly express a desire to change. The Chinese policy aims, says the government, at striking the right balance between “severity” and “leniency.”

Gansu and Xinjiang

Our visit took us to two of the poorest provinces of China today, Gansu and Xinjiang. But thanks to modern road and rail infrastructure such as the Beijing-Urumqi Expressway inaugurated in 2017 and the Lanzhou-Urumqi high-speed train, these provinces are rapidly catching up with the rest of the nation. Both provinces played key roles in the ancient Silk Roads and are strategic to the success of the BRI today.

Gansu has a Tibetan minority and Xinjiang, a large minority of Muslim Uyghurs (45%). In these areas our group saw the ongoing “poverty alleviation” measures that had started with the Western development strategy (1999) and were accelerated by the BRI beginning in 2013. We also witnessed the strong protection given by the State to local cultures and to the practice of religions, and, in Xinjiang in particular, the ongoing massive rehabilitation efforts in this area, which has almost eliminated all terrorist attacks in the last three years, to the great relief of local populations and the Chinese government.

Labrang Buddhist monastery at Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Gannan.

Gansu is a province with great disparities: a very mineral-rich soil, but a mountainous and desert-like geography. The rich Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Gannan (TAR) is an exception to this. We visited this beautiful area, home to some 120 Buddhist temples, and in particular to the Labrang monastery of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. Here, a monk, with a Socratic outlook, having engaged in a 20-year study of philosophy, gave us a tour. “Man is not a beast,” he stressed. “He has access to the light of reason. Man can know truth, but for that he must first know himself!”

We visited a model village in Gaxiu that will replace 95 poorer villages totaling 1,800 inhabitants, as part of the extensive effort to meet the goals set by Xi Jinping of eliminating all extreme poverty by 2021. Five such new villages, equipped with clinics, primary schools, and areas for growing vegetables, have been already built. Twenty-five more will be built by next year. The villages are financed by the government, but built by the people, who become owners of their homes. Richer provinces also contribute 0.1% of their income. Today, in this area, 100% of the population has access to clean water and to 15 years of free education. With the orientation towards industry, ecological investments and tourism, a Tibetan yak herder today can expect to go from a yearly 9,000 Yuan income to 30,000 Yuan.

Model Tibetan village in Gaxiu (Gannan).

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

On July 12 we headed towards Xinjiang, taking a bus through the mountains on good roads that had gas stations and restroom facilities. First we visited Turpan, then the capital city, Urumqi.

These areas are the supposed site of the alleged massive arrests by the Chinese government. This Western state is strategic to the success of the BRI. It not only represents a sixth of China’s territory and is very rich in raw materials; it is also the door to the Silk Road leading to Europe. Without a peaceful Xinjiang, there will be no Belt and Road Initiative! Xinjiang has a large Uyghur minority and shares borders with eight states (Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir) in which poverty and religious extremism is often endemic. This is the province in China that is most exposed to terrorism.

However, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs official accompanying us stated emphatically: “The Chinese government is not fighting Muslims or Uyghurs; it is fighting terrorism that has spilled over into our country through these borders, from people going back and forth to the wars in the Middle East.” Between 8,000 and 15,000 Uyghurs are reported to have joined ISIS and Al-Qaeda in the war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with the explicit aim of pursuing their Holy War against Beijing next.

A large International Exhibit on terrorism in Urumqi demonstrates, with extensive photo and video material, the extent of problem. No less than 14,000 bloody attacks occurred in Xinjiang between 1992 and 2015—suicide bomb attacks, vehicles launched against people in crowded areas, arbitrary knife, machete and axe attacks against ordinary people. The high point of these attacks was the 2009 riots in Urumqi which left 197 dead and more than 1,600 wounded.

A Preventive War Against Terrorism

This is the background to understanding what the Chinese government calls a preventive counter-terrorist policy. First, the decision was taken to improve the living standards of the local population, through development of infrastructure. And it works! Infrastructure has boosted tourism in the ancient city of Turpan, from 8 to 10 million visitors between 2016 and 2017 and up to 6 million in just the first six months of 2019.

In a White Paper on Xinjiang published on March 2019, the Chinese government lists the efforts it is conducting to “ensure and improve public well-being” in this area. Among those efforts are plans to transfer 100,000 jobs to southern Xinjiang (2018-2020); creating 1,400,000 new industrial jobs; free universal health checkups; health insurances for 15 serious illnesses; improving the social security system; and increasing allowances granted to impoverished populations.

While those having committed major crimes undergo “severe punishment,” those having committed minor crimes and having confessed, repented, and shown willingness to reintegrate into society, are treated with “leniency” and offered a full rehabilitation package.

