{"id":120704,"date":"2026-10-31T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T15:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/?p=120704"},"modified":"2026-10-31T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T15:27:00","slug":"the-glass-is-half-full","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/blog\/2026\/10\/31\/the-glass-is-half-full\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Glass Is Half Full\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">by <em>EIR<\/em> staff<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oct. 30\u2014At the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KrIEDbxfbfQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">178th consecutive weekly session<\/a> <\/strong>of the International Peace Coalition (IPC), <strong>Dennis Small <\/strong>of the <em>Executive Intelligence Review<\/em> Ibero America desk began by saying that \u201cthe glass is half full,\u201d and suggested that we look not just at this moment, but at the ongoing action: is the glass being drained, or filled? He said that Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC, who was not available for this meeting, had already addressed this issue several weeks ago\u2014when asked whether the world was closer to nuclear war or to realizing the prospects for peace, she replied: \u201cI\u02bcm afraid that both options, the new paradigm and the total degeneration of the strategic situation, are both within reach. How this will play out, I cannot say.\u201d For those who might be puzzled by this, Small suggested that rather than passively focusing on the news events, they should instead focus on, and <em>be part of<\/em>, the process which shapes events. In the past week, in particular, he said, there has been a notable advance in this direction: the Global Governance Forum in Xiong\u02bcan New Area, Hebei Province, China, Oct. 23-25; the stunning turn-around in the second round of Brazil\u02bcs presidential election, with the reelection of President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva on Oct. 25; the Vatican-sponsored meeting on war and peace held in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 25-27, with the participation by video of Pope Leo XIV; and the Third Russia-Africa Summit held in Moscow, Oct. 28-29. Small said that today\u2019s IPC meeting would feature first hand reports from participants in three of those four major developments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Youth of the World Demand a Future without War\" width=\"860\" height=\"484\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KrIEDbxfbfQ?start=3&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Global Governance Forum was held in China\u2019s Xiong\u02bcan New Area, and the participants included IPC initiator Helga Zepp-LaRouche (see below).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In Brazil, Lula came from behind to win the presidency, which prevented all of Ibero America from falling into the clutches of the Shield of the Americas gang. Small noted the comment by former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar (2011-2015): \u201cSovereignty matters.\u201d Faced with the decisive defeat of both \u201cPlan A\u201d (victory for their candidate Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro) and \u201cPlan B\u201d (a narrow electoral victory for Lula which Bolsonaro could challenge), Small noted that the City of London and Wall Street have turned to \u201cPlan C,\u201d unleashing financial warfare against Brazil.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pope Leo addressed the Assisi meeting via video, because he has not fully recovered his health, but he plans to go ahead with his visit to South America in November. In the course of his remarks, he said, \u201cWe have to cultivate the spirit of Assisi, which entails a rejection of the religious justification for war\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Russia-Africa meeting was the third such summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in his keynote address that \u201cWesterners are making an aggressive attempt to drive Africans back into financial bondage\u2026\u201d In contrast, the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/kremlin.ru\/supplement\/6590\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan for 2027-2029<\/a> <\/strong>has identified in 236 individual points, grouped into 19 clear categories and areas of cooperation, ranging from nuclear power, to education, to combatting infectious diseases, combatting terrorism, and much more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the negative side of the ledger, the Israeli election was inconclusive and Prime Minister Netanyahu remains in office (for now), which is an imminent threat to world peace. The U.S. President Donald Trump administration is clearly contemplating a renewal of the war on Iran. Following a meeting of U.S. Senators at the White House, Small reported that U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is reported by Middle East Eye to have said, \u201ctheir plan is insane. It will lead to devastating escalation and the likely destruction of our commitment to the rule of law.\u201d Small referred to a [[recent interview]][[https:\/\/radicaldesai.substack.com\/p\/sergey-glazyev-the-world-economy]] in which Russia\u2019s leading economist, Sergei Glazyev, speaking on the sidelines of the Global Governance Forum, pointed to the underlying problem: \u201cThis financial bubble will in any case collapse. And I am certain that in the near future the American and Western financial system will suffer a huge crisis, not only because of the artificial intelligence bubble, but also because of the derivatives bubble. According to some estimates, the derivatives bubble is more than $2 quadrillion.\u201d In response to a question, Glazyev stated that the war in Ukraine \u201cwill finish together with the collapse of the artificial intelligence financial bubble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Estev\u00e3o Damacena<\/strong> of the Brazilian Schiller Institute youth movement reported that Lula\u2019s electoral victory \u201cdid not come easily,\u201d and that the mass mobilization in the streets by Brazilian youth played a critical role. He displayed a photo from a rally, with a poster in Portugese that read, \u201cHe who sleeps in a democracy, wakes up in a dictatorship.