March 6—The Christian season of Lent began Wednesday, March 5. No matter what one’s religion, or lack thereof, Lent’s suggestion of self-reflection, self-control and self-development, through what Gandhi called “experiments with truth,” is the best way to develop both the ideas and the passion to propose a new direction for the trans-Atlantic “golden billion,” away from the Hell waiting around the corner. A dialogue with the Global South on economic development, using that which the city-builders of Egypt have just initiated with their $53 billion project-proposal to completely rebuild Gaza in five years, allows us to respond with the more far-reaching LaRouche Oasis Plan. Dr. Mubarak Awad, a founder of Non-Violence International, has said, “I think that your idea of having an Oasis Plan is necessary not only for the Palestinians, but for the Middle East. It’s a great idea and it will work,” and he has called for an Oasis Plan conference to be organized somewhere in Southwest Asia.
This is the path forward out of Hell. Already, many have forgotten that just over 40 days ago, when long-range missiles were still landing in pre-2014 Russia, the world dangled over the precipice of thermonuclear war. It is important to remember that is the real-world context, in which each of the speeches being given, in these days, by Presidents Trump, Putin and Xi Jinping, and a few other true leaders, is being delivered.
What was the real context, for example of the Tuesday Trump speech in Congress? We now know that several United States Senators and Congressmen, including Senators Chris Murphy, Chuck Schumer, and other darlings of the National Endowment for Democracy, met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday morning before Zelenskyy went to meet with the U.S. President and the Vice-President. They encouraged him in his folly—an instigation after the final question that he, not Vance, initiated—that then played out before the world’s media. A sensitive negotiation between the world’s two largest thermonuclear powers was nearly sabotaged, not only by Zelenskyy, but by some of the same people directly involved, on behalf of Anglo-American intelligence agencies on the ground in Ukraine, in the 2013-2014 processes leading up to the overthrow of the legitimately elected government of Ukraine. Their game however, did not work. Zelenskyy’s performance was a flop. And that was the Tuesday night speech’s setting.
From the looks of it, President Donald Trump is significantly less popular with the United States Congress than is Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump’s speech was an affair almost as raucous, at certain moments, as his and Vice-President Vance’s discussion with Ukrainian quasi-President Zelenskyy the previous Friday. The entertainment value of Tuesday’s Trump speech notwithstanding, there were very serious matters discussed, about which, the following day, several nations, such as Mexico and Belarus, voiced, besides agreement, legitimate and even pressing concerns.
It is necessary, however, that we not merely “react” to particular elements in Trump’s address—especially if the intent is to change wrong directions in American policy. South African leader Naledi Pandor, in her address to the International Peace Coalition Feb. 14, requested that the Schiller Institute help her in a very specific task. “So, we need adults. We need leaders. I haven’t, as yet, been able to identify who are the leaders. So, I believe that the Schiller Institute, along with other organizations of similar strength, could begin to assume that leadership role, primarily for purposes of convening, of initiating conversation, and developing an agenda.”
To that end, from May 24-25, the Schiller Institute will be holding a Memorial Day weekend conference: “A Beautiful Vision for Humanity in Times of Great Turbulence!” The discussion document for that conference is the Ten Principles for a New Strategic and Development Architecture, written byIPC founder and Schiller Institute Chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche.
We urge that all who are interested in how to think about “what is happening to us,” in order to change it for the better, read and circulate this document, which has not been properly studied and digested. Thinking on the part of all of us has to be, not only improved, but also revolutionized. The consequences of not doing so may well be human extinction in the short term. The late Frederick Wills, the former Foreign Affairs Minister as well as Justice Minister of Guyana, and the man who put forward, at the 1976 United Nations General Assembly the Lyndon LaRouche-authored idea of the International Development Bank (IDB), often warned that the most calamitous processes in history are the product of “people and nations being caught below the level of events.”
How should we, for example, think about the Administration’s “take back Panama” campaign? President Trump announced, during his speech to Congress, that “an American company has taken back the Panama Canal,” presumably “from China.” “Just today, a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal and lots of other things having to do with the Panama Canal and a couple of other canals.," he said.
President Trump, however, failed—or did not dare—to mention, that the “company” in question was the disease known as BlackRock, operating through the investment firm, Global Infrastructure Partners. Prior to this deal, BlackRock’s largest ever in infrastructure, their portfolio claimed that they managed a reported $11.6 trillion in assets—making its holdings larger than the annual gross domestic product of Germany or Japan. But BlackRock also acquired, in the $23 billion “Panama Canal deal,” in addition to the Balboa and Cristobal ports of Panama, not a couple, but 43 of the world’s largest ports in a total of 23 countries, including Rotterdam, Europe’s largest seaport, and the world’s largest seaport outside of Asia!
Perhaps one should ask some questions. Is C.K. Hutchison a Chinese company? Its headquarters is in Hong Kong, true. But is that “old” Hong Kong, or “new” Hong Kong? Its most notorious figure is “Mr. Dope Incorporated,” Sir Li Ka-Shing, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, who was chairman of its Board from 1950 until 2018, over 68 years, and holds citizenship in China—and Canada. Executive Intelligence Review has covered Li Ka-Shing and his antics for decades, writing in 1999:
“While it does business with China, Hutchison Whampoa is, in fact, a British company. Its chairman, billionaire Li Ka-shing, and his family, hold a hereditary post on the board of London’s premier dope bank, Hongkong and Shanghai Bank (now HSBC). Li Ka-Shing is reportedly a buddy of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Not only are most of Hutchison’s managers in Panama British or Australian, but they have no Chinese among their 500 employees in Panama, according to the Dec. 8 Washington Post.”
What, therefore, may be the true nature of the “this here deal” that President Trump, and we, have just seen? Is this setting the stage for a British-instigated, American-funded attack on China’s Belt and Road Initiative? Is this a gambit by the City of London financial elite to find another way to accomplish what was to be accomplished with the wars in Ukraine and Gaza—a descent of the world into permanent conflict?
Certainly. BlackRock was not what Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, Friedrich List, Mathew and Henry C. Carey, Abraham Lincoln or William McKinley had in mind when they spoke about “the American System.”
"A Beautiful Vision for Humanity in Times of Great Turbulence" was what that American System, and its precursor American Revolution, once intended. There is a way, with reflection on the Ten Principles for a New International Security and Development Architecture, to “Make America Think Again.” In each instance of potential mortal error, it must be the job of the adults to lead, and to show, with principles, such as the General Welfare Clause of the U.S. Constitution, that there is a difference between statecraft, and making deals—especially with the Devil.