Those who accept reintegration are then recruited to vocational centers where they undergo a well thought-out strategy of rehabilitation that can go from several months to several years. The first phase is the mastering of spoken and written Mandarin, along with their own languages, to be able to integrate in the society; then civic education given by legal experts, which educates people on China’s standards of criminal law.

Trainees then can choose among different vocational activities they want to learn in order to improve their chances to get gainful employment. The choices offered depend on the job potentialities of the local market. Options range from hairdressing, to garment production, medical first aid, tourism, and factory work. According to the White Paper, these rehabilitation centers for minor delinquents adopt “a boarding school management system,” in which “students can have home visits on a regular basis and can ask for leave to attend to personal matters. When the trainees meet the proper trade assessment standards, they get completion certificates and are assisted in getting jobs.”

Visiting Vocational Centers

When we arrived in Turpan, it was over 103 degrees Fahrenheit, which is normal in its 100-day summer season! We first visited the Gaochang District vocational education and training center that has a capacity of 600 students.

The counter-terror policies were clearly carefully thought out. Xinjiang is well known for its beautiful folklore. What better way to counter the Wahhabite ideology, which rejects progress and social activities, than with beautiful music and dance? We were invited to watch a dance performance by a highly professional group, with projected images of local realities and of modern China in the background.

Beautiful Folk dance and projected images, Gaochang District vocational and training
center (Turpan).

We then visited the vocational classes. One group was reading out loud in Mandarin a text composed by the class, focusing on local values. Later we spent some time in the civic education classes, before moving to vocational classes in learning how to use sewing machines, how to apply first aid, and a class training tourist guides. We then witnessed a group receiving art lessons: ten people were learning figure drawing and the use of watercolors in one room; another group was practicing calligraphy, copying and translating between Chinese and Uyghur; others were singing in a chorus accompanied by instrumental musicians.

Dancing at Gaochang District vocational and training center (Turpan).

There were many young people in those groups, especially young women. In the artistic classes, there was a form of playfulness and freedom, which is the key to reorienting people towards productive ideas of society, and contributing to social harmony, rather than criminal behavior. The environment we saw in those classes is coherent with the Chinese government’s stated policy of creating not only a functioning Xinjiang, but also a “beautiful Xinjiang.” Through these efforts and others, we saw a productive cross-cultural approach, bringing together different ethnic groups and the Han, coherent with the national orientation of China as a multi-ethnic unity, without trying to eliminate or marginalize minorities.

Urumqi

At Urumqi, we visited a cross-cultural center, created in 2001, working on the same principle. People of different ethnic groups are brought together to practice dancing, choral singing, cooking or other activities in order to better know each other. Here also, the environment was free and playful.

Our last stop in Urumqi was the White Mosque where the Imam reported the participation of 200 to 300 people in services every day; 1,000 to 2,000 on Fridays, and up to 5,000 during Ramadan. Parallel to the ongoing crackdown on terrorists in the area, the government has improved the material conditions in these mosques—providing water, electricity, flush toilets, radio and television facilities, libraries, and fans and air conditioning.

Urumqi International Bazaar crowded on Sunday.

We visited the museum and public areas, confirming what other witnesses have reported, that the security situation has vastly improved in Xinjiang. The police presence and checkpoints, which were very visible last year, have disappeared. We were able to walk around the large, beautiful central park, which was thick with probably as many as 10,000 people enjoying themselves in the environs. The last stop was shopping at the bustling Grand International Bazaar.

China Denounces ‘Double Standards’

In such information missions, often the fear is that the country visited might restrict your access, displaying select showcase locations. The composition of our group was very helpful in addressing this concern, many having long experience in China and the regions of China that we were visiting. The group included Russian scholars from the Far East Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who have visited the province and working closely with Chinese institutes on the Xinjiang minorities, for more than 15 years; a former Pakistani Air Force officer, who is now a journalist and TV anchorman—his first visit to Xinjiang goes back to 1974; and the head of a China-New Zealand friendship association who organizes tourist trips to China, and is also involved half the year in poverty reduction programs in China.

All these experts confirmed the important improvement of living standards and infrastructure in the areas with which they were familiar. Our Pakistani expert, a practicing Muslim, who has a keen interest in seeing that Muslims can practice freely, confirmed that this is the case.

What we saw therefore, during this intense trip, is a model which has been able to cope with a highly degraded security situation, by giving to many Uyghurs, the possibility of looking towards a better future and integration in the nation. The Chinese government White Paper from last March openly discusses that “a large number of people are undergoing training.”