\u201d Damacena read aloud from U.S. presidential candidate Diane Sare\u2019s <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sareforpresident.com\/bibi-loves-bolsonaro-why-the-brazil-election-matters-to-americans\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/sareforpresident.com\/bibi-loves-bolsonaro-why-the-brazil-election-matters-to-americans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a><\/strong> on the Brazilian election, and emphasized that this victory \u201ccan be a message of hope for the youth, and the people around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jose Vega,<\/strong> U.S. independent congressional candidate for New York\u02bcs 15th congressional district (The Bronx), offered a survey of social turmoil around the world, including the case of evicted Spanish octogenarian Mar\u00eda del Carmen Abascal, widely known as Maricarmen, and the abuses of power by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in his own district. He argued that the United States should join the BRICS in order to work with the Global South to implement the kinds of solutions that the LaRouche movement has long promoted. He emphasized the importance of the ongoing elections around the world, including the one where he is on the ballot for Congress in the Bronx.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Martin Kaptein<\/strong>, youth leader, classical pianist and music educator, spoke on China, which he visited this summer to organize concerts. He had considered himself well-read and knowledgeable about China, but was unprepared for what he found there, and described the experience as \u201cincredibly humbling.\u201d In addition to the spectacular achievements in infrastructure and urban planning, he was very impressed by the cultural attitudes of the Chinese people, their embrace of social responsibility and the arts. He found that the piano, which is his instrument, is highly valued in China, and that culture in general is given great importance in China. He went on to develop Friedrich Schiller\u2019s ideas on the Beautiful, and its importance for the general progress of mankind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>S\u00e9bastien Drochon<\/strong> is an organizer for the French political party Solidarit\u00e9 et Progr\u00e8s. He asserted that France is presently at the epicenter of the world crisis. France has a history of erupting into violence during periods of political crisis\u2014the police are presently using violence against peaceful demonstrators. The crisis today stems from a collapsing economy. Solidarit\u00e9 et Progr\u00e8s intervenes in the demonstrations, promoting non-violence and a program of solutions to the economic breakdown. \u201cThe real looters and vandals are the big banks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Claudio Celani <\/strong>is co-editor for <em>EIR<\/em> Strategic Alert Service. He reported that there is a general strike going on right now in his home nation of Italy, with a million people on the streets. This was inspired by the protests in France, but was preceded by a mobilization of farmers, fishermen and truckers in southern Italy, sparked by increases in fuel prices. \u00a0He attended the Assisi conference, and described how Cardinal Matteo Zuppi polemicized against those European leaders who favor proxy wars. Cardinal Zuppi warned that a prevailing \u201cvortex\u201d is seducing the world toward rearmament and war, describing this trend as a \u201cfalse reality\u201d that leads to an abyss of violence. An \u201cUnarmed and Disarming Peace\u201d was the theme of the conference. His colleague, <strong>Christophe Lavernhe<\/strong> of the Schiller Institute, described how they distributed Schiller Institute material to the participants. He offered a description of the conference, and discussed the history of peace activism by Catholic leaders and the legacy of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Helga Zepp-LaRouche,<\/strong> Schiller Institute founder and International Peace Coalition initiator, sent a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1H3dXiQFNV0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video report<\/a> <\/strong>from her participation in the Global Governance Forum in China. The conference, which she described as \u201ctruly historic,\u201d with about 400 participants, half of them international high-ranking participants and about 200 from China, was devoted to the Global Governance Initiative, one of the four Global Initiatives presented by Chinese President Xi Jinping over the previous years to establish a world order of harmonious cooperation among sovereign nations. The spirit of the conference participants, she reported, was \u201cunbelievably optimistic.\u201d The conference took place in the Xiong\u02bcan New Area, a dazzling \u201csmart city\u201d that was built from scratch over just the past nine years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A question came in from someone who asked what citizens can do to prevent Trump from renewing his war on Iran before the possible meeting with Putin and Xi at the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China on Nov. 18-19. Dennis Small replied that the tripartite summit seems very likely at this point, and we need to vigorously promote the emerging structures that favor the creation of a sweeping paradigm shift, consistent with Helga Zepp-LaRouche\u2019s proposals for a <a href=\"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/blog\/2022\/11\/30\/ten-principles-of-a-new-international-security-and-development-architecture\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/blog\/2022\/11\/30\/ten-principles-of-a-new-international-security-and-development-architecture\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>New Security and Development Architecture<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dennis Small concluded by warning that the ferment we see in demonstrations around the world is not sufficient to turn the tide on the war danger, adding that \u201cferment does not a new paradigm make\u201d; it is <em>ideas<\/em> which can ensure that the glass is being filled, not drained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by EIR staff Oct. 30\u2014At the 178th consecutive weekly session of the International Peace Coalition (IPC), Dennis Small of the Executive Intelligence Review Ibero America desk began by saying that \u201cthe glass is half full,\u201d and suggested that we look not just at this moment, but at the ongoing action: is the glass being drained, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":120705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[798],"tags":[842],"class_list":["post-120704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-peace-coalition","tag-lang-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120715,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120704\/revisions\/120715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}