The terrorist problem is not Chinese in origin. China has been successful in bringing some 800 million people out of extreme poverty in the last 30 years. The approach to its western regions is aimed at solving the economic problems of provinces like Gansu and Xinjiang. But foreign powers, which since the end of the 1990s have been playing with fire, have been using Wahabbite extremists as cannon fodder first in Afghanistan, then against Libya and Syria. Chinese officials met on this trip denounced, in this respect, the “double standards” of some Western countries, which make distinctions between “extremists” useful to themselves, and others they decide to battle, letting “useful extremists” operate against China, some based in European countries.

In order to bring terrorism once and for all to an end, I am convinced, it is urgent, that this problem be brought up, once again, at the UN Security Council, as was done most effectively during the Syrian war. We were told, in briefings during the trip, that this approach is one supported by China.

Christine Bierre, Bierrechristine@gmail.com

Zepp-LaRouche—Mega-Manipulation: Rescuing the Bankrupt Financial System with Climate Hysteria!

August 6, 2019by Jason Ross in Economic development updates, Environmentalism updates, General, Helga statement, article, transcript

by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, zepp-larouche@eir.de

As the storm signals of the impending financial crisis become more alarming, we are witnessing what is probably the largest social engineering experiment that has ever taken place. The aim of this trans-Atlantic campaign is to make the population—with the help of orchestrated climate hysteria (“We only have 18 months left!”)—voluntarily accept a collapse of its standard of living while directing all investments into “green” projects.

At the same time, the “Great Transformation of the World Economy” is supposed to give “green” investors huge profits and—together with the miraculous increase in money supply via endless “Quantitative Easing”—postpone the collapse of the hopelessly bankrupt financial system once again.

Sixteen-year-old climate star Greta Thunberg, the FridaysForFuture (F4F) student movement, and the Extinction Rebellion (XR) are being strategically exploited by the neoliberal financial oligarchy through a whole complex of institutions and organizations—including investment bankers, consulting firms, the Tavistock Institute, entire battalions of psychologists and behavioral therapists, the World Bank, the European Union (EU), and several billionaires, as well as internet platforms and veterans of the population reduction lobby.

‘Green New Deal’ is a Bad Deal

It uses the whole gamut—from panic-stricken children to “Green New Deal”-advocating “internet personalities,” to groups that are also willing to cross the boundaries from civil resistance to more violent forms—to enforce the demands of the Paris Climate Agreement well before the agreed-upon date of 2050. It includes all the green cadres, from Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project to the internet platform wedonthavetime.org, “We don’t have time,” on whose advisory board sits, among others, Greta Thunberg.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel who, along with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, had previously praised the F4F movement, commented in her summer press conference that Thunberg’s demonstrations had certainly accelerated the government’s decision-making process toward implementing efficient measures to reduce CO₂ emissions. The German “Climate Cabinet” will announce a whole series of measures on September 20, among which the determination of a “carbon price” will be of central importance. Whoever “pollutes” the atmosphere with carbon dioxide will have to pay a price in the future.

Thus, Mrs. Merkel has finally joined the camp of the ideological climate lobby that wants to “nudge” the population, via an increase in prices for energy and transport, to change its behavior. In practical terms, this will mean that a majority of people will no longer be able to afford to use cars or planes, or have adequate heating or power supply.

It means a bonanza for investors, on the other hand, should this measure become policy. This point was made at a June 7 event on “Sustainable Financing” at the House of Finance in Frankfurt by Dr. Christian Thimann, Chairman of the Executive Board of Athene Deutschland Holding, a subsidiary of the insurance company Athora and a long-time employee of the IMF and European Central Bank.

Often one strives unsuccessfully for years for something, and then suddenly something surprising happens, which changes everything. For example, the topics of the “limits to growth” of the Club of Rome, and climate protection, have been under discussion for decades, but only after the notable phrase, “The climate goals will only be achieved if we direct the capital flows into sectors with low emissions,” was formulated in the Paris Climate Agreement, did the climate for the financial sector change completely. Suddenly the issue of “sustainable investment” became central to the economy; suddenly twelve million young people took to the streets, and suddenly this became a “big thing.”

The EU is working on guidelines on emissions trading and climate protection, and legislation that is designed to make these guidelines binding for investment in green technology. For an industrialized nation like Germany, but also for the whole of Europe, this is nothing less than a pre-programmed course for economic suicide.

For what neither the EU bureaucrats nor the sharks of the financial sector understand, are the principles upon which the real, physical economy is built: There is a direct correlation between the energy-flux density applied in the production process, the productivity of the economy, and the number of people whose lives can be supported through these parameters. A diversion of investments exclusively into so-called “sustainable” areas, e.g., “renewable” energy sources such as electricity generated by wind turbines and solar cells, as well as carbon emissions trading, and mandating that the transport, construction, and agriculture sectors must comply with climate regulations, in fact means devolution back to pre-industrial society. For Germany it effectively means the emigration of young workers, more of the aging population left without adequate care, and general impoverishment.

Scientists Dispute Anthropogenic Climate Change

This “Great Transformation,” the complete decarbonization of the world economy, which has long been propagated by German climatologist Hans Joachim “John” Schellnhuber, CBE, is all the more criminal, because the alleged scientific consensus on the thesis of anthropogenic climate change is a fiction. There are many declarations worldwide that have been signed by thousands of scientists, including the late Frederick Seitz, the former president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences; scientists and scholars associated with the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC); and hundreds of Italian, Scandinavian, and Japanese scientists addressing this very problem.

Contested by all these experts, is the claim that the anthropogenic contribution to climate change plays any noteworthy role. They argue that the causes of changes in the Earth’s climate are, above all, natural fluctuations that have to do with processes on the Sun, cosmic radiation influences on cloud formation, the Solar system’s changing position in the Milky Way galaxy, and other cosmic phenomena.

They also stress that climate simulation models do not reflect the actual climatic fluctuations of the past 10,000 years, and that nature—not man—determines the climate. As the recent petition by the Committee of Italian Scientists led by the renowned Professor Uberto Crescenti highlights, it is therefore illusory to suggest that a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions could control the climate.

However, Christoph M. Schmidt, the chairman of the so-called economic “Five Wise Men” of Germany, the top advisory body of the German government, did not refrain from praising the F4F movement at its Congress in Dortmund, for allegedly making it clear to the public that present policies cannot continue. Schmidt also fully supported an increase in the CO₂ emission allowance price as a “basic tool” in the fight against climate change. His appearance in Dortmund and his statement are equally scandalous in view of the consequences of this policy and raise the question of whether he should resign because of incompetence, or because of profiteering.

Banks and Foundations in the Climate Line-Up

In the financial markets, initiatives are popping up such as the Climate Bond Initiative, which seeks to turn the $100 trillion global bond market into a giant new platform for investing in sustainable economic activity of all kinds. (The EU has so far provided “only” $360 billion.) Participants in this initiative include the Rockefeller Foundation, Bank of America, HSBC, the Inter-American Development Bank, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the government of Switzerland, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Frederick Mulder Foundation, OAK Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, FSD Africa, NAB (Australia), European Climate Foundation, the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trust, the EU’s Horizon 2020 Program, Climate Works Foundation, UNDP, Climate KIC, KR Foundation, and Martin International. Equally active are the World Economic Forum, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), The Economist magazine, and the Green Climate Fund, to name but a few.

Ironically, it is clear to Greta Thunberg herself that wealthy interests are involved in the controversy. In a speech to schoolchildren in Katowice, Poland, she said:

“I do not care about being known. My concern is climate justice and a livable planet. Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunities of a small group of people who want to make more and more money.”

However, exactly these sentences were deleted in the publication of this speech by the Internet platform Avaaz. Avaaz, a product of the George Soros-related MoveOn.org platform, specializes in collecting personal information on every conceivable topic by organizing petitions around the world.

Will the Real Economy Survive?

This is precisely the point: At a time when the real economy in Europe and the United States is crumbling and the next collapse of the financial system can be delayed only by a new flood of liquidity, a new gold rush for green investment is being generated, which perhaps may enable speculators to make a large amount of money for a short time. The effect on the developing countries will be catastrophic, the non-affluent part of the population in our country will be clobbered, and after a super-short boom in the monetary area, Germany will be destroyed as an industrial location.

It is high time to pull the emergency brake. But who will do this if the EU and the Berlin government are part of the problem, and the Greens obviously represent the same thing, only colored in green? It can only come from the parts of society that are the victims of that policy: the middle class, the productive part of the working population, parents, teachers and all thinking people.

We urgently need a public debate on these issues. Germany is currently driving at full speed off the cliff!

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

December 22, 2014by tobi in BRICS updates, Helga statement, article, transcript, New York City SI activity, Our conferences

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.

Houston Community Meeting Mobilizes for Project Artemis and Beyond

July 31, 2019by Jason Ross in General, Houston SI activity, Our economic development events, Space updates

by Kesha Rogers and Brian Lantz

”Houston, Shackleton Base Here: Artemis 3 has landed!” You may be saying, “What? What is Shackleton Base? Isn’t it Tranquility? Artemis 3 has landed? I thought it was the Eagle.” Yes, it was the Eagle, and this year marks the 50th anniversary of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin becoming the first men to walk on the Moon. Armstrong declared, “Houston, Tranquility Base here: The Eagle has landed.”

That extraordinary accomplishment of American astronauts landing on the surface of the Moon for the first time—“in peace for all mankind”—was followed by twelve more astronauts, participating in another six missions. The last mission was in 1972. That was the Apollo program, a program to go to the Moon and explore the lunar surface. The Apollo 17 astronauts would be the last to walk on the surface of the Moon. Following that last mission, despite several additional planned missions, the program was unceremoniously ended and funding for the future Apollo missions was cut. However, the cutbacks didn’t start abruptly in 1972; the mission was being chipped away at even as the Apollo program was getting started—the peak in funding was in 1966.

“Have you heard? We are going, not back, but forward to the Moon again! This time to stay!” The Shackleton Crater is the proposed landing site for the next Moon mission. Shackleton is an impact crater that lies at the lunar South Pole.

In December 2017, President Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, calling for the return of American astronauts to the surface of the Moon before the end of the next decade. In March of this year the plan and the timeline were accelerated, and it was announced by Vice President Pence, on behalf of the President, that NASA and its administrator, Jim Bridenstine, would be charged with a new mission to launch American astronauts to the surface of the Moon—they will be the first woman and the next man to walk on the lunar surface since 1972. This time, they will build a sustainable presence, and will develop the platform, technologies, and resources required to prepare the way for American astronauts to the land on the surface of Mars.

The bold and exciting new mission to return American astronauts to the surface of the Moon is Project Artemis, named for Apollo’s twin sister Artemis, the goddess of the Moon. Well, you may ask, this all sounds very exciting and optimistic, but how will it be done? We haven’t been back in nearly 50 years. What will be different now? How will we guarantee that we not only achieve the goal of returning to the Moon and go to Mars, but build a commitment and a policy with lasting impact for several generations to come?

Houston Meeting, Shooting for the Moon

The Schiller Institute is hosting conferences and seminars around the world, not only to educate people on the requirements for returning Americans to the lunar surface in 2024 and building a lunar base by 2028, but going beyond—setting forth a vision for the next two to three generations of space exploration.

In Houston, Texas on July 25, just one day after the 50th anniversary of the splash down of the Apollo 11, the Schiller Institute had its most recent such event. The theme of the community meeting was, “50 Years After Apollo: NASA’s Project Artemis, A New Generation of Space Explorers Emerges.” The meeting, held at the Bayland Community Center, was a major outreach effort with broad attendance and participation. The audience included blue collar families from the Houston neighborhood, university students, a high school science club, friends of the Fabrication and Innovation Laboratory at a local college, robotics club members, families with NASA ties, members of several local AARP chapters who had previously invited the Houston Schiller Institute Chorus to their meetings, and longtime Schiller Institute activists. There was great excitement following the presentations.

The environment was electric from the start! Attendees were greeted with a fascinating “Fabrication Lab” exhibit on 3D printing, overseen by the lab’s supervisor. 3D printing in its industrial applications is known as additive manufacturing and will be a crucial feature of building cities on the Moon and Mars.

21-century-fusion

There were also NASA memorabilia and models of a scramjet and a Space Shuttle. Also on display was an exhibit from the Houston Robotic Club, which brought a working robotic Moon/Mars Rover, built to NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) specifications. Discussion was continuous around the tables, including the Schiller Institute’s table and a display of Fusion and 21st Century Science and Technology magazines. Attendees got a direct idea of breakthrough work in 3D printing and robotics applications that are relevant for use here on Earth and in space travel and exploration. A group of high school students, all members of a robotics club, had a great time at both exhibits. Many people saw a 3D printer and a robot, up close, for the first time, and were able to talk to experts about the technologies involved.

Attendees also gained greater insight into international cooperation in space by seeing material from a project called “United in Space.” The project’s mission is to promote space cooperation between the United States and Russia. It is involved in creating and placing a statue of Neil Armstrong in Russia. The United in Space display included a scale model of the statue of Armstrong and announced that ground had been broken in Russia for the placement of a life-size statue. The Russian-American founder of United in Space has already placed a statue of Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to fly in space, in Houston, Texas.

Project Artemis and International Cooperation

The program was opened by Kesha Rogers, Lyndon LaRouche’s representative in Houston, speaking for the Schiller Institute. She presented a dramatic overview of the Artemis Project, opening with a 3-minute NASA film titled, “We Are Going,” which drew applause and shouts from the entire room. Rogers outlined the Artemis Project with detailed slides drawn from NASA and NASA contractors, including the project’s phased development, emphasizing NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and President Trump’s declarations that international cooperation would be required for Project Artemis to succeed.

We need cooperation with Russia, Europe, India, Japan and China, and the more so because Trump has committed the United States to use the Moon as a jumping off place to go to Mars, Rogers explained. She made clear that this perspective had been laid out by economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche, inspired by his collaboration with German-American rocket engineer Krafft Ehricke and many other scientists who worked with the Fusion Energy Foundation in the 1970s and 1980s.

A video except from a 2009 speech by LaRouche was shown, in which LaRouche outlined a future Mars mission as a “science driver” project for the United States, which would simultaneously require cooperation with Russia, China, and other nations, and thereby contribute to securing peace on Earth. Rogers then introduced a special guest, the Vice Consul of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Houston, Dr. Viacheslav Levchick, PhD, who received a warm greeting from the audience.

The View From Russia

Vice-Consul Levchick outlined some of his country’s work in space, stressing that he thought that cooperation between Russia and the U.S. had “a solid basis,” based on his visits to Johnson Space Center and the cooperative work on the International Space Station. He talked about some of Russia’s recent contributions, including the “Single Pass” delivery of astronauts to the Moon, which shortens the trip from six hours to two hours, saving astronauts and cosmonauts from exhausting trips as well as saving on costs and equipment. This drew audible agreement from the audience.

He also underscored the important breakthroughs in astronomy that are expected from the Specter RG telescope satellite, launched in July. Russia has its own lunar program, but the Vice-Consul wanted to stress the importance of ongoing cooperation, saying, “In 1998 when the first models of the ISS were launched, it was the U.S. and Russia who did it.”

Now there is a rapidly growing private space sector in many countries. “This is like the dreams of our fathers—or my grandfathers,” the youthful Vice Consul added, drawing chuckles. “It is important that we can talk casually about such huge projects,” he said. All nations are going to the Moon’s South Pole, adding that helium-3, along with ice water, are the major resources being sought. Russia, he reported, plans a manned landing on the Moon by 2030 and a permanent presence by 2040, adding that India and China have similar plans. Vice Consul Levchik’s relaxed and humorous remarks were warmly received by the audience and elicited numerous questions.

The Last Time We Went to the Moon

The next speaker was retired NASA and TRW scientist F. Don Cooper, who began working at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in 1962. Cooper, an Oklahoma native, was soon assigned, as a young physicist and mathematician, to develop the targeting equations for Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI), which guided the Apollo projects to the Moon. Then from Houston, Cooper worked on eight Apollo missions, including Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. He also worked on the Atlas Centaur, the Air Force Dyna-Soar space plane, and the early planned Mars mission NOVA rocket. Cooper gave a very exciting presentation, which took his audience to the Moon, landed on the Moon, and back to Earth with Apollo 11, with a model Saturn V rocket, astronaut voice recordings, graphics, and whiteboard sketches, all making it come alive.

Since his retirement, Don Cooper has found a new calling—that of encouraging a new generation of students to pursue a future in the physical sciences. He enjoys speaking to youth groups, among others, hoping to inspire the technology leaders of the future with his first-hand account of the events as they actually happened. “Of the seven primary people who did this, I am the last one alive,” said Cooper recently. “Students do not know much about Apollo since it all happened before they were born. My objective is to show them how it happened, emphasize that education is essential, and show how math and physics solve real-world problems.” Cooper makes the point that “Apollo 13 was saved by thousands of nerds.”

Mars and Beyond

Brian Lantz, Schiller Institute spokesperson in Texas, addressed the audience on the need for a science driver perspective to realize the full potential of a Moon-Mars colonization over the next 50 years, as developed by the great visionaries, Krafft Ehricke and Lyndon LaRouche. He made clear that a Moon-Mars program is needed for transforming human civilization. A program to fully colonize the Moon and Mars will require major breakthroughs in science and technology, including a crash program for the development of thermonuclear power and fusion propulsion systems for space travel. The ability to sustain a long-term human presence requires the building of major infrastructure and the building of functional and beautiful cities on the Moon and Mars. This will require construction from the Moon’s regolith.

Cutting-edge technologies will have to be further developed, including robotic machines for mining and the production and assembly of habitats on the Moon and Mars. More powerful lasers and other electromagnetic plasma beam systems will be required for communications, for additive construction and manufacturing, and the mining of helium-3. Lantz presented LaRouche’s idea, made famous in the 1988 “Woman on Mars” television broadcast, that we require a telescope with the aperture of the Mars orbit, a concept that drew surprised gasps from the audience. As Lyndon LaRouche outlined in 1986, we will build a civilization on Mars, with cities of hundreds of thousands of productive human beings, because that is what will be required.

What will such an investment cost us? A Moon-Mars project, over two or three generations, will cost us nothing, Lantz emphatically stated. The importance of the American System of economics and the re-creation of a credit system and National Bank, as was understood and developed by our nation’s first Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, and used effectively by Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt will be necessary. We know this from the Apollo program, which returned 10 cents back for every penny we spent. How is that possible? The source of wealth is human creativity. We must unleash human creativity and reorganize the financial side of things accordingly. After all, we have done it before.

President John F. Kennedy launched one of the greatest economic recovery and national credit programs the nation has ever seen, through the unleashing of the creativity of the population through the Apollo program. Indeed, a Moon-Mars colonization program—advancing through the long-term success of the Artemis program and the advancement of mankind in the Solar system—will multiply the productivity of our civilization while it uplifts mankind, as every human being’s capacities will be required.

Council of Foreign Relations Demands Military Confrontation With China To Stop Silk Road

November 5, 2014by Jason Ross in Geopolitics updates, New Silk Road / BRI updates

Elizabeth Economy, the Asia Studies Director at the Council on Foreign Relations, penned a chilling call for military mobilization to confront China, to stop the New Silk Road process introduced by President Xi Jinping, whom she describes in the title of her Foreign Affairs article as “China’s Imperial President” (quite a mouthful for the Asia chief at London’s premier Imperial think tank in the U.S.).

Economy does not hide the fact that the target is the New Silk Road, the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the BRICS. She writes:

“For Xi, all roads lead to Beijing, figuratively and literally. He has revived the ancient concept of the Silk Road — which connected the Chinese empire to Central Asia, the Middle East, and even Europe — by proposing a vast network of railroads, pipelines, highways, and canals to follow the contours of the old route. The infrastructure, which Xi expects Chinese banks and companies to finance and build, would allow for more trade between China and much of the rest of the world. Beijing has also considered building a roughly 8,100-mile high-speed intercontinental railroad that would connect China to Canada, Russia, and the United States through the Bering Strait. Even the Arctic has become China’s backyard: Chinese scholars describe their country as a near-Arctic state.

“Along with new infrastructure, Xi also wants to establish new institutions to support China’s position as a regional and global leader. He has helped create a new development bank, operated by the BRICS countries to challenge the primacy of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. And he has advanced the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which could enable China to become the leading financier of regional development. These two efforts signal Xi’s desire to capitalize on frustrations with the United States unwillingness to make international economic organizations more representative of developing countries.”

Then she drops the bomb, calling for a U.S. military mobilization, economic warfare and “color revolution” subversion:

“Xi’s nationalist rhetoric and assertive military posture pose a direct challenge to U.S. interests in the region and call for a vigorous response. Washington’s rebalance, or pivot, to Asia represents more than simply a response to China’s more assertive behavior. It also reflects the United States most closely held foreign policy values: freedom of the seas, the air, and space; free trade; the rule of law; and basic human rights. Without a strong pivot, the United States role as a regional power will diminish, and Washington will be denied the benefits of deeper engagement with many of the world’s most dynamic economies. The United States should therefore back up the pivot with a strong military presence in the Asia-Pacific to deter or counter Chinese aggression; reach consensus and then ratify the TPP; and bolster U.S. programs that support democratic institutions and civil society in such places as Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Vietnam, where democracy is nascent but growing.”

China’s High-Speed Rail Investment Would Cover the U.S.A.

October 2, 2014by Jason Ross in General, World Land-Bridge updates

Brookings’ Africa in Focus online magazine published an article Sept. 25 on “The Expansion of Chinese Railways in Africa,” which made clear that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s expressed wish to “link all the capitals in Africa with high-speed rail” is well underway.

China has projects in progress all over the continent, the magazine reports, totaling tens of billions of dollars in investments, and providing the African continent with the connectivity of a standard (Chinese) gauge in replacement of the half-dozen gauges of the old railroad fragments built under well-forgotten colonial empires. One of the most important, the rail corridor across Kenya which will then connect north to the Mediterranean coast, is scheduled to start construction in October, financed by the China Export-Import Bank and the Kenyan government.

But the article’s observation that China’s rail building abroad is expanding rapidly while it slows at home, is not true. The nation’s investment through China Railways in high-speed rail within the country, has increased by 20% in the past year and is running at nearly $100 billion a year (430 billion yuan, or $65 billion, through August in 2014, as reported in Xinhua).

This is a very large investment; it would build a nationwide network of high-speed electrified corridors in the United States in less than five years, according to a thorough EIR study of requirements published in 2002, although U.S. landmass is greater than China’s. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), when he publicly slammed Obama in 2011 for deliberately failing on economic infrastructure, had introduced legislation for $300 billion in high-speed rail funding over six years — a very serious level but only half that of China now.

A Reuters article Sept. 29 quotes Xinhua that so far the increase has been accomplished solely with state banks — Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corp., and Industrial Bank Co. — all contracting with China Railways Corporation. The government’s targeted investment level is even higher than this $100 billion annual rate, intending to bring private banks and funds into the investments through China Railways.

India “Creates History” With Successful Mars Mission

September 25, 2014by Jason Ross in Space updates

India’s Mission control center for the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) received confirmation that the spacecraft was in Mars orbit at 10:30 PM EDT yesterday, eliciting cheers from the scientists and engineers, and congratulations from Prime Minister Narenda Modi, who witnessed the historic moment with them. This is the first time a fully successful mission to Mars has been carried out on a nation’s first try. It is the first spacecraft launched from Asia that arrived safely at the red planet.

PM Modi described it as a “National Pride Event.”

Referencing the spacecraft’s 650 million-kilometer trip to Mars, Modi said,

“We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and imagination…We have navigated our craft through a route known to very few…The success of our space program is a shining symbol of what we are capable of as a nation…Let us push our boundaries. And then push some more, push more…Let today’s success drive us with even greater vigor and conviction. Let’s set ourselves even more challenging goals—this too must become a basis for challenging the next frontier.”

Modi stated that the mission is

“a leap into the dark. Humanity would not have progressed, if we had not taken such leaps into the unknown. And space is indeed the biggest unknown out there.”

Addressing the scientists directly, the Prime Minister said:

“Every generation of your scientists has groomed the next home-grown lot. Through your achievements, you have honored our fore-fathers, and inspired our future generations! You truly deserve all the love and respect you get from a grateful nation.”

Modi’s remarks yesterday expressed the same optimism and focus on the future of all mankind, that he emphasized in his remarks at the July 15, 2014 BRICS Summit in Brazil, where he said:

“The uniqueness of BRICS as an international institution. For the first time, it brings together a group of nations on the parameter of ‘future potential’, rather than existing prosperity or shared identities. The very idea of BRICS is thus forward- looking… Excellencies, we have an opportunity to define the future of not just our countries, but the world at large…. I take this as a great responsibility.”

Fully cognizant of how the majority of the missions sent to Mars by the U.S., Russia, Europe, and Japan have failed, M. Pitchaimani, deputy director of the control center, told the Washington Post in a telephone interview:

“…this has come after intense study of others’ failures and the reasons for failure, and building our satellite accordingly. We also had gained their accumulated knowledge about the gravity field of the planet, and we built robust instruments based on that data.”

NASA’s Curiosity rover sent via Twitter:

“Namaste @MOMOrbiter! Congratulations to @ISRO and India’s first interplanetary mission upon achieving Mars orbit.”

MOMOrbiter replied,

“Howdy @MarsCuriosity. Keep in touch. I’ll be around.”

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying also extended congratulations:

“This is the pride of India and the pride of Asia, and is a landmark progress in humankind’s exploration of outer space so we congratulate India on that.”

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission has now met its primary mission objective, which is as a technology demonstrator, to successfully orbit Mars. It is also expected to collect scientific measurements during its orbital mission. NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft arrived at Mars three days ago, and scientists from both projects have discussed sharing the data that each spacecraft will send back to Earth.

Bolivia Asks China for $3 Billion for Major Infrastructure

September 25, 2014by Jason Ross in BRICS updates, General

Bolivian President Evo Morales met with Chinese Vice Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli on Sept. 22 in New York City, where both are attending the UN General Assembly. According to Bolivian Development Planning Minister Viviana Caro, Chinese President Xi Jinping had offered $10 billion in financing for Ibero-American development projects at the BRICS summit in Brazil, “and we are going to take up China’s offer” with a request for a $3 billion credit for four projects.

Among the projects Morales presented to Zhang are the industrialization of the giant iron ore deposits in Mutun, in eastern Bolivia — meaning using them to produce steel, as opposed to simply exporting them as raw materials. He also requested Chinese help in building the Puerto Busch-Motacusito railroad, which would also run past the Mutun mine. Mutun is one of the largest iron ore deposits in the world, with an estimated 40 billion tons of iron ore and 10 billion tons of manganese. This is a geographically critical area, and series of projects, for all of South America.

Natural Ore deposits in Bolivia. By utilizing this credit investment from China, Bolivia would be able to advance its own industrial productive capabalities for long term economic development.

The Bolivian government is already building a major inland port at Puerto Busch, which is on the Paraguay River, which will give landlocked Bolivia access to the Atlantic Ocean via Paraguay and Argentina. Just north of Puerto Busch is Puerto Suarez, another Bolivian river port which is only 10 km from the Brazilian border, and is situated by Laguna Caceres, which is connected to the important Paraguay and Parana river waterways by the Tamengo Canal. This is also close to Corumba, Brazil, one of the locations where the great Amazon River system and the Paraguay/Parana/Rio de la Plata river system meet, and could be interconnected with a navigable canal, as has been proposed as far back as Alexander von Humboldt in the 19th century.

The interconnection of South America’s three major river basins — the Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Rio de la Plata — along with high-speed rail corridors traversing South America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, connected into the World Land-Bridge via the Darien Gap, were proposed in detail in the 1988 Schiller Institute book, Ibero-American Integration.